Baltic Sea Boat Trips
For Baltic holidaymakers, they are a familiar sight: white excursion boats, often just a few hundred metres from the coast or on their way into or out of port. Excursion and passenger-boat services have a long tradition on the Baltic Sea. They connect holiday resorts and offer trips on rivers, lagoons and coastal inlets, as well as out onto the Baltic. Inland passenger boats also ply the southern Baltic coast around the Szczecin Lagoon, Greifswald Bodden and Strelasund, travelling from Berlin as far as Stralsund , often with a detour along the Peene. On Usedom you will also find the only German sailing passenger ship, the “Weiße Düne”, moored there throughout the summer. From the island of Rügen , passenger boats also provide transport, running from Stralsund or Schaprode to the island of Hiddensee. The Bodden waters, and especially the Baltic resorts of Warnemünde, Kühlungsborn, Wismar and Travemünde , are other starting points for excursions by boat in the southwestern Baltic.
Ausflugsschiff vor Binz
Photo: © Hans Rudolf Schneider / pixelio.de
The entire coastal region of Kiel Bay and the Danish islands to its north, also known as the “Danish South Sea”, is another popular area for excursion boats departing from ports both large and small. Excursion boats operate throughout the Danish islands in the Baltic, sometimes providing shorter routes or the only connections to some islands.
While ferry services dominate passenger shipping in southern Sweden, the next popular area for excursion boats along the Baltic coast is the Swedish archipelago. Around Karlskrona in the Blekinge archipelago, and especially throughout the Stockholm archipelago, which stretches between Norrköping and Kapellskär, passenger boats are both important means of transport and popular attractions in their own right. The Baltic islands of Öland and Gotland are also served, as is Lake Mälaren, which carries excursion boats dozens of kilometres inland from Stockholm. The northern Swedish Baltic coast is another region where excursion boats invite visitors to enjoy trips along the coast.
The Baltic States’ coastline, with its many bays, and Gdańsk Bay also offer plenty of opportunities to admire the Baltic coast from the water. Continuing around the Baltic, you come to the mostly straight coastline of western Poland, with the port city of Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) at its centre. Many boat trips also end at the famous Chrobry Embankment on the Oder in the Pomeranian capital of Stettin (Szczecin). On the way there, they pass Swinemünde . Poland’s westernmost city has ambitious plans for its ports.
