Are Tours Too Long???

We are going on a British Isle cruise next June. In reading about private tour companies at many of our port stops, it seems that a LOT of the day is spent in riding on a bus and looking out the window. Many tours seem to be 6-8 hours long, which seems very tiring to do several days in a row. Also, it appears that some of the main cities listed as port stops are really quite a ways from where the ship actually docks. Am I having an accurate picture of this cruise? Our ports are Invergordon/Inverness, Greencook/Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cobh/Cork, ZeeBrugge, St. Peter Port.

Many people seem to be arranging long tours into the countryside, rather than spend the day in the actual port cities. I have only begun our planning, and am wondering what ports are good for just wandering the towns.

I would appreciate any insight from those who have done these ports. Thank you.

We are going on a British Isle cruise next June. In reading about private tour companies at many of our port stops, it seems that a LOT of the day is spent in riding on a bus and looking out the window. Many tours seem to be 6-8 hours long, which seems very tiring to do several days in a row. Also, it appears that some of the main cities listed as port stops are really quite a ways from where the ship actually docks. Am I having an accurate picture of this cruise? Our ports are Invergordon/Inverness, Greencook/Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cobh/Cork, ZeeBrugge, St. Peter Port.

 

Many people seem to be arranging long tours into the countryside, rather than spend the day in the actual port cities. I have only begun our planning, and am wondering what ports are good for just wandering the towns.

 

I would appreciate any insight from those who have done these ports. Thank you.

Edinburgh, Dublin, Cobh/Cork, ZeeBrugge, St. Peter Port are a short distance to the sites so you can DIY or get a private guide & tour the area

Research the ports & decide what interests you then you can decide to take a tour or not

We spent our time wandering around Invergordon which was a nice break form touring ;)

Take a rain jacket :D

You say your ports are Invergordon/Inverness, Greencook/Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cobh/Cork, ZeeBrugge, St. Peter Port.

Guernsey is such a small island that tours are not very long. We spent the morning looking round the St Peter Port itself and then took the public bus which does a circular route around the coast. You will tender into there

The journey from Invergorden to Inverness takes 45 minute by the Public Service Bus which leaves every half hour. But I suspect many people will want to go to Loch Ness and or Fort George

Glasgow can be reached by train from Greenock with the journey taking half an hour. There is not much to do in Greenock itself.

At Edinburgh you will either dock in Leith or tender in at Queensferry near to the Forth Bridge. The former provides the easier route into the City Centre but bus, tram or cab and it's not a long journey. If you are at Queensferry there will be a shuttle service into the City Centre,

Some cruise operators use Rosyth as their port for Edinburgh. It is a more difficult journey in from there.

http://www.cruiseforth.com/content/getting-around-rosyth/

There is likely to be a shuttle service in from the Dublin Cruise terminal. The journey, from memory is about 15 or 20 minutes.

At Cobh (pronounced Cove) your ship will berth next to the Railway station. There is a frequent train service taking about 25 minutes into Cork. Cobh itself does have some places of interest. Unless you like commercial tourism I would give the Ship's tour to the Blarney Stone a miss.

That leaves Zeebrugge which is in Belgium, nit the British Isles. The Ship will dock two or three kilometres from the town. There is not much to do there - there are some shops and a seaside promenade. Again, I would use the train which offers a regular service into Bruges which is well worth the visit. In addition to seeing the place on foot you can also take circular tours on the canal boats.

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This is a fairly port-intensive cruise because you don't really visit the UK / Eire for the beaches and weather but the towns, cities, history and amazing scenery.

There are actually 4 ports for Edinburgh and from your itinerary I'd guess you are on Princess which means you will be anchored under the Forth Rail Bridge. It's about a 10 minute tender journey to South Queensferry the pretty nearby village. Edinburgh is a compact city which is easily DIY-able with a bit of research. One of our volunteers should be on the ship the night you visit the Scottish ports as well so you could go and hear their talk for last minute questions!

A local coach operator offers a shuttle to Edinburgh. It takes you into Charlotte Square at the West End of the main shopping thoroughfare - Princes Street. From there it is about 15 minutes uphill to the Royal Mile. The bus operates from South Queensferry between 7:30 and 12 noon and comes back all day till 4:00 pm. allowing ample time to get back to the ship during the city rush hour. Princess offers an Edinburgh On your Own tour which I believe is significantly more expensive. There is also a train service, but to reach the railway station it would take about 15 minutes, including a climb up a steep flight of stairs. There is however a fast service roughly 3 times and hour, except Sundays. More details on our website whose details erboracum-d quoted

Invergordon itself is pretty small but the scenery around is stunning. It's a lovely relaxing area. Here's the cruise group's website http://www.visitinvergordon.com.

