Shore Excursions for Baltic Ports

[Snoop123]

Hello,

 

I will be going to the Scandinavia/Russia Cruise with Princess in June. I have questions about the following ports:

 

Copenhagen -- We are thinking about taking the long trip to go up to Jutland to visit LegoLand for one day. What is the best way to get there from Copenhagen? We would prefer to take an organized tour to go there because we are only in Copenhagen for one day and probably will not have time to look for transportation on our own? Any good tour that you would recommend?

 

Stockholm -- We will visit Vasa museum in the morning, and will be on our own in the afternoon. What is the best way to tour the city in the afternoon?

 

Helsinski -- We have heard a lot about Porvoo. Is it worth going or are we better off staying in the city?

 

Berlin -- We are thinking about taking the train to Berlin and tour the city on our own (for about 5 hours). I am not familiar with Berlin. Is it easy to tour around on our own, or is an organized tour better? Any good web site on info for Berlin?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[DON M.]

Hello,

 

I will be going to the Scandinavia/Russia Cruise with Princess in June. I have questions about the following ports:

 

Copenhagen -- We are thinking about taking the long trip to go up to Jutland to visit LegoLand for one day. What is the best way to get there from Copenhagen? We would prefer to take an organized tour to go there because we are only in Copenhagen for one day and probably will not have time to look for transportation on our own? Any good tour that you would recommend?

 

Stockholm -- We will visit Vasa museum in the morning, and will be on our own in the afternoon. What is the best way to tour the city in the afternoon?

 

Helsinski -- We have heard a lot about Porvoo. Is it worth going or are we better off staying in the city?

 

Berlin -- We are thinking about taking the train to Berlin and tour the city on our own (for about 5 hours). I am not familiar with Berlin. Is it easy to tour around on our own, or is an organized tour better? Any good web site on info for Berlin?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

For tour recommendations etc. you will have more success probably on the EUROPE board where private tours can be dissused, unlike this board where it is "illegal".

[Al_Frescoe]

For tour recommendations etc. you will have more success probably on the EUROPE board where private tours can be dissused, unlike this board where it is "illegal".

 

Interesting, I wonder why that is? Someone asleep at the hatchet? ;)

[roysmith99]

Hi there,

 

Helsinki, I'd stay in the city, so much to do, easy to get around, try the Suomenlinna Fortress.

 

Stockholm; Walk around Gamla Stam check out the Ice Gallery, then get a ferry to the Vassa Museum, whist over there visit the other attractions, so many thing to do on Djurgarden.

 

Copenhagen; Save Lego Land for the one in the UK. Its Hans Chritian Andersns 200th anniversay this year. What a wonderful city to explore, on foot at this time.

[soraya]

Hi, We're planning to do a similar cruise on the HAL Westerdam. for almost all of the ports, it seem from advice on the boards that you can easily get around the cities yourself, apart from St P and Berlin.

 

As far as Berlin is concerned, it seems too long a day for us, and to my secret shame I love steam trains and HAL are doing an excursion on one. It's probably our only ship excursion. We live in Scotland though so a trip to Berlin is more straighforward.

 

BTW is the Ice gallery the same as the ice hotel?

 

Thanks, soraya

[Snoop123]

Thanks for the recommendations. They are very useful!

 

One question about Helsinki -- since our ship docks relatively close to the city, we are planning to just take a taxi into the city and walk around ourselves, and perhaps joining one of the local tours if we find a good one. Is it easy to tour around a city like Helsinki by ourselves?

 

Thanks,

[gbc]

One of the many wonderful things about touring in the Scandinavian countries is that they enjoy a very high standard of living (read that as education). The result is that many people speak English and are happy to use it. All of the cities are easy to do on your own. Last summer in Helsinki we visited the Fortress and used the hop on/off bus. The bus was sitting by the pier and we took it to the Ferry for the Fortress. You buy a ticket and can get on and off at various stops. We circled around the city and got a feel for it and then got off at the market and spent a lot of time walking around the market area.

