excursions to pick?

[wendy sue]

Has anyone been on the Copenhagen to Stockholm trip? If so, any recommendations for the best excursions to take in the different ports? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

[ellbon]

Has anyone been on the Copenhagen to Stockholm trip? If so, any recommendations for the best excursions to take in the different ports? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

I have been to both the cities. spent days in them.. you must go to the TOWNHALL on Stockholm, see both palaced in Stockholm. .both cities have an ice bar. in Copenhagen look at a tour to museams and castles outside the city..

food is expensive there but all of Europe is..

have fun and walk as much as you can to see the real city.

[Travelcat2]

We have been on this itinearary (2006) but not with Regent inclusive tours. We used a private tour company in St. Petersburg. It is difficult to not enjoy any of the tours in this incredible city. Tallin was our favorite port and did not require a tour (although our TA provided one). We walked around the shopping areas of Copenhagen and Stockholm (took Regent's shuttle bus in Stockholm). These are wonderful. . . but, VERY expensive ports.

[RachelG]

We did this itinerary prior to the inclusive tours as well. It is a great trip.
We hired a private guide through Anastasia for St. Petersburg. She did a great job. We actually calculated the cost of Regent tours (not included then) vs a guide and driver for the 3 of us, and they were about the same. Obviously that would not be the case now. But I might still consider the private guide just due to time saved, convenience, and being able to cover more stuff with a smaller group. Most all sights that tourists visit in St. Petersburg are extremely crowded, and a private guide can get you through a lot of long lines faster.

The only ship's tour we did was in Tallinn--we wanted to visit the Resistance Museum, and it is closed on Monday which was the day we were there. So the only way to get in was on the KGB and submarine tour. The tour itself would have been excellent except for the guide who was terrible. She was very bitter about the Russian occupation and kept complaining constantly. I would probably be upset too if I had to live in those conditions, but her job was guiding the tour, not complaining.

Anyway, the museum is excellent, and you don't need a tour to see it (unless on a Monday). Tallinn is very walkable, and you can definitely do it on your own.

Visby--don't need a tour there either--totally walkable and really beautiful.

Helsinki, you can easily do on your own, but there are some interesting looking tours. It was raining cats and dogs the day we were there, so we didn't get to see as much as we planned.

Definitely rec a couple of days pre cruise and post cruise to enjoy Copenhagen and Stockholm, two of my favorite cities in the world.

[wendy sue]

Thanks so much:)

[Dreps]

In August 2009, we did Midieval Visby, Tallinn Walking Tour and Concert, Classical St. Petersburg, Peter the Great's Grand Palace--Peterhof, Yusupov Palace and Canal Cruise, Hermitage and Gold Room, Metro Ride and Shopping, and Helsinki Sailing Adventure. We enjoyed all of them. It was a beautiful day when we did the Canal Cruise, so it was particulary nice. The full day for Classical St. Petersburg was excellent. You can do the Hermitage and skip the Gold Room as far as I'm concerned. The Sailing Adventure would have been nicer had it not also rained for us. The Metro was interesting, but not a must-do. We had very good guides throughout, and personally I would not pay for a private guide, given the choices available. As you can tell, we did five excursions on the three days in St. Petersburg, and some even added an evening one.

[Balliett]

One Regent tour we liked a lot was Hermitage after hours in St. Pete. Mostly we had private guides or did the other stops on our own. We are just back from an 18 day Regent cruise. I have mixed feelings about tours-included because historically we have had more fun finding our own guides or doing it on our own. It's hard to leave all those "free" tours on the table, but we ended up seeing too much from bus windows on this last trip.