where to start in booking shore excursions

Hi all I am a first time cruiser and I am going o a cruise on RCI which is transatlantic. Can I ask advice on booking shore excursions shall I book through Viatour or with the cruse company direct. Our ports are Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaries and Nassau

thank you in advance for any help

Welcome to Cruise Critic and to cruising! Maybe to answer your question, I would ask a couple of others. ;) Do you know enough about those ports to determine what you want to do while there? Have you thought about the third option of booking an excursion privately once you get to a port? Do you really know you want to do excursions rather than simply exploring on your own? Now, for advice, I would point you first to the ports of call thread on CC and do some reading about what others have done at those ports. Then, I would suggest you join the roll call for your cruise as there are normally many folks asking about excursions where you may pick up some good information to help you decide what you want (rather than "should") to do.

Either way you choose to turn, those sound like some interesting ports and I know you will have a great cruise!!

Hi all I am a first time cruiser and I am going o a cruise on RCI which is transatlantic. Can I ask advice on booking shore excursions shall I book through Viatour or with the cruse company direct. Our ports are Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaries and Nassau

thank you in advance for any help

This is what we do when considering shore excursions at each port. We look to see what is offered through the cruise line. We look on the "Ports of Call" board on here to see what others have done and recommend, and what to avoid. We look for recommendations on Trip Advisor. And, we check our roll call to see what others have planned. Try to narrow your choices down to two (no more than three) options, then pick the one that suits everyone traveling with you. If you opt to book an excursion with a company independent of the cruise line, make sure that you can get a full refund if there should happen to be a change in itinerary or if a port is cancelled for some reason.

Before you start booking anything...read a guidebook, so you will know ALL of what's available to do in each place...then you can decide what to do...and lastly, decide HOW to do it!

Many things don't need an excursion at all!

Thank you all for your replies I am very interested in a tour of mount Teide in Tenerife I will look into it a bit more. For the other ports I think we will use the hoho buses.

We are super excited we got the cruise for a really low price and could not have really afforded it otherwise but Mark is 50 this year and its a great way to celebrate

Thanks

I always fear missing my ship if something delays the tour, if booked privately, so I always only book through the cruise line, so I know they will wait for my tour to return. I'm sure others have different opinions on this, but for me, the peace of mind it gives me is totally worth it.

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If your a first time cruiser, try staying with the ship sponsored excursions until you develop a knack for coordinating activities you are not familiar with.

Then as you become a seasoned cruiser save your money and look outside the box.

Enjoy

Where to start is to first do a little homework (read on the internet, in libraries, etc) to determine if you even need an excursion :). While many cruisers do book expensive excursions in most ports, there are also folks like me who have been to hundreds of ports around the world and seldom book any excursion. In most European ports, one can do things on their own (often at a huge cost savings) without having to deal with a large group excursion.

That being said, if you have decided to do lots of excursions start by looking at what is offered by your own cruise line (its on their web site) to get an idea of what is even offered in your ports. Once you have some idea of what you want to do and see, you can then decide do you want to use a cruise line excursion (usually large groups at high prices), a private excursion (smaller groups at various prices) or simply DIY (Do it yourself).

Hank

Thank you all for your replies I am very interested in a tour of mount Teide in Tenerife I will look into it a bit more. For the other ports I think we will use the hoho buses.

We are super excited we got the cruise for a really low price and could not have really afforded it otherwise but Mark is 50 this year and its a great way to celebrate

Thanks

Just to let you know that I live on Lanzarote, and there is no HOHO bus here! However it is a very small island and there will be taxis at the port to give you a tour. I do suggest that you visit the Timanfaya National Park.