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Berlin & St. Petersburg

We will be on a Baltic cruise, landing in Berlin (1 day) and St. Petersburg (2 days). Has anyone used Alla/Red October/DenRus tour companies in either city? If so, any recommendations/suggestions/experiences as to the use of any of these private tour companies as opposed to doing the ship based tours? We would appreciate any recommendations/suggestions for a Baltic experience as well. Thank you for any well seasoned travel info.

Posted by
79 posts

Hi!

I've been on 3 Baltic cruises and utilized Red October each time In St. Petersburg. and had EXCELLENT experiences

Regarding Berlin, I opted not to do this on my cruise as I knew it would be easier to do on a land trip. We stayed in Warnemunde and visited Rostock
It is a 11 hour day to go to Berlin and if you decide to do it USE A SHOREX as you are too far from port if there is a issue if you are on your own.

My DH and I have a personal travel journal website. I have written a Baltic cruise Port Review, and have the 2 day itinerary we did with Red October list, how to do each port on your own OR should you use a shorex. I also included our sights to see list for each port.
The 2 sections in our website you will want to visit are
Where we've been and photos.

If you haven't done so, please visit Cruisecritic.com
check out the port section for Northern Europe, along with your cruise line and ship roll call
While the Rick Steves board is an excellent resource
Land Travel and Cruise ship travel have different components to be considered in planning your day.
At Cruisecritic has many seasoned cruisers who particpate in the ports section to assist you with having the best experience possible.

If you have any questions I would be more than happy to assist you either in a pm or email through our journal!

Here is our website address

http://ourpassportstamps.com/

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you very much to ourpassportstamps.

Your email was great news. And we will check out your website.
Thanks again and Bon Voyage!

Posted by
12040 posts

If you can, check out the Baltic capitals of Riga and Vilnius. I understand Tallin is also worth visiting, but I haven't seen it. Vilnius was a particular suprise for me. It reminded me of Prague before the tourist tsunami began in the mid 1990s.

Posted by
79 posts

You are very welcome!

Tallin is magical...

and shouldn't be missed and almost every cruise ship goes there for at 5 hours but some for 9 hours
It is one of the ports we discuss on our Trip Report

we spent 4 days in Riga and 4 days in Vilnius post cruise

We absolutely, totally loved Vilnius and were thrilled to have explored it before it becomes a tourist hot spot!

Posted by
3 posts

Yes, we are going to Tallin, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm. We are looking forward to the experiences at all ports of call.
Thank for all the info. We certainly will look into all suggestions.