Which tours can we take on our own

Hi everyone , I've booked a royal carribean cruise for our 25 th wedding anniversary in May , we leave from Venice and stop at Dubrovnik , Eaphesus

and Santorini.i am wondering if I should book tours or is there any you would

Recommend doing alone.

Many thanks

Hi everyone , I've booked a royal carribean cruise for our 25 th wedding anniversary in May , we leave from Venice and stop at Dubrovnik , Eaphesus

and Santorini.i am wondering if I should book tours or is there any you would

Recommend doing alone.

 

Many thanks

I would find your roll call here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=270

Then ask your fellow cruise mates what they have planned.

I can comment on Dubrovnik, which is easily done on your own. If i remember correctly, I think we took a bus from the ship to the old city. we bought the bus ticket from the Excursions Desk on the ship.

You pay to walk the ramparts of the the old city. It is quite beautiful.

The bus drops you off across the street from here.

You walk up the ramparts here

Views from the top

Ephesus including the terrace houses we booked through Ekol Travel. Much cheaper than ship excursion and we were in a minibus filled by Ekol Travel and waiting at the port for us.

Dubrovnik, as previously said, is easy to diy with either local bus, taxi or ship shuttle to Pile gate, the entrance to the old town.

In Santorini, we took a boat trip from the dockside to Oia. A bus was waiting to take us up to the village where we spent a couple of hours. We had a choice of three different times the private bus would take us back to Fira (included in the trip price - I think it was about €12pp) After wandering round Fira we caught the funicular back down the mountain at our own cost

Hi everyone , I've booked a royal carribean cruise for our 25 th wedding anniversary in May , we leave from Venice and stop at Dubrovnik , Eaphesus

and Santorini.i am wondering if I should book tours or is there any you would

Recommend doing alone.

 

Many thanks

Hi Auntieleelee. Congrats on your upcoming anniversary and cruise :D

Are you outgoing, active and adventurous? If so a do-it-yourself day in Dubrovnik could be one of your most rewarding experiences.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=44452500&highlight=dubrovnik#post44452500

Keep in mind there's a lot of work and planning involved to get to know what to see, how to get there, and a time-line of doing everything that you want. Obviously booking a tour on the ship is a no-brainer for the easiest thing possible, but as far as Dubrovnik in concerned that's likely one of the easier ports to enjoy on your own if you wish to do so.

I did an Ephesus excursion off a Celebrity ship and it was fantastic. Make sure it includes the Terrace houses. This should be close to a full day off the ship.

Santorini can also be DIY but is more involved. Once off the tender and up the hill (donkeys or funicular!) our group walked about 4-5 blocks to the local bus station. We took public bus to Oia (about 45-50min I think). We ensured the bus schedules and took an earlier bus back to Fiera so that we can shop and hang around the hillside before heading down to the tender point. Imho seeing Oia in person is an absolute must-do activity.

Have an awesome cruise! :D

Thank you so much for all your replys , I really do appreciate it.

I think we will do Dubrovnik on our own and maybe do the other two with the cruise ship tours

Thank you again everyone

Hi everyone , I've booked a royal carribean cruise for our 25 th wedding anniversary in May , we leave from Venice and stop at Dubrovnik , Eaphesus

and Santorini.i am wondering if I should book tours or is there any you would

Recommend doing alone.

 

Many thanks

Check out SantoriniExperts if you are looking for a tour company in Santorini. We used SantoriniExperts as our private guide in October 2015. Our guide was Kathrin, who was friendly, informative and knowledgeable. She showed us around most of Santorini, and was able to answer all of our question.

We, (my wife and I), used Ephesus Shuttle in Ephesus. Very knowledgeable guide + a driver.

We did Dubrovnik without pre-order a tour, and ended up renting a taxi for one hour just to get a bit around Dubrovnik.

Hopefully this can be to some help.

Santorini is a tender port.

The only advantage in taking a ship excursion there is that you get to take one of the first tenders.

Highly recommend taking a guide or doing it yourself as described above. It's really easy either way. The small group experience is way more preferable than a bus full of 40 others.

We took the cable car up and walked to Tony's Rent A Car. He is wonderful to deal with. He gives you maps. We drove a circle around the island and parked in Oia where we had early dinner reservations at a rooftop patio to enjoy the magnificent sunset. We were the last group to return the car and we walked back to the cable cars. We had reserved the car beforehand and we met a couple on the ship that joined us for the day. It was a wonderful day and very inexpensive. The island is so small that Tony didn't even ask us to fill up the car.

