Black Sea Adventure - Istanbul to Athens

[Emil Greif]

We are booked for the Black Sea Adventure Cruise - Istanbul to Athens sailing on August 29, 2010. We would be interested in the experiences and comments of travelers who have taken this or similar Black Sea cruises this year. Are there any land excursions which we should consider? Or should we book excursions locally, if so where and with whom? It's still a long time off but never too early to plan. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[StanandJim]

Emil-

If I was looking for suggestions like that, I'd list the ports for my cruise.

[ancientmariner]

I took this cruise in July. Here's a link to my review:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...?EntryID=56639.

Trudi

[Emil Greif]

Thank you, Ancientmariner, for the review. I will be of great help to.

[Emil Greif]

Thank you, Trudi. It is an excellent detailed review which will be of great help to me.
Horst

[Oslo Dutch]

I was on this cruise on August 28th from Athens to Istanbul. It's a very special itinerary and you will enjoy the ports.

Santorini: Beautiful settings but pretty touristy. This is a tender port. We just went ashore, climbed up the stairs to the village and walked around over there. Walked down again in order to have lunch on board. Please be adviced that the stairs are covered in donkey droppings which can be a bit if challenge for some people. Great exercise though!

Kusadasi. Most people go to Epsasus which was from what i've been told a complete zoo with 4 ships in port. Search the internet for private tours and it might be more comfortable. Considering the outrageous prices Oceania is charging a very good alternative. Town itself is quite nice for a little stroll.

Yalta. I really liked it and the ship docks middle in town so you can easily wander around by yourself and tast the atmosphere. Place to visit is the Lavadia Palace where the Yalta conference to took place in 1945. Beware that general infrastructure in the Ukraine and Russia is not adequate for tourism and you should be prepared to traffic jams and plan for a long time. We rented a cab, visited the Palace by ourselves and had a brief view at Swallow's Nest Castle. Apart from that lovely city to wander around

Sochi. It is stated that cruise ship visitor need a visa for Russia unless they are on a ship's organized tour or a tour organized by a local tour operator. I was lucky to be on a small private tour and we were able to avoid the big crowds. When you disembark you have to clear immigration in the port building and I discovered that after that nobody really checked where you went. In other words this visa business is just in place to earn money for the local tour operators. I've spoken to people who basically wandered off by themselves. Considering the fact this wastechnically not terribly legal it's at your own risk of course. We did the regular thing, the Church, walk around the boulevard and arrived at Stalin's Dacha way before all these busses arrived. After that we visited a rather smelly Spa and had a closer look at a very majectic but unfortunately rather run down Spa hotel. Once again bad infrastructure and it took a long time to get into town. Contact Intourist for local tours, I heard a lot of complaints about the ship's tours afterwards.

Sevastapol: I really liked the Ukraine and this was once again a very charming place. we just walked off the ship and strolled though town. The Panorama painting is really worth it but as an independent you just have to blend in to a tour in Ukrainian/ Russian which gives it an authentic flavour. A really nice place

Odessa. For us the highlight of the cruise. The ship docks next to the famous Potemkin steps which take you straight into town. We just walked all the way to the railway station and ended up on the local market. We bought lots of caviar at one of the food stalls. Here we were the only westerners among thousands of locals. Poverty became quite obvious observing old ladies trying to sell veggies and flowers from their own garden.

Constanta. Walking around the town on a rainy grey sunday morning morning was not a pleasure. It's a very poor run down dirty depressing place which makes you feel very grateful for what you've got and where you are from. A lot of people took a day tour to Bucharest which they quite enjoyed despite being in a coach for over 7 hours.

Varna. the bad weather followed us (which eventually would cause havoc in Istanbul) and the ship diverted from Nessebur to Varna. Quite a nice town from what I've seen through the torrential rain all day. For those with laptops who want to check their mail. Varna and Constanta has free Wifi in the ships terminals!

Istanbul. As there were so many mega cruise ships in town we had to tender the first day. This was an hourly service by port authority tenders. Together with the heavy showers it didn't make it too easy. Lots of people arrived hours late for their private tours. Having been here several times we just walked around and visited to Sultanmahmet area and the Blue Mosque. Once again the place was a complete zoo, roads blocked with hundreds of coaches and thousands of people trying to get in and out. However you were able to escape it by walking to other parts of the city.
I always like to sit on a terrace on the bridge over the Golden Horn and watch the crowds and traffic.

Oceania passengers are getting smart by organizing their own tours with local tour operators. Excursions are really expensive on board and from what I experienced you pay less and get far more out of it. Take your time as infrastructure gets jammed and don't be afraid to go off the trotten path and try something new! :-)

Reint

[tanny18]

Hi, Oslo Dutch,
We are going on a modified version of cruise in June - Istanbul to Athens with 2 additional stops in Turkey. who did you use in Sochi for this tour...sounds great ...
Arlene
Sochi. It is stated that cruise ship visitor need a visa for Russia unless they are on a ship's organized tour or a tour organized by a local tour operator. I was lucky to be on a small private tour and we were able to avoid the big crowds. When you disembark you have to clear immigration in the port building and I discovered that after that nobody really checked where you went. In other words this visa business is just in place to earn money for the local tour operators. I've spoken to people who basically wandered off by themselves. Considering the fact this wastechnically not terribly legal it's at your own risk of course. We did the regular thing, the Church, walk around the boulevard and arrived at Stalin's Dacha way before all these busses arrived. After that we visited a rather smelly Spa and had a closer look at a very majectic but unfortunately rather run down Spa hotel. Once again bad infrastructure and it took a long time to get into town. Contact Intourist for local tours, I heard a lot of complaints about the ship's tours afterwards