Looking for Med. Port Suggestions

[trvlnliz]

We will be on HAL, Prisendam in late Sept. and they have some very intereting ports. We're looking for things to do, must do's and any suggestions for the following ports: Dover, Guernsey, La Rochelle, Bilbao, La Coruna Spain, Leixoes Portugal, Cadiz, Mellila ,Corsica and Portoferraio, Elba . Any suggestions would be gratly appreciated.

Liz ;)

[trvlnliz]

Someone must know something to do at some of these ports. Help me please :eek:

[Member]

We'll be the on reverse sailing in June 16. Stay tune..

[arkcruiser]

La Coruna is in Galicia, whose major attraction is the old pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela, which I highly recommend. Cadiz is close to Seville, which is a very pretty city with lots to see, and also to sherry country (Jerez de la Frontera) if you prefer sipping to sight-seeing.

I would begin my research by looking at where the ship's own tours are going and then going to the websites for each region. Also, search the European board for references to each of the ports.

Your itinerary is an interesting one and you should have a great time. But since many of the ports are off the beaten path, you will have to do some research.

[Member]

Besides Guernsey and Mellila, the others are well described on the travel books.
Santiago de Compostela is only 30 minutes ride from La Coruna but Seville is nearly 2-hr. train ride from the intersting Cadiz. It seems Elba, Ajaccio, Lisbon, Oporto, La Rochelle and even Bilbao are pretty easy to explore on our own. The only undicided tour is in Dover, whether we shall visit Canterbury or the Leeds Castle leisurely.

[julieclair]

We just returned from a 7-day cruise on the Sea Princess, which stopped at both La Rochelle and Guernsey.

We had a wonderful time wandering around La Rochelle on our own. It is almost like a "time warp", feeling quite medieval in places. We enjoyed a cafe au lait at a sidewalk cafe overlooking the very scenic harbor, which is guarded by two towers. We also walked around the harbor to the public sandy beach. Back in town, there is a delicious pastry shop that is just on the left after you pass through the arch leading to the shopping area. Yummy!

We only had a short (5 hour) stop in Guernsey, which was made even shorter because we had to tender in to the port, and there were long lines. We only had an hour or two to wander around St. Peter Port, before having to tender back to the ship. In hindsight, given the short amount of time we had, we wish we had taken one of the ship's "tour of the island" shore excursions, so we could have seen more of the island.