Cruising Northern Europe

Intriguing this year is Intrav's 19-day Arctic Odyssey that calls in ports in Greenland, Norway and Iceland. Even if Hapag-Lloyd's Europa includes marquee ports in its Hamburg to Kiel 15-night trip, it also adds some more offbeat places, such as Sweden's Goteborg and Poland's Danzig, along with Latvia's Riga.

Another big plus on some Baltic itineraries is overnights -- Europa for instance overnights in both Copenhagen and Stockholm, which allows passengers to explore the night life.
Regent Seven Seas, one of the few lines to offer seven-nighters in the Baltic, offers two full nights -- and three full days -- in St. Petersburg.

Norwegian Fjords (Mostly) Maintain Tradition
While most major cruise lines make a cursory couple-times-a-year effort to visit the fjords, big ships are naturally limited. That's because the towns and villages that fall along one of the world's most stunningly dramatic waterways are far removed from the historic culture centers of big Baltic cities like Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki and even Norway's own Oslo (which lies on the Baltic rather than the fjord side of the country). So big ships might make an appearance at Bergen or Trondheim as part of a larger Northern European cruise, but generally travel no further. The fjords are not as accommodating to larger vessels as is Alaska's Inside Passage.

Because of this, travelers who embark on Norwegian fjords cruises tend to be veteran cruisers with an adventurous spirit. These folks want to get-up-close-and-personal with the fjords themselves and visit the small villages (and these have plenty of charm to spare) along the way.

Norwegian Coastal Voyages -- which was founded in 1893 -- has long been quietly dominant in this arena for a number of reasons. It offers port-intensive (how about a 35-port seven-night cruise?) via ships that serve cargo as well as passenger vessels. Think you'll be roughing it? Not so. NCV's three newest ships -- the line's Millennium class -- feature Internet cafes, suites with balconies and whirlpools, and advanced propulsion systems. One (Finnmarken) even has a swimming pool.

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