Monte Carlo to Dover -- Voyager 6/9/08

My husband and I are considering this cruise next year -- ports are listed as Malaga (Granada), Cadiz (Seville), Lisbon, Bilbao, Le Verdon, St. Peter Port, and Honfleur.

Has anyone been on a cruise in this area on Regent or another cruise line? Any comments on the ports or the itinerary? We especially enjoy visiting historical sites and walking tours, not so much bus tours and shopping.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Kathy

We did the Monte Carlo to Dover itinerary in June 2006. We enjoyed it - one of our best cruises. Honfleur was a great spot to have Mussels and Frites and walk around exploring. Very charming and the cruise down the Seine was very special.

Our ports were somewhat different than those you listed. In Malaga we had a private guide and we went to Santilla del Mar - excellent 13th century village and we had a most memorable tapas lunch. Also we were in Lisbon. Our private tour guide who came highly recommended did not show up and was a great disappointment, but, we ended up taking a taxi tour and saw enough to hope to go back again sometime!

Malaga, which is close to Granada, and Cadiz, ditto for Seville, allow tours of both of these great Spanish cities, which we’ve done on an earlier Radisson Diamond cruise. Worth the (relatively high) charges, in each case, both Seville and Grenada are spectatular sights. Bilbao is an equally remarkable city, so obviously livable and lived in, authentically European, yet with this amazing Getty-designed titanium museum placed like a crown jewel right in the middle of it. We toured Bilbao, (not from a Regent ship) but this small Basque city was the highlight of a HAL cruise around the Bay of Biscay from Southampton that continued up the Irish Sea to Scandinavia (see my review posted here on CruiseCritic – of the HAL Prisendam's inaugural – not a pretty picture overall, but the itinerary was great!)

Bilbao is mostly six story buildings, with restaurants, retail stores, etc. on the street level, business offices on the second and perhaps the third floors as well, but the rest apartments where the people live, work and enjoy life, all in the same area. This city is truly alive! We became weary on a long walking tour, so dropped off in the court of one of these blocks – six story buildings around the perimeter, with a small park-like area in the center, which gave access to the restaurants and businesses from their rear, and space for courtyard cafés, in one of which we had some very affordable and tasty tapas and beer (for me), wine (for my lady). Life went on all around us, it was just delightful. And after an hour or a bit less, back came the walking tour, which we re-joined. We have wanted to go back and spend more time there, but haven’t been able to, not yet anyway.

We haven't been to the other ports you've mentioned, so can't comment. Regent is becoming very expensive, not the fairly priced uspscale cruise line Radisson was, but this is a repositioning cruise and includes a "special offer": a 40% early booking discount plus economy air included - Business class air if you are in a penthouse or higher suite! Our opinion: Go for it!

We just returned from the 2007 version of this cruise. I would highly recommend it, esp if you are into historical sites. You can read my review on another thread on this board. We did not go to Granada because we had been before and wanted to do something different, but I would highly recommend it. THe Alhambra is magnificent. I loved Honfleur--probably my favorite port of the cruise.

Thanks for your opinions, everyone -- it sounds as if this would be a good cruise for us!