 

Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen are meant for walking - if you get lost, ask someone on the street - the cities are safe and the people tend to be very very nice.

 

Happy sailing.

[jimbo23]

When in Helsinki you should consider the tram 3b/3t which you can catch from the harbour market.You can get a joint ticket which includes a ferryride out to suommelina fortress for approx 8 euros for two (good deal)

 

The tram circles the city and you can pick up a leaflet at the ticket office that tells you which stops to get off to see the sights.

 

The ticket is a hop on hop off ticket and the 3b/3t go opposite ways on a circular route there is an electric sign on the trams that announces the stops before you get to them.There is a website somewhere you can get details on.

 

The cost is unbelievably cheap and you can get to seemost of the city sights this way and a ferry ride to boot!

 

I did a full review on the constellation and ports which is on the review page under constellation

 

We did a quick tour of Copenhagen on one of the rickshaw cycles that ply for trade in the city it was reasonably priced and we saw many of the sights and stopped at those we wanted to .i think it cost us about 150 kroner for a couple of hours.It was incredible howmany of the major tourist attractions we got around to in that time.

 

Jim

[Host CMLA]

For tour recommendations etc. you will have more success probably on the EUROPE board where private tours can be dissused, unlike this board where it is "illegal".

I will answer you here on the board because your misinformation is a detriment to other board members. Members may ask for and offer tour recommendations for all ports. If someone asks for the name of a good tour company in Helsinki, anyone with that information should speak up and share it with the world. If someone wants 10 recommendations for 10 different private guides in Moscow, by all means, share that information if you have it. You may not, on this board or any other board, start a thread saying, "I'm putting together a tour group for Copenhagen on March 30 with XYZ company. Please e mail me or XYZ company for rates and information." That type of information will be removed. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact the board administrator and community@cruisecritic.com.

[rnjoel]

Host Cecilia,

 

I certainly don't mean to be rude, ugly, etc....but I just counted four instances of members requesting to share tours with specific tour companies on the first two pages of the Europe board. Just as I 'solicited' two years ago when we cruised the Med, and met wonderful new friends in the process....

 

Again, I've always been a member in good standing, but I think this "new rule" is being sporadically and unfairly enforced.

 

I enjoy these boards, and I'm not being disrespectful, but the truth is the truth....look at the Europe boards and see!

 

Happy Sailings!

[DON M.]

Host Cecilia,

 

I certainly don't mean to be rude, ugly, etc....but I just counted four instances of members requesting to share tours with specific tour companies on the first two pages of the Europe board. Just as I 'solicited' two years ago when we cruised the Med, and met wonderful new friends in the process....

 

Again, I've always been a member in good standing, but I think this "new rule" is being sporadically and unfairly enforced.

 

I enjoy these boards, and I'm not being disrespectful, but the truth is the truth....look at the Europe boards and see!

 

Happy Sailings!

the "organizing tours" and the "tour recommendations" rules are no where to be found on a permanent basis on this or any board. Can you give a website for a tour company? I know I can't but what about other members? Rules should be stated and apply to all boards instead of posts just being removed.

[alcman]

I am afraid that I am totally confused now. We have a board for connections between cruisecritic members for specific cruises. This is obviously encourgaed and allows people travelling on the smae cruise to share experiences, preparations and a community of interest. Among other things people on the same cruise share information and plans about their upcoming cruise, including getting together on tours that one or more people assume the responsibility for arranging. According to the above missive, that is technically forbidden. If so, you have removed a prime motivator for sharing an upcoming cruise experience among similarly placed members for a reason that seems to me to be about as an_l as you can find. This is especially so, since the e-mail system does not work and substantially hinders private communication.

 

I would very much appreciate a clarification.

 

Thank you,

Jerry

[Host CMLA]

I certainly don't mean to be rude, ugly, etc....but I just counted four instances of members requesting to share tours with specific tour companies on the first two pages of the Europe board. Just as I 'solicited' two years ago when we cruised the Med, and met wonderful new friends in the process....

