Musicgirlcruiser

We're going on the Royal Princess cruise. I have booked a private tour in Invergordon. We'll be in port from 9am - 7pm. We prefer scenic sightseeing. I've read about the beauty of Scottish Highlands but am not sure which area would be optimum.

One of the options offered was a Northern Highlands tour to see the Torridon Hills and stop at Eilean Donan Castle. This is a long trip with a lot of travel time.

Is the trip worth doing for the scenery? Do we have enough time for this? Or should we stick to the usual Cawdor / Urquhart / Loch Ness itinerary?

Thank you.

Thank you UKBayern and Cruisemom!

In retrospect, we should have picked a cruise with Istanbul as one of the end ports. I didn't realize there was so much more beyond Istanbul till after we booked the cruise and I started researching the ports.

I do hope we would be able to return for a more in-depth visit, but most likely, not all 10 of us would be able to go together.

Have a great time on your trip, cruisemom!

Thank you UKBayern for your tip re: off-season. When are these insanely priced 2-week trips normally offered? When's off-season? I should look into that. Any hints who these tour companies are? :)

Thank you for your reply.

I was uncertain about the risks but got encouraged by the ship offering and thought I should at least explore the option. Most of my research shows how wonderful Cappadocia is without mentioning the on the ground scenario you've described. Your comments are exactly what I needed and have helped us decide to drop this option.

Thanks!

We’re going on an Eastern Med cruise this July which includes a 2-day stop in Istanbul (7am dock on day 1, 1pm departure on day 2) with the next port stop at Kusadasi (11am – 8pm). We would like to see Cappadocia as well.

The cruiseline offers a 3 day 2 night overland tour, so I know that logistically, it’s possible. The tour offered goes like this:

Day 1 – Tour of Istanbul, fly to Cappadocia in the afternoon, check in hotel

Day 2 – Tour of Cappadocia, return to hotel

Day 3 – Fly to Kusadasi, tour of Ephesus, rejoin ship

I’m trying to see if I could closely parallel the IT above but tweak it a bit for our purposes, for the following reasons

1. We are a party of 10 and generally prefer going on private tours rather than ship tours

2. The tour is marked as strenuous. My 2 elderly parents might not be able to keep up. We prefer the flexibility of a slower pace, alternative sites that require less walking or can be driven up to closer, or sitting in the car or nearby café to wait.

3. My parents have been to Istanbul and Ephesus and are willing to sit these out

4. The ship tour includes a visit to a carpet place and a leather place which we would rather do without, considering the limited time on shore

5. Leaving my parents on board ship while we go off for 3 days, 2 nights is not an option.

There are private day tours for Cappadocia but starts too early for us to join on Day 1 and arrives too late for us to do on Day 2.

Please comment or advise on the following course of action:

Day 1 – Tour of Istanbul, parents stay on ship, we return for dinner together

Day 2 – Fly to Cappadocia, tour, stay overnight at hotel

Day 3 – Fly to Kusadasi, return parents to ship, we continue tour of Ephesus

Would this be allowed by the Turkish government and by the ship? (I’ll check with them, but is this an acceptable deviation?) What are the risks of the ship not being able to dock in Kusadasi? (What happens to those on tour?) How reliable is Turkish Airlines in terms of flight cancellation or delay? Is this a good IT?

A more hectic alternative (but does not involve being left behind by the ship) is:

Day 1 – Short tour of Istanbul (whatever we can see in a couple of hours), fly to Cappadocia (there’s a noon flight), tour of Cappadocia (tour operator willing to go till sunset – around 8pm?), stay at hotel

Day 2 – Fly back to Istanbul (7am flight), continue tour of Istanbul till 12 noon?)

How much of Istanbul can we realistically see? My top sites are: Hagia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. We don’t normally take in every detail so overview type visits are ok. Please advise.

Thanks!

We’re going on an Eastern Med cruise this July which includes a 2-day stop in Istanbul (7am dock on day 1, 1pm departure on day 2) with the next port stop at Kusadasi (11am – 8pm). We would like to see Cappadocia as well.

Celebrity offers a 3 day 2 night overland tour, which goes like this:

Day 1 – Tour of Istanbul, fly to Cappadocia, check in hotel

Day 2 – Tour of Cappadocia, return to hotel

Day 3 – Fly to Kusadasi, tour of Ephesus, rejoin ship

We’re not too keen on joining this because

1. We are a party of 10 and generally prefer going on private tours rather than ship tours

2. The tour is marked as strenuous. My 2 elderly parents might not be able to keep up. We prefer the flexibility of a slower pace, alternative sites that require less walking or can be driven up to closer.

3. My parents have been to Istanbul and Ephesus and are willing to sit these out

4. Leaving my parents on board ship while we go off for 3 days, 2 nights is not an option.

We would like to follow the Day 2 and 3 portion of the above tour on our own so my parents can rest on Day 1 and 3.

Day 1 – Tour of Istanbul, parents stay on ship, we return for dinner together

Day 2 – Fly to Cappadocia, tour, stay overnight at hotel

Day 3 – Fly to Kusadasi, return parents to ship, we continue tour of Ephesus

Has anyone done something similar? Will Celebrity allow this since they have their own tour? Or is it easier to do this since it’s not a rare exception from their route but rather, similar to an offered tour?

Please advise.

Thanks!

To the family with kids, we're a family with 2 kids too, only mine are older than yours, 14 and 12. Here's some of what we did, so you can check if it works for you.

Stockholm - Took the HOHO ferry. There are 2 companies and their reps are right there at the dock. It was pretty easy to buy tickets from them. The boats were only a few meters away. Cost was 100KRR for adults, 50 for kids. We went over to Old Town then walked to the Royal Palace. Changing of the guards was great especially for kids. They liked the big horses and the band. Took the ferry to Vasa Museum. Entrance ticket cost was 95 for adults, kids were free, so you really save a lot over cruise tours.

Helsinki - went with HOHO buses ($34 for adults, 20euro for kids, yes, used 2 diff currencies to pay since I didn’t have enough) but if I can do a do-over, I'd probably use the shuttle service to town.

St. Petersburg – went with Denrus. The tour can get pretty tiring. My 12-year-old was practically sleeping through Hermitage.

Tallinn - walked on our own. The town is quite near to the dock.

Gdansk - used Princess gdansk on your own tour ($34 for adults, $24 for kids) and just walked around town ourselves. Just took it easy, kids got the tall soft-serve type ice cream and loved it.

Oslo - the HOHO takes a long circuitous route. It's easier to take the tram #12 to Vigeland and back, then take the ferry to Viking Ship museum. There is a 10-15 min uphill walk to the museum We bought the dagskort ticket which is good for all public transport for the day. Around $10 for adults, $5 for kids. You can get the tickets right at the tourist shop as you get off the ship. Viking Ship entrance : Family of 4 ticket was 125NOR, cheaper than getting 2 adults at 50 and kids at 30. So total cost for family of 4: around $50.

Hope this helps!