Baltic Cruise on Oceania With Berlin Stop

We are taking a Baltic Cruise on the Marina (Oceania) in August, 2018. We have a stop in Berlin (Warnemunde). Has anyone used SPB tours for their Tour in Berlin? And if so what was their experience. Thanks.

Excellent choice as the owner of SPB (Viktoria) is married to a German and they live in Berlin part of the year - thus have lots of local knowledge and help

Good to know, thanks very much.

Excellent choice as the owner of SPB (Viktoria) is married to a German and they live in Berlin part of the year - thus have lots of local knowledge and help

+1 used SPB for tours in 4 ports, including the Berlin tour.

We were on the Marina in June 2016. We used SPB tours in several cities (not Warnemunde) and were very happy w them. We took an Oceania tour in Warnemunde and really enjoyed it. Although we travelled in a large tour bus with many others, we appreciated a stop in a local town center where we had some time to get out and explore. It was a Sunday and all the families were out enjoying the lovely day. Everyone was excited about an important soccer match that was being broadcast outdoors.

In summary, why spend so much time on the train traveling back-and-forth to Berlin? Spend your day visiting Warnemunde!

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you really enjoy your Oceania cruise.

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We were on the Marina in the Baltic June 2017 and used SPG for a 3-day tour of St. Petersburg. Were VERY pleased with them!

We did not want to spend all that time traveling back & forth to Berlin, so we did a 'Friends of Dave" tour of Warnemunde and local area. I highly recommend.

Kathleen

We also used Friends of Dave on our Baltic cruise. Could not recommend a better tour company

Be aware that Warnemunde is a long way from Berlin and if you take a Berlin tour - no matter with whom - you will have quite some travel time. About 2 1/2 hours on the autobahns...each way.

Rostock - which is the city for which Warnemunde is the seaport - is beautiful and well worth a day's exploring if you don't want to spend 5 hours on a bus...

Be aware that Warnemunde is a long way from Berlin and if you take a Berlin tour - no matter with whom - you will have quite some travel time. About 2 1/2 hours on the autobahns...each way.

 

Rostock - which is the city for which Warnemunde is the seaport - is beautiful and well worth a day's exploring if you don't want to spend 5 hours on a bus...

This is all very true.

We enjoyed Rostock as well.

To OP - if you think this is the only time you will be in the area then Berlin is worth the trip. Conversely, if you think you might return someday then save Berlin for later.

Be aware that Warnemunde is a long way from Berlin and if you take a Berlin tour - no matter with whom - you will have quite some travel time. About 2 1/2 hours on the autobahns...each way.

 

Rostock - which is the city for which Warnemunde is the seaport - is beautiful and well worth a day's exploring if you don't want to spend 5 hours on a bus...

A few years ago spent almost the whole day in Warnemunde and had a great time. A lot to see and do there. Berlin is much too long a ride for a few hours in the city. Close to 3 hours each way.

On our Baltic last September on Marina, we used TJ's for both St. Pete and Berlin.

Totally pleased with TJ's.

Please do Berlin - it along with St. Pete's was the highlight of our trip, yes you have to do the freeway to get to Berlin. The country side is wonderful.

To see the Berlin Wall, the HQ of Merkel, the Brenden Burg gate and the friggin Check Point Charlie - it was totally awesome. TJ drove us into both the west and the east part of Berlin - the stark differences in architecture, road condition etc really made the cold war and the impact of communism versus capitalism very stark!

Real history. Worth the drive on the freeway!

Well, I'm one of those who constantly beats my head against the wall by advocating AGAINST day tours to a major city from a faraway port. Not that people listen, but I'll go public again anyway.

To see Paris (or Normandy for that matter) in one day from Le Havre or Berlin from the Baltic for me is a waste of time. There is so much to see in these cities that even one day isn't enough. And if you have to travel several hours back and forth, you see even less.

Our first trip to Berlin, we had 5 days there. When we returned we spent another 5 days. We still haven't seen everything we'd like!

As to other options from the Baltic, we really enjoyed a day in Luebeck (although that was on a land trip where we had a car). That requires travel time as well, just not as much as to Berlin AND it's a much smaller city!

Mura

(Yes, SPB has a wonderful reputation here although we personally haven't used them -- they didn't exist when we did our St. Petersburg visit in 2001.)

We used SPB for Berlin and St.Petersburg and were very pleased.

We used SPB for Berlin and St.Petersburg and were very pleased.

We used Alla Tours twice in SPB and she was great. So you pay your money and make your choices. Does not sound like you can go wrong either way. Have a great trip. :):):)

We also did Friends of Dave tour - excellent, heartily recommend the full day. Travel to/from the port/Berlin is 8 hours which makes for a very long day and limited sight seeing in the big city. Your call - but I would strongly suggest seriously considering FOD for the day.

