Baltic Bliss

During the past few decades the number of St. Petersburg shops, supermarkets and commercial centers increased dramatically. Shops tend to gravitate to Nevski Prospect, including Gostiny Dvor, a department store; Passage, across the street from Gostiny Dvor, for clothing, footwear, utensils, electronics and perfumes.

When in St. Petersburg, be sure to take time to walk along Nevsky Prospect. The famed street is to St. Petersburg what the Champs Elysses is to Paris, or Broadway to New York. Ask your guide to take you to a cafe for a coffee, Russian beer or Soviet champagne (technically, sparkling wine). “Walk along Nevsky Prospect, have a cup of coffee, watch people pass by, and you understand all of Russia,” says Timophey Beliaev, of the Corinthia Nevaskij Palace Hotel, situated on Nevsky Prospect. Continue Reading »

Enjoy live performances throughout the Baltic Cruising region. St. Petersburg may well be the most popular performance port. It is a city full of theaters. The Mariinsky Theater (formerly the Kirov Academic Opera and Ballet Theater) is one of Russia’s largest and oldest music theaters, famous the world over for opera and ballet.

The great Swedish film and theater director Ingmar Bergman began his career as a director at Malmo’s opera house, opened in 1944. Today, the opera house presents opera and musicals.

Riga’s National Opera dates back to the 18th century when the first musical performances were staged in the Duchy of Kurzeme. In 1760, traveling opera troupes began performing regularly in Riga.

Copenhagen’s Opera House ranks among the world’s most modern. The main stage of the opera seats an audience of approximately 1400, and Takkelloftet, the experimental stage, seats an audience of 200.

Founded by Peter the Great in 1703, St. Petersburg is situated at the mouth of the Neva River. The city became one of Russia’s largest cruise ship ports and the country’s only gateway to the Baltic Sea, which is why St. Petersburg is called the Marine Capital of Russia. The city is characterized by so many rivers and canals that St. Petersburg often is called the Venice of the North.

Ships pass forts, cathedrals, palaces and other attractions on the transit to the berth in the center of the city.

Situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, in the estuary of the Neva River and on the islands of the Neva Delta, St. Petersburg is the world’s largest megapolis situated so far north.

One of the younger cities in the Baltic region, Russia’s second largest city is just over 300 years old (founded in 1703). During its history, St. Petersburg accumulated all the grandeur of the Russian Imperial Court.

Located on 44 islands formed by the Neva River and 90 more rivers and canals. St. Petersburg is known as the Venice of the North.

Because many cruise ships overnight (some for two nights) in St. Petersburg, excursions often include overland adventures and flights to Moscow — the capital of Russia — and other destinations.

Take your desktop globe for a spin or pull out your atlas and cast your eyes on Europe. Look north, not south, to find the cruising region known as the Baltics.

Even experienced travelers sometimes confuse the Baltic with the Balkans. The two regions could not be more different. The Balkans fought long and drawn-out wars for most of the 1990s, The Baltics, on the other hand, remained peaceful, stable, safe and clean — just as they are today.

One of the world’s most popular and fastest-growing cruise destinations, the Baltic cruising region refers to the Baltic Sea, which stretches from southern Denmark to near the Arctic Circle. Along its shores are some of the world’s most fabled cities — Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, to name a few. All share a common climate, with the cruise season running from May through September, and a common history.

Cruise passengers set foot in lands once inhabited by kings and queens (who still exist in some of the Baltic countries), of Viking warriors and German merchants, of Tsars and seafaring wanderers. In many cities visitors see reminders of a time long ago: medieval town walls, cobblestone streets, castles, palaces and museums that house age-old artifacts.

The past decades have brought great change in the Baltics. Former Soviet-bloc countries in the Baltic region now embrace cruise passengers, and even though English is typically spoken as a second language in many of the port destinations, cruise passengers will hear a variety of tongues spoken as they stroll city streets.

Copenhagen and Stockholm, the Baltic Cruising Region’s primary turnaround ports (where most cruises begin or end), not only are conveniently connected to the rest of the world but also conveniently connected between the airports and the city centers and cruise terminals. Infrastructure is among the best in the world, and Copenhagen boasts not only the world’s best airport (according to one survey of travelers) but also Europe’s cheapest and fastest airport-to-city-center connections.

