Looking for suggestions on Mediterranean Cruise

Hello Everyone.

We are sailing this summer to the Mediterranean and a friend suggested that we get private tours instead of getting the ones the ship offers. I have one in Rome, Naples, and Florence and I need suggestions for Monte Carlo, Istanbul, Mykonos, Athens, Kusadasi if we need tours on these places at all. My travel agent isnt much of a help. HELP?

Your travel agent is correct, look for private tours. Check out the CC section on ports of call, lots of information there. Check the roll call to see if you can joint a group.

You can do Mykonos on your own. Take the ship shuttle bus into town, 5 minute drive, the cruise lines advise against walking through the port area, no sidewalks.

Good tours offered in Kusadasi and Istanbul through Ekol, we've used them on 2 trips.

Sylvie Decristo is a terrific guide out of Monte Carlo, she lives in France. She has a great reputation, may already be booked.

I don't recall the driver we used in Athens but there are quite a few discussed in the port of call section.

Enjoy your trip

Hi There

For Monte Carlo we used a local taxi company just google and you will find details,

however you should make time to go Eze, our guide took us straight there ahead of ships tours it was amazing place,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%88ze

yours Shogun

 

We are sailing this summer to the Mediterranean and a friend suggested that we get private tours instead of getting the ones the ship offers. I have one in Rome, Naples, and Florence and I need suggestions for Monte Carlo, Istanbul, Mykonos, Athens, Kusadasi if we need tours on these places at all. My travel agent isnt much of a help. HELP?

You should join the Roll Call for your particular cruise where you'll meet others cruising with you. Tou'll find people in the process of setting up private tours and looking for others to join them.

Keep an open mind on tours. There are good a bad private tours. Sometime the Princess tours are the best bet.

To find the Roll Call for your cruise: click here, then click on the [name of your ship] Roll Calls, then search the list for the embarkation date of your cruise. Click on it for your Roll Call.

Enjoy your cruise...

Lew

For Kusadasi we used About Ephesus Tours. This was the itinerary:

PRIVATE EPHESUS FULL DAY TOUR ITINERARY:

- Pick-up from the Kusadasi Port. ( approx. 20 minutes drive to Ephesus from Kusadasi Port )

- Visiting The Temple of Artemis /Diana (approx. 20 minutes)

- Visiting The Ruins of Ephesus including: (approx. 1.5 - 2 hours)

* The Celsus Library,

* The Temple of Hadrian,

* The Fountain of Trajan,

* The Temple of Domitian,

* The Monument of Memnius,

* The Marble Street,

* The Great Theater,

* The Odeon.

- Visiting Terrace House (approx. 45 minutes)

- Visiting The House of Virgin Mary (approx. 45 minutes)

- Traditional Lunch

- By the end of the tour drive back to Kusadasi Port ( approx. 20 minutes drive to Kusadasi Port from Ephesus )

We really enjoyed it, and it was cheaper than the ship tour.

For Monte Carlo, I highly recommend Revelation Tours. They will create an itinerary for you based on what you want to see. As an example, we went first to St. Paul de Vence, then to Eze, lunch in Nice, drove back along the Corniche where we saw Cap Ferrat, and then on to Monaco where we saw the palace and visited the cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier are buried, and finally, to the Grand Casino. Great tour, excellent guide and comfortable Mercedes van. http://www.revelation-tours.com/excursions/index.php

For Athens, we've used a taxi driver several times. Takis is knowledgeable, has excellent English and will get you to sites before the crowds. He has a large, comfortable Mercedes sedan. I don't have his email address right now. I'll post it when I'm at my computer.

Welcome to CC! For Kusadasi and Istanbul check out Magical Steps Travel. We used them on a recent Med cruise and they were fantastic. We even changed the itinerary the day of our excursion and it was handled superly by the guide. And for Athens try Athens Walking tours.

Private tours are often a great choice. Sorry to hear your TA is not helping you with this. Most experienced cruise agents are a wonderful source of information for their clients.

In Kusadisi we used Hello Ephesus, and they did a very nice job.

In Athens, we used a private guide who had been recommended by a friend from Greece. We had a wonderful time! His name is Fotis and his email is: fotis@athens****************

In Mykonos we just got a couple taxis to take us to the beach. It was a very relaxing way to spend the day during such a port intensive cruise.

Monte Carlo is very walkable on your own.

Private small groups are the best way to go ..

In Mykonos you can walk into town from the dock. Visit the little chapel by the end of the pier, but they do not want you to take pictures inside. We just sat in a taverna with a bottle of wine and people watched.

We also found Mykonos easy to tour opn our own. I compiled a historical walking tour from several guidebooks.

Athens was our disembarkation port. Spiros from athens taxi dot net picked us up at the ship, took us on a tour, and dropped us at our hotel. Having lived in the US for 20+ years, his English was excellent. He did a wonderful job of coordinating the stops to make the best of our time.

Hello Everyone.

 

We are sailing this summer to the Mediterranean and a friend suggested that we get private tours instead of getting the ones the ship offers. I have one in Rome, Naples, and Florence and I need suggestions for Monte Carlo, Istanbul, Mykonos, Athens, Kusadasi if we need tours on these places at all. My travel agent isnt much of a help. HELP?

The suggestions received are mostly the ones we're taking. Join the July 5th roll call

What about Rome. We need help here.

Kentucky Sue

Welcome to CC! For Kusadasi and Istanbul check out Magical Steps Travel. We used them on a recent Med cruise and they were fantastic. We even changed the itinerary the day of our excursion and it was handled superly by the guide. And for Athens try Athens Walking tours.

 

Private tours are often a great choice. Sorry to hear your TA is not helping you with this. Most experienced cruise agents are a wonderful source of information for their clients.

