Oceana shore excursions

Hi. I have just booked my cruise with this schedule:

Southampton, England (31 May); La Coruña, Spain (02 Jun early morning-afternoon); Gibraltar, UK (04 Jun early morning-early afternoon); Alghero, Sardinia (06 Jun early morning-afternoon); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (07 Jun early morning-early evening); St Tropez, France (08 Jun early morning-afternoon); Barcelona, Spain (09 Jun morning-afternoon); Cartagena, Spain (10 Jun morning-early evening); Southampton, England (14 Jun)

I need help. I am preparing everything to enjoy in port. Do you recommend me to take the excursion on board or right at the port????

I don't know if I will find private companies in port...... and if there is very much difference in prices.....

Thank you very much in advance

All those ports are completely OK to DIY. Try looking at the destinatiion section on this very site.

Gib - walk into town, keep going, up the cable car to the top and see the monkeys, the dungeons etc.

Cartagena, there is a Hop on Hop off bus.

St Tropez is a tender port. There is nothing much to do here except wander around, look at the enormous motor yachts and just generally enjoy.

I would do an organised trip for Livorno, particularly if you want to go to Florence or Pisa.

We're doing almost the same itinerary in April & are DIY'ing the other ports. There are some good websites that provide information on what to do in port as well as the helpful cruisers on here, so worth doing a bit of homework before you go.

Enjoy your cruise.

We took the same cruise last year. To be honest it will be cheaper if you get the excursions in Port instead in boat.

Cartagena: you can get a Hop on Hop off bus.

Barcelona: you can get a Hop on Hop off bus.

La Coruna: you can get a 2 hours panoramic tour with Hercules Tours. Wonderful guides. I can't recommend it hightly enough. I give you tripadvisor link:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187507-d6001964-Reviews-Hercules_Tours-La_Coruna_A_Coruna_Province_Galicia.html

I hope the information is useful to you.

Regards

La coruna has a free shuttle bus to el corte ingles department store (and others) turn left out of terminal building and it stops right there...don't go out of port gate stay in car park by terminal....or you can walk straight through town to a lovely beach....it rained when we were there, hence the shopping!

Cartagena... Marine archaeology museum on the quayside turn right at end of jetty....we found very interesting...also castle on hill...go up steps in front of you at end of jetty and follow road round to right up in lift or walk up....leave from other side of hill for Roman amphitheatre....

Alghero....lovely town to wander...we walked through town then back round coast to harbour....

Hope this helps :)

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Thank you all for your advice. I will try the tours of the private companies. Afterwards I will make a review here to help everyone.

Greetings

We took the same cruise last year. To be honest it will be cheaper if you get the excursions in Port instead in boat.

Cartagena: you can get a Hop on Hop off bus.

Barcelona: you can get a Hop on Hop off bus.

La Coruna: you can get a 2 hours panoramic tour with Hercules Tours. Wonderful guides. I can't recommend it hightly enough. I give you tripadvisor link:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attract...e_Galicia.html

I hope the information is useful to you.

Regards

That has also helped me for our Western Med in May. Very helpful thanks!

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Hi. I have just booked my cruise with this schedule:

 

Southampton, England (31 May); La Coruña, Spain (02 Jun early morning-afternoon); Gibraltar, UK (04 Jun early morning-early afternoon); Alghero, Sardinia (06 Jun early morning-afternoon); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (07 Jun early morning-early evening); St Tropez, France (08 Jun early morning-afternoon); Barcelona, Spain (09 Jun morning-afternoon); Cartagena, Spain (10 Jun morning-early evening); Southampton, England (14 Jun)

 

I need help. I am preparing everything to enjoy in port. Do you recommend me to take the excursion on board or right at the port????

I don't know if I will find private companies in port...... and if there is very much difference in prices.....

 

Thank you very much in advance

Catagena - There is also a good, free, roman museum just a short walk from the ship. Also plenty of cafes and bars. Anyone who pays £45 for the P&O Taps trip must have more money than sense, it seems the biggest rip-off ever.

Just returned from a cruise with La Coruna - if you are able to walk take yourself around to Hercules tower ------ rather than go straight to the promenade through the town get off the ship and turn right around the coastal path. The scenery was amazing and the highlight of our holiday.

La coruna has a free shuttle bus to el corte ingles department store (and others) turn left out of terminal building and it stops right there...don't go out of port gate stay in car park by terminal....or you can walk straight through town to a lovely beach....it rained when we were there, hence the shopping!

Cartagena... Marine archaeology museum on the quayside turn right at end of jetty....we found very interesting...also castle on hill...go up steps in front of you at end of jetty and follow road round to right up in lift or walk up....leave from other side of hill for Roman amphitheatre....

