A DIY Plan for Cadiz?

We will be in Cadiz soon on a Tuesday from 10 to 5, while we would love to see Seville we think we will have too little time with the travel so will stay in Cadiz. One think I am not sure about is the Torre Tavira/Camera Obscura and whether it is worthwhile or gimmicky (the Camera Obscura part, not the tower). Any thoughts from those who have visited?

My thought is to pick up the self-guided tour walks and try to choose one or two that will get us to the Cathderal of Cadiz and the Oratory of La Santa Cueva, and to visit the Mercado Centrale. We would like to do a nice lunch and have found a few recommendations from Trip Advisor but would love other options. Then if we have time left visit Museum of Cadiz, the Museo Historical Municipal or Park Genove.

It sounds like Cadiz is a very easy city to get around on foot and a good DIY spot but would appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!

Cadiz is a very easy city to DIY. I am always saddened to see everyone doing a rushed tour of Seville from this port and ignoring this great port city.

You are exactly on the right track with the walking tours. My favorite thing is just to stroll the city and the market is my personal favorite.

I have never done the Torre Tavira, but am happy to note that it is at least inexpensive and if there were not long lines would certainly consider it as an option.

We will be in Cadiz soon on a Tuesday from 10 to 5, while we would love to see Seville we think we will have too little time with the travel so will stay in Cadiz. One think I am not sure about is the Torre Tavira/Camera Obscura and whether it is worthwhile or gimmicky (the Camera Obscura part, not the tower). Any thoughts from those who have visited?

 

My thought is to pick up the self-guided tour walks and try to choose one or two that will get us to the Cathderal of Cadiz and the Oratory of La Santa Cueva, and to visit the Mercado Centrale. We would like to do a nice lunch and have found a few recommendations from Trip Advisor but would love other options. Then if we have time left visit Museum of Cadiz, the Museo Historical Municipal or Park Genove.

 

It sounds like Cadiz is a very easy city to get around on foot and a good DIY spot but would appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!

Cadiz is a really nice city and I enjoyed the Camera Obscura. It was inexpensive and interesting, and you get some great views from the tower. They only take a limited number (around 25 ?) at a time and I think we booked our slot at around 10.30, returning a couple of hours later to do it.

This was what we did that day. All the best, Tony

[YOUTUBE]TJPI7DhJDlU[/YOUTUBE]

We do agree that with that short of a port day one should probably stay in Cadiz. We find this city very walk able (but we have no limitations) and would probably just stroll all over town (we have done this a few times) and enjoy a nice lunch at a cafe.

Hank

Ratfam, are you on Anthem of the seas by any chance as I am researching ports and I keep finding your posts and the ports look similar lol Radders

We did Cadiz on our own in November.

We made the mistake of taking the HOHO bus - what a waste of money! It just went up and down the same beach a couple of times and round the less than attractive dock areas. It cannot get into the old city centre as the streets are too narrow.

We are great fans of HOHO buses (my husband has walking problems and we find them a great way for him to see the sights in new ports) but would not recommend the one in Cadiz at all.

Self-guided walking tour in Cadiz are well marked, with bright coloured lines on the street, and informative signage at every place of interest. On the main square, there is free Wifi in case you want to download something.

Thanks, great advice !

