Customer Reviews

Travellers Baltic Cruising (Travellers - Thomas Cook)

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We are going on a Baltic cruise later this year and I was hoping this book would help us develop our own excursions. Sadly, the content is very uneven, with some cities having walking tours with detailed information (Helsinki)and others just a listing of places that anyone could get off the web (Stockholm). The walking tour format consists of "turn right, turn left" with page references to the sights, which means you have to constantly be turning back and forth in the book to read about what you are seeing.

It is also lacking in usable maps. The ones in the book are too small and too light-toned to use while walking. I realize that admission fees will be out of date by the time the book is printed, but some sort of system ranking fees would have been helpful.

The book is also weak in giving directions and time frames, such as where to catch a ferry or bus and how long a trip might take. It provides no information on city discount cards or on bus and subway systems.

The best part of the book was the short historical features; the worst was that it really seemed to be thrown together and generic.

Don't waste your money on this guide book. It's title is Baltic Cruising, but there is very little of value in here to anyone who is going on a cruise to the Baltic. It gives some general info re cruising that could be obtained anywhere and is useless if you already know anything about cruises. Lots of info re the history of this area but almost nothing on transportation,very poor maps for walking tours and very little other really useful info. The few restaurants that it mentions are obviously for tourists but rarely give the true flavor of the city. It has info on bicycle tours and cities outside the port area that the average cruiser will never have time to see. It's basically a hodge-podge of mostly useless information that could have been obtained almost anywhere even if you never visited the city. Spend your money on some other DECENT guidebook.

This book is a good introduction to the Baltic ports. However, it lacks the detail necessary to really plan you time in the various cities.