Best time to travel in the Baltic

[Romalia]

Hi! I wonder what would be the best time for a Baltic cruise. Could you give some advise? Personal experience would be good

[dogs4fun]

1 hour ago, Romalia said:

Hi! I wonder what would be the best time for a Baltic cruise. Could you give some advise? Personal experience would be good

The shoulder seasons are better if you wish to avoid crowds. Saint Petersburg's tourist sites are very crowded from June through August - particularly venues such as the Hermitage, Catherine Palace and Peterhof.

Medieval walled Tallinn is also very crowded during the summer months - same is true for the Vasa in Stockholm.

Of course, June through August will afford the warmest temperatures so if this is important to you it would be a consideration.

Edited November 2, 2019 by dogs4fun

[John Bull]

June should be tolerably un-crowded and give you decent weather.

May & September will be chilly & the weather more unreliable, July & August are usually the warmest but by far the busiest months.

 

We sailed in early June,  warm & sunny until our second day in St Petersburg - but our tour operator there (Alla) knew poor weather was coming so re-vamped our itinerary to go to predominantly  "outside" places  on the first day & predominantly "indoor" places on the second (wet) day.. Other local operators do the same thing - flexibility is just one of the advantages of using a local operator rather than ships' tours.

Next day in Helsinki was freezing cold - we abandoned plans to take a boat trip to Suomelinna  and instead took a ride from the market place in a warm & cosy tram which did a circular trip.

Next day was a sea-day, I don't recall the weather but it didn't matter. 

After that the weather was fine again for the rest of our cruise.

All of which demonstrates how changeable the weather in northern Europe - it's more a matter of luck than planning.

 

JB 

[navybankerteacher]

September into early October generally has fairly dry weather, the summer crowds and (sometimes) excessive heat are gone, and it is usually comfortable during the day, while a bit chilly at night.

[Slugsta]

Our Baltic cruise was in September. Unusually, it was warm and sunny nearly every day - in fact, I got sunburned in Copenhagen. We're going again in July next year and I confidently predict that the weather will be completely unpredictable!

[marco]

We went this past summer in June (not a cruise) spent 2 weeks traveling in Estonia. Latvia and Lithuania. The weather was great, mid-upper 70's, no humidity.  Not crowded other than the one day in Talinn, Estonia when 3 ships were in.

[jdvmd]

Had great weather on our Baltic and sailed at the end of May/first of June. Record setting high temperatures. Never wore the winter clothing I brought along, not even a jacket. That said, two weeks later, it was nothing but rain and cold temperatures.

[Romalia]

Thanks everybody! So looks like I have to opt for beginning of June or September-October. Will give it a try 🙂

[ontheweb]

There are no really bad times. When we did our Baltic cruise it was in an August for our 30th anniversary. The weather was fine in all ports. It was actually very warm in St. Petersburgh, but doing a private tour, we were in an air conditioned Mercedes van. Also our guide got us around the crowds. We did not find any of the ports overcrowded. I would imagine that could be a problem if there were multiple ships in a port at any time.

[FlyingFlip]

We visited last year during July/August, and the entire area was experiencing a heat wave.  (Up to 33°C, or 91°F.)  Other than the ship and the climate-controlled museums, no places had air conditioning.  I had been watching the weather forecast, so my wife and I packed like we were heading to the Caribbean, not the Baltics.  We were still somewhat uncomfortable, but we weren't suffering like most of the other passengers (or locals).