Scandinavian ports, thoughts on shore excursions?
 

We've booked a cruise in July on Orient Lines, starting in Copenhagen, going to Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, ending in Stockholm. I don't have any information yet on organized shore excursions, we have a couple of days in Copenhagen, St. Petersburg and Stockholm and partial day stops in Helsinki and Tallinn. <BR> <BR>Does anyone know how far the boats dock from the cities? We usually prefer to travel on our own when possible. There is a 1/2 day organized tour included in both Stockholm and Copenhagen. <BR> <BR>The cruise agent that booked our cruise thought that the visa in St. Petersburg might be a group visa, does this mean we have to stay with an organized group or will we have free time? <BR> <BR>Any suggestions for the best things to hit in Helsinki and Tallinn give the short time frame? <BR> <BR>With a couple of days in the other cities, what do you think the highlights are? We like visiting palaces, art museums, flea/open air markets, parks/natural areas. <BR> <BR>Thanks for your help!

Does anyone know how far the boats dock from the cities? <BR> <BR>If your boat will use so called Old Port then you will dock not far from the city, only some minutes driving by car. <BR>The most attractive part, real gem in Tallinn is probably historical, Medieval Old Town divided into two part Lower Town or Down Town with approax 400 spots and the Toompea Hill with 100 spots. Toompea Hill is different, I mean the houses are built in Classical style there , not in older Gothic style buildings as you can see in the Lower Town. But still interesting to look around. <BR> <BR>If you like to visit open air market places, then you have to find taxi. The biggest Kadaka open air market (actually most of selling places are moved under the roof of relativy modern market house there), it takes 15/20 minutes to drive and another 15 min to drive back. <BR> <BR>I would like to suggest Kadrioru palace built by Russian csar Peter Great at the beginning of the 18th century. Kadrioru park is surrounding this small beaty, and it isnot not far from the central part of the town maybe onlu 1 mi or 1,5 mi or so. <BR>Anyway if you have are more concrete questions , please write directly to me <BR>Ahti from Tallinn

We made this same cruise last year and it was our favorite of many. You will need a visa for independent travel in Russia. We took the ships tour to the Hermitage and to Peterhof Castle-excellent. You can walk all around Tallin on your own.Ditto for Stockholm, after a bus ride into town. E mail if you have other questions.

It's kinda costly to get a visa on your own for St. Petersburg. I think you'll do fine just doing the ship's shore excursions. It did not appear to be a city I would WANT to do on my own and there were plenty of great choices from the ship's brochure. Most of the places were some distance from the dock. There was definitely a Mafia element dockside and I HEARD you have to take the "right" taxis. I think this is one area where the ship's excursions actually would cost you less than doing it on your own because of the price of a visa. The other ports we visited were Helsinki - GREAT CLEAN CITY and interesting walking and boating tours. Ship docks about two blocks from city center. Easy walk to market or boat tours. I wasn't crazy about Tallin but I've read other reports here from people who loved it. Maybe I didn't have a good tour. Stockholm was just so-so. The biggies seem to be the place where they do the Nobel prizes and the Vasa museum which is a viking ship. Neither were terribly interesting or worth the cost. Hope this helps.

In case you are interested in seeing St. Petersburg on your own (and not spend 2.5 hrs luncheoning with a tour group), your best choice would be to hire a private guide/car. <BR> <BR>Please visit http://www.tourguide.spb.ru for further information. <BR> <BR>Sincerely, <BR> <BR>Dmitri Razmyslovich <BR>Escorted St. Petersburg Tours <BR>http://www.tourguide.spb.ru

This was our favorite of all cruises. We went Princess last June. Have sailed Orient before also. Tallin is easily done on your own. Very clean and easy to walk from where we docked. Helsinki and Stockholm we also did on our own altho we took the bus into town which the ship provided at a small cost at Helsinki. Good market. My husband thought the Vasa Museum was a highlight and most are interested in City Hall in Stockholm. St. Pet. we did tours so we wouldn't have to get a visa and don't think we would have wanted to go on our own. We chose Hermitage (an eye opener to conditions in Russia) and St. Peterhof so we could see a little of the countryside. We were there two days. We would suggest the ship tours there. If you stop at Gdansk, Poland, you will have to take the ship tour to get to town as it is some distance, or was from where we docked. You will love this cruise! In Copenhagen you can walk from the ship to see the little Mermaid and we even walked to Tivoli Gardens but opted for the bus back!

Jean - thanks for your response. We are booked for the Princess in early August. Also have pretty much decided to take ship's tours in St. Petersburg due to conditions in Russia. <BR> <BR>Would you have been able to take two 1/2 day tours on the same day? <BR> <BR>Was St. Peterhof a full day tour? If so, how much time was spent "lunching"? <BR> <BR>Thanks again for your information.

I meant to send a P.S. to my note to say you will need to take the bus trip (we did the ship's for convenience) into Stockholm as it is a good hour from where the ship docks. The bus lets you out in "old town" and you can walk everywhere from there. <BR>We aren't much on the tours that spend a lot of time eating and usually avoid them. We tried to take two trips in one day in St. Pet. but couldn't, for some reason and it worked out well doing the Hermitage one day and St. Peterhof the next. Unfortunately, we were there on Sun. and Mon. and had read Peterhof was closed on Mon. but they opened it up for the cruise. Just play it by ear - the cruise line was good to let us add or delete bookings (in their time frame.) We always enjoy the shore talks and try to make them in person or via in house TV. We were on the Crown and the guy had done extensive research and had films on the Peterhofs and St. Petersbug that were wonderful. We did not do the tours at night on the town and were glad we hadn't as they brought an excellent Russian troupe in for the night's entertainment on the ship. <BR>Glad to help any way we can. Don't hesitate to ask.