We will be on a cruise in the Baltic in June and July 2012. Has anyone used local tour offices to book private tours in both Oslo and Stockholm? Posted by Donald Nichols
We were in the Baltic's in June 2011..We did not use any cruise ship tours. In St. Petersburg Russia we used Alla Tours, we were very pleased with this company. In the other countries we did our own thing,took a bus to Provo, Findland and found this very interesting for the day.
We always book private tours when on a cruise. Go to cruisecritic dot com, and under Boards, choose Ports of Call and Europe. There should be lots of recommendations for private tours. You can then go to the Roll Call for your specific cruise, and find others to join you on the private tours that you have booked, or join others on private tours that they have booked.
We have been to both via cruise ship ... you can actually see both on your own quite easily. On a cruise, you have limited time in each port ... you will only see the highlights (so prioritize your personal favorites). Read the Destination descriptions on the Frommer's website. I pick the 3* items first and work my way to a reasonable tour. A little research and you will be prepared to go it alone. Both Oslo and Stockholm have ports that are right in the heart of the city ... within easy walking distance of the major attractions.
For example, Oslo for sure you can do on your own. We saw the major sites via walking and taking the HOHO bus if you wish (Hop On Hop Off bus). Quite easy to get around. I recommend taking the short walk to the HOHO bus stop from the ship (on our ship, it was across the street from the gangway). No ship's shore excursions required.
Review Frommer's, Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor to begin your planning. In the Baltics, the only tour that we used was St. Petersburg.
In Stocjholm, we used a private guide for a walking tour, but it wasn't necessary. You can get by quite well on your own with a good guide book and map. In Oslo, we took the public bus to the sculpture garden, and then a short train ride back to the center to walk around and have lunch, before returning to the ship. Pretty easy to do.
To the best of my knowledge when you book through an off boat company, you are not insured. If you book through the cruise line you will be insured for a lot of different hastles. Look into this first before discounting the booking of tours through the cruise line. The cruise line will be more expensive but maybe worth it if something negative happens...just a thought :)
Both those cities are very easy to navigate on your own if you do a little reading - ship docks conveniently to transportation eg. boat that makes stops. When we took that cruise we use Denrus for St. Petersburg and the cruise ship tour for Gdansk (if you're going there - due to information we had re: getting back to the ship in time).
