Baltic Sea Cruises

Baltic Sea cruises also provide luxurious comfort as well, as fascinating places to visit writes guest author Paula Toller

The Baltic is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth. It incorporates the Scandinavian Peninsula, Denmark and it surrounding islands, parts of Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and parts of Germany. The sea is considered to be brackish, which means that it is a mixture of both salt and fresh water.

Taking a Baltic cruise is like taking a voyage of discovery.

Your first destination could be wonderful Copenhagen, home of Hans Christian Andersen and famous for the statue of his little mermaid. Then perhaps St Petersburg, a city steeped in bloody history, with its fabulous winter palace and many canals and rivers. Tallinn capital of Estonia could be another stop with its Gothic spires, sandy beaches and active nightlife. Then perhaps the historic but also technically advanced and scrupulously clean city of Stockholm, a UNESCO World Heritage site that was also mentioned in Norse sagas. Then finally, Helsinki, with its eight universities; and chosen as World Design Capital 2012.

The Baltic tends to be 45% covered with ice during the winter months rendering some ports unnavigable, so Baltic sea cruises, one of the most favoured tourist holidays in the region, tend to take place during the summer months. To sail to the Baltic from the UK, luxury cruise ships such as the Queen Mary 2, the Queen Elizabeth and other well known liners leave from Southampton, Dover, Harwich and Newcastle crossing international boundaries to visit the ports of Copenhagen in Denmark, St Petersburg in Russia, Stockholm in Sweden, Tallin in Estonia and Helsinki in Finland.