It's not rude at all to ask questions or ask for clarification. I appreciate you being so kind and explicit in exactly what you want to know instead of attacking me.

 

I don't moderate the Europe board and if you write to the host for that board, she will tell you that you can't solicit members for private tours. If those posts exist on that board, she hasn't seen them. I had a discussion with her and the board administrator just last Friday and the board admin. was going to make a board wide post about this guideline. It does exist. I have no idea what the guideline was before June 2004. I didn't moderate the board then.

Again, I've always been a member in good standing, but I think this "new rule" is being sporadically and unfairly enforced.

This is true. I agree. However, I follow the guideline specifically. I can't speak to how others do it.

 

As I said before, the board administrator specifically talked to me about the guideline against soliciting members to join you on private tours. I'm following her instruction. If you don't agree with this guideline, please e mail her at community@cruisecritic.com. Maybe she needs to hear from members on this.

[swdke]

Legoland in Jutland would indeed be a journey. I am sure it may be possible, but only if your ship is overnighting in Copenhagen. If so, Denmark has a remarkable bus and train system, I am sure you can take a train most of the way, then a bus. Come to think of it, probably quicker to rent a car. I am assuming you might have children traveling with you, and I understand visiting Legoland would be very interesting for them, or even without kids, Legoland can be interesting. However, I am not sure you or especially the kids would enjoy the time it takes to get there and back. According to the Danish transportation route planner, it can take 3 hrs 18 min. to 3 hrs. 45 min. to get there. Although Legoland is interesting, it would take longer just to get there than it would being there. I've been there twice and I recall being there for only about an hour or so. If all you have is a day in Denmark, Copenhagen is the place to be. Go to Tivoli, kids and adults would find this more interesting.

[Snoop123]

Thank you Steve for the information!

 

Indeed we will be in Copenhagen for 3 days, and we should have plenty of time to see the Copenhagen city and visit castles in the neignborhood. This is why I think a trip to Legoland would be interesting.

 

As you have correctly pointed out, the 3+ hours traveling to Legoland is what I am most concerned about. This is why I prefer to look for some kind of tour, like a bus tour that can drive us all the way there, without having to switch trains and buses in between, and without having us to spend too much time looking around for direction. Unfortunately I haven't had much success in finding such a tour.

[swdke]

Snoop123,

 

With three days, then you could definately do Legoland. I have emailed a Danish friend if he has any knowledge of tours to Legoland. Maybe he can help us out. If not, just keep searching on the internet. If nothing else, you can wait till you arrive in Copenhagen and ask for a tour agency or company who might help you out. Otherwise, you still have the train/bus option, but I'd probably recommend renting a car. Although car rentals are expensive, it could be cheaper than the cost of the tours to Legoland, but I am only guessing. I'd also recommend you not go there and back in the same day. Odense on Fyn would be a good place to visit, check out the home of H.C. Anderson.

 

I'll let you know if my friend comes up with any answers.

[swdke]

Snoop123,

 

Here is the reply from my Danish friend when I wrote and asked him about tours to Legoland.

 

The most obvious way to go to Legoland (http://www.lego.com/) from Copenhagen is to fly to Billund Airport (http://www.scandinavian.dk/) which is situated in walking distance just on the other side of the road from Legoland. You can of course also go by rented car but that will take you 2 1/2 to 3 hours each way and will cost you extra crossing the Storebæltsbro (http://www.storebaelt.dk/www-storebaelt-dk/Engelsk/Priser/). I doubt very must that there are any tours organised as it is so easy to get there and when inside Legoland there are plenty of activities to choose from.

 

Hope this helps

[OCTravelerGene]

Another thing to do in Copenhagen & Stockholm is to take the canal cruises in each city. You see the cities from a different & interesting perspective. The Vasa museum in Stockholm is a must. A train trip from Copenhagen to Helsingor and a tour of the castle there was also very interesting. gene