Baltic cruise

[lois1112]

I will be doing a Baltic cruise in August.

I'm traveling on my own- willing to do "easy" ports (walking distance of ship) on my own but otherwise looking for recommendation from anyone who has done this trip for worthwhile excursions.

I have booked SPB tours for St. Petersburg, Russia

 

[lois1112]

Ports are:

Brussels/ Bruges, Belgium

Copenhagen

Stockholm

Tallinn

Helsinki

Gdansk

[dogs4fun]

15 minutes ago, lois1112 said:

I will be doing a Baltic cruise in August.

I'm traveling on my own- willing to do "easy" ports (walking distance of ship) on my own but otherwise looking for recommendation from anyone who has done this trip for worthwhile excursions.

I have booked SPB tours for St. Petersburg, Russia

 

I would recommend getting your hands on a copy of Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports. Great tips for first time visitors including instructions on DIY in your ports of call.

Tallinn is extremely easy to DIY - short walk from your ship (about 10 minutes) to the old walled city.

Regarding Copenhagen & Stockholm, much will depend on your docking location. You can find this information on the port website for each city.

Bruges - assume you are docking in Zeebrugge? We took the train into Bruges but there were others on our roll call that organized a taxi (check your roll call).

Helsinki - easy to DIY but will need transportation from cruise terminal to town (market square).

Edited March 18, 2019 by dogs4fun

[dogs4fun]

Oh, I see that you are docking in Brussels? I have not taken the train from Brussels to Bruges - hopefully someone will chime in on how to DIY.

[gnome12]

33 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Oh, I see that you are docking in Brussels? I have not taken the train from Brussels to Bruges - hopefully someone will chime in on how to DIY.

I doubt the OP is docking in Brussels. In a previous thread someone was asking about whether to go to Brussels or Bruges and the responses were overwhelmingly to go to Bruges. I think they said from Zeebrugge there was a shuttle to Bruges that went regularly all day.

[Desdichado62]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

Oh, I see that you are docking in Brussels? I have not taken the train from Brussels to Bruges - hopefully someone will chime in on how to DIY.

 

That would require an airship though since Brussles is quite far inland. 😉

 

to @lois1112 which ship are you cruising with?

[John Bull]

If you dock in Brussels your captain will be in big trouble - it's over 40 miles from the nearest navigable point. 

You'll be berthing in Zeebrugge, 70 miles from Brussels but only about 9 miles from Bruges.

IMHO Brussels isn't worth a visit, even if those mileages were reversed - it's a commercial & administrative city with few sights.

Most folk head for Bruges, an attractive and historic city, known as "the Venice of the North" because of its canals - a few centuries back it was an important port but that declined due to the silting of the canal to the sea and the increasing size of ships. Accessible by taxi (not desperately expensive pp if you book a 6 - 8 seater) - ask the driver to drop you at the Grotemarkt in the city's cobbled centre. Also accessible by train - cheap but may cost time because you need the ship's (or is it the port's?) shuttle 3 miles to Blankenberge station,so you can't plan your arrival time at the station for the hourly train to Bruges - if you're unlucky that could cost you up to an hour hanging around at the station. The shuttle mentioned by the Gnome is a service introduced in the past year or two and takes you direct to the city. It drops you in the Bargeplein, the same place as ship's over-priced "Bruges on your own" because large buses aren't permitted in the centre. It's then  level 15-20 minute walk to the centre, about the same as from the rail station. 

There are other alternatives - for instance the kusttram (all-day tickets are inexpensive) can take you to Ostende. Or just beyond to the excellent Atlantic Wall at Raversyde, which includes relics of both world wars - but that involves a walk over the dunes from the tram stop. 

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

 

Regarding Copenhagen & Stockholm, much will depend on your docking location. You can find this information on the port website for each city.

 

Helsinki - easy to DIY but will need transportation from cruise terminal to town (market square).

 

Yes - like the other Baltic ports ( I don't know Gdansk) these cities are pretty easy to explore on foot or local transport - but you need to get from your cruise berth. Helsinki options include ship's (port's?) shuttle and the ho-ho which stops at the port.

If you know the names of the ports at Stockholm and Copenhagen we can be more specific.

 

JB 

[angie7911922]

We used Anastasia's Travel in St. Petersburg, and then because we got a discount for using them in more than one port city, we also did their excursions in Helsinki and in Tallin. It made things easy for us, because we didn't have to think about anything. It was all arranged when we got off the ship. It was really nice!!

[lois1112]

22 hours ago, Desdichado62 said:

 

That would require an airship though since Brussles is quite far inland. 😉

 

to @lois1112 which ship are you cruising with?

I am going on Sapphire Princess   

and yes actual port is Zeebrugee

[dogs4fun]

22 hours ago, John Bull said:

If you dock in Brussels your captain will be in big trouble - it's over 40 miles from the nearest navigable point. 

Duh - I'm a moron - didn't even think of that.

Regarding Gdansk - ships cannot dock in Gdansk, they dock in Gdynia. One would require transportation to get to Gdansk - the old town is about 15 miles from port (options are: train, bus, taxi/uber, booked excursion). It takes only about 35 minutes to reach Gdansk via train (haven't used other options).

[Desdichado62]

5 hours ago, lois1112 said:

I am going on Sapphire Princess  

 

You will be at F638 Frihamnen. You can walk but I would not recommend it, use public transport instead.
It almost 3km from where the ship berths to the Vasa museum.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Vasamuseet/Cruise+Ship+Dock,+Frihamnsgatan,+115+41+Stockholm/@59.3309581,18.1053541,15z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x465f9d546d8329af:0xcff09af1b4c13241!2m2!1d18.0913964!2d59.3280233!1m5!1m1!1s0x465f82c970b20639:0xacf2d61e03143659!2m2!1d18.1243168!2d59.3444067!3e2

[Kate P.C]

On 3/18/2019 at 2:19 PM, angie7911922 said:

We used Anastasia's Travel in St. Petersburg, and then because we got a discount for using them in more than one port city, we also did their excursions in Helsinki and in Tallin. It made things easy for us, because we didn't have to think about anything. It was all arranged when we got off the ship. It was really nice!!

We also had Anastasia Travel Group booked for St. Petersburg and the Jewish Berlin Tour, and we highly recommend them, not only for the professional service and attentiveness to all our needs ( and we were 8), but they made it fun and easy to remember the history about all the places we visited that day. It was well worth the money.