Hiking in the Baltic’s

[Suzanne123]

My daughter is an experienced hiker and would love to do even a short hike at one or two ports on our cruise.  Anyone have any experience or know of a tour? Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Warmunde, Copenhage.  Thanks.

[dogs4fun]

Not familiar with hiking in your other ports of call but Helsinki has some nice trails. Some info can be found here:

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/finland/articles/the-best-hiking-trails-in-and-around-helsinki/

[hallasm]

Do you have something special in mind - type of route and length? Accessible by public transportation?
Not really hiking areas but it will always be possible to find a hiking trail near one of the mentioned cities.  At first glance, I would think that Stockholm or Helsinki will offer the best options.  Maybe combined with a boat trip in the archipelago.
 There are a number of hiking trails around Copenhagen, but nothing challenging close to Copenhagen, so I would rather suggest hiking through Copenhagen to see the sights.

[Desdichado62]

One of Sweden's longest hiking trails, Sörmlandsleden, starts at Björkhagen south of Stockholm. It is easily reachable by subway to Björkhagen's subway station. First section is about 8,5 km and at the end of that section there is 15 min walk to the nearest bus stop.

 

http://www.sormlandsleden.se/vandring/etappbeskrivningar-och-kartor/

Edited May 25, 2021 by Desdichado62

[Hezu]

11 hours ago, dogs4fun said:

Not familiar with hiking in your other ports of call but Helsinki has some nice trails. Some info can be found here:

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/finland/articles/the-best-hiking-trails-in-and-around-helsinki/

Although, from that list visitors on a cruise probably should scrap Liesjärvi National Park outright since by car it takes something like one and half hours to get there (and then another 1½h back). Porkkala is also about hour away from Helsinki, so it might be tad too far (unless you plan going to Porkkala pilot station to ask for a boat ride back to the cruise ship once it has left Helsinki). Also getting to the national parks closest to Helsinki, Nuuksio and Sipoonkorpi require something like 45 minute drive and with public transport it will take even longer, so arranging taxi or similar private transportion may be advisable when you have limited time to spend. Viikki/Vanhankaupunginlahti could be quite good option for a quick look on nature: for example start from Herttoniemi metro station and then walk around the bay to say Arabianranta to hop on a tram back to city centre. Central Park is also decent option: the picture shown next to the Central Park text in that webpage is actually from Kaivopuisto (a park in southern parts of city centre) and actually Helsinki Central Park is more like a proper woods with large trail network. And getting there should be fairly trivial: you could start for example just behind Helsinki Olympic Stadion.

And obviously when you stay in Helsinki for just a day (and departure is already in the afternoon or early evening), you can't cover the whole Reitti 2000 (the word Reitti means Route in Finland).

 

And one possible location for a quick hike not mentioned in that linked article could be also Mustavuori area in Vuosaari, next to the area is Vuosaaren huippu (Top of Vuosaari also occasionally going by nickname "Himalaya"), a decently sized artificial hill that has been recently been re-developed into more park-like and to better cover the fact that the site was originally a landfill.

[Suzanne123]

Thank you all for the great information.  I wish we had more than one day in each port, but with your advice, I know she will find something to her liking.  She hikes some challenging parts of the Appalachian Trail every weekend, but would be very happy just traipsing through the woods in Sweden and Finland hoping to spot a moose.😀