You might say that with all that is has going for it, the Baltics were “tailor-made for cruises.” Cruise passengers certainly think so. Year after year, they return in record numbers to cruise one of the world’s greatest destinations.

The Baltic cruising region refers to the Baltic Sea, an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that separates the Scandinavian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe. Stretching from southern Denmark to near the Arctic Circle and from eastern Denmark to southern Finland, the Baltic Sea is the world’s largest expanse of brackish water, fed by freshwater rivers from a catchment area four times as large as the sea itself.

Though the two regions share similar-sounding names, the Baltics are not to be confused with the Balkans. The Balkans are comprised of countries (such as Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey) on the Balkan Peninsula in the southern reaches of Europe. The Baltics, by contrast, are situated at the same northerly latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. Countries bounding the Baltic Sea and its arms, clockwise from the west, are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.

The Baltic cruising region is characterized by a variety of landscapes - low, rocky islands called skerries along the coasts of Sweden and Finland, Norwegian fjords, lagoons, inlets, and some of the world’s most fabled cities. On the far eastern edge of the Baltic Sea, Peter the Great’s “window to Europe,” St. Petersburg, is situated at the head of the Gulf of Finland. On the western edge of the Baltic Sea, Elsinore, Denmark, lays claim to Kronborg Castle, the setting for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The Scandinavian capitals of Copenhagen and Stockholm, with their myriad attractions, serve as transportation hubs and are where most Baltic cruises begin or end.

One of the world’s most popular cruising regions, the Baltics also are one of the world’s fastest growing cruise markets. Annually, for several years running, port destinations in the Baltics have set records both in the number of cruise ship calls and the number of cruise ship passengers visiting ports.

If you’re planning a cruise in the Baltic Sea, you’re likely old enough to remember such events as the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), U.S. President Ronald Reagan and congressional conservatives characterizing Russia as the Evil Empire (1982) and the Cold War, which lasted until late 1991. Thus, visiting St. Petersburg for the first time may hold a mix of emotions for you — the intrigue of seeing one of the world’s greatest cities combined with apprehension of visiting a former enemy state.

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Peterhof, a magnificent 18th century European palace and gardens, features more than 150 fountains and four cascades. Head to the suburbs of sprawling St. Petersburg to visit the region’s impressive palaces and parks. From the cruise terminal, you can get to Peterhof, a magnificent 18th-century European palace and gardens (inspired by Peter the Great’s visit to Versailles in 1697), by bus or hydrofoil. Take the hydrofoil if possible, 30 minutes each way as opposed to about an hour each way by bus, advises tourist guide Tatiana Ivanova. She recommends that time-pressed cruise passengers stroll only among the gardens at Peterhof to admire the waterworks, featuring more than 150 fountains and water-jets that shower gilt statues of ancient gods and heroes. To gain an appreciation of Peterhof’s water features before your cruise, click on www.peterhof.org.

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Like any big city, St. Petersburg has some seedy sides, but you’ll steer well clear of those as you set out to see the main attractions. Even so, before disembarking your ship, you may be warned to watch out for pickpockets and petty thieves. Tourist guide Dmitry Ruchkin told The Avid Cruiser that St. Petersburg’s reputation isn’t deserved and that crimes against tourists are rare. The local English-language newspaper reported that St. Petersburg had 792 registered crimes against foreigners last year, compared to more than 30,000 in Paris. Of course, it should be pointed out that Paris receives considerably more international visitors each year than does St. Petersburg.

During my two visits to St. Petersburg this year and last, St. Petersburg certainly felt safe — or no less safe, I should say, than any city of 5 million or more. I even walked Nevsky Prospect past midnight on two occasions and never felt threatened or intimidated.

What may be intimidating for foreigners, however, is the language barrier and the alphabet, Cyrillic, making signage virtually unreadable for Western eyes. The city is working to put on a “friendly interface” for tourists, but it’s slow in coming. You won’t find an abundance of signage guiding you to the major attractions or friendly policemen who speak English, but you will find well-equipped tourist information centers in highly touristed areas as well as volunteer students who roam the streets as “City Angels” to help tourists.

You need not worry about any of this, of course, if you follow our advice: Get a guide.

Q. I am visiting St. Petersburg on a cruise ship. Do I need a visa?
A. Yes. Nearly 70 percent of all tourists to St. Petersburg arrive by ship, and they all need visas. See pages 14 and 15.

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