Baltic capitals shore excursions

[cruising camper]

We doing the Baltic capitals cruise in July and would like recommendations for shore excursions or warning about poor shore excursions; especially interested in St. Petersburg and Warnemunde, Germany.

[bbwex]

We did private tours in both -- St. Petersburg and went to Berlin from Warnemunde.

 

We really had great tours in St. Petersburg. Not to recommend a tour company, but we worked through shoretrips.com and they worked with TJ Tours in St. Petersburg. We were there for three days, and every day was excellent. I liked the private tour since we were in a van (8 of us), and could move nimbly. We were able to add a couple of things we wanted (see a subway station or two), and our guide was exceptional. Ships' tours will use a large bus, which is slower, goes at the pace of the slowest person, etc. We never heard anyone rave about a ship's tour there, but lots of people were raving about the private tours. Any of the big companies is good. Use your ship's roll call to put together or join an existing group. Our van would have held about 14 people, but we liked the smaller group. (If you do it on your own -- just two of you, it will be very expensive that way.)

 

We had a fair guide in Berlin, but using a private tour, we were there in much less time, and had more time "on the ground." Again, we were able to add things on the fly, and we literally stumbled upon the Pergamon Museum, and that might have been the very highlight of the entire cruise. A truly fascinating place.

 

Some people did not want to go all the way to Berlin, and stayed in Warnemunde and/or Rostock and some went to Pennemunde which they found worthwhile.

[Essiesmom]

Visit the Ports of Call board for Europe, and join the roll call for your cruise. Your fellow cruisers will be talking about and booking excursions. EM