We found Tallin and Helsinki very easy to tour on our own.

In St, Petersburg, we loved our 2 days touring with Red October. For 4 of us travelling together, it was cheaper to have our own van, driver and guide than do the ship's excursion--and it was personalized for us.

If you go to www.cruisecritic.com and sign up on the Roll Call board for your sailing, you can "meet" fellow passengers anr arrange private tours together.

Like abram we did Talin and Helzink on our own. Highly recommend Red October, we had 3 nights and two fuill days in St. Peterburg with Oceania and loved it. In Gdansk we used "toursbylocals" and were very pleased.

Try ALLA Tour for St. Petersberg. Highly recommended. Alla charges $300 for a 2 day group tour but limit to only 16 people in a group. Private tour slightly more expensive and well worth the extra. You can find more info re Alla tour on my Trip report and elsewhere.

Skip Berlin and go to Lake Schwerin instead. Not worth the 6 hours return trip on the train or bus or whatever transportation you will be taking.

For Tallinn and Helsinki, self guided walking tour would work well and cost nothing if you are physically okay (don't have to be physically fit but would be helpful) Make sure you have a decent city map.

For Helsinki, take public transportation (bus #16) to Market square and it is walking distance to everywhere, including ferry to the island (world heritage site). Free public wash room at City Hall which is right across from teh Markey Square. The city Hall washroom (for men anyway) is an interesting stop, currently featuring the "FLUSH" exhibit.

For Tallinn, follow the crowd and walk towards the old town. You can actually see the old town from the dock so just go towards the general direction. You won't get lost.

Good advice from Eschew, he just got back from his Baltic Cruise.

We are going on Baltic cruise, Sept, read tips above, very helpful. Could I be so bold to ask what you paid for your tour in St. Petersburg?

sando1

I can say this...it depends how many are in your tour.

Let us say that there are only two of you....if you let Alla place you with , 4-8 others , you will pay much less.

When I booked with Alla, there were 4 of us.

Then a few weeks later Alla e-mailed me and asked if this couple from Detroit could join us..... but the decision was mine because it was my tour.

I said yes.

Then about 2-3 weeks later Alla e-mailed me again and said that a couple from San Diego and a couple from New Mexico would like to join my tour....

that made it a total of 10 people, and I told Alla , "okay but cut it off now"..no more !!

My price was reduced by about $150.00/per person for the two days.

So there is a saving, and the people that joined me were all terrific.

When we were there in June, Alla had about 8 or 9 tours going from the one ship. I knew of at least 3 different private groups prior to sailing through cruise critics (and I choose not to join them and started my own).

The "public" groups (at least 4 of them) were 12 people each. One of the private group was for a family of 6 from Australia.

We have 4 in my group and we joined with a group of 6 (a family of 6) so we had 10 total. All vehicles were Mercedes.

Private group starts at 450 USD per person and public group is 300 USD per person for the 2 days, transportation, bottled water, hydrofoil, lunch, everything is included except $5 for a "photo pass" at the "murder scene". You can actually take a pass on that. We paid the $5 and it wasn't worth it.

Taking photoes everywhere else is free: except when you take pictures of people dressed in period costumes, then they wanted 100 rubbes (which is about 3.33 USD) from you.

The recommended tip for Alla Tour is 10% (combined) for the Driver and the Guide. But they were so good that we tipped way more than that.

I posted a "Baltic in June" trip report in this forum. You may want to take a peek at it. (A bit of unashamed self advertising!)

Love Alla Tours. Alla is so marvellous at putting one's mind at ease about Visa's (they arrange them for you). She carefully answered all our questions thoughtfully with infinite patience.
Our guide was astoundingly well educated and they are expert at guiding one through the Hermitage adn other sites so one never feels crowded. Each of the three days we returned to our ship when we told people of all the sights we had seen in one day, our fellow cruisers mouths dropped.
Also first class Mercedes vans, Excellent price. Have highly recommended Alla Tours to others and they have been equally delighted.

Thank you all for your helpful advice. I have contacted Alla regarding their tours.

We are spending an additional day in Copenhagen at the end of the cruise. Does anyone have any advice as to what hotel I should book and what sights to see?