luvdirt

My wife and I are very excited to be departing in May on Celebrity cruise Constellation.
We would really appreciate your help in recommending guides (rather than go through the cruise ship) for these ports:
Berlin (Warneemunde), Copenhagen, Stockholm , Helsinki , St. Petersburg and Tallinn ( Estonia ).

All ports are one day with the exception of St. Petersburg which is 2 days.

We are history buffs and are looking for a guides that are not only entertaining but informative which will complete our best ever second honeymoon.

We really appreciate your time and any suggestions you may have to offer.
Thank you!!

abram

We found Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Tallinn very easy to tour on our own; I compiled self-guided historical walking tours from some guidebooks. Now, I'd look for audio tours for my mp3 player.

In St. Petersburg, we were extremely satisfied with Red Ocotber. They tailored their "standard" two day itinerary to our interests; the guide and the driver were both excellent.

luvdirt

Abram,
Thanks for your help. Although, you make sense with your suggestion to self guide we would really like the expertise of a guide.

Also I checked out Red October and they are a bit too high.

We love to have some recommendations.Anybody?

Thank for any help!

traveller69

I highly recommend you joining cruisecritic.com if you don't already belong. You just have to sign up - no strings attached. Go to the rollcall section for your cruise line and ship. You will find fellow passengers there and will most likely be able to join up with some of them on private tours. It is much less expensive as the cost is divided amonst the group. I don't know if this is your cruise or not but as an example the cruise on the Constellation on May 15th can be found here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1030374

You do have to sign up first to get to it.

We have arranged many private tours ahead of time on this board and have never had a problem
Enjoy your cruise!!

Stefann

good idea traveller69, i may use it in the future....

luvdirt

yes, very good suggestion! Thank you so much!

patmike

Just adding my two cents here.........we are on the Constellation sailing on May 16th!! We are also avid Cruise Critic members. There are a number of folks looking for other cruisers to join them on guided tours. In general, the more people that sign up, the lower the price (at least this is our experience for touring in St. Petersburg). You may have to wade through some forty pages of Blogs, but I guarantee you they are interesting and helpful.

Ryan

We're taking that trip at the end of July with Celebrity.

I've traded emails with Red October. They are quoting me a price of close to $1600 for two adults and two kids for one day.

We're contemplating booking direct through Celebrity as you can have your own van tour for about $800 through them. We're still working through our options.

In terms of the other locations, I think many are very easy to visit without needing a guide.

BTW, I saw a reference to the Constellation being refurbished ahead of positioning in Europe. The restaurants might be slightly different than what Celebrities website shows. My understanding is the work was done in transit from Florida to Europe.

traveller69

Ryan why don't you follow my suggestion above and sign up at cruise critic? You will definitely find fellow passengers to share the tour with. All of the companies are extremely expensive for just two. The cost is just divided amongst the number in the group and they do have various size vehicles depending on the number of passengers. They do limit the number so it is still a small group and you would enjoy that far more than a full bus load from the ship. There are a couple more good tour companies but we used Alla (with a group from cruise critic) and it was wonderful. She arranged the tour to accommodate our wishes etc including a ballet at the Hermitage.

jacketwatch

Try denrus for SPB. Their costs are more reasonable.

Ryan

traveller,
Thank you for the information. We have no intention of the bus tour. What I said was there is an option through the ship to have your own guide for your own group in a van. Didn't say I picked that, said it was an option we are considering.

traveller69

Ryan sorry I misunderstood you. Actually in all of the cruises we have taken there has never been such an option. I know that in one country one time they did offer a private van but it was extremely expensive. So if you can meet up with a group on cruise critic it would certainly be your best bet. Hope it works out for you and enjoy that cruise it is very interesting.