Explore the Enchanting Ports of Scandinavia and Northern Europe with Rick Steves

paganesque: This edition was several years old but still indispensable on my recent Baltic cruise (London to Copenhagen). It included five of the eight ports we visited and definitely opened the way for my semi-independent solo wanderings, and helped me prepare in advance.

Thanks to Rick and his gang, I avoided the tour bus on Bornholm and instead took a local bus around the island for about $7, chatting with a couple of locals en route. (It took me extra time to figure out how to buy the ticket online, no English translation there, and where to pick up the bus, but I managed.) This still left me several hours to wander the town and see the history museum.

Also tuned me into an excellent hotel in Stockholm, to make the most of our overnight berthing (booked three months ahead). Dinner buffet included, and an awesome breakfast spread. I wandered around on transit, got lost a bit, witnessed street life, and visited two history museums. Lovely visit.

Rick's guidance also led me to choose a cruise-ship tour into Gdansk from the Gdynia, given our short time in port and desire to see the downtown, Solidarity Center, and have some free time as well without fretting about missing...

United States on Jul 23, 2023

C. Eagles: Really appreciated the advice in this book. On a cruise, you have limited time and must plan ahead. I found the maps a little hard to follow - for me they worked better in terms of figuring out what was doable.
Great advice about which ports are walkable - but we needed a little extra help in Oslo. Wanted to take a bus from downtown to Fram Museum. Got almost all the way through the process - downloaded the transpo app - but we couldn't figure out the zones we needed! Got an Uber instead. But great advice - and fun to read and anticipate. We didn't break up the book as Rick recommends. We were fine carrying as is.

United States on Jun 25, 2023

Traveler: Good guide, lots of info on destinations. I would have liked to see more port stops in Norway. Three of our cruise stops in Norway were not covered as well as Keil (Hamburg) . Would however recommend.

Canada on Apr 29, 2023

Jeremi Olson: We are going to Europe, so we needed a good book to tell us what to do/where to go. Who else would you trust, but Rick Steves?! Some great info in here. Highly recommend!

United States on Feb 28, 2023

Linda A.: Very informative. I will keep it with me when I am travelling. Great source for pre travel as well as you are
travelling. I just wish the print was larger and the maps.

Canada on Aug 26, 2022

D Taylor: Lots of great information about the ports will be visiting.

Canada on Nov 24, 2021

Nimbus: This book is useful for both planning and using in the field although you might want to detach for pages due to its bulk - in terms of value for money, this volume delivers plenty. The layout is good and there are plenty of maps and illustrations with a useful narrative - I am using this volume to plan a Scandinavian cruise trip and have found it invaluable. Also one of my friends who is an experienced cruise manager with a large holiday company recommended this book to me.

United Kingdom on Jan 26, 2020

Ross Mills: I have a collection of Rick Steves guide books and found that each book helped me save money and time and avoid frustration. This book is no exception. This book goes into detail about everything worth seeing at each port as well as the pros and cons of the different transportation options. The amount of information can seem overwhelming at first, but the book has a simple rating system that is very useful in narrowing down what is worth seeing during a short visit to each port. In addition to buying this book, I would recommend watching an excellent YouTube video in which this author discusses this book and most of the ports in it. Also, Rick Steves has many well-made YouTube videos for pretty much every major tourist port in Europe. One last recommendation: if you are considering buying this book, you have either booked a cruise or are considering doing so. I, as well as this book, recommend that you book your cruise through a travel agent. Even if you have already booked your cruise online, it is still worthwhile to go to a travel agent and allow them to work with the cruise line to "take over" your booking. Our travel agent (AAA) helped us get a better room and get an...

United States on Nov 09, 2019

jade: I bought this book for our Baltic cruise, and loved it! We prefer not to sign up for excursions where you're stuck with a huge group of people and undoubtedly waste a chunk of time at souvenir shop tourist traps. This book was perfect for exploring the cities on our own! Our cruise departed from Copenhagen & went to Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, & Helsinki. Due to Russia's visa requirements, it's mandatory to book a tour for St. Petersburg, so we booked with SPB Tours and enjoyed being in a small group vs the huge cruise ship excursion groups. For Copenhagen, I'd highly recommend buying a ticket & reserving a time for Rosenborg Castle. We arrived when they opened at 10:00 on a Sunday, waited in line for 15 min, but had to wait another 45 min to enter the castle. We could've avoided the wait & maximized our time by booking online. We did each of the City Walks that Rick has of each port and loved them! An audio guide for these walks would be awesome (like the ones he has for Paris, Rome, etc.), but since he doesn't have them for Scandinavia, I recommend buying the kindle version of this book, so you can have it all on your phone instead of carrying a book...

United States on May 30, 2019

K. Dixon: A thick book and the author recommends tearing pages out of it as required in his video. Packed with info from the cruisers’ point of view from personal accounts of excursions to getting around and getting money. Written for the U.S. markets clear in some references and of course everything is in dollars. If you are worried about weight in your suitcase either don’t buy it or indeed rip bits out. It does however give you more than small guides with lots of pretty pictures. Small print so not for those with poor sight and some have complained about its thin paper and print, but if it was bigger you’d need a barrow to move it about.

United Kingdom on May 21, 2019