Packing for Northern Europe/Baltic cruise in July

[GDS Belgium]

I would be like to hear from anyone who has done a cruise to Northern Europe/Baltic area in the month of July regarding dressing for excursions in this region.  Although the information I have received from the cruise line suggests bring a jacket and jumper in case it gets cold, I am curious to know if that is really necessary.  Would appreciate any advice.

[Desdichado62]

Necessary or not totally depends on the weather. Weather is really varied and unpredictable. The last week have been really warm and sunny but this week will have cold weather. Next week is too far away for any reasonable certain forecasts. I say bring the jacket and the jumper and then decide on the morning before you head out if you need to bring them or not. 

[Sauer-kraut]

Short sleeve shirts, lightweight trousers and yes a wind jacket and/or light sweater to wear singly or together.  Mornings might be cool and days warm.

[kaisatsu]

Depends on your personal comfort range. The high temperature predicted for Oslo for the next few days is 17°C/62°F. If there’s any kind of breeze, that’s sweater or light jacket weather for me.

 

However, layering is important, because it was 27°C/80°F the day before yesterday, so short sleeves were a necessity.

 

If you pack for 15-35°C, you should be okay. It can occasionally go above or below that, but that’s the norm across most of the Baltic region. And as mentioned above, the temperature can vary quite a bit throughout the day, so be ready to adjust. I often carry a light jacket even on hot sunny days, because the temperature can drop significantly when the sun briefly goes behind a cloud.

[kaisatsu]

PS - If you bring a light jumper and a light windproof rain jacket, layering the two together will be quite warm if you do happen upon unusually cold weather. And a windproof rain jacket is pretty much a necessity anyway, given the probability of rain.

[hallasm]

Copenhagen yesterday was 90 F - today the temperature is 65 F - outlook Copenhagen for the coming week is 65F and rain.

[GradUT]

Yes, we did cruise in July and yes, we definitely needed rain jackets.  I have a Lands End lined rain/wind jacket that turned out to be perfect for the few chilly/rainy days we had. 

[brian1]

In 2015,there was a heatwave in every port,except the last one,Bruges where it rained most of the day.LOL,OP,tell us about weather in Northern Europe.

[Lagerta]

The Baltic region is famous for its changeable climate. The weather changes very quickly and it’s difficult to say for sure whether you need to wear a t-shirt or a jumper. The last July was unusually hot and dry, but since you are going to spend the most of your days exploring outdoors, I would definitely recommend to pack with you some extra clothes like a cloak or a windbreaker – it is better to be ready for any change of weather rather than catch a cold. Enjoy your cruise!

[ljandgb]

Agree with all above, and will add that I found the ship especially cool in the evenings.  I finally bought a second sweatshirt because I was tired of wearing the same one every night.

[GDS Belgium]

Thank you all for your help and advice - my husband and I will re-think our packing.  Although we have done a number of cruises they have all been 20 years ago and were mainly to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.  So this will be our first time to Northern Europe and we are really looking forward to it.

[brian1]

18 hours ago, GDS Belgium said:

Thank you all for your help and advice - my husband and I will re-think our packing.  Although we have done a number of cruises they have all been 20 years ago and were mainly to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.  So this will be our first time to Northern Europe and we are really looking forward to it.

Oh,you don't come from Belgium then.My post must have gone right over your head.lol.

[GDS Belgium]

Yes, we do live in Belgium but as I said we have never been to Scandinavia or the Baltic region so don't know what to expect on a cruise there. 

[tring]

6 hours ago, brian1 said:

Oh,you don't come from Belgium then.My post must have gone right over your head.lol.

 

It seems technically Belgium, Holland, The British Isles (and possibly one or two other places) are classed as Western Europe.  Northern Europe are the Scandinavian and Baltic countries.  Must admit I was very surprised to find that out a year or so ago because being brought up in the UK, I always considered myself to live in Northern Europe with the south being the Med etc.  Well you live and learn, but it took me a long time to learn that, though I am sure we are not the only Brits to think of themselves as living in Northern Europe - it is all relative IMO.

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

It seems technically Belgium, Holland, The British Isles (and possibly one or two other places) are classed as Western Europe.  Northern Europe are the Scandinavian and Baltic countries.  Must admit I was very surprised to find that out a year or so ago because being brought up in the UK, I always considered myself to live in Northern Europe with the south being the Med etc.  Well you live and learn, but it took me a long time to learn that, though I am sure we are not the only Brits to think of themselves as living in Northern Europe - it is all relative IMO.

