Visby
Visby, Sweden Shore Excursions and Gotland Tours

Cruise ships calling at Visby typically anchor offshore in the Bay of Visby, with tenders bringing passengers into the harbour at the edge of the Old Town - within walking distance of the medieval city wall. Some smaller ships dock at the Visby ferry terminal. Your private guide meets you as you come ashore with a name sign. The Old Town is compact and entirely walkable once you land.

The Visby Walking Tour (3 hours) is a guided walk on foot through the Old Town - the cobbled lanes, the city wall, the ruined medieval churches, and the Gotland Museum. It is the right choice for guests who want an immersive, ground-level experience of the town at a relaxed pace. The Visby Highlights tour covers similar ground by private vehicle with photo stops, which suits guests with limited mobility or those who want to cover the Old Town and also reach areas beyond walking distance in the same timeframe.

No - your private guide meets you at the tender landing or pier and transfers you directly into town in a private vehicle. You do not need to queue for or pay for the ship's shuttle bus. This saves time and gets you into the Old Town before the shuttle crowds arrive.

The 13th-century ring wall is 3.6 kilometers of virtually intact medieval fortification - one of the best-preserved city walls in Scandinavia. Inside the wall, the ruined shells of 10 medieval churches destroyed in the 1361 Danish sack of the city are left open to the sky as monuments. The Gotland Museum holds one of the most significant collections of Viking-age silver hoards found anywhere in the world, and the medieval picture stones carved by Gotland craftsmen are unique to this island. The cobbled lanes of the Old Town are themselves a UNESCO World Heritage site.

As early as possible. Visby has a very limited pool of licensed English-speaking guides, and availability on busy summer port days - particularly in July and August when Gotland hosts the Medieval Week festival - fills quickly. We recommend booking at least 90 days in advance for peak season travel. A $50 deposit secures your reservation.

The Visby and the Countryside tour (5 hours) combines a driving tour of the Old Town with an excursion into the Gotland landscape. Stops include limestone raukar rock formations on the coastline - the distinctive pillar-shaped sea stacks formed by erosion that are unique to Gotland - a popular scenic viewpoint, and the former summer home of Swedish Princess Eugenie, now a seaside cafe. It is the strongest option for guests who want to see both the walled town and the island's natural landscape in a single port day.

Our back-to-ship guarantee means that if an unforeseen delay during your private Visby shore excursion prevents you from returning to the tender landing before your ship departs, we will arrange and cover the cost of transportation to your next port of call. This guarantee applies to all private Visby tours and Gotland tours booked through us. Your tour must be scheduled to return 1.5 hours before the ship departs.