Baltic Cruise- D I Y ??

[ann141]

We are sailing to the Baltic this June and i know we need to do a group tour in St Petersburg for visa reasons but how easy is it to do the other ports on our own?We are visiting Zeebruge (would like to visit Bruges),Copenhagen,Stockholm,Tallin,Helsinki andGdansk(fromGydnia):)

[John Bull]

Very easy :), depending on where your ship ports.

 

Bruges from Zeebrugge

Two main options...........

.......Ship's shuttle (probably payable, just a few £/$) about 3 miles to Blankenburge station, where you take the train. Train takes about 15 minutes, costs about 6 euros return, then a level 10 - 15 min walk from Bruges station to the centre. The only real problem with the train is that it's an hourly service (still 11 minutes past the hour?) and because it's preceded by the shuttlebus it's a lottery whether you get to the station 5 mins before the next train :). Or 55 minutes before the next train.:(

If you've just missed a train, you can take a taxi from the rank at Blankenburge station - probably won't cost any more than one from Zeebrugge.

......... Taxi (pre-booked or take your chances) direct from the port. Currently 50 euros e/w but some carry up to 7 passengers so if you share it's not so bad. Check your RollCall to see if anyone's looking for sharers.

If you take a taxi, ask the driver to drop you at Grotemarkt, an ideal location in the centre of Bruges, and arrange for him to collect you from the same place at the end of the day.

.......... a third option is ship's "Bruges on your own" transfer. Over-priced, of course, and you'll be dropped at Minniwater, on the edge of the centre (not far from the rail station), because large coaches aren't allowed in the cobbled centre of Bruges.

 

Copenhagen's centre is very easy walking, but you may need transport to get there depending where your ship ports.

There's a new cruise berth outside of town - there's public transport but I don't know the details.

Or you might berth at Langelinie, which is ideal. Bus or hop-on bus or taxi, or a longish but attractive, level & easy waterside walk past the little Mermaid, the fort, Amelienborg Palace & a beer at one of the waterfront bars / cafes along Nyhavn. Mebbe a 20 - 25 minute walk - do try to walk it at least one way.

There are also berths just beyond Langelinie (at Nordhavn? Orientkaj / Levantkaj?) - further, but still walkable.

 

Stockholm.

There are two quays in Stockholm.

Stadsgarden is ideal. From here you can take a short bus ride to Gamla Stan, but better to take the hop-on boats from close to your ship. They circulate clockwise, places like old-town Gamla Stan, the Royal Palace (a good idea to get off the hop-on boat at Gamla Stan to walk its little streets thro to the Palace, town hall etc, then hop back on at the next stop. Later on the route is the Vasa museum (think Henry V111's Mary Rose but vastly more intact) then the hop-on boat completes the circle back to Stadsgarden. But it's far better to visit Vasa museum before the crowds (when busy they limit numbers, so a queue forms). For this reason some morning hop-on boats go anti-clockwise - direct to Vasa. That'd be your best bet.

The other quay is Frimlingham. Not quite so convenient, needs a bus or short taxi hop. Again, best to aim for Vasa first.

 

The sail-in/out of the archipelago of islands to Stockholm is one of the world's best. For an hour and more you're twisting & turning through narrow channels between islands, where you feel you can reach out over the rail & touch the trees. Truly magical. Be up & about for the sail-in as well as the sail-away.

But some ships are too large to navigate the channels - that might include Emerald Princess :(. If so, your itinerary will show Nynashamn (Stockholm). Nynashamn is on the coast, an hour's train ride to Stockholm, and it's a tender port. Costs precious time, and you miss that magical sail-in.

Ships close to the max size for the archipelago may also switch to stopping at Nynashamn if winds are too strong, so fingers crossed.

 

Tallinn is very easy. You can take a shuttle to old town, or walk - it's about a 20 minute walk to the nearest part of old town, a squat tower with the unflattering name of Fat Margaret, then mebbe another ten minutes to the main part. All this is on level ground, but old town extends uphill to the old town walls - great views at the top. Well worth the effort to get to the top, but if your legs & lungs say it's impossible you'll still find it very pleasant down at the bottom - cafes, bars, stalls, shops, and a very friendly atmosphere. Super port-of-call. Unspectacular but very very pleasant.

 

From Helsinki port to the centre (Market Square / Senate Square / boat harbour) is just about walkable, but better to take a shuttle or taxi or hop-on bus. If the weather's fair consider a boat ride from there to Suomenlinna sea fortress. The Sibelius park / monument, the Rock Church, the Olympic part & the iconic train station can be visited by hop-on bus or (with a little walking here & there) by the circular tram route from the Market Square (sorry, don't recall the route number)

 

Sorry, can't help with Gdansk.

 

You're aware that to avoid the need for a Russian visa, you can take a visa-free tour of St Pete's.

