Black Sea Ports

I'll be Europe in late summer and thought I'd tack on a short cruise to my trip. Have been looking at something for seven days, but most of what comes up are Costa and MCS and I'm pretty much a HAL/Celebrity kind of guy. I found a 7-dayer on Azamara for the Black Sea that has created some interest. It's really a deal. Some of the original ports were in Ukraine, but they've been changed due to the unrest. The new ports are:

Istanbul

Nessebar, Bulgaria

Constanta, Romania

Batumi, Georgia

Trabzon, Turkey

Istanbul has been on my go-back list since my first visit. From what I read on the boards, Constanta is either a day trip to Bucharest or stay on the ship. The day trip appeals to me and we have a sea day the next day to recover. Haven't found much on the other ports. Wonder if anyone has any experience with any of the others.

Also, have never been on Azamara and it's a great opportunity to try them out. Any comments on how they rate?

We did a 12 day Black Sea cruise with Azamara in August 2013. This was our second Azamara cruise, and we enjoyed both very much. Have not tried HAL or Celebrity (yet!) so cannot compare. We are due to sail with Oceania in August this year.

We visited all of the ports you mention. We started and ended in Istanbul, but did not spend any extra time in the city, as we had been there several times before. There is a lot to see there.

We loved Nessebar. We just wandered the island. It is very touristy, but we got off the ship early, before all the tourist stalls had opened, so saw it in quiet mode as well as busy! Lots of history here, and countless Byzantine style churches.

Constanta! We only had a half day in port here, so no time to do a trip to Bucharest or to the Danube Delta, which would have been our preference. We just wandered the city. It was a mess, and reminded us very much of our home town of Christchurch NZ immediately after our devastating earthquakes! Everything in a state of disrepair. Roads/footpaths unsafe for the less sure footed. The port itself is huge and ugly - very industrial. If you have time get out of the city on a tour!

Batumi we very much enjoyed. They have famous Botanical gardens, but we just wandered the town under our own steam. The boat was moored adjacent to the centre. An amazing array of old and new buildings and a long waterfront boulevard.

In Trabzon we did a ship excursion out to Sumela Monastery, which is about a 75 minute drive from the city. Well worth a visit - you need to be able to walk/climb up the path/stairs to get into the monastery itself. You can do the trip in conjunction with a visit to a museum, but we have done too many museums in our time and just did the monastery.

An interesting itinerary, the Black Sea. A pity the Crimean ports have had to be dropped - they were much more interesting than the Russian ports we did, as well as the above mentioned ports.

Enjoy!

Nessebar is the greatest small city port I have ever visited. Do a DIY to maximize the number of churches you see in the old city. If rough seas prevent tendering you will dock in Burgas and a local bus that costs about $3 each way makes the one hour trip to Burgas.

Constantia is a hell hole but you would have to be there a lot of hours to make it to Bucharest.

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Thank you both for your insight. I booked today. Azamara offers a day trip to Bucharest, so we'll probably do that. Definitely want to do the monastery, but it seems (at least from their website) they don't offer any ship excursions in Trabzon. Wonder if that's a mistake, or if it's due to the fact these are substitutions for some ports in Ukraine. Did you see any local drivers of guides at the port?

I take it, then, that Nessebar and Batumi are DYI ports?

I am sure Azamara will offer shore excursions in Trabzon - maybe they just haven't got them on the website yet, if it was one of the changed ports. We did our excursion to Sumela Monastery with Azamara. There were several different options, but we just wanted the monastery by itself. Did not take any notice about the availability of local drivers.

In my opinion Nessebar is definitely a DIY port. It is small, easy to navigate and a great place to just wander.

We chose to DIY Batumi because we were happy to wander the main part of the town on our own. It is literally adjacent to where the boat was moored. But if you wanted to go further afield, say to the Botanical Gardens, or the ruins that are out of town you would need tour/transport.

Enjoy this interesting part of the world, and Azamara!

Thank you! This may end up being the easiest cruise to plan for!

Our Black Sea cruise included three ports in Ukraine, but I can understand why they are off the list now.

We loved Istanbul. Also, visited Nessebar, Bulgaria and did an excursion to Burgos, which we enjoyed. It was interesting, but not in the same class as Istanbul.

Found Nessebar to be great place to buy souvenirs. Prices were really reasonable and there was a lot to choose from. I bought some local pottery and a couple of unframed watercolors of the city sights for $15 each. They will take dollars or Euros. You don't need local currency.

...From what I read on the boards, Constanta is either a day trip to Bucharest or stay on the ship. ...

I disagree with this--we did the Danube Delta trip and loved it, then did some window-shopping in town, which was interesting, before returning to the ship.

Nessebur certainly can be a DIY. We had a guide on a walking tour of some of the ancient churches, but frankly, I'm not sure how much I gained. We also did the museum, which has an interesting collection, and then were taken to a hillside restaurant for a very nice lunch and cultural performance. That was 10 years ago.

Thanks for the info. Answered my question on the need for local currency, I'll be sure to take small bills to avoid local change. I've cut back on the shopping, so my purchases are usually the obligatory magnet for my collection (hope they have those, some places I've visited didn't have enough tourism) and maybe a souvenir tee.

Glad to hear something positive about Constanta. In spite of the three-hour trip, Bucharest sounds interesting to me so will,probably do that.

Very nice port, was there two weeks ago for the day, lots to see and do and many have posted incorrect information the city is being revitalized and some of the streets are undergoing major repair I enjoyed my port stop.

Have just returned from a Black Sea cruise which included several DIY ports. Burgas, Varna, Trabzon and Sinop.

In Varna we had booked a half day walking tour with a delightful young man called Milen.

He met us at the port and showed us around the main sights of the town. His English was excellent, he was very knowledgeable and had a truly kind nature. Our whole group (20) agreed that we could recommend him.

email: mimoph@gmail.com.

Waggie