Baltic cruise ports

[Lucybeagle]

any advice on whatbto see and do in baltic cruise ports? Which ones can you do on your own? Recommended tour companies in St. Petersburg?

[easyboy]

We had SPB Tours for its 2-day Deluxe tour. Some had Alla Tours. We did explore most ports on our own like Tallinn, Oslo and Copenhagen. We did not go to Berlin because of the long travel time.

 

 

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[ontheweb]

We used Alla in St. Petersburg, and were very happy. I have also seen a lot of good things written about SPB which does not surprise me as their owner was our Alla tour guide before she had her own company,

 

Talinn is easily done by yourself. We also did Oslo on our own.

 

In Stockholm, the Vasa Museum is well worth seeing.

[Essiesmom]

Visit the Ports of Call boards here for Northern Europe. Lots of recommendations there. Also, get a copy of Rick Steves' Northern European Cruise Ports and read how you can do many of the ports on your own. EM

[Hlitner]

You can do any port on your own, with the exception of St Petersburg (unless you want to go through the trouble and expense of getting a personal Visa). But the real question is are you willing to do the necessary homework (research) to maximize the benefit of doing ports on your own, do you have the spirit of adventure that most need to truly enjoy DIY, and is that your preference. DW and I cruise (and travel) all over the world and probably average 1 tour in every 100 port calls. We love DIY, prefer to do what we want, when we want, with whom we want (which is normally just us)...and have been doing it this way for over thirty years.

 

But most cruisers are not as adventurous and find themselves ruminating over issues like missing the ship, how to get currency, how to use public transit, what if I get lost, what if an earthquake strikes right under my feet, what if a meteor hits me on the head, etc etc. If you have these kind (or similar) thoughts...then perhaps you should book a cruise line excursion or perhaps join with some others on a private tour :).

 

And yes, I was being serious when I said you could do any of your ports (except St Petersburg) on your own. As to St Petersburg, we do recommend booking a private tour through any of the reputable local tour companies (we recommend TJ or Alla). If you do want to book a private tour you can do it online and they will e-mail you the necessary group visa document (needed to get through Russian Passport Control.

 

Hank

[capriccio]

Most of these ports lend themselves to DIY touring. We did just that in Tallin, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. As others have said, check out the Baltic Ports of Call board, get a guide (years ago we used Rick Steve's Scandinavia), and check out Toms Port Guides (tomsportguides.com) for Copenhagen (I didn't see the other ports in his index).

[Keith1010]

I too would visit the Ports Of Call Board for these ports and this link will take you there:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=192

 

Keith

[ontheweb]

You can do any port on your own, with the exception of St Petersburg (unless you want to go through the trouble and expense of getting a personal Visa). But the real question is are you willing to do the necessary homework (research) to maximize the benefit of doing ports on your own, do you have the spirit of adventure that most need to truly enjoy DIY, and is that your preference. DW and I cruise (and travel) all over the world and probably average 1 tour in every 100 port calls. We love DIY, prefer to do what we want, when we want, with whom we want (which is normally just us)...and have been doing it this way for over thirty years.

 

But most cruisers are not as adventurous and find themselves ruminating over issues like missing the ship, how to get currency, how to use public transit, what if I get lost, what if an earthquake strikes right under my feet, what if a meteor hits me on the head, etc etc. If you have these kind (or similar) thoughts...then perhaps you should book a cruise line excursion or perhaps join with some others on a private tour :).

 

And yes, I was being serious when I said you could do any of your ports (except St Petersburg) on your own. As to St Petersburg, we do recommend booking a private tour through any of the reputable local tour companies (we recommend TJ or Alla). If you do want to book a private tour you can do it online and they will e-mail you the necessary group visa document (needed to get through Russian Passport Control.

 

Hank

 

I never thought I would see Hank posting to use a tour. I remember replying once to one of his posts that said to always go on your own, and asked about St. Petersburg. And he did reply that maybe St. Petersburg was an exception.

 

The only thing I would add to his post above is be more careful if you are new to cruising. Our very first cruise was a Western Mediterranean for our 25th anniversary, and I screwed up royally. I managed somehow to get us on the train going the wrong way! Luckily DW figured it out, and we got off and eventually back. We did end up with the time to see Pisa, but not Florence. And with DW being the world's finest elementary art teacher, this was a disaster.

 

Ten years later, we did a similar cruise for our anniversary. We almost definitely could have now done this on our own, but I was taking no chances so booked a Florence on your own ship excursion and DW booked the two major museums online with timed entrances prior to the cruise. One thing I will say is with the extreme heat, the air conditioned bus was nice. We did Rome on our own that cruise, and the train back was not only packed, but a fight broke out!

[paul929207]

In St. Petersburg, you cannot get off the ship without satisfying their visa requirements. You can do this by:

 

-Book a ship tour and they provide the visa waiver.

-Book a private tour with SPB, Alla or one of the other companies and they will provide the visa waiver.

-Apply in advance for a Russian visa. Expensive and not a fun process.