I partly disagree. CC's category is called British Isles/Western Europe, which wouldn't put British Isles as part of Western Europe; it is its own location. Belgium and the Netherlands are also included in Western Europe. However, CC`s geography is kind of bizarre. French and Spanish ports are technically all included under Mediterranean - Eastern & Western, even if the port is not on the Mediterranean at all. The Atlantic ports of France and Spain and all of Portugal should be Western Europe, but aren't. (Actually, I'm not sure where Portugal goes; it doesn't show up on any of the lists.) I do know that some of the French Channel port information does come into the British Isles/Western Europe category, but that seems to be more by convention than CC splits.

[tring]

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

I partly disagree. CC's category is called British Isles/Western Europe, which wouldn't put British Isles as part of Western Europe; it is its own location. Belgium and the Netherlands are also included in Western Europe. However, CC`s geography is kind of bizarre. French and Spanish ports are technically all included under Mediterranean - Eastern & Western, even if the port is not on the Mediterranean at all. The Atlantic ports of France and Spain and all of Portugal should be Western Europe, but aren't. (Actually, I'm not sure where Portugal goes; it doesn't show up on any of the lists.) I do know that some of the French Channel port information does come into the British Isles/Western Europe category, but that seems to be more by convention than CC splits.

 

Portugal comes under 'other med ports' in CC, LIsbon and Madeira being mentioned in the list, though of course neither of those regions of Portugal (the mainland or Madeira) are anywhere near the Med.  The point I was basically making is that different people/nationalities/organisations have a different idea of what is were (googling Western Europe gives some strange results) and that someone from Belgium as in this thread may well have a different perspective.   Most references which come up seem to be US based e.g. the UN and even the CIA, so I feel it may be a US view (but note I say may as I have no wish to get into an argument about it).  In fact going to our Foreign and Commonwealth Office site and searching for 'Western Europe' turned up nothing to suggest they consider it to be a region at all.  Growing up as a Brit I never thought of there being any strict designation, but that the north south line would probably go through the English Channel, or thereabouts, and any designation of East/West would be something different altogether i.e. there are the well established Eastern European countries and all of the rest of it is Western Europe.  Europe does not have four corners, or natural segments.  I think CC's wish to mention the UK separately is partly to keep it where it wants it to be on the forums and perhaps because we are not actually part of mainland Europe, though we are certainly part of Europe geographically

 

Interestingly the most westerly point of the main area of Europe is parts of Ireland and parts of Scotland (the Outer Hebrides) are set well to the west of Iberia.  I think it is a case of certain organisations e.g. the UN wanting to split Europe into different sections, probably to make life easier for them as there is a lot of different countries in Europe.

 

Regarding your part of the world I would probably draw a vertical line somewhere down the middle of North America and consider the west to be the western part and east the eastern part.  Likewise for north/south, but I do not think it has anything to do with countries apart from the fact that the northern part of North America is mainly Canada and the southern part is most of the US and the northern part of Mexico.  I would not at any time think of North America as having four different regions designated N S E and W.  My Canadian niece and her US husband and children are coming to stay with us next week, so I may ask what their perspective is.

Edited July 4, 2019 by tring

[gnome12]

57 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Portugal comes under 'other med ports' in CC, LIsbon and Madeira being mentioned in the list, though of course neither of those regions of Portugal (the mainland or Madeira) are anywhere near the Med.  The point I was basically making is that different people/nationalities/organisations have a different idea of what is were (googling Western Europe gives some strange results) and that someone from Belgium as in this thread may well have a different perspective.   Most references which come up seem to be US based e.g. the UN and even the CIA, so I feel it may be a US view (but note I say may as I have no wish to get into an argument about it).  In fact going to our Foreign and Commonwealth Office site and searching for 'Western Europe' turned up nothing to suggest they consider it to be a region at all.  Growing up as a Brit I never thought of there being any strict designation, but that the north south line would probably go through the English Channel, or thereabouts, and any designation of East/West would be something different altogether i.e. there are the well established Eastern European countries and all of the rest of it is Western Europe.  Europe does not have four corners, or natural segments.  I think CC's wish to mention the UK separately is partly to keep it where it wants it to be on the forums and perhaps because we are not actually part of mainland Europe, though we are certainly part of Europe geographically

 

Interestingly the most westerly point of the main area of Europe is parts of Ireland and parts of Scotland (the Outer Hebrides) are set well to the west of Iberia.  I think it is a case of certain organisations e.g. the UN wanting to split Europe into different sections, probably to make life easier for them as there is a lot of different countries in Europe.

