Star Clippers offers first Baltic cruises
Tall ship sailing specialist Star Clippers will offer its first ever season sailing the Baltic in 2012, a unique chance to sail into some of the world’s greatest seafaring ports on a magnificent, fully-crewed square rigger, the 170-passenger Star Flyer.
As well as visiting iconic ports such as Copenhagen, St Petersburg and Stockholm, Star Clippers will sail to destinations with a long-standing love and appreciation of tall ships, including Kiel and Warnemunde/Rostock in Germany, where the vessel’s visit will coincide with the breathtaking annual Sailing Parade, a gathering of some of the world’s most stunning tall ships.
There will also be calls at smaller ports rarely visited by bigger cruise ships, giving Star Clippers’ guests a chance to appreciate the beauty of the islands and coastlines of the Baltic and Scandinavia without the crowds.
Highlights of the Baltic season include:
• A five-night voyage from Southampton to Hamburg, via Amsterdam, departing May 5, 2012, including two full days at sea to enjoy the sensation of sailing on an authentic tall ship.
From £1,035 per person, including all meals on board and port taxes, excludes return flight from Hamburg.
• A seven-night voyage returning into Southampton, departing Hamburg on August 25, via Amsterdam, Ijmuiden, Antwerp and Zeebrugge, presenting another chance to sail up the Solent in one of the most dramatic-looking ships afloat.
From £1,490 per person, including all meals on board and port taxes, excludes outbound flight to Hamburg.
• A series of two- and three-night mini-cruises out of Hamburg and Warnemunde/Rostock, a German port with a great sailing tradition, to coincide with the 2012 Sailing Parade of tall ships. From £465 for two nights in Warnemunde on August 10, including all meals on board and port taxes, excluding flights.
• Five, six and seven-night sailings to and from from Warnemunde/Rostock, visiting ports in Germany, Denmark and Poland, as well as Sweden and Oslo. The five-night voyage calls at Copenhagen, Ronne/Bornholm and Gdansk, for example, while a six-night sailing from Warnemunde to Oslo on August 12 calls at Ronne-Bornholm, Copenhagen, Halmstad, Goteborg and Marstrand.
From £1,035 for a five night round-trip sailing from Warnemunde, departing June 3, including all meals on board and port taxes, excluding flights.
• Seven night voyages featuring Olso, situated at the head of a dramatic fjord. Oslo to Copenhagen, for example, calls at Marstrand, Goteborg, Halmstad and Helsingborg in Sweden; and Kalundborg in Denmark, finishing in Copenhagen.
A seven night cruise costs from £1,490 pp, departing Oslo May 26, including all meals on board and port taxes, excluding flights.
• A highlight of the season will be three ten or 11-night voyages round-trip from Stockholm, with an overnight in St Petersburg. Ports of call on the 10-night sailing departing July 21 include Visby, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, and two additional ports in Finland, Hanko and Mariehamn-Aaland. Sailing from Stockholm is particularly special and Star Flyer will be a magnificent sight as she leaves the historic harbour of the Swedish capital and glides gracefully through the archipelago of hundreds of tiny islands.
From £2,120 for 10 nights, departing Stockholm July 21, 2012, including all meals on board and port taxes, excluding flights.
Mikael Krafft, the Swedish founder of Star Clippers, comments: “It has always been my dream to bring one of our square-riggers back to my own personal roots in Sweden, and to offer our guests the opportunity to sail in a region that has such a magnificent heritage of tall ship sailing. As well as the Baltic’s capital cities, we have included several small, very beautiful ports of call in our summer 2012 programme, to show our guests the incredible diversity of this stunning region, not to mention some of the finest sailing conditions in the world.”
To book, visit: starclippers.co.uk
