Berlin Excursions

[gscoker]

Who has taken one of the excursions to Berlin while on the Celebrity Baltic Cruise ?  How strenuous are they?  Amount of walking, stairs/steps ... ?

[pennys mum]

Did this about 3 years ago.

We did the one with the concentration camp.

Long day about 12 hours.

Train journey roughly 3 hours each way. Everyone on train them split to do whichever excursion you had picked. Not overly strenuous 

Visited camp first then into Berlin for lunch. Went to all highlights 

Very organised

[ofallongirl]

We did a Berlin excursion in 2019. We did not do a Celebrity excursion but arranged to be on another excursion booked through the tour company we used for St Petersburg. It was a long day as each way on the bus was 3 hours. We saw the highlights of Berlin and learned some history. We enjoyed but were exhausted afterward. Just as a side note we were there at the end of august and it was unusually warm like in the low 90s. The bus has air conditioning however th train that others rode in as independent travelers was not air conditioned on such a warm day. I can only imagine the smell. We used that visit to determine if that was a place we want to go back for a longer visit. Plan on a 12 hour day. 

[upwarduk]

Go to the European Ports of Call board. Plenty of information on there.

Of course, it won’t be post COVID.

[Torfamm]

We took one that saw highlights in Berlin and included a visit to the Reichstag. The trip was all on a bus. It’s a very long day, but there was not a lot of walking at all as I recall it. A day trip this far from the port is one time I always feel a ship’s excursion is the wise choice.

[Miaminice]

Forget the long drive to Berlin. Explore the pretty town of Warnemuende which is a seaside resort and enjoy the day.

Calling this port Berlin is a joke…

 

[dogs4fun]

17 hours ago, gscoker said:

How strenuous are they?  Amount of walking, stairs/steps ... ?

The Berlin tours from Warnemunde or Rostock are tiring because the day is very long - it has to be long because of the distance from port to the city of Berlin. The tours themselves are not strenuous as there is very little walking involved - they are mostly highlights tours with photo stops. If you choose a tour that visits Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, there is some walking involved but it is not strenuous and there are no stairs to worry about.  As others have stated, it a long drive or train ride both ways - you spend about 6 hours just traveling to and from Berlin.

 

[kwokpot]

Rostock is a cute Little town with a nice shopping street (they even had a tjmaxx-tkmaxx in Europe) and Warnemude is a beautiful beach town with nice shops and a beautiful beach side walking path.

 

[kwokpot]

1st photo Rostock,2nd Warnemude

[Blackduck59]

I haven't personally done this tour but can't imagine you will see much of Berlin when it takes 3 hours each way to get there and back. Like @Miaminice said calling that port Berlin is a joke. You would be better to visit Berlin before or after your cruise. Book your flights so that you fly in or out of Berlin and travel to or from you port from  there. We were 2 days in Berlin and didn't even come close to seeing it.

[Iamthesea]

We decided to fly into Berlin and stayed 2 nights prior to heading to Amsterdam.  The cost of the flight was not that much more to Berlin. Then we took Lufthansa to Amsterdam (EasyJet and KLM now have non-stop flights) to catch the ship after spending 2 nights in Amsterdam.   Such a wise decision in all ways!  We were able to leisurely see Berlin and Amsterdam on-our-own. 

 

When the ship docked in Warnemude, we took a train to Rostock with Friends of Dave Tours.   On the return, we had plenty of time to walk around  Warnemude as part of the tour.

[TMLAalum]

On our Baltic cruise we opted against the long day Celebrity tour to Berlin and rented a car to visit Schwerin and then on to Rostock. We hoped that we could spend time in Berlin in the future and, in fact, we did so 6 years later. As Iamthesea did, we caught a cruise (Silhouette British Isles) out of Amsterdam.  But first we flew to Berlin and spent 3 nights there, traveled by train to Prague for 2 nights and then Easyjet to Amsterdam for 2 nights pre-cruise. 

 

That being said, 2 of the couples sailing with us on the Baltic cruise did take the Berlin excursion and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by TMLAalum

[Iamthesea]

TMLAalum 

How long was the train to Prague? We spent 2 or 3 days in Prague before a river cruise a few years ago.  I would love to go back some day.  Since we have friends in Germany, that we visit occasionally, we could look into the train to Prague before another river cruise.

Edited July 11, 2021 by Iamthesea

[TMLAalum]

1 hour ago, Iamthesea said:

TMLAalum 

How long was the train to Prague? We spent 2 or 3 days in Prague before a river cruise a few years ago.  I would love to go back some day.  Since we have friends in Germany, that we visit occasionally, we could look into the train to Prague before another river cruise.

It was under 6 hours as I recall. We booked 1st class in a compartment for 6 and were lucky to share with four fun folks from Australia. Check out “Man in Seat 61”. 
After our river cruise in 2019 that ended in Budapest we took the train from there to Munich again 1st class. If you book when seats are released @90 days out fares are well under 100 euro pp and under 50 for 2nd.

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by TMLAalum

[upwarduk]

The last time we were in Warnemunde we choose a ship’s tour to Schwerin.

This included sailing on the lake, with superb views of the castle, which we later toured. We returned to the ship via Rostock.

Edited July 11, 2021 by upwarduk
To try to ‘ turn’ middle photo.

[rhblake]

While it was 9 years ago we used SPB Tours for Berlin and St. Petersburg. For Berlin they provided a bus form the port into Berlin and where you transfered to your appropriate tour. The 4 of us took a private tour with SPB because one of our group was 92 years old. SPB made sure we saw all the major attractions without making our oldest member tired. If I recall correctly the bus ride into Berlin was only 2 hours.

[Iamthesea]

TMLAalum 

Thank you!  We once took the overnight train from Paris to Venice.  It was an adventure.  We also booked First Class, and luckily had no one join us.

 

In May of 2019, we took trains all over Europe both before and after our cruise from Barcelona to Venice.  Not everything went smoothly, but we had lots of fun!!!  😉