design cruises

Vyborg, between Helsinki and St Petersburg on the railway, can also be reached along the Saimaa Canal.
Cruiseferries may soon sail to splendid St Petersburg when short-term visitors no longer need visas.
Once the capital of Finland, Turku is still a lively place. Its cruiseferries all go west but fast trains go east.
Civilized Helsinki may have the best club scene in the Baltic. Its airport is well connected, with Asia too.
Cruiseferries sail via Åland for tax reasons but these islands have other attractions, especially for cycling.
Many have visited Tallinn en route to St Petersburg and wished they had more time in this fine medieval town.
Riga has a fine Art Nouveau centre. Cruiseferries connect it with Sweden and Germany and a fast bus runs to Estonia.
Klaipeda is the gateway to the Curonian spit, a vast strip of sand that is one of the wonders of the Baltic.
Gdansk is a fine medieval city. Cruise and cruiseferry lines call at its seaport, Gdynia.
Fine air and sea connections make Stockholm an ideal base. A few cruise and cruiseferry lines use Nynäshamn, 60 km away.
Copenhagen is the premier turnaround port for standard Baltic cruises but lacks cruiseferries heading east.
Oslo is not actually on the Baltic but has a distinctly Scandinavian look and feel.

On a design cruise, passengers travel between destinations of their choice using local ferry lines. Compared with other cruises, there is more time ashore to experience local sights and society. Most nights are spent in hotels.

The Baltic region is ideal for design cruises because of its dense network of ferries. The map above shows medium and long-distance lines. Along the southern coast there are many other local ferry links.

Baltic cities are also linked by good express buses and intercity trains, shown in red.

Baltic cruiseferries carry vehicles but they also try to appeal to tourists. Many are luxurious, with a swimming pool, restaurants, shops and a night club. Also, most Baltic cities have a great range of hotels, many at reasonable prices.

RUSSIA? NOT YET.
Visitors can freely roam in all of the countries of the Baltic except one .

Russia has demanded visas from all visitors except those arriving by cruiseships. If St Petersburg is your destination, a standard cruise has been the way to go.

Things could change. Russia's government decided in 2009 that foreigners arriving by ferry will not need visas for stays of up to three days. St Petersburg and Vyborg are two of the places this applies to.

So far, though, there are still no cruiseferry services to these ports.

Finally, the main cities apart from St Petersburg are very visitor-friendly, so there is no need to travel in large groups. All the Baltic countries except Russia are EU members. Most of their people speak foreign languages, especially English.

On a design cruise it is possible to visit the region any time. Standard cruise ships come to the Baltic only in the period May - September but cruiseferries run all the year round. The Baltic out of season can be cold but also very beautiful.

Like standard cruises, design cruises can start and finish at the same port, allowing passengers to book economical return flights rather than two singles.

Design cruisers decide for themselves what to do ashore and don't waste time getting there. Cruiseferry terminals tend to be close to city centres and are well served by public transport.

A design cruise is the ecological alternative to a standard cruise or a motoring holiday. Ferries are important for trade so they run anyway. The extra energy used for one more passenger is minutely small.

Many cruiseferry journeys are overnight. The atmosphere at sea on a bright Baltic evening is electrifying. At the same time, travelers get the most from their vacations by sleeping their way from one town to the next.

In leisure travel, luxury used to mean grand extravagance. Today it increasingly means enjoyable, memorable and personal experiences. As an example of what can be done on a design cruise, we've created one for you, a cruise called Ancient & Modern, travelling between Stockholm, Tallinn and Helsinki.