We hope to spend some time in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland next summer and hope to spend some time on land and visiting areas where my family came from, but we also would like a big part of the trip to be a cruise. Any ideas on the best cruise and cruise ship. Any ideas if you have taken this cruise are much appreciated. We are trying to set it up for next summer. Thanks for your help.

There are many cruise lines that do this route so what is the best depends on the style of ship and cruising you prefer and your price range. You can do smaller, more upscale lines such as Regent or Oceania or any one of several mass market lines line Royal, Princess and so on. I don't think any of them offer prolonged land times beyond the times in port which are around 6-8 hrs. or so with the exception of St. Petersburg which is two days. I suggest using a search engine such as Expedia and plug in the time of yr. you want to go and search for Baltic cruises. Then you can see the prices and itineraries. bear in mind those prices can be beaten from TA's. The summer is a great time to go BTw as you will experience white nights. Our Baltic cruise was our best ever I think. Any questions pls. ask. Larry

Thanks jacketwatch. I did know that they offered short times in the cities when on the cruise and we planned to spend some time touring before and after the cruise. I will do some checking and I may have more questions for you. Thanks lots.

No problem. BTW my good friend Percy did this cruise and posted a great review on it. Just search under his name for it. You can find my review as well via the same way. Again any questions please ask. Cheers, Larry

Just a small correction. Regent spends essentially three full days in St. Petersburg--from 8 AM the morning the first day to 6 PM the evening the third day. Furthermore, with its new unlimited "free" excursions, it has become considerably more competitive if one is interested in a luxury experience.

We recently returned from our Regent Baltics cruise, and it was amazing (and somewhat exhausting). Essentially, on each day in Russia, we did excursions from morning until evening, and there were even some excursions offered during the evenings. These excursions can add a lot to the total cost of a cruise, so with Regent's included gratuities, free air, and included alcoholic beverages, as well as their all-suite, all-balcony ships, it's worth re-examining what's out there.

Azamara also stops in St. Pete for 3 days