What did you do in Rome?

Kentucky Sue

For Rome try stefanorometours.com They're part of romecabs.com, which does more airport transportation type stuff, where as Stefano does more tours. We've used both on more than one occasion and we've always been happy with them.

For Rome, we did Walks of Italy, both for the Colosseum/Forums and the Vatican. Our group was the only group in the sistine chapel (approxiamately 10 of us) and it was so nice not to be rushed and shoved through it. I think we spent about 30-45 minutes there while our guide talked about the masterpieces extensively.

For Athens we used http://www.privategreecetours.com/. We shared a cab with one other couple. The tour was geared toward what we wnated to see, and how long we wanted to be at a particular site. There was no rushing.

I thought I'd share this with you all. I think I previously suggested my Rome Tour contact here. Here is his response to me when I was trying to cancel my reservation due to credit card requirement (I found out after that most companies are going by "honor system" and not asking for a credit card number):

"I do not think that's the problem, you probably found someone who quoted a lower price, and it's funny, people look at a 50 or 100 euros discount and not at how much for example an insurance on a car is liable for, mine is liable for up to 50 million euros, try to ask the company that quoted you a lower price, I am a licenced tour manager, ask who's going to be your driver, I drive a brand new luxury Mercedes van, ask what you are getting! You get what you pay for!!

If giving the credit card was the problem you could have asked me, and if you don't trust me, why should I trust you?

Yes absolutely yes you can cancel your reservation with me!

Good luck!!

Inviato da iPhone"

WHAT A NICE GUY :( Oh yeah, there was another comment that made me feel uncomfortable about this guy. Bottom line is, I am glad I cancelled.

I thought I'd share this with you all. I think I previously suggested my Rome Tour contact here. Here is his response to me when I was trying to cancel my reservation due to credit card requirement (I found out after that most companies are going by "honor system" and not asking for a credit card number):

"I do not think that's the problem, you probably found someone who quoted a lower price, and it's funny, people look at a 50 or 100 euros discount and not at how much for example an insurance on a car is liable for, mine is liable for up to 50 million euros, try to ask the company that quoted you a lower price, I am a licenced tour manager, ask who's going to be your driver, I drive a brand new luxury Mercedes van, ask what you are getting! You get what you pay for!!

If giving the credit card was the problem you could have asked me, and if you don't trust me, why should I trust you?

Yes absolutely yes you can cancel your reservation with me!

Good luck!!

 

Inviato da iPhone"

 

WHAT A NICE GUY :( Oh yeah, there was another comment that made me feel uncomfortable about this guy. Bottom line is, I am glad I cancelled.

I have more emails from him, if anyone is interested, I will be glad to email his responses. SO RUDE, RACIST AND ABNOXIOUS!!!

I have more emails from him, if anyone is interested, I will be glad to email his responses. SO RUDE, RACIST AND ABNOXIOUS!!!

**forward his email, i mean

bongd1983@yahoo.com

I don't know about this particular vendor or the other comments he made, but we have no problem giving a credit card or some form of partial payment to a tour operator when we book. True, many do operate on an honor system, and that's great, but looking at it from their point of view -- they are holding their space for us, and if we don't show up, they are out the money they could have made for the day. It's a two way street. The credit card/deposit protects both sides as far as I'm concerned. They want the assurance that we are going to show up just as we want to know that they will be there as promised. Many of these vendors are independent and when they hold the date for a passenger, they turn away others, and then they can't re-book on the spot if the passenger changes his plans.

These boards, as well as Trip Advisor, are really a great sense of security in my book, as these vendors - both the independents and the larger companies -- get so much business from referrals/posting on these boards. If someone has a bad experience, if a vendor doesn't show up, etc., we will all find out about it by doing the research here. It's a great incentive for these guys to do a good job.

I understand the policy, I just don't understand the RUDE and RACIST EMAILS that followed. I simply do not expect that kind of response from a service company.

I had to block his email address just not to receive any more emails.

I thought I was being nice enough to cancel way ahead of time so he could book other groups.

I'm interested in how your private visit to Sistene Chapel worked. We arrived at 11am and the entire Vatican area was already very busy. There was a constant flow of people from museum to chapel. Do they literally close the doors to allow a really private group to enter? A friend had said they got admission in a very small group also. We used Rome In Limo and they were knowledgeable as far as I could tell but definitely rushed us thru Chapel. When I asked about how the "private" tours worked she feigned not to know what I was talking about.

You definitely want to do a private tour in Kusadasi. We used Levent Solmatz http://www.leventsolmaz.com as our guide and he set a very high standard for the rest of our cruise. One of the people who joined our group (formed on roll call) wanted to return to Ephesus after visiting there on her cruise last year to see Terrace Houses which are not included in some of the other tours (including those organized by cruise ships). We also visited Mary's House which some others did not. Levent not only explained what we were seeing but did so in a way that made it easy and we didn't feel like we were on memory overload. He provided artist renderings of what the excavated sites had most likely looked like when they were actually in use. After tours we went to a great lunch and then Solvent took us to his Masque where he gave us some insights into Islam.

Must we hire a tour guide to show us Vatican / Sistine Chapel? I have read that the visit to Vatican can be a bit overwhelming due to huge crowd? Kindly share your experience on your visit to this place. Thanks.

I'd say that a guide is necessary. It can be overwhelming as there is just so much to see. I know that they have audio guides and such, but I like having a guide. We've been twice, and both times we had a guide. One was a group tour (through Angel Tours), and there were probably about 12 of us. The second time we had a private guide for four of us (through Real Rome tours). While both were good, having the guide for the four of us worked great. We went at our own pace and were able to really get a lot of detail on what we wanted.