Yes, you can take a bus into Inverness but there's a slow bus and a fast bus and it can take unto 70 minutes. Personally I would definitely do a tour in this port. The reason tours take so long is that this is a sparsely populated area and there's a distance between the sights but IMO there's still so much beautiful countryside from the bus

The cruise volunteers at Greenock offer a tour of the local area so that might be something you could consider. This is their website https://www.inverclydetouristgroup.co.uk

We will be sailing on Vision of the Seas. Our itinerary DOES NOT say that we will be tendered at the port of Edinburgh. BUT, I thought I found something "somewhere" that said we would be anchored and tendered at this port. We are there for 2 days. Our thought was to tour in the day, return to the ship for a while, and then go back into Edinburgh for a special birthday dinner. Now, I am not sure if tendering, busing, etc will make that quite burdensome.

Thank you to all for the information. Please keep the suggestions coming.

We will be sailing on Vision of the Seas. Our itinerary DOES NOT say that we will be tendered at the port of Edinburgh. BUT,

It says DOCKED on their website

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/12NightBritishIslesCruise-VI12U182?currencyCode=CAD&sCruiseType=CO&sDateMin=2017-06-01&sDateMax=2017-06-30&sailDate=06%2F27%2F2017

I think the ship is too big for Leith

Why not contact RCCL & ask what dock you will be at of course this could change by the time you get there

Hello LHT and teacherman, I've just checked our website - cruiseforth.com as shown above - and we are expecting you at Newhaven which is a tender port and it's where Celebrity ships usually come into so that makes sense. Because you're at Newhaven it wouldn't be burdensome at all because you'll only be a couple of miles North of the city centre. There are also some Michelin starred restaurants in the area for a special dinner that I can personally recommend.

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This will be a surprise dinner for my wife's birthday. (A real surprise as she never reads these boards.) Please recommend. Also, if we do tender at Newhaven, how do we get back and forth to the city? PLEASE keep giving info on this port and any others you may know of for this itinerary.

5 - 10 minutes taxi ride from the port is The Kitchin and this is their website. I've eaten there a few times and always been happy.

https://thekitchin.com

Just a minute further on is Restaurant Martin Wishart. I've eaten here couple of times and also at their restaurant on Loch Lomond and always enjoyed that too.

http://www.restaurantmartinwishart.co.uk

I did a thread last year about getting around from Newhaven so here's a link to the thread. There's also taxis available about 50 yards from the tender point and the volunteers will point you in the right direction

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2231904&highlight=Newhaven

The WW1 battlefield, Ypres and Tyne Cot with Bruges walking tour is a full day, but worth every penny and more.

We are going on a British Isle cruise next June. In reading about private tour companies at many of our port stops, it seems that a LOT of the day is spent in riding on a bus and looking out the window. Many tours seem to be 6-8 hours long, which seems very tiring to do several days in a row. Also, it appears that some of the main cities listed as port stops are really quite a ways from where the ship actually docks. Am I having an accurate picture of this cruise? Our ports are Invergordon/Inverness, Greencook/Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cobh/Cork, ZeeBrugge, St. Peter Port.

 

Many people seem to be arranging long tours into the countryside, rather than spend the day in the actual port cities. I have only begun our planning, and am wondering what ports are good for just wandering the towns.

 

I would appreciate any insight from those who have done these ports. Thank you.

We have done two cruises that visited ports in the British Isles. We found through research that for some ports the sights that we wanted to see were away from the ports. Still, for some ports, we found tours that did not require a bus ride. Dublin was a port that we took the shuttle to pickup the HoHo bus, which allowed us to see what we wanted to see in Dublin. St. Peter Port, we took a bicycle tour from the port that was great. The other ports, we took bus tours that allowed us to see the countryside and we loved them all.

We did not port in Edinburgh. To visit Edinburgh, we had to take a tour from Greencook. The tour we took from Liverpool to N. Wales was super, as well as from Cork to Kinsale and Blarney Castle. The Lock Ness tour from Invergordon is a must see as well as visiting the city of Brugges.