But are you aware that pre-booked tours with local tour operators (eg Alla Tours, TJ Travel, SPB Tours, Best Guides, DenRus & others) have the same visa-free status as ship's tours?

Ships don't tell you that, & Princess tell a downright lie that "visa free tours can only be done through the ship".

Browse this forum, and check elsewhere on the 'net for details & confirmation.

The small-group tours offered by local operators are way better than the cattle-drives of ships' tours, and generally a little cheaper.

If your ship is Arcadia, P&O have been known to offer similar small-group tours. If you prefer to stick to P&O's tours, then at least make it a small-group tour.

If your ship is Emerald Princess, Princess have a dreadful reputation for bullying privateers in St Petersburg (I think that's all stopped now due to them getting their knuckles rapped by St Petersburg immigration) but I don't think they offer small-group tours, and anyway I'd decline to book St Pete's with them on principle. :mad:

 

It'd help us to answer if you quoted which ship, and preferably any port locations that you know

 

Great itinerary, the Baltic is made for cruising.

JB :)

[ann141]

Thanks very much JB for all that very useful information:)

 

Ann

[LondonTowner]

Excellent info from John Bull, but I will add a couple of comments.

 

In Bruges there is a shuttle bus from the station to the centre which I think is included in the price of a train ticket.

 

In Tallin we took a taxi to the top of the hill and walked down as the hill is quite steep. The taxi we took from just by the ship and I think was about 10 Euros. Tallin was my least favourite stop on the cruise as it was teaming with tourists, over commercialised and very hot, even in mid September.

 

In Copenhagen we did the HOHO which stopped beside our ship.

 

We had an overnight in Stockholm so we bought a 24 hour travel card and used it on the buses, tram and ferry. A cheap and easy way to get around.

 

In SPB we did the 2 day Comfort Tour with Alla Tours which was fantastic.

 

In Gdynia we took the ship excursion due to time constraint. Very rarely do we take a ship excursion as object to paying the over inflated prices. Gdansk is quite a distance from where the ship's dock, but is well worth the visit. It was also the cheapest of our stops.

 

Would definately do another Baltic cruise with different ports of call as we loved it.

[cleobella]

Does anyone know how much the HOHO boat is in Stockholm? Are the tickets easy to buy, and is it easy to board or are there long waits to get aboard the boat?

[ann141]

Thanks LondonTowner for adding the extra snippets of informatio.n We too are thinking of doing the Alla Comfort tour. in St Petersburg :)

[John Bull]

Does anyone know how much the HOHO boat is in Stockholm? Are the tickets easy to buy, and is it easy to board or are there long waits to get aboard the boat?

 

IIRC it was either €20 or €25 (yes, they accept euros) for an all-day ticket. Or you can get a ticket for a single journey eg that ship-to-Vasa morning run. Buy your tickets from the reps near the stops. Boats were tolerably frequent, we never had one fill before we got to the front of the line, but that's not a promise ;)

 

Ann - we too took Alla's comfort tour. Two stops less than the Grand Tour, we chose it because we also went to the "Think Yourself Russian" show in the evening (very touristy but a lot of fun) & didn't want to over-do it, but it was easy enough. Very pleased all-round.

Our guide re-vamped our two days because the second day was forecast to be wet (and it certainly was) so we included the open-boat canal tour & Peterhof in Day One's glorious weather & the Hermitage & other indoorsy things on Day Two. The sort of flexibility that's possible with small (max 16) groups. :)

 

JB :)

[ann141]

Encouraged by the feedback-Thank you all!:)

[kitkat343]

Copenhagen,Stockholm,Tallin,Helsinki are all very easy ports to DIY, and we were able to easily tour all of those ports by ourselves with our 3 year old child in tow. Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki all have excellent public transportation systems, and we were able to easily travel between tourist destinations. For travelers with children or mobility issues, there are pedicabs in Tallin that can take you to the main tourist sites.

 

Please note that in Stockholm the Stromma HOHO boats are the only ones that offer a one ride ticket (which is well worth it at 50 SEK). It is a lovely view and a quick and direct shot straight to Vasa prior to 10 am. After 10 am, the HOHO boats will make multiple stops. Please note that Vasa fills up quickly, and only lets a certain number of tourists in at one time, so it is important to try to arrive there early. You might want to order room service, since everyone will try to get off the boat quickly in Stockholm (and St. Petersburg to try to beat customs lines). The boats sell tickets at little stands next to their stop, and we had no problems purchasing one way tickets on the day of our tour.

 

It's a wonderful trip, and I hope you have an amazing time!

Edited January 4, 2016 by kitkat343

[GradUT]

If you are at all interested in doing a DIY Baltic Cruise, you need to buy or check out from your local library a copy of Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports. This book was an INVALUABLE resource to me when I planned our own DIY Baltic Cruise last July (which turned out great!)

