Baltic Cruise = Excursion Costs

We are looking to book a Baltic Cruise for June / July next year. We have looked at the P & O Website and note there are many excursions we would like to go on in St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm etc, but our budget is limited to a certain extent and I would be grateful if you could let us know of the potential costs of these excursions.

Thankyou

In St Petersburg, many people including us book with local operators such as SPB Tours and Alla. They provide visa-waiver tours with fewer people and lower prices than the cruise lines. If you google them, you will see their prices for two day tours.

Copenhagen does not really need an excursion unless there is something fairly unique that you want to do. The hop on hop off bus works well. Likewise Stockholm can be done independently with hoho buses and boats.

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A 2 day tour of St Petersburg cost about £250-275. A bit cheaper with SPB tours but the one we did seems to have been better then the ship one, according to what we heard. The two day tour was worth every penny.As far as I can remember most of the tours for other places were around £80 or more.

In Copenhagen we got the shuttle to the centre. We had no idea where we were and lots of us stood around for ages trying to work out where we were and where to go. Copenhagen & Stockholm were easy to walk round. I wish we had done tours though as we missed things but we blew the budget at St Pete's. Helsinki is an easy walk around, and people who did the tours said it wasn't worth it, there wasn't much to see. Tallinn- again easy to walk round. We also did Rostock- shuttle bus & walk around & Skagen. Skagen is a lovely little resort. We did a tour in the afternoon - which took us very, very slowly to a church and fisherman's house. it was very slow to fill in the time, and was a complete rip off. It was all less than 10 minutes from the ship.

Sorry I can't remember the price! Hope that helps

A 2 day tour in St Petersburg is $285 for 2 days with Alla, we did the 3 day with Alla and it was excellent - 26 hours over the 3 days. Smallish Groups of 14 which is much better the the ships numbers and the visa is taken care of.

Stockholm and Copenhagen as easy to DIY with a bit of research, Copenhagen you can either shuttle or walk in, we did the walk in which was good passing the Little Mermaid, Royal Palace and Nyhavn on the way. In Stockholm be sure to see the Old Town and I'd also recommend seeing Stockholm from the water, Stromma do some good water tours in Stockholm, we did the Under the Bridges Tour.

If you are visiting Tallinn, that is also very easy to DIY, the old town is about 20 mins walk from the ship.

We used Alla tours in St Petersburg, smaller group and so you have time to visìt more.

In Stockholm there is plenty to see on your own, also Copenhagen and Tallin. We have also taken a tour in Copenhagen but only because we have been a few times and wanted to go further afield.

P.S.. Take a waterproof!

We did this cruise a couple of years ago and a good while before going I bought Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports book, which I used almost like a bible.

He gives suggested walking tours and tips for getting around in each city, while highlighting the most "must see" sights realising that there are only a few hours in which to get a feel for the place.

He even suggests (sacrilege but sensible) to split the book into the various cities so you only carry a small bit of the bible with you each day.

We had to spend money to see St Petersburg, but the rest of the ports we DIYd

We did this cruise a couple of years ago and a good while before going I bought Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports book, which I used almost like a bible.

 

 

Snap

A 2 day tour in St Petersburg is $285 for 2 days with Alla, we did the 3 day with Alla and it was excellent - 26 hours over the 3 days. Smallish Groups of 14 which is much better the the ships numbers and the visa is taken care of.

Stockholm and Copenhagen as easy to DIY with a bit of research, Copenhagen you can either shuttle or walk in, we did the walk in which was good passing the Little Mermaid, Royal Palace and Nyhavn on the way. In Stockholm be sure to see the Old Town and I'd also recommend seeing Stockholm from the water, Stromma do some good water tours in Stockholm, we did the Under the Bridges Tour.

If you are visiting Tallinn, that is also very easy to DIY, the old town is about 20 mins walk from the ship.

Majority of the larger, newer cruise ships no longer dock there in Copenhagen they use a newly built cruise terminal some distance from the city centre and a shuttle bus is needed.

Majority of the larger, newer cruise ships no longer dock there in Copenhagen they use a newly built cruise terminal some distance from the city centre and a shuttle bus is needed.

Didn't know that, we docked at Langelinie,which is near the Little Mermaid.in June this year on Celebrity Silhouette.

A big thanks for all your knowledgeable and informed responses.

