Baltic Cruise from Stockholm... Options?

I have not been to St. Petersburg, but I would love to go there. I have been to Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn and love them all. If you take the cruise you mention in your post, I would defintely recommend taking a ferry to Helsinki. If you take the overnight cruise, you will not waste any time traveling, you won't have to pay for a place to stay, and you will get to see the archipelagos of Sweden and Finland, which are very scenic. Helsinki is unique and has lots of interesting architecture. You can easily see all the highlights in a day and then take the overnight cruise back to Stockholm. Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and Tallinn has a very interesting old town. I hope you have a great trip.

Not sure if there is a cruise that will meet all of your requirements, but what you propose can easily be done on your own. Like Steve posted above, both the Silja and the Viking lines connect Stockholm to Finland. From Helsinki, Tallinn is just an hour away on a fast ferry and Steve has already told you how to get to St. Petersburg. From Tallinn there is another ferry that connects to Stockholm.

We did some of this route about 6-7 years ago. We started in Stockholm and took the Viking line first to Marieham in the Aland islands (maybe worth a visit) then continued onto Turku in Finland (we wanted to limit our time on the boat so chose Turku v/s Helsinki.) Then we took a train from Turku to Helsinki and continued south to Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. We didn't do St. Petersburg due to the visa hassles and cost.

We were in all these places last June. Enjoyed them all. We cruised out of Amsterdam. Remember if you go to St Petersburg you must have a visa (expensive) or arrange a tour. There are various companies do one and two day tours, but not sure what happens about a visa overnight if you want to stay in ST Petersburg. PM me if you want info on tour comanies.

Check out vacationstogo.com they list a bunch of cruises. It seems like Copenhagen, Amsterdam or London are the more common ports to depart from but there are probably some from Stockholm as well. Talinn, Stockholm, Helsinki and St. Petersburg are common destinations.

Thank you all so much for your replies. I appreciate them very much! One thing-- I've read conflicting reports about getting a visa for St. Petersburg: How expensive is it? How difficult is it to obtain? Is it worth the trouble?

Thanks again!

--David

Russian visas are very "technical", and it's important to do it right. It costs extra but it's worth to go through a passport agency that can help with the process. In addition you'll need a hotel invitation which the agency can arrange. But your under no obligation to actually stay in the hotel the invitation originate from. I used this agency:

http://www.gotorussia.net/visa/russian_visa.htm

On a cruise, you spend most of your time on the ship.

For a "guided" trip that goes to Helsinki, Talinn and St. Petersburg, why not check out the Rick Steves tour that does exactly that.

Best of St. Petersburg, Tallin and Helsinki in 9 Days

I'm sure Rick's tours are great, but the experience of being on the water in the Baltic is wonderful - I'd do the 4 days on Royal Caribbean (helps you get into St. Petersburg - though without a visa (I don't think you'd have enough time to make the visa worthwhile), you have to take a ship's excursion - you won't have a lot of time in St. Petersburg and traffic can affect getting back to the ship on time which can be a big issue if you aren't on an excursion (we generally don't do excursions, but did in St. Petersburg). Talinn's old town is within walking distance of the cruise port - wonderful old city. Then take the Stockholm - Helsinki ferry. You won't be sorry to go through the Stockholm archipelego a few times - it is absolutely beautiful. As other posters mentioned, most cruises that go to all four start in Amsterdam, Copenhagen or England (10 - 12 days) - which is what we did. More time in Stockholm (and St. Petersburg - but a week wouldn't be enough)would be great, but the Helsinki (by tram/walking) and Talinn (walking) can be done in a day. Have a great trip.

One correction to Karen's post. From the ship, you do need to take a tour if you do not have a visa, but it does not need to be a SHIP's tour. You can organize one with a local tour company - there are at least 4, maybe more. We used Optima and found them and their guide excellent. Red October gets good reviews also.

I think the Russian Visa is $100 each. I plan to take a tour (probably with Red October) rather than get a visa.