[Pet Nit Noy]

Does anyone know how much the HOHO boat is in Stockholm? Are the tickets easy to buy, and is it easy to board or are there long waits to get aboard the boat?

 

There are two HOHO boat companies: The Red Boat and the Gray Line boats (with signage in Green).

 

We were expecting to dock elsewhere -- closer to the VASA museum so we were less than fully prepared when we discovered our ship had docked close to the Photography Museum. I share this detail since it affects the answer to your question. We walked past the Green/GrayLine stop at the Photography museum. There was a clear sign stating that this was a HOHO stop, but we didn't see any ticket seller so we weren't sure what to do. We kept walking along the pier area until we came to Slussen, one of the two stops for the old town. At Slussen, the first HOHO dock we came to was the Green/Grayline stop and there were two ticket salesmen. Done.

 

From our ship, if we had walked away from Slussen -- towards Pier 167 -- we would have come to the major stop there. Both HOHO boats have stops at 167, but the red HOHO doesn't stop at the Photography Museum.

 

As we were using the HOHO bus throughout the day, we realized that if we had simply waited at an unattended stop for our specific boat company, the boat would stopped for us and we would have purchased our tickets once on board.

 

The disadvantage of the HOHO boats is that they travel in one direction only. You need to plan your sequence of stops to take advantage of this fact so you don't waste unnecessary time making loops past stops you've already visited. You may want to buy a combination HOHO boat and bus ticket to avoid the one-way issues.

 

Sorry, I don't recall the price of our HOHO tickets.

[Pet Nit Noy]

Please note that Vasa fills up quickly, and only lets a certain number of tourists in at one time, so it is important to try to arrive there early.

 

The VASA was one of two places where we were glad we had a chip and PIN credit card. European stores and restaurants are still equipped to handle swipe and sign charge purchases. The threat that US credit cards -- with no PIN numbers -- weren't going to be accepted has largely turned out to be a non-issue. But our chip and PIN card was useful at the VASA.

 

The VASA was our first destination, but we certainly weren't there when it opened. As a result, the line was very long. At one point, I heard an employee shouting in English, "If you have a chip and PIN card come with me!" So I did.

 

There's a wall of about five ticket sales machines near the admissions desk. To use these machines, you must have a chip and PIN credit card. Also, the machines are Swedish-language only, so you have to be a bit adventurous and willing to guess what the machine is asking you to do. Fortunately, if you're at all familiar with making purchases via machine (Have you ever bought movie tickets via machine??) the process will be both familiar and reasonably intuitive. But you do need to know your PIN!!! There's no getting around that!!

 

Bottom line: We were able to shorten our time on line by at least 10-15 minutes by having a chip and PIN card.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Pet Nit Noy

[ann141]

Thank you all :) for continued feedback. Gradut, I have ordered a copy of Rick Steves book today!

[pjs678]

I just posted this to our roll call and saw this thread. It's more specific to our cruise, but might help in general as well.

 

 

Stockholm: Quickest way from airport to cruise port (F638 FRIHAMNEN) is via taxi. Stockholm cruise ship schedule. Can get there via public transit, but have take train from airport to the main train station and then catch a bus which is much longer, especially on a Sunday morning when traffic should be light. Once at the ship, we plan to take buses or subway to get back to town. From a hotel, you have the choice of cab or bus. Stockholm Public Transit

 

Helsinki: Docking at West Terminal. Helsinki cruise ship schedule. We plan to just pay for the all-day transit pass and take trams everywhere, but there may also be an overpriced Celebrity shuttle or taxis available. Helsinki Public Transit

 

St. Petersburg: Unless you're like us and have a Russian visa, you will meet your tour guide just off the ship each day. This one is easy, but be prepared for long lines at immigration the first morning as everyone rushes to meet their guides and get going. You can see there will be a lot of ships in port with us the first day and then fewer the next two days. SPB Expected Ships in Port

 

Tallin: There's only one area that we can dock and it's about a 15-20 minute walk to old town (per Rick Steves). This one looks like an easy DIY. Hope there's not too many other ships in port with us yet. Schedule is not available as of today.

 

Warnemunde: Exact location not available yet, but similar to SPB in that everyone will be rushing to meet their Berlin guides or local guides. No immigration to worry about here though.

 

Copenhagen: Docking at LANGELINIEKAJ. Download spreadsheet of port calls here. Walkable to town, but easy to catch a bus as well or a HOHO if you want. Copenhagen Public Transit

 

Amsterdam: Docking at main passenger terminal. Calendar of Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. We plan to walk to the Centraal Station and take an airport train. We've done this before and it is very easy. You can also walk to any hotel near the train station or grab a tram if your hotel is further away or you overpacked :) Amsterdam Public Transit