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When to cruise to Baltic

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January	No		July
February	No		August
March	No		September
April			October	No
May			November	No
June			December	No

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All you Need to Know

by Travel Journalist Tony Peisley

There are two good rules for anyone taking a cruise. The first is obvious: if you see Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio out on deck, get off fast.

The second is to think carefully about taking a maiden voyage. You have to weigh up the undeniable thrill of being the first passengers to sail on a new ship with the possibility that there will be a few teething problems.

But, then, even that can work out for the best as I once found on a ship in the Baltic for its maiden voyage.

A small mechanical problem meant a call in Stockholm being rescheduled so that we arrived in the Swedish capital at midday instead of first thing in the morning as originally planned.

As a result, we cruised through the enchanting 24,000-island archipelago outside the city in daylight instead of at night. This proved to be one of many highlights of a cruise that took in what the cruise lines like to call the "Northern Capitals".

Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen certainly qualify for that title but it is the non-capital cities that have made the most impact on me in recent years.

Viewing the priceless art treasures in St Petersburg's famous Hermitage museum has always been an unmissable experience but it is also now fascinating to see how rapidly this city has transformed from its grey Soviet days of shops with no goods and restaurants with no food to one with a thriving cafe and free enterprise market culture.

The Estonian port of Tallinn had long been on itineraries because of its well-preserved medieval town centre but, since the country regained its independence, it has developed into a thriving city with streets full of cafes and restaurants tastefully created within its historic buildings.

Poland's Gdansk is also on the up and up with its Old Town retaining the classic style of the city's golden years as part of the Hanseatic League while also developing all the attractions of a modern city.

But nowhere is changing faster than Berlin with the world's best architects called in to transform this once-divided city into one of the great modern northern capitals.

It doesn't have a port, of course, but the ships stop at Rostock-Warnemunde where coaches or - my preference - trains are chartered to take you on a two-hour journey straight into the heart of Berlin.

Baltic cruises also come with a choice for British cruisers: we can either fly (usually to Amsterdam or Copenhagen) to join the ships or cruise all the way there and back from a UK port like Harwich, Dover or Tilbury.

DOS and DON'TS of Baltic Cruising

DO take advantage of the longer stay most ships schedule for St Petersburg, with a two-day call now the norm and some even staying three days. Visa rules mean that organised tours are the only shoreside option but these are well worth it, from the Hermitage excursion to the trips to Catherine's Palace at Pushkin and the Grand Palace of Peterhof.

DON'T assume that a Baltic cruise means cold weather. These itineraries are only offered in the summer when it can be even hotter than the Mediterranean at times.

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