Transportation to and from port on European cruises

We are planning a European cruise leaving Athens and ending in Barcelona and are interested in going to Athens a day prior to departure and staying a couple of days in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

Anyone have suggestions about booking pre/post cruise packages with the cruise lines or just doing it on our own.

If we do it on our own any suggestions for transportation to/from airports as well as to/from ports.

Thanks so much.

I'd definitely advise doing it on your own versus through the cruise line. The packages they put together are nearly always a lot more expensive that making your own arrangements -- and often, the hotels they choose are not as convenient to the city center (or the places you'll want to see).

You've chosen two of the easier ports. Barcelona's port is very close to Las Ramblas and the old city, where many tourists choose to stay. You should easily be able to get a taxi at the port to your hotel. Look on the ports of call board for Spain to get recommendations for specific hotels. I stayed at the boutique hotel H10 Raco del Pi a few years ago and really liked it, but Hotel Jazz also gets many good reviews here.

In Athens, it is only about 20-25 minutes to Piraeus (the port). Depending on where in Athens you decide to stay, you can just get a taxi to your hotel from the airport, then have your hotel arrange a taxi to the port next day. The cost should be around $25 to the port. It will be more coming from the airport.

If you are packing light and want to try public transportation, Athens has a cheap express bus from the Airport into town, but it drops you in Syntagma Square. Unless you're staying at a hotel right there (such as the Grande Bretagne -- highly recommended but $$$$), you'll have to get a taxi or navigate the metro to your hotel.

You can usually do it very well on your own.

What we would do is book hotels directly with the hotel. A great resource for researching hotels is trip advisor.

For any private tours we will use trip advisor and also the ports of cal board on Cruise Critic. With careful research you can see sites in both of these cities on your own. For Athens visit the Greece Ports Of Call Board and for Barcelona visit the Spain Ports of Call Board on Cruise Critic.

For transportation for Barcelona getting to or from the airport from a hotel or the port and then getting between port and hotel I would use taxis.

For Athens I would use a private service getting between city and airport. You can get recommendations for that on the Ports Of Call Board for Greece on Cruise Critic.

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Keith

Any input as to staying in Athens city center or near the port and take transportation in to city center to explore?

Any input as to staying in Athens city center or near the port and take transportation in to city center to explore?

Stay in the city center. Athens is a completely different place in the evening and is pleasant to walk around, find a place for dinner, etc. Not to be missed: find either a rooftop restaurant or bar with a view of the Parthenon at night. It's wonderful....!

Any hotel name suggestions in city center, had almost decided to stay at port glad you gave us other information. Is transportation to port easy from city center?

Any input as to staying in Athens city center or near the port and take transportation in to city center to explore?

From city centre to the port just have the hotel call you a taxi.

There are a lot of nice hotels there. Not sure your budge.

We stayed at the Intercontinental.

A great source to find hotels is trip advisor which is the sister site of cruise critic.

Keith

Go to the port of calls boards which you can find here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19. There are boards for both Spain and Greece. When you get to the port you want, put key words (such as hotel) in the search the forum box located towards the top of the page next to the blue bar. (If you need more help finding this ask.) You will find a wealth of information about hotels and things to do, as well as transportation, on the ports of call boards.

Any hotel name suggestions in city center, had almost decided to stay at port glad you gave us other information. Is transportation to port easy from city center?

Yes, transportation is easy (via taxi, as stated in my previous post).

Athens Gate hotel is a great choice for the cost -- very clean and modern, extremely well located (a couple of blocks from the entrance to the Acropolis and the Acropolis museum, about a half block to the Akropoli metro station). They also happen to have a killer rooftop view of the Acropolis -- free included breakfast is served there and drinks/limited menu dinner at night.

I'll echo cruisemom's comment about hotels booked by cruise lines.

They have their pet hotel chains - good hotels but pot-luck whether they're convenient to sights.

I find http://www.booking.com a lot easier & more informative than TripAdvisor. And you can only submit a review if you have booked the hotel with them. For instance I've not heard of Athens Gate Hotel, but if I were the owner - or a competitor - and wanted I could put up a great - or a lousy - review of it on TripAdvisor, Can't do that on booking.com.

I've just checked that hotel on booking.com - it gets very good genuine reviews http://www.booking.com/hotel/gr/the-athens-gate.en-gb.html?aid=318615;label=New_English_EN_GBIE_5226314545-RnYQj%2AqnIkYg15Re%2ASD5mgS73336468465%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap1t1%3Aneg;sid=8e2a8fcba33028c235b27ecb33d7ef90;dcid=4;dist=0;group_adults=2;sb_price_type=total;srfid=9c707c744e191bbe8522583a57439bbdac6f3a9fX1;type=total;ucfs=1&

Ditto with booking cruiseair - cruise lines have their pet airlines (sorry, "preferred air partners":rolleyes:).

They will use their chosen airline - if that involves indirect flights even when other airlines have direct routes, tough luck.

Choose your own flightplan & choose your own hotel.

You're having pre-cruise time in Athens, so you're covered for any flight delay or cancellation - the only advantage of cruiseair.

The port of Piraeus & the airport are on opposite sides of Athens, so choose an Athens city centre hotel. A port or airport hotel will be inconvenient for Athens' sights & involve doubling back.

Barca's airports are a little bit out of the city, but the cruise port is very close - near the bottom of Las Ramblas. Still too far to walk (& ships are often deep in the port) so you'll need a taxi ride from any hotel.