 

Regarding your part of the world I would probably draw a vertical line somewhere down the middle of North America and consider the west to be the western part and east the eastern part.  Likewise for north/south, but I do not think it has anything to do with countries apart from the fact that the northern part of North America is mainly Canada and the southern part is most of the US and the northern part of Mexico.  I would not at any time think of North America as having four different regions designated N S E and W.  My Canadian niece and her US husband and children are coming to stay with us next week, so I may ask what their perspective is.

Interesting how people look at geography.

 

I don't think North Americans think of the entire land mass; maybe because there are only 3 countries, so we would identify them individually. For Americans there is north of the border (Canada) and south of the border (Mexico)

 

For Canada alone, east is generally Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI) and Newfoundland & Labrador (one province). West is Alberta and British Columbia, prairies Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and central Canada Ontario and Quebec. (Although I admit that this might be my Ontario bias showing.) North is frequently almost anything north of the highly settled part of the country, so even places south of Lake Superior (the most northerly of the Great Lakes) like North Bay and Sudbury are considered Northern Ontario to a southerner like myself.

 

The US basically has Northeast, Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, and South. (I can't define them, and I'm not sure why there is no Southeast but I don't usually see it.)

 

Anyway, the discussion is kind of fun.

[brian1]

Lol,I've sparked a debate now haven't I.I think I was confusing Northern France and Belgium with Northern Europe.Believe it or not we drive thru Belgium twice a year travelling to and from Italy and it does seem quite Northish,lol.On topic,the Baltic should be great in July,just a raincoat should suffice.I'll always remember laying on a sunbed at the back of the Emerald Princess,sailing out of Stockholm with all the lovely islands around.

[kaisatsu]

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

On topic,the Baltic should be great in July,just a raincoat should suffice.

You must have a lower comfort zone than me!

 

While Oslo isn’t on the Baltic (since we’re splitting geographical hairs in this thread), it’s often added to Baltic cruises. I’ve been wearing sweaters under my jacket all week here! On Wednesday I wore a fleece jacket under my GoreTex trench coat to watch the World Cup match outside, and we still ended up moving inside before the end of the game!

 

And for the Baltic proper, I just checked, and it’s 11°C in Stockholm right now with an 8 m/s breeze and light rain. I would definitely need more than a light raincoat for that! 💨 🥶 🌧

 

(That said, it was over 25°C in both places last weekend! ☀️ 🏖)

[brian1]

2 hours ago, kaisatsu said:

You must have a lower comfort zone than me!

 

While Oslo isn’t on the Baltic (since we’re splitting geographical hairs in this thread), it’s often added to Baltic cruises. I’ve been wearing sweaters under my jacket all week here! On Wednesday I wore a fleece jacket under my GoreTex trench coat to watch the World Cup match outside, and we still ended up moving inside before the end of the game!

 

And for the Baltic proper, I just checked, and it’s 11°C in Stockholm right now with an 8 m/s breeze and light rain. I would definitely need more than a light raincoat for that! 💨 🥶 🌧

 

(That said, it was over 25°C in both places last weekend! ☀️ 🏖)

That's 4 years of climate change for you.I was not splitting hairs,I was moving the geographical borders of Europe by about 200 miles,lol.

[tring]

We were in the Jaccuzi when docked in Spitzbergen a few years back ans we are not hardy souls - it was not cold.  Some very strange things been happening to Temperatures in the last couple of weeks as reported on our news re the highly unusual heat wave temps in Europe and more then 32C in Anchorage on Thursday in Europe.  OK Anchorage is south of the arctic circle but they do not have the Gulf stream over there, so is usually far colder.  We were in the Western Baltic in early May a couple of years back and it was sleevless T shirts and summer skirts all the way for me, luckily it was a mystery cruise or I may not have taken much in the way of hot weather clothes.  Easy to take a couple of light jumpers, but more likely to forget the warmer weather clothes which can be needed, especially when days are long or after the land mass of Europe has heated up with the continental effect.  Being coastal we usually get less extremes of temperature than big land masses, but times they are a changin.

 

I still think Western Europe sounds a strange term and may be used for admin reasons more then anything by various organisations.  CC have probably got their designations right though as they do basically lump together the Med and more southerly regions, the central areas (which they call Western Europe) and the more northerly countries and those three regions are often distinct in terms of cruises which pouter about in one (or perhaps two) of those regions for a specific cruise.

[catz0026]

were also traveling during the month of July so your information is great  thanks