Alghero....lovely town to wander...we walked through town then back round coast to harbour....

 

Hope this helps :)

 

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There was no shuttle in La Coruna last week. We simply walked off the ship into the town.

La Coruna. If you are up for a bit of culture then think about going to Santiago de Compostela. One of the great pilgrimage destinations with a wonderful old town and cathedral to visit. And you don't need to be a religious person to enjoy this. We thought it was one of the best excursions we have ever done.

Hello again.

 

It would be very helpful if someone else could write more reviews about these companies. Prices, tour duration, staff, etc...

 

Thank you in advance.

Have you checked out the ports section? There may well be info on them there.

Hi, everyone.

I am very excited. I will be on board very soon. I am looking forward to cruise and visit new places. We already booked some shore excursions. In La Coruna we took 2 tickets on the Hercules Tours web for a Panoramic tour. When we come back home I will write a review.

Thank you very much for all your comments.

Hi. I have just booked my cruise with this schedule:

 

Southampton, England (31 May); La Coruña, Spain (02 Jun early morning-afternoon); Gibraltar, UK (04 Jun early morning-early afternoon); Alghero, Sardinia (06 Jun early morning-afternoon); Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy (07 Jun early morning-early evening); St Tropez, France (08 Jun early morning-afternoon); Barcelona, Spain (09 Jun morning-afternoon); Cartagena, Spain (10 Jun morning-early evening); Southampton, England (14 Jun)

 

I need help. I am preparing everything to enjoy in port. Do you recommend me to take the excursion on board or right at the port????

I don't know if I will find private companies in port...... and if there is very much difference in prices.....

 

Thank you very much in advance

Now that itinerary sounds familiar.. :) I was on there myself, I'd love to know how you got on John and how you got on with that tour and if you went on any others.

I only did three myself and they were rather good. My only negative comment would be that you couldn't hear the guide in Florence - we had the personal radios but it was an unfortunate combination of her higher pitched voice/noisy surrounding areas. 9hr tour was a bit too long though..

Other than that, we enjoyed all the tours.

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Slightly OT.... is there another subforum for trip reports/reviews or do we do it in this forum?

Hi again.

 

Anyone knows a subforum to comment shore excursions????? I think it would be very helpful.

 

Thank you all

I don't think there is. I guess we could discuss it in here, I'm sure the others won't mind. :)

When we were in La Coruna in April/may ,when we got off the ship there was a guy with a rickshaw taxi.

I forget how much it was, but we were with him for over 2 hours. He cycled ,we just sat there doing royal waves. It was fantastic. If he saw me going to take a picture of a church door, no problem, he cycled up to it. We were going down alleyways only wide enough for people (and bikes!) We loved it, and it was different from the norm.

http://www.tourcitycycle.com/indexenglish.html

Hi, everyone.

First of all, sorry for the delay.

I am writting my comment for La Coruna. I chose a panoramic tour by Hercules Tours. The staff was very nice and the tour very interesting. We got 2 tickets by their web (15 euros each ticket). You could see the reviews of Hercules Tours on Tripadvisor to make sure.

Be careful..... there is another company in La Coruna but they are not a travel agency. A friend of mine went with them and it wasn't a good experience. The manager of that company is called Laura.

Please more tours and more reviews!!!!!!!!

…..and if there is very much difference in prices.....

Oh yes. There is certainly a considerable difference in the prices.

Dear lake5298

 

I agree. In La Coruna I paid 15 euros and P&O offered the same excursion for 40 euros. Besides the service by Hercules tours was gorgeous.

 

Greetings

We took this tour a couple of weeks ago (Oceana). I had hoped to book the Hercules Tour online but my paypal account had run out and I didn't want to set another one up, so when we got outside the terminal and saw the other tour company we were thinking of taking it. However, a Hercules Tours lady appeared and, having heard such good things, we decided to wait a bit longer and go with them. It was a good tour and we got to see places we would have not seen, had we gone exploring on our own, due to my bad knees.

So, another thumbs up for Hercules.

Hi! I can't say enough about my private tour experience with Gaston at Barcelona Experience. He's an amazing, friendly tour guide who speaks perfect English (he used to live in the US). His prices are as cheap as any private tour company in the city...I did some research! http://www.barcelonaexperience.com. It's not as cheap as cruise ship excursions, but the plus is you won't be stuck in a giant group of tourists clogging up sidewalks and struggling to hear what's going on. Anyway, just thought I'd throw my hat in the ring. Have a wonderful trip!