Thanks for the help everyone, we did end up with our DIY day in Cadiz and it was really great! We got off the ship and went to the tourist office and confirmed that we were going to follow the purple self-guided tour. We did have a little trouble initially finding the starting point and there were one or two places along the way where you could lose the path because it was faded but otherwise as advertised it was painted right along the road and made a fun way to see the town. We went into several beautiful churches, and spent a while checking things out at the market. We ended up having lunch at a place called El Garbanzo Nergo that I had read about on Trip Advisor, they did ten euro meals including two courses and a drink (we had water, so I am not certain whether alcohol was an included drink). My son and I both had fresh grilled fish and beet gazpacho, both of which were great, the fish was really fresh. My husband started with a chick pea and shrimp dish that he liked and then had croquettes or something he wasn't as wild about, and my daughter had chicken that looked somewhat like chicken fingers so I would recommend sticking with the seafood. Mostly Spanish speaking and most of the reviews online were Spanish, it was fun and good as long as you are open to the idea that you won't be able to communicate clearly in English and won't be entirely sure what will show up on your plate, and it was just off the purple path. The only thing we messed up was that the Cadiz Museum,, which we had planned to visit, closed very early, so we got there just as it was closing (I think around 2:30), hadn't done my homework well enough there. But with our extra time we walked down by the water and away from the direction of where the ship had was docked there was a really beautiful and peaceful garden area. We decided to skip the Torre Tavira and Camera Obscura. Overall it was a great day and definitely great for DIY, I don't think that a tour would have added much, particularly since there were many signs with information in Spanish and English throughout the city, they really wanted to make it accessible to tourists. Hope this helps others as much as the information I received helped me, let me know if there are any questions!

thanks for your DIY report.

We will be doing Cadiz on our own when we dock in July 2016.

One question:

Does the tour office have good street maps of Cadiz too?

Love the idea of color coded routes.

Thanks for the tip about the museum's early closing time.

Yes, the tourist office had maps showing the route. Their English was limited as was our Spanish but as long as you get to the right starting point you are good. You will enjoy your day! I would check the museum hours online, they were closing earlier than even their stated hours, perhaps because it was August which I understand to be the vacation month in Europe, in July you may have longer hours.

Yes, the tourist office had maps showing the route. Their English was limited as was our Spanish but as long as you get to the right starting point you are good. You will enjoy your day! I would check the museum hours online, they were closing earlier than even their stated hours, perhaps because it was August which I understand to be the vacation month in Europe, in July you may have longer hours.

In Spain you will find that July and August are the holiday months. You do not want to be ill during that time, as all the senior medical staff will be on the beach! Basically all of Spain goes on holiday for these two months, with only skeleton staff manning offices, factories etc.

Ratfam: thank you for following up with a report on how things went in Cadiz. We will be there in Jan for the 2nd time. The first trip we went to Seville. This time I want to explore Cadiz. Was the tourist information office easy to find?

Wayfairers, have a great time! If I am remembering correctly we actually stumbled on the TI by accident, we had previously decided that we were going to do the purple path so we were just going to start out but then we saw it and figured we should go in to confirm our plans. I think that they were actually giving out maps with the different colored paths as we were exiting the cruise terminal.

Thank you!!

Great info - we will be there in May on the Royal Princess.

Decided against the tour to Seville as we did not want to sit on a bus for half the day....:rolleyes:

Great info - we will be there in May on the Royal Princess.

Decided against the tour to Seville as we did not want to sit on a bus for half the day....:rolleyes:

We will be on the Royal with you. Canceled our tour to Seville since it will be very crowded the day we are there because of a holiday. We will probably do Cadiz DIY, looks like many interesting things to see & do.

See you on board :)

Great info - we will be there in May on the Royal Princess.

Decided against the tour to Seville as we did not want to sit on a bus for half the day....:rolleyes:

We will also be on the Royal Princess with you! We had booked a tour to Seville with Viator but cancelled when they emailed us that they would not be going to Alcazar that day because of the holiday. We also plan to DIY in Cadiz and appreciate the info about the walking tours. I'm wondering if the museums, etc. will be closed that day because of the holiday.

The holiday in Seville rang a bell...you might want to read through this thread...I think you are talking about the same port day.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2257354

In Spain you will find that July and August are the holiday months. You do not want to be ill during that time, as all the senior medical staff will be on the beach! Basically all of Spain goes on holiday for these two months, with only skeleton staff manning offices, factories etc.

Two months! Our summer shut down has whittled down to about two weeks, which includes Christmas and New Year.

<<In Spain you will find that July and August are the holiday months. You do not want to be ill during that time, as all the senior medical staff will be on the beach!>>

Rather an alarmist post! Yes, many businesses close down for either July or August - generally not both - but medical cover is perfectly normal in July and also in August apart from routine out patient appointments that are cancelled throughout the month.