Baltic port excursions

[kiaol]

We are excited for the incoming Baltic cruise trip. Currently, we have booked the 2-day St Petersburg tour with Alla Tour, which our travel agent recommended. Other excursion we strongly consider is Berlin/Warnemunde. There seem to be several quite different choices. We plan to visit Berlin but are not sure that’s the best choice. For other ports, we probably make our own arrangements.

[grsnovi]

We took the train into Berlin from port and did a bus tour that took us into East Berlin. Walked through Checkpoint Charlie. Stopped at the Brandenburg Gate and ended up with time on our own. I collect standing in front of Vermeer paintings so I picked up at least one that afternoon in Berlin. Our Baltic in 2009 was awesome. I think I liked Tallin most but seeing Swan Lake performed in St. Petersburg was pretty cool and The Hermitage was not to be missed.

[kentuckycruiser]

We are doing Berlin with a private tour guide. Getting picked up at the port by a car and off to Berlin. More money than I really want to spend but I figure Berlin and St. Petersburg will be our only $$$ days - the rest we will walk around ourselves.

[OlsSalt]

We are doing Berlin with a private tour guide. Getting picked up at the port by a car and off to Berlin. More money than I really want to spend but I figure Berlin and St. Petersburg will be our only $$$ days - the rest we will walk around ourselves.

 

Smart to do Berlin on your own since a lot of time is lost making transfers from ship to bus to train etc using the HAL tour - having to work with a large group and fixed meeting places. The city takes at least week to explore just the surface, so one day under any circumstances will feel very rushed.

 

Might want to do some homework up front if you have not already, so your guide can take you to the best of what you want to see. It is such a large city with so many different layers to explore. Including finding good German sausages with potato salad. I would go back just for more of that alone. If you want a lazy break during this long travel day, I'd recommend including a river boat tour on the Spee to get a very different view of this diverse city from the water.

[rkacruiser]

St. Petersburg was a disappointment for my traveling companion and me. Too many people in the sites we visited, guides whose English was hard to understand, a river tour boat whose PA system was mostly just noise. This was a HAL tour. I enjoyed what I saw, but there was nothing that I experienced that would encourage me to return to this city.

 

Tallin was the standout during our cruise. Good tour, great guide, many fewer tourists, interesting historic sites, friendly people; oh, and an excellent local beer as well.

 

Helsinki was interesting as well. The tour we booked provided samples of the Finnish smoked foods. I enjoyed them when I consumed them. A few hours later back on the Eurodam, my gastrointestinal tract informed me that it was not all that thrilled with this gastronomical adventure.

 

It's a long train ride from/to Rostok to Berlin. Once there, again, so many sightseers! So much construction! If one is historically oriented, yes.

 

My previous visit to Copenhagen was in 1980. Loved it! A travel memory highlight. My visit more recently: too many people, too much construction, the character of the city has changed and not for the better, in my opinion.

 

Stockholm: major visit for me was the Vasa Museum. Well done, interesting, but the tour time provided there was too short. Having booked the HAL tour did allow entry without the very long line of others waiting to enter the building.

 

The "old world character" of the Northern European cities that I have visited does not exist any more from what I have experienced.

 

There will not be another Baltic cruise booked by me.

[OlsSalt]

ESTONIA: We took the local tram out to Empress Catherine's little summer palace in Talinin, which got us well away from the tourist frenzy found within the walled but beautiful old town. The palace was also by a "beach" where many Estonians were enjoying a day in the sun - in all sorts of remarkable bathing attire, or not.

 

Agree, Europe is definitely not the "quaint historic" place many of us got to know in the 1960s' ..nor can we do it on $5 a day. But their job is not to be a picture post-card for tourists, but a solid functioning modern economy for themselves. My biggest disappointment was finding fewer places in Berlin to even get good "German" food, of yore. They mock the idea of traditional sausages and beer, and prefer now something more "healthy" or international.

 

FINLAND: HO-HO type bus gets you around Helsinki to see the main sites, with time to walk around on your own.

 

ST PETERSBURG: Crowds and hustle and scary pick=pockets are hard to avoid, no matter how you do this city. But it dazzles and one simply has to endure.

 

I saw it first in the 1970's when it was run down, no tourists and very "communist" in regard to its former imperial history. I had free run of the Hermitage and they did not even have guide books. The churches were "museums" of the glorious cultural revolution, and the food was heavy and predictible. All the women wore exactly the same thing - a heavy coat and a hand made angora cap over their badly peroxided hair.

 

One saw long lines for food; not to get into their historical venues like today. Russia has come a long, long way since then, but not sure in what direction still. No venration of the former imperial family back then either. Whereas seeing the tombs for Catherine the Great on down to the last of the Romanoffs memorial was breathtaking this time around.

