Bard47

We are considering doing this cruise (or similar) next fall and was wondering if there are any hiking opportunities at any of the ports. Thank so much.

Most of the ports have at least informal hiking opportunities (beyond wandering in town).

Mali Losinj has extensive hiking trails around the island.

Hvar had an actual hiking expedition offered by the ship. I believe there were a couple of other places that did, too.

Kotor had the challenge in hiking up and around the mountainside city wall.

Our Oct6 cruise includes 3 ports in Croatia. Can you give us any advice about if we should wait until we get there to get Kunas or should we get some before we leave home.

Looking forward to your write ups. We're getting so excited.

Most of the advice I've seen is that credit cards give better rates (esp. ones with no transaction fees) than ATMs, which give better rate than normal currency exchanges.

We used plastic where we could in Croatia, but we also hit an ATM (plentiful) shortly after our first arrival to get some cash for circumstances where plastic wasn't accepted or wasn't suitable. There's little need for getting Kunas before you go.

Glad you had a great time!

Tough call -- each of them had something to offer. I think my favorite, and the one I'd love to spend more time in, would be Corfu; so much to explore there, both in Corfu Town and in the surrounding island. My wife liked Kotor best, I think, and its quaint old town was indeed charming and interesting. I don't think I would explicitly return to Mali Losinj or Mykonos (though my family enjoyed the latter).

No problem. Arrived in Venice this morning, and sad to leave the ship behind -- we had a wonderful time, and I feel spoiled now for any sort of "hotel cruising". Hope your trip on the ride back out is as much fun. Say hi to Simona for me ("Team 3" -- she'll recognize the reference). Bon voyage!

In theory. We've not had a call when we've done that to my knowledge. There are on board activities for those not going ashore, but I've not seen any of the (mentioned in the literature) water sports from the boat as yet.

It looks like my previous post was swallowed by Internet gremlins. Bottom line (based on the past few days) it seems ship-based water sports are dependent on (a) weather conditions and (b) the port authorities (who are in turn influenced by how much money the locals earn by provisioning such sports themselves). The only ports on this trip that have okay ed it have been in Croatia, and even then plain old swimming was disallowed.

Agreed, thanks for these updates. I am curious what people do if they don’t go ashore or only go ashore for a little while. I want to swim a little, is there opportunity to do that from the boat?

In theory. We've not had a call when we've done that to my knowledge. There are on board activities for those not going ashore, but I've not seen any of the (mentioned in the literature) water sports from the boat as yet.

I'll be sure and wave when we come in. 😊

It was a very short call... arrived 0900, departed 1400. Three of our party did the boat trip, which they enjoyed The rest of us took the very convenient city bus straight from the cruise docks (custom house) to the Old Town (EUR 1.70) and walked about, had a bite and a drink. Would love to revisit for more and longer, but a decent taste.

Trip from Athens to Venice is turning out very nicely. Corfu yesterday, Kotor today, and enjoying the Star Flyer experience a lot. Would be difficult to go back to an apartment block afloat when I've had the chance to stand by the wheel in the wind and enjoy the sea so much more directly.

(As a follow-up, when I went to the actual "book this cruise" page at the Star Clippers site, there was a Chat Line noted on the page. I used that, and they gave me the arrival/departure times -- subject to wind, weather, and whim of the captain -- for each port. Very helpful.)

Sorry, no -- we'll be on the previous trip (July 14, Athens to Venice). Good voyage to you!

Thanks for your review. We're doing the same route (in reverse, Athens to Venice) in a few weeks, and this helped our planning. Thanks!

I sent an email asking for them and received them by the end of that day!

To which Star Clippers addy did you send the email? I've found several, but none of them seem the folk to answer that question.