36 hour cruise to Stockholm

#thelazycampers #kellysinestonia #stockholm #Sweden #BalticQueen #cruisingthebaltic

Distance from Tallinn, Estonia: +-430km, 14h30

Transportation from Tallinn: Cruise Ship (Tallink €68 for 2 ppl,return, on a weekday)
Accommodation: The Ship

Tallink, Baltic Queen cruise ship

When looking for options for travel to Stockholm from Tallinn I was shocked to discover that a ferry would be quite a pricey venture at roughly €355 return for the two of us...Ouch. And then I made the mistake of converting that into Rands (roughly R5850) and I cringed. That is a lot of money for just transport for a quick weekend away. How could it be so expensive? We were definitely not doing a weekend in Stockholm. Then after a conversation with a few people who know how things work in the Baltics we were told to rather hop on a cruise to Stockholm. A cruise? Surely if a ferry is €355 a cruise will be exorbitant! To my surprise it wasn’t! A cruise to Stockholm from Tallinn was only €68 (for up to 4 people) and once in Stockholm there would be no accommodation costs because we would be staying on the ship, this sounds like a great way to quickly see Stockholm.

There is one big catch to the cruise, you cannot choose how long you stay in Stockholm, you have only 1 day (well 6 hours to be precises) to see as much as you can. Challenge accepted!

We boarded the ship at 5:30pm on Wednesday evening and set sail at 6pm. Because of the time of year we exited the harbour in the dark and watch the lights of Tallinn disappear into the distance and before we knew it we were out in the pitch black of the Baltic Sea, not a star in the sky and quite an eery feeling.

After a rather expensive and really tiny dinner we headed to the on-board supermarket to find some food to fill the gap, then on the the shows. We spent the evenings watching dance shows and the band in the Starlight Palace and then listened to the individual singers in the bars. We thoroughly enjoyed our evenings roaming the ship, soaking up the entertainment and enjoying each others company.

We reached the Swedish coast at about 8am Thursday morning and for the next 2 hours we watched the tiny islands with their quaint houses and little lighthouses slide on by. Although it was 0℃ out on deck, we sat outside and soaked up the picturesque scenery while enjoying a cup of coffee and a light breakfast. This was, for me, one of the highlights of the cruise.

With only 6 hours to see as much of the city as possible we needed a game plan. The hop-on-hop-off bus made sense but was a little out of our budget at €30 per person (it is roughly €20 in other cities) , we decided against going into the museums because of the amount of time required to really enjoy them and so we used an walking-tour app to see the city. The cruise ship does offer a 2 hour bus trip coupled with a one hour walking tour but it is only in Russian, and our Russian is non-existent. We hopped of the ship and jumped onto the metro to get to our starting point , the metro was an easy and quick way to get around, the staff were very helpful and friendly and a ticket is only SEK43 per person for 75min.  

4pm, we were broken! We had walked as much of Stockholm as we could in one day and had seen as much of the city as was possible in 6 hours: the Palace, parliament, Old Town, Sodermalm, churches, Katarinahissen viewing deck and had lunch at a fantastic restaurant (Corner Cafe) where we sipped hot wine and shared a viking burger and unless you are in fact a viking, I suggest you share this burger with someone. The darkness had started to set in so we boarded the ship and had an hour lie down before the ship departed for Tallinn. On departure we went back out onto the deck to watch the islands go by but this time the islands were elegantly lit up and twinkled as we drifted by. The beauty of the islands was like something out of a movie a I felt a little like a moth drawn to the lights. We stayed outside as long as we could and once frozen to the core we found a window seat inside the ship and continued to marvel at the lights dancing past us over a refreshing drink. A romantic end to a whirlwind cruise.

We had so much fun on this lightening cruise and I can imagine that in the summer months this cruise must be quite something else to experience with the sun only setting round 11pm and rising again at 3am. You might not get to see the dazzling lights of the houses on the Swedish islands but you will be able to see out into the vast ocean for hours on end and really enjoy time outside on the decks.

Nice to know for the cruise:

- This cruise was a great way to get to see Stockholm especially if you are short on time. The cruise experience coupled with the day in Stockholm is a lot of fun.
- If you are travelling in the off-season (like we did) don’t make a booking at any of the restuarants, wing it, when you get there read all the menus, visit the cafeteria and see what tickles your fancy.
- You can take your own food and cooldrink onto the ship with you. We took our own water and breakfast goodies but ate dinner in the restaurants and cafeteria.
- You can buy food and alcoholic beverages in the on-board supermarket and enjoy them out on the ship decks and in your room, just not in the bars/restaurants. We had a few drinks in the bars and a few on the decks.