We did not want to spend all that time traveling back & forth to Berlin, so we did a 'Friends of Dave" tour of Warnemunde and local area. I highly recommend.

 

 

Kathleen

Yes, Kathleen we did too! Enjoyed it immensely even though it was raining hard. But we heard that those who did the trip to Berlin got rained on too, and that Berlin had flooded areas. I recommend it too.

We are taking a Baltic Cruise on the Marina (Oceania) in August, 2018. We have a stop in Berlin (Warnemunde). Has anyone used SPB tours for their Tour in Berlin? And if so what was their experience. Thanks.

I organized 18 people from my roll call for a one-day tour of Berlin with SPB Tours (and then just two couples for our two days in St. Petersburg, where I had visited previously.). We had a fantastic day with a very knowledgeable and organized American guide who preordered our lunches so that those interested (it turned out to be six of us) could spend an hour at the Pergamon before we returned to Warnemunde. We traveled each way (three hours including a rest stop) on a large new bus and then transferred to a smaller one for our time in Berlin. I was impressed by how much we saw in one day and by how much we saw comfortably by foot.

This seven-hour excellent taste of Berlin, our first visit, led us to return the following year on a land trip, spending six days in Berlin, followed by two days in Dresden and four in Prague.

SPB is a wonderful tour company!

Please be aware that our cruise, as well as others, was bumped from Warenmunde to Rostock for docking. This happens unannounced and typically in the middle of high season in the Baltic. It’s called too many cruise ships and a low seniority status. This change adds an additional 30 minutes, each way, for that Berlin visit, for a total seven (7) hours driving, not including Berlin traffic and sightseeing. I enjoyed Rostock, while those going to Berlin came back looking nearly beat to death.

Consider doing a Mecklenburg Castle and Rostock combo, and enjoy a delightful day.

We did Berlin with spb. Superb. Don’t miss it

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SPB is a wonderful tour company!

 

Please be aware that our cruise, as well as others, was bumped from Warenmunde to Rostock for docking. This happens unannounced and typically in the middle of high season in the Baltic. It’s called too many cruise ships and a low seniority status. This change adds an additional 30 minutes, each way, for that Berlin visit, for a total seven (7) hours driving, not including Berlin traffic and sightseeing. I enjoyed Rostock, while those going to Berlin came back looking nearly beat to death.

 

Consider doing a Mecklenburg Castle and Rostock combo, and enjoy a delightful day.

Of course you always seem to make better choices than the masses.

We did Berlin with spb. Superb. Don’t miss it

 

 

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We did the same and enjoyed it.

M and I have been to Berlin several times on land tours but this time we travelled with 4 other family members for whom this cruise was their first trip to Europe. They were not very likely to be back to Berlin anytime soon and thus chose to see Berlin. They loved the trip and the sights we were able to see and the long trip was well worth for them. If it were just the 2 of us, we would have toured locally under the circumstances (as we have done on a previous occasion with a rented car) as we have been to Berlin before.

Thus, everyone has to decide for themselves what would suit them best.

I agree that it is much easier to visit Warnemünde or Rostock from the Warnemünde Port. Berlin is very far away and it is not about sight seeing very much. I think Berlin is about experiencing the city and the different neighborhoods. This is of course not possible on a day trip. However, if you find a good tour company, who will accompany you from the port and provide the information about history of the city on the way to Berlin, you might get a good idea.

I am one who travels many hours from Le Havre to Paris and back. But I am not a first time visitor to Paris. I have been there quite a few times and on my day excursion, I go each time to a different place, which I like to visit once more.

Ivi

I would be interested to hear from anyone who spent the day in Schwerin which seems easy to diy.

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I agree that it is much easier to visit Warnemünde or Rostock from the Warnemünde Port. Berlin is very far away and it is not about sight seeing very much. I think Berlin is about experiencing the city and the different neighborhoods. This is of course not possible on a day trip. However, if you find a good tour company, who will accompany you from the port and provide the information about history of the city on the way to Berlin, you might get a good idea.

I am one who travels many hours from Le Havre to Paris and back. But I am not a first time visitor to Paris. I have been there quite a few times and on my day excursion, I go each time to a different place, which I like to visit once more.

Ivi

From the Warnemunde port you can walk into a cute little town. Very pretty and the beach area is also a wonderful place to visit. Good food for lunch and just a nice place to spend the day. I will not spend at least 6 hours in one day on a bus to go to Berlin and not get to see very much.