Berlin excursion from Cruise

From where? When can you leave? When do you have to be back?

Just a general remark: Rostock/Warnemünde is not the port of Berlin. Berlin is three hours away, which means you will spend at least 6 hours on a train or bus. And Berlin wasn't built to impress at first sight. The city is spread out and has no real center. IMHO it's a waste of money, especially if this Berlin Expert charges as much money as the cruise companies.

To most Germans it sounds odd to travel to Berlin if you are so close to other great sites. The Baltic coast is one of Germanys most popular travel destinations... among Germans. There is Stralsund, a World Heritage Site, Wismar, another World Heritage Site,, Schwerin, the former capical of a duchy with a beautiful 19th century fairytale castle, the minster of Bad Doberan, cute little Warnemünde itself, the ghost wood of Nienhagen nearby, a nostalgic steam train that goes through a old town to a beautiful seaside resort and so on.
All close to the port and doable for less than 30 €uros for two, or with a guided tour with Friends of Dave, which gets rave reviews at Tripadvisor (read them, no one missed Berlin)

Hi,

I would disregard what the "Expert" says, ie, forget it. Going to Mecklenburg/Schwerin or Stralsund is much more recommendable, logistically more feasble.

I agree with the others. I still can't figure out why the cruise ships changed their itinerary for the port stop in Germany instead of a second night in Stockholm. It's a real shame. When I took a Baltic cruise about 5-6 years ago, we had 2 nights in Stockholm and even that wasn't enough. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Tallinn were walking distance from the ship, Helsinki was a short bus ride, and even St. Petersburg was only 15-20 minutes by taxi.

I still can't figure out why the cruise ships changed their itinerary
for the port stop in Germany instead of a second night in Stockholm.

The cruise companies react to the demands of the market, i.e. what the tourists want. And these tourists know absolutely nothing about the Baltics in general and Northern Germany in particular. That's why the cruise companies can only sell the big cities. There is nothing wrong with a stop at Warnemünde. Three beautiful cities, two of them medieval and World Heritage Sites, and a fairytale castle are within easy reach. But you can't sell these sites, because the tourists aren't interested. They don't know them, they can't be good. These are the same tourists who will travel for hours and do long detours to see similar medieval towns and fairytale castles in Bavaria. But Neuschwanstein appears on the cover of many magazines, Schwerin castles doesn't.

Yes, Martin, thanks for that Friends of Dave tour link. It wasn't enough for me to tell my coworker that she should stay in the Warnemünde area; as you say, she's never heard of these places (and, neither have I). In order to convince her not to go all the way to Berlin, she needed a planned alternative, and this tour looks great.

Yes - Thanks Martin - I stole your info and posted it somewhere else! We went to Schwerin once by happenstance - the Drachenbootfest was on. Quite the festival - we arrived late in the evening but not too late for the fireworks!

Do you think we could do it on our own? I would love to see these places at our own pace. But I am worried we couldn't get around from place to another. No idea if it would be doable

Great that you saw Schwerin for even a brief spell. I went there as a day trip from Hamburg Hbf, very convenient logistically, barely scratched the surface.

@Maria - I am not sure how long your ship stays in port at Warnemunde, but it must be at least 12 hrs to accommodate the Berlin trip.

Here is a fantastic resource for your port stop

Do you think we could do it on our own? I would love to see these
places at our own pace. But I am worried we couldn't get around from
place to another. No idea if it would be doable.

Sure it's doable, but if your travel on your own and use public transport it takes longer to get from one place to the next of course, so you probably can't do Warnemünde AND Wismar AND Schwerin.

You have three option: travel by train, by car, or you can rent a bicycle.
Bicycle sounds strange, I know, but you can do a interesting tour: cycle from Warnemünde to Bad Doberan, which is the former summer residence of the duchy of Mecklenburg. See the minster (a must see) and take the steam train to Kühlungsborn, a nice seaside resort. Stop for coffee and cake, and cycle back to Warnemünde via Heiligendamm, the first seaside resort on the continent, and the ghost wood of Nienhagen.
If you want to travel by train you can get a so called Länderticket, which means you can travel for less than 30€ for two after 9am. If you start earlier you need to buy a regular ticket for the first leg. For connections see www.bahn.de.
Renting a car is the fastest and most flexible, but also most expensive option. There is a Hertz station on the pier.

What you can do on your own:
- Bad Doberan/Heiligendamm/Kühlungsborn - already explained. Works also by public transport, but from the coast you have to go back to Bad Doberan
- Wismar & Schwerin - works both by car and train. Great mix of medieval Hanseatic town and beautiful 19th century capital with fairytale castle.
- Stralsund - my favorite Hanseatic town because the old town is directly on the coast and offers enough for a full day (nice museums and a clipper). If you rent a car you could drive back via the Darss peninsula, which is a very popular summer destination because of the great beaches and old, colorful fishermens houses
- Lübeck - this is the biggest city of the German Baltic coast, historically the most important city, and the one with the biggest old town. Sadly partly destroyed in WW2, but still very impressive. It takes (to) long to get there by train, but by car it's no problem.
- if you want a road trip: drive from Warnemünde via the Darss peninsula to Rügen, Germanys most beautiful island. There you can either see chalk cliffs or Prora, the biggest preserved Nazi building. Afterwards visit Binz, Germanys poshest and most popular seaside resort, for coffee and cake, and return to Warnemünde.

I can certainly recommend Wismar: a nice little small town in the best traditions of Northern Germany. It has all one can be looking for in this part of the world (have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wismar). It's easy to reach from Warnemünde: two trains per hour, one of which involves only one change (in Rostock), taking less than 2 hours. Lübeck takes half an hour more and has two changes.
But the practibility depends on the timings of the ship.