Mediterranean Cruise Port Excursions

My Wife and I are going on the Jewel of the Seas (RC) in Sept.

Our ports are:

Naples

Mykonos

Santorini

Ephesus

Athens

Katakolon

I have heard that in a few places, it is better to do excursions yourself.

So In this list, has anyone book their own excursions for cheaper? If so, what did you do, and through what agent?

It depends on what you want to do in the ports. You may want a copy of Rick Steves' book Med Cruise Ports. He gives very detailed instructions for doing many of the major sights on your own.

Another possibility is a private tour. We often do these and they are usually organized thru the Roll Call for your cruise. We find them cheaper and better than the cruise line offerings

Yeah we are looking at using Joe Bananas in Naples, and perhaps another provider in Ephesus.

Private, they meet you at the port.

We are more art, architecture and history buffs, not so much on the kayaking or stuff like that. It bores us.

If you look on the various ports boards, there are recommended private tour vendors for every port you mention. Additionally, you will see many comments on doing it yourself, particularly for Santorini and Naples, but possibly for some of the other ports as well.

Finding out who is doing what shore excursions outside what your ship offers is easier done by locating the Roll Call for your ship and your particular cruise. You will likely find people that have posted excursions that need more bodies.

I have been doing that for our upcoming Oceania cruise Monte Carlo to Venice. Join your Roll Call.

I've done Naples ,Katakalon,and Ephesus. I used a tour operator in Ephesus that I found through trip advisor and the Mediterranean ports board. We visited Ephesus,the house of the Virgin Mary, the religious ruins and a stop for lunch. It was around $60 if I recall for a small group tour per person. Katakalon we rented a car and drove to Olympia and just paid the entrance fees ourselves and used the Rick Steves app that has audio tours. The car was $50. Naples we took the train to Pompeii and again used the Rick Steves app to do a tour. Train tickets were about $8 total to go to Pompeii, then Sorrento and then back from Sorrento to Naples. We were a family of four.

When I did western med I did all private tours by grouping up with people on the roll call. Much cheaper and more enjoyable because of the small group size.

Half of those destinations you can just diy and see the sites on foot or local transportation. Athens you can get the metro, 5 minutes walk from the cruise port and cost is €1.5 each way.

Ephesus you can get a cab for a quarter the price of a ship excursion. Naples worth a tour if you want to go to Capri. Pompeii a few stops on the local train and minimal cost.

What things do you want to see and do? Figure that out first, and then we can help you with the "how" part! A guidebook will be a good resource for finding out about the areas you'll visit. Libraries have guidebooks, for free!

For the best experience, become informed. Lonely Planet Venice and LP Greece really good. Frommers and Fodors too. All of these also have web sites.

If you would like to reduce the cost of tours, I suggest joining your roll call so you can see what other people are planning. We are traveling to Italy and Greece in September on Celebrity Reflection. Our roll call has been active in terms of shared tours and private small group tours.

Two of the companies we are taking excursions with are PK Travel (full day tour in Athens) and Mondo Guide Shared Tours for Rick Steves (full day tour from Naples to Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast). These companies have excellent reviews here on CC and on Trip Advisor. The cost of these tours are "per person" so you know exactly what the tours will cost. As an example, the Shared Tours for Rick Steves run by Mondo Guide required a minimum of 6 people to constitute a group. We now have 16 people from our roll call signed up; the maximum number of people is 19 so it is a much smaller group than you would find on a cruise ship organized tour. And the cost is significantly lower.

The best place to start gathering info is on your roll call. You may find that there are a few people who have been very busy researching excursions and tour operators and all you need to do is join the tours that are already scheduled.

Enjoy your cruise!

It depends on what you want to do in the ports. You may want a copy of Rick Steves' book Med Cruise Ports. He gives very detailed instructions for doing many of the major sights on your own.

 

Another possibility is a private tour. We often do these and they are usually organized thru the Roll Call for your cruise. We find them cheaper and better than the cruise line offerings

Hi Paul...When booking a group excursion from a Roll Call Group how have you handled the reservation. Many companies want one credit card # to hold the reservation, but that seems a big responsibility to take on with basic strangers.

Hi Paul...When booking a group excursion from a Roll Call Group how have you handled the reservation. Many companies want one credit card # to hold the reservation, but that seems a big responsibility to take on with basic strangers.

We shared excursions with members of our roll call in a number of ports in Italy and Greece. If you are lucky enough to find tour organizers that allow the group to be formed online, you wouldn't be responsible for more than your own charges.

We booked an excursion in Naples with Mondo Guide Shared Tours for Rick Steve. I promoted the excursion on my roll call and each person was able to sign up for the tour on their own; payment was due at the end of the tour. We needed a minimum of six or eight (don't remember at the moment) for the tour to be a "go" and we ended up with 24 people. It was a great tour of Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast and was very reasonably priced (65€ pp) including a tour guide for the entire day.

We also booked a full day semi-private tour of Athens with PK Travel. Again, each person joining the tour was responsible for their own deposit and final payment (total cost of 65€ pp plus admission to the Acropolis (10€) and the Acropolis museum(5€)). Our roll call really embraced this tour and we ended up with 50 people split into 4 groups.

While the group sizes will likely be larger than 6-8 for a private tour, they are not ridiculously large. Like you, I had concerns about paying for a private tour and not getting other people signed up or flaking out on me. I did sign up for two small private tours (6-8 people) that were organize by other roll call members and they were also great.

Enjoy your travels!

I would have answered, but it seems the OP cruised in September.