Rick Steves Scandinavian & Northern European Cruise Ports Paperback – August 21, 2018

This edition was several years old but still indispensable on my recent Baltic cruise (London to Copenhagen). It included five of the eight ports we visited and definitely opened the way for my semi-independent solo wanderings, and helped me prepare in advance.Thanks to Rick and his gang, I avoided the tour bus on Bornholm and instead took a local bus around the island for about $7, chatting with a couple of locals en route. (It took me extra time to figure out how to buy the ticket online, no English translation there, and where to pick up the bus, but I managed.) This still left me several hours to wander the town and see the history museum.Also tuned me into an excellent hotel in Stockholm, to make the most of our overnight berthing (booked three months ahead). Dinner buffet included, and an awesome breakfast spread. I wandered around on transit, got lost a bit, witnessed street life, and visited two history museums. Lovely visit.Rick's guidance also led me to choose a cruise-ship tour into Gdansk from the Gdynia, given our short time in port and desire to see the downtown, Solidarity Center, and have some free time as well without fretting about missing the boat.Just be sure to check opening days and times, etc. But you won't regret having this relatively lightweight compendium with you.

I have a collection of Rick Steves guide books and found that each book helped me save money and time and avoid frustration. This book is no exception. This book goes into detail about everything worth seeing at each port as well as the pros and cons of the different transportation options. The amount of information can seem overwhelming at first, but the book has a simple rating system that is very useful in narrowing down what is worth seeing during a short visit to each port. In addition to buying this book, I would recommend watching an excellent YouTube video in which this author discusses this book and most of the ports in it. Also, Rick Steves has many well-made YouTube videos for pretty much every major tourist port in Europe. One last recommendation: if you are considering buying this book, you have either booked a cruise or are considering doing so. I, as well as this book, recommend that you book your cruise through a travel agent. Even if you have already booked your cruise online, it is still worthwhile to go to a travel agent and allow them to work with the cruise line to "take over" your booking. Our travel agent (AAA) helped us get a better room and get an additional ship credits at no extra cost. The agent also helped us book our flights, purchase travel insurance and patiently answered our long list of questions. He even allowed my wife to have her passport photo taken at the office for no charge. Bon Voyage!

We bought this book to help us plan for a Scandinavian cruise. While it didn’t cover every port, it was a really valuable resource. We had 4 days in Amsterdam and used that section the most. The walking tours were spot on. We’re grateful.

Great book. Corner got bent in shipping though.Rick Steve’s is one of my goto travel book sources. This is my first cruise book, though not my first cruise. It has a lot of useful info which I have followed up on with further internet research. Looking forward to taking a Baltic cruise in the not to distant future.The book has a lot of useful travel advice especially when it comes to Saint Petersburg.

We purchased this resource before our Baltic Cruise. We dissected the book as suggested so as only to bring along the 50% or so that was relevant to our situation. At the port of Warnemunde Rick Steves was especially helpful in supporting our decision to visit Rostock and avoid the long train ride to and from Berlin. Otherwise, most of the detailed arrangements for tours etc. were guided by the cruise company, not the Rick Steves Book. Where the book is really helpful is in providing a record of the countless things that we saw in the various ports. Yes, we listened to the excellent tour guides, yes we took lots of pictures, but no we did not take notes! The Rick Steves book provides the background to help us prepare a tour scrapbook afterwards. Very good maps, text, sketches, etc. to jog our memory. Yes, you can buy a nice glossy tour book at each stop, but with so many tour ports and museums this approach would fill a whole suitcase. The condensed Rick Steves resource does the job much more efficiently.

I've used Rick Steve's Audio tours in Italy so when we booked a cruise to the Baltic I looked for guidance from him again. This book is what I found and it was a great replacement although I still prefer his audio tours rather than having to read the info out loud myself. I was able to provide my group with our own tours for most of the stops just by taking the city walking tours. So much information in an easy to carry guide book!

Really appreciated the advice in this book. On a cruise, you have limited time and must plan ahead. I found the maps a little hard to follow - for me they worked better in terms of figuring out what was doable.Great advice about which ports are walkable - but we needed a little extra help in Oslo. Wanted to take a bus from downtown to Fram Museum. Got almost all the way through the process - downloaded the transpo app - but we couldn't figure out the zones we needed! Got an Uber instead. But great advice - and fun to read and anticipate. We didn't break up the book as Rick recommends. We were fine carrying as is.