We took the cable car up and walked to Tony's Rent A Car. He is wonderful to deal with. He gives you maps. We drove a circle around the island and parked in Oia where we had early dinner reservations at a rooftop patio to enjoy the magnificent sunset. We were the last group to return the car and we walked back to the cable cars. We had reserved the car beforehand and we met a couple on the ship that joined us for the day. It was a wonderful day and very inexpensive. The island is so small that Tony didn't even ask us to fill up the car.

You must be a very skilled and brave driver to accomplish this. The roads in Santorini are treacherous. Jmo

To the OP it depends how many ships are in port in Santorini to figure how much an issue going up and down will be.

I loved Venice. You can book tickets to St Marks Basillica and Doge Palace directly from the websites if you don't wish a tour. There are numerous threads on hotel and transportation options in Venice here on CC. Chose what seems best for you.

My goodness, we have also rented cars on Santorini and its actually very easy driving. Not sure there are "treacherous" roads unless you consider a nicely paved 2 lane road a risk :). A bigger problem for Americans is that many do not know how to drive a manual shift (stick shift) and most rental cars are sticks.

As to what you can do on your own this is just a matter of personal taste. DW and I have visited about 100 countries (on and off ships) and seldom take any kind of "tour." We always prefer to do our own thing unless it is just not reasonable (such as in parts of China). When fellow cruisers have mentioned that they think we are "very adventurous" for DIY my response is that we think it takes more guts to take a group tour! Being stuck with 50+ fellow travelers is what I call a real adventure...with often less then desirable results. We do not have to stand or sit around waiting for one person to finish their shopping (there is always one). When we see a nice cafe and want to enjoy a long lunch we do not have to be concerned about "we have to get back to the bus." And when we shop we make sure to avoid most of the shops visited by large tours (these shops often kick-back a percentage to the tour company/guide) and often charge more money to those same tour groups.

On the other hand, we do appreciate that some folks prefer to be led around without any concern for anything other then not losing sight of their guide or being back on the bus at the right time. It is just not our style :)

Hank

Really well I guess you know how to back up going around a curve because that's what the bus had to do. Kudos to you.

Hlitner

Couldn't agree more as that is exactly what we do. I wouldn't call hiring a car in Europe 'adventurous' or 'brave', though!

Hlitner

 

Couldn't agree more as that is exactly what we do. I wouldn't call hiring a car in Europe 'adventurous' or 'brave', though!

Ooooooh I would..... ever driven in Paris?! :p ;)

Or Naples?😊

Really well I guess you know how to back up going around a curve because that's what the bus had to do. Kudos to you.

I am not driving a bus :). And personally, I would prefer driving in Italy or Greece to driving on LI or in NYC (where I often have to drive). Having driven thousands of miles all over Italy the only road we ever found a real challenge was the lakeside road that runs between Como and Bellagio. But as to Santorini it is actually an easy place to drive with minimal traffic once you get away from Fira. And when we want to go to a place like Red Beach....a car is a necessity.

Hank

I did Santorina last year and unless you want to see all the island simply take the funicular railway to the village at the top and have a wander around there looking at the shops and stop for a coffee/beer/wine overlooking the ship, where there are plenty of photo opertuities. Then make your way back either walking, as I did, the funicular or donkey.

Dubrovnik is also a DIY port as the main part of the town is a walled city.

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Yes, I have driven in Paris and Rome and many other European cities too and often in a British car. We frequently take our British car over to France. You do need to concentrate in built up areas, but here we are discussing small Greek Islands not exactly a huge metropolis.

Yes, I have driven in Paris and Rome and many other European cities too and often in a British car. We frequently take our British car over to France. You do need to concentrate in built up areas, but here we are discussing small Greek Islands not exactly a huge metropolis.

That's precisely it, Santorini is not a huge metropolis. The roads are narrow and curved with no guard rails. By telling folks it's "easy" when that is debatable might get less than skilled drivers in trouble. My friend is from another island in Greece and even she leaves the driving on Santorini to experienced cab drivers. It is not like driving on a rural road back home.

Well, everybody to their own. There are plenty of drivers in London that shouldn't be let loose in a car.