Scandinavia cruise ports: Excursions versus Self-exploration

Posted by Girish (Portland, OR, USA) on 08/24/25 12:02 AM

Having done a few cruises in the past, I have learnt that not all shore excursions are really good value for the money and that some ports may be easily and better explored on one's own without the restrictions imposed by a pre-sold package. If I could get some targeted guidance on the ports of call listed below, that would be much appreciated. Specifically looking to find out which of these might be good candidates for self-exploration.

Gotheburg, Sweden
Stockholm (Nynashamn), Sweden
Tallinn, Estonia
Helsinki, Finland
Copenhagen, Denmark
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Thank you,
Girish

Posted by KimberlySEA

Seattle, WA & Bordeaux, France

08/24/25 02:57 AM

459 posts

We just did a Baltic cruise and planned our own excursions (not through cruise line) in Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. We used Get Your Guide (It is a 3rd party consolidator but it was useful for our purposes) for many of the ports as well as Secret Food Tours. We also did research about each town (activities, restaurants, museums, etc.) and made reservations for any activities we knew we wanted to see. It was very easy to plan our own excursions in these ports.

Posted by bostonphil7

08/24/25 03:22 AM

2919 posts

Hello Girish

I did a Baltic Cruise in 2019 and visited most of the ports that you mentioned.

I pre cruised and then departed from Copenhagen going to Stockholm, Tallinn and Helsinki as well as St Petersburg which is currently not offered.

I chose shore excursions but feel you could do everything that i did and maybe more on your own.

Just some notes:

In Stockholm, you do want to visit the Vasa Museum as well as Old Town if you have enough time.

In Copenhagen, I loved Tivoli which is right in the middle of the city and New Carlsburg Museum, also in the center of the city.

I was surprised at how much I loved both Tallinn and Helsinki

Yes, you could almost certainly do all the ports on your own. It is all beautiful and very walkable.

Posted by isn31c

Lake District, England

08/24/25 07:19 AM

10306 posts

In Copenhagen and Helsinki you need to know from NCL which dock they are using - Copenhagen has 3 and Helsinki 2. I would guess at Copenhagen it is the new cruise port which is the least accessible, but not impossibly so.
At Helsinki both ports are served by trams.
At Amsterdam you need to verify they mean Amsterdam, not the alternative of Ijmuiden. Ijmuiden is a bit of a nuisance needing a city bus ride of about an hour into the city.
But for NCL it saves fuel and use of the sea lock then pilotage along the canal, and payment of the Amsterdam city tax.
Nynashamn for Stockholm saves NCL fuel and time, but stops you seeing the archipelago. However there is a half hourly suburban train into Stockholm, taking around an hour.
At Gothenburg there are two ports- the outer one needing a 6 mile shuttle bus ride or the central Swedish-American line older port. I suspect NCL will use the former. So you need to verify.
Tallinn is fine