 

We were reminded several times what they really wanted from US visitors was a thank you and recognition of the sacrifices they made during WWII and the horrific siege they endured when so many starved to death but the held on until the winter also did in the Germans.

[grsnovi]

...very "communist"

Being of the era when "duck and cover" was a memory of 1st and 2nd grades (1961/1962), standing in line to pass into St.Petersburg at the port in 2009 was something to wrap my head around. We loved our Baltic cruise!

[Marianne]

Loved the Baltic cruise. Particularly enjoyed Rostock, such a pretty ancient German city. A cousin from Berlin met me and took me to a very old monastery from early middle ages. Impressive. She had a beach house so we spent some of the day out on the spit enjoying the beach. St Pete was okay, but still everyone under "control". Spent two days on tours, magnificence in the buildings. Followed by Helsinki, which impressed me greatly, so clean, artistic. The market was so interesting, lots of fun:cool:. We didn't stop at Talinn but went to Lithuania and Poland instead. Really enjoyed this trip, and hopefully will do the Baltic again. Still lots to see.

Marianne

[kazu]

Have done the Baltics twice. The first time we used ships' tours for St. Petersburg. The second we used Alla tours. Absolutely no comparison. The second time was so much better.

 

DH wanted to go to Berlin whereas I preferred to explore Rostock & Warnemunde. So off he went to Berlin with Alla tours and I learned about the two towns (again with Alla tours). DH very much enjoyed his time visiting Berlin and gave it high scores with Alla, OP.

 

I on the other hand had a great education and adventure visiting the lovely towns, again with Alla. It was a very private tour as there were only 3 of us. (If you booked X number of tours with her, at that time the 10 minimum was waived and the tour went no matter the number).

 

OP, I think you are wise to do St. Petersburg privately as you have arranged :D

[sandy999]

St P - I have done both Alla 2 day tours and thought the Faberge tour was the best.

Tallin - We walked to the old town, lovely place.

Copenhagen - We walked to see the Little Mermaid and took the canal boat trip (hop on hop off). Tivoli gardens were nice to visit if you have time.

We did our own thing in Stockholm (HOHO bus), Oslo (HOHO bus) and Helsinki.

[Eaglesfans]

Hi everyone! Can't wait for my Baltic cruise in June! Trying to decide if the HAL excursion to Moscow is worth the money or if I should just do the 2 day St. Petersburg excursion. Appreciate any insights.

 

Thanks!

[OlsSalt]

Hi everyone! Can't wait for my Baltic cruise in June! Trying to decide if the HAL excursion to Moscow is worth the money or if I should just do the 2 day St. Petersburg excursion. Appreciate any insights.

 

Thanks!

 

St Petersburg has more dazzle, but Moscow has more history, as well as present day significance. Tough call. Probably fewer hordes of day tripping tourists in Moscow and nothing beats actually seeing Moscow's Red Square, the Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral.

 

Do you ever expect to go back to Russia? Easier to make the return trip to St Petersburg than Moscow - but maybe there is a river cruise in your future? Or a Trans-Siberian train trip starting or ending in Moscow? Other very worthy visits in Russia are Irkutsk and Lake Baikal in southern Siberia and the Solovetsy Islands in the Russian White Sea along with Archangel.

 

Whatever you decide, let me recommend the book "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" - a memoir through food and its longing and availability decade by decade in post WWII Soviet Union - it gives delightful human insights into this complex nation.

[bpolsky]

We are excited for the incoming Baltic cruise trip. Currently, we have booked the 2-day St Petersburg tour with Alla Tour, which our travel agent recommended. Other excursion we strongly consider is Berlin/Warnemunde. There seem to be several quite different choices. We plan to visit Berlin but are not sure that’s the best choice. For other ports, we probably make our own

 

 

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[bpolsky]

We booked Friends of Dave Tour to see villages outside Berlin, looks just wonderful, we also booked Alla Fabrege Tour, check it out!

 

 

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[RuthC]

Hi everyone! Can't wait for my Baltic cruise in June! Trying to decide if the HAL excursion to Moscow is worth the money or if I should just do the 2 day St. Petersburg excursion. Appreciate any insights.

If you have been to St. Petersburg before, or think you will be back there again, then take the opportunity to get to Moscow. An excursion to Moscow was offered years ago, then was taken off the selection list; it is only recently back, and there is no guarantee it will remain. Besides, the excursion is grueling, and you may not have the stamina for it when you return. Do it while you can.

 

However, if you haven't been to St. Petersburg before and think you aren't likely to get there again, then by all means, enjoy this fabulous city when you can. There is so much to see and to there that in three trips, I have yet to get to everything I want to.