Hello travellers,
I am going to go on a cruise with a stop in Warnemunde. There are options to take a tour to Berlin with the excursions booked by the cruise line. But again, group sizes are quite big. They have a chartered train for the 2.5-hour ride. Can we do this on our own or beter book a private day via a travel agent? Or should we just skip Berlin and stay in Warnemunde, which I have read is also lovely.
Thank you for your help!
Here are some responses that may help you:
Public trains for self-booked will take 3 hrs ride per direction but will be much cheaper. Not a real need for an expensive day guide or tour.
In general you would be able to see 7 of 10 top sights by a walk on your own or do a hoho bus tour which will drive you around.
But before check list of cruise calls.
Most important is to know how much time your ship will be in port and the mooring dock of your ship.
This info will help to give you advice.
We went to Berlin from the cruise ship excursion and did not regret it. The cruise ship( Celebrity) was in port until about 11 pm. Take the cruise offer--it would be difficult to do on your own. It took about three hours each way--sack lunch provided.
Thank you, everybody!!
After reading all your replies, I guess we should go to Berlin. We are travelling with Regal Princess and will be in port from 7 am until 9 pm. So even with a 3-hour trip one way, I think we have enough time to see some sights. I will have a look at the options and see what works the best for us. They say getting prepared to get the most out of a trip is half of the fun!!
We visited Warnemunde while taking a cruise through the region. I relate that city to being Germany's "Florida"--the beach. And it's quite a nice little city to visit. We didn't even take the short ride over to Rostock because the port was such a pretty place. Saturdays, a large flea market is setup in the city center.
Berlin is such a major city that the short time you'd be there wouldn't even be time to hit the highlights. Save such a place for when you have time to visit Berlin the proper way--a 4 day minimum.
We were walking down the street in Warnemunde and ran into my sister and brother in law who we hadn't seen in 6 months. The world's a small place.
You're going to really enjoy that cruise. We usually spend a month a year on cruise ships, and Scandinavia and St. Petersburg was our favorite cruise of all.
OK, plenty of time and your ship will dock at Warnemünde cruise center.
Trains tickets to Berlin
from Warnemünde
to Berlin Hbf (main station)
back (if you choose for a walk)
from Berlin Alexanderplatz
to Warnemünde
What day? A weekday or Sat / Sun?
I relate that city to being Germany's "Florida"--the beach.
:-) As Florida also Germany has two very different coasts. The Baltic Coast is more comparable to the Gulf Coast of Florida. North Sea has a little bit more the wilder Atlantic touch.
We will be there on a Wednesday. There is a cruise centre where we can book? That is really nice, but I prefer arranging everything beforehand... Maybe once we decided what to do I can try to contact them... we are still indecisive of which city to go.
Train station is in near walking distance to cruise terminal. You can buy train tickets there or beforehand online.
On weekdays you are less likely affected by any special events or demos putting a risk on getting stuck somewhere.
The Baltic coast is Germanys most popular summer destination, and not just because of the beaches. The area offers medieval cities, many of them World Heritage Sites, posh 19th century seaside resorts, romantic fishermens villages, fairytale castles, nostalgic steam trains, mighty churches etc..
If you decide to stay on the coast... there is a tour company with rave reviews called "Friends of Dave", who offer the "Mega Mecklenburg Tour", which is the perfect intruduction to this region. You see a medieval city (World Heritage Site), a typical seaside resort, a fairytale castle just like Neuschwanstein, you get a typical German dinner in a medieval monastery, and Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). Instead of wasting six+ hours on the road you actually EXPERIENCE something.
Read the reviews here:
Friends of Dave
And here is Tripadvisors Warnemünde forum:
Warnemünde forum
As you probably notice, most people there recommend NOT tot take the trip to Berlin.
most people there recommend NOT tot take the trip to Berlin
I am not aware of any meaningful statistics about that. The stereo on cruisecritic is more tending to do the Berlin trip. But it is obviously a question of your interests. And in August it is nearly as crowded in Warnemünde and the other Baltic coast towns & villages as in Berlin.
I am not aware of any meaningful statistics about that.
As far as I remember at Tripadvisor only people from Berlin recommend the trip to Berlin. Most people who know both areas, which exludes most people who post at Cruisecritic, usually prefer to stay on the coast, simply because you don't waste precious time on the road.
The opinions on that in newest posts I can see in Rostock and Warnemünde forum from TA are not from travelers but from regular posters with location in Germany (number of entries). Two entries from real travelers, one recommending to visit Berlin.
And I agree that there are nearly only a few people made A and B but not writing about that, therefore I see your statement as just another personal opinion only and not as majority opinion ;-) Fair enough.
I would not put so much attention on TA ratings. This platform is in free fall in my opinion, especially the forum area is old, not updated and contains outdated information. But also the rating part: they still have venues / places listed in Berlin which are closed since months. Also the ratio of likely-bought and disappointment-revenge-postings seems to be significant.
Example: Berlin's Pergamon museum with 780k visitors last year and over 700k in average the years before - and they have in total 6k available ratings from over 10 years (the 19k is a fake number, the real number of readable ratings is standing in lower area).
Oh my, I didn’t realize my question would start such a discussion… but I do appreciate all the info and different opinions.
And we have decided to go to Berlin. It was a hard choice to make. But we really wanted to see it. We already have a travel agency to help us in St. Petersburg and it turns out Anastasia tours can also cater to our needs to go to Berlin. I do realize it will be a short visit to Berlin but Katherine said she will arrange a private tour to give us a taste of Berlin. And it will be soon, 2 more weeks…
While you have made your decision, I will post a brief reply in case others are interested. Having visited Berlin for one week a few years ago and loved it, a partial day would not be satisfying for me. We were on the Regal Princess in July 2019 and it did not dock in the main cruise ship port next to Warnemunde, but in a more industrial port close by. There was a free shuttle bus service to Rostock which we took. We followed Rick Steves' walking tour and it proved to be most delightful. It was a very relaxing day in a town that has a lot more to offer than it appears in the guidebook. We were there for at least five hours. Enjoy your cruise and ports of call!
Hi PierreMax,
We are also on the Regal Princess. What a coincidence! We will be in Warnemunde from 7 am to 9 pm... How did you like the ship? Its our first time on a Princess ship.