You have certainly given us some different avenues to explore, especially as regards St Petersburg.

Thankyou once again.

St Petersburg use Red Sun Tours, Elena is wonderful.

Stockholm walk off the ship and buy a combo boat ABBA Museum ticket from the waiting boat reps, costs half what P&O wanted.

Helsinki Tallinn Rostock Skagen Copenhagen easy to do yourself.

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Didn't know that, we docked at Langelinie,which is near the Little Mermaid.in June this year on Celebrity Silhouette.

We also docked there this year on Cunard Queen Victoria.

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We have been twice to the Baltic and both times in SPB booked our tours with Alla Tours who are excellent.

In Copenhagen we took the local bus to the centre and walked back to the ship via the seafront. The HOHO also picks up by ship.

We had an overnight in Stockholm, so bought a 24 Hour travel card and got around on bus, tram and ferry.

In Tallin we took a taxi to the top of Toompea Hill and walked down to the old town.

In Helsinki we also bought a travel card and used public transport.

We’ve visited quite a few other Baltic ports, but depends on the itinerary. Most of them easy to use public transport or HOHO.

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St Petersburg use Red Sun Tours, Elena is wonderful.

Stockholm walk off the ship and buy a combo boat ABBA Museum ticket from the waiting boat reps, costs half what P&O wanted.

Helsinki Tallinn Rostock Skagen Copenhagen easy to do yourself.

 

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We did the Baltic this year and I too would highly recommend Red Sun Tours.

Also doing the Baltic again in July next year.

On 10/4/2018 at 10:30 AM, purplesea said:

 

 

We did the Baltic this year and I too would highly recommend Red Sun Tours.

 

Also doing the Baltic again in July next year.

Thank you for your note. 

I too plan to book with Red Sun Tours this year. 

You will probably want to do the Hermitage in St Petes but can I suggest if you like gardens you make a point of going to the Peterhof...MIND BLOWING gardens and fountains and house ( and you can take the hydrofoil back to the ship )  St Catherines palace is a MUST do imho as well 🙂  just enjoy it so much it is a wonderful fairytale city 🙂  

I've scanned through the responses and haven't seen much on Helsinki which, as has already been said, is an easy city to DiY.  If you go to the Tourist Office you can buy a ticket for the circular tram - see link routes 2/3 are the usual ones.  Get a good map from them too and you can plan your route.  See the section on trams in the link.

https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/info/getting-around

Our favoured plan is to get the tram to the closest point to the Sibelius Park - pleasant green space with an impressive monument to the composer.  Make our way towards the lake and call at the Regatta Cafe - it's an interesting place (!!!!) eccentric in the extreme but a lovely location by the lake to sit for a coffee.  It was cheap but not fantastic coffee but they did do free refills when we were there but to have a look inside the chalet style cafe and see the weird collection of items on the wall (and axe as a handle for the door!) is quite an experience.  

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g189934-d1596888-Reviews-Cafe_Regatta-Helsinki_Uusimaa.html

From there we usually walk back to the centre via the Rock Church - beautiful in its simplicity and well worth a visit.  The Rail Station is on the way back too (I think after the Rock Church).  Apparently its well known for its architecture and voted in 2013 as the world's most beautiful station - though I confess we've not been in.  We will next time we go!

From there make for Senate Square with its important buildings around,  the very ornate Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral and the famous market on the harbourside.  There are pleasant gardens in the centre and opposite the Tourist Office a nice cafe which looks rather like a conservatory for better coffee!!  We like Helsinki - hope you do too.  

(We once went on a trip to Porvoo and found the hour long drive very uinteresting with pine forests both sides of the road and Porvoo whilst pleasant enough not as interesting as Helsinki in our opinion - especially if it's a first visit and you haven't seen anything of Helsinki before.) 

14 hours ago, Tikki1946 said:

 

Thank you for your note. 

I too plan to book with Red Sun Tours this year. 

I’ll take a look at that too. Ideally I’d like something that just allows you to wander round St Petersburg on your own, but I gather that’s not possible without a visa.

Is anyone sailing on Britannia in July?

I am trying to arrange a tour of St Petersburg with Elena of Red Sun Tours, if anyone is interested.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2598429-britannia-b919-cruise-to-the-baltic-july-6th-2019/