JB :)

We are planning a European cruise leaving Athens and ending in Barcelona and are interested in going to Athens a day prior to departure and staying a couple of days in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

Anyone have suggestions about booking pre/post cruise packages with the cruise lines or just doing it on our own.

If we do it on our own any suggestions for transportation to/from airports as well as to/from ports.

Thanks so much.

One thing I do when it is post cruise stay, is do a private tour the day the cruise ends. They will pick you up at the port,take you on the tour you have chosen, half day or full day and then drop you off at your hotel. Your luggage is secure in their van. Most hotels do not have check in until mid afternoon. We are doing this post cruise in Barcelona on our next curise vacation.

With Athens and Barcelona we would definitely recommend doing it on your own (our norm way of doing things). These are both easy cities to handle DIY with the help of a decent guide book (such as the Rick Steves books). As to getting to the port, in both cases you would do fine just using regular taxis. Prices are pretty reasonable. The key decision (with both cities) is choosing your hotel, and besides price you should focus on location.

Hank

One thing I do when it is post cruise stay, is do a private tour the day the cruise ends. They will pick you up at the port,take you on the tour you have chosen, half day or full day and then drop you off at your hotel. Your luggage is secure in their van. Most hotels do not have check in until mid afternoon. We are doing this post cruise in Barcelona on our next curise vacation.

That is a great idea. We will be in Amsterdam next June post cruise for 2 or 3 days. Thanks for the heads up

We are planning a European cruise leaving Athens and ending in Barcelona and are interested in going to Athens a day prior to departure and staying a couple of days in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

Anyone have suggestions about booking pre/post cruise packages with the cruise lines or just doing it on our own.

If we do it on our own any suggestions for transportation to/from airports as well as to/from ports.

Thanks so much.

We have done a number of cruises in and out of both ports over the years.

I can tell you a regular taxi works best in both ports.

Ref hotels: We have stayed a the Hilton and Ledra Marriott in Athens. The Hilton maybe a bit more upscale but I liked the Ledra Marriott the best, good location, roof top pool with a view. In Barcelona we have stayed various places including at Hiltons (one in the business district and another on the Mediterranean, Hilton Diagonal Mar, very nice); The Hotel Arts with is a Ritz Carlton also on the Mediterranean, plus a couple of airport hotels. There is a shuttle from the airport to the center of Barcelona that makes staying at an airport hotel easy. We love exploring Barcelona but don't need to be in the thick of the action.

We always book air, hotels and cruises ourselves independently. Cruise line packages are more expensive you can do better on your own.

We are planning a European cruise leaving Athens and ending in Barcelona and are interested in going to Athens a day prior to departure and staying a couple of days in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

Anyone have suggestions about booking pre/post cruise packages with the cruise lines or just doing it on our own.

If we do it on our own any suggestions for transportation to/from airports as well as to/from ports.

Thanks so much.

The only other suggestion ref booking air on your own, is look for an air carrier that goes in and out of both cities. Try to book the most direct flights on the same carrier, we try to avoid code share partner airlines. Don't know where you are starting from in the USA.

We travel from San Francisco... for us Air France often works... need to go through Paris but we enjoy doing so. If we were only going to Barcelona we can do American Airlines. We always check out air arrangements before we book a cruise, so we understand what our options are before we book a cruise, if we are going to a new port.

Our experience has been that we found better fares by booking through the cruise line. The downside to this is that you have to conform your schedule to theirs and that will not work if you want to extend your trip on either end. Barcelona is an easy city to visit and cab fares are reasonable by European standards. I cannot comment regarding Athens.

One other tip (which I got here on CC), if you have points with Marriott, Hilton, or one of those other major hotel groups, see if you can use points for a hotel in either city. We are using Marriott points for a hotel at the top of Las Ramblas for our Precruise Barcelona stay next May.

Another thing about airfare, look at nearby cities for better rates/flight times. We are actually flying in and out of a city 90 miles away because it saved us several hundred dollars and several hours of travel.

Most hotels will store your bags for you until check in time

You can go off sightseeing for a few hours

sometimes we have even gotten a room assigned in the morning when arriving at the hotel

If you are going to the Acropolis, find out what time it opens. I had the place almost to myself. As I was leaving a bunch of buses from a ship dumped their people out.

Important-take water with you

We have never booked pre or post cruise hotels with any cruise line. We do check but our experience to date is that the prices are double to triple what we could get by booking ourselves. You also have to be careful about location when booking cruise line hotel packages.

We use cabs or public transportation. We will be arriving in Athens next week and plan to use the subway....but we only have a carry on roller bag each so this is a fast/effective mode for us. We are hoping that there will be some relief to the current heat wave that Athens is experiencing.

Cruise air has been spotty for us. Usually we do better by booking our own-either pricewise or routing wise. We have only ever booked one good cruise air fare/routing in the past ten years. We typically do open jaw or multi city flights and shop for fares. If the fares and our bucket list intersect we book.

We are planning a European cruise leaving Athens and ending in Barcelona and are interested in going to Athens a day prior to departure and staying a couple of days in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

 

Anyone have suggestions about booking pre/post cruise packages with the cruise lines or just doing it on our own.

 

If we do it on our own any suggestions for transportation to/from airports as well as to/from ports.

 

Thanks so much.

Do it yourself.

Athens has a great public transport system and is very cheap.

Barcelona is the same . You might want to consider a taxi to the airport here as the train can be a pain with luggage.

research the internet or email me - chris at ladesign dot biz [emoji41]