Baltic Cruise

[mmack]

My kids and I are doing a 10 day cruise in May (05) on the Star to the Baltic. I have been told it is better to do a shore excursion with Princess for St. Petersburg because of visa requirements. And looking at the Berlin excursion, it also looks easier to book with the ship because of the train travel in to Berlin. I am fine with doing that...but am wondering about the other ports...Helsinski, Stockholm, Tallin, Gdansk in particular. Any thoughts on doing shore excursions there, or is it fairly easy to get into these towns from the ship and then do our own thing. If shore excursions are recommended, which are interesting ones? I want to have some shopping time available. My 2 kids are 19 and 23, so I don't have little ones that will whine if the tours are long (or at least I hope they won't whine!) Thanks for any input!

[Oggy Boy]

You are better off doing the ship's tours in St. Petersburg and in Germany. The train departs for Berlin right from the ship practically.

You can doo all of the ports you mentioned on your own simply walking from the ship with the exception of Stockholm (they should provide a shuttle) and Gdansk (where you will also have a shuttle I would think)

There is tons to do in all the ports and unless there is a shore excursion that you are dying to take, just take off on your own and explore.

Check out www.EuropePortReviews.com for reviews on each port you are visiting.

Have a great cruise!

Tom

[oppis]

Hi from germany,

as Tom said, do the Capitals by your own. They offer shuttle-busses (4 $ roundtrip) and then you can walk. Tallin is a wonderful old town, everything in walking distance from the shuttle (free from estonian tourism bureau). But shopping in all capitals is expensive. In Stockholm save some time at noon for the guard changing at the royal castle. Never seen something like this before.
For St. Petersburg book some tours, but you don`t have much time to see all the interesting things. Sometimes they stop only for 15 minutes and for the Hermitage you have only two hours for a 5 kilometer walk in this great museum.
Berlin is great, you can take busses and all other public transportion for a little price.
But look for a tour in a dubbeldecker bus, when you have nice weather.

You will enjoy my country and all the scandinavian capitals. When you go to Oslo too, stand up early for enjoying the 100 km in the Oslo Fjord from the ocean to Oslo.

Have a wonderful cruise
oppis