Cruise & Stay Italy

Hi

I am looking for Cruise & Stay holiday, with a few stops in Italy & Greek Islands. We are 2 adults and an 11 year old, so need 1 cabin, outside cabin or balcony as that's what he normally have (good for sitting on when child is asleep at night) travelling late July or August for School summer holidays, but flexible in that 6 week break, we will be travelling from Manchester, UK.

I have cruised before with Royal Caribbean, we did a 14 night cruise around the Western Med from Southampton and 13 nights transatlantic via the Caribbean. Looking at the RCI cruises for Italy & Greece, there are not many and what there is, is quite expensive. I have seen a few good cruises for MSC, I was just wondering where people tend to stay for a Cruise & Stay, most cruises seem to leave Venice, I would be looking be for a beach/lake type area, do people tend to book packages generally through the cruise companies or book flights/hotels/cruise independently? Any cruise lines people can recommend for families that go on the Eastern Med?

Thanks for any Advice.

Paul.

Define "Cruise and Stay"? Do you mean a hotel before you get on board?

Med cruises leave mostly from Barcelona, Rome, and some from Venice and Athens and Istanbul. All cruise lines I have heard of offer hotel and transport packages. But, most commonly, you can do your own arrangements cheaper.

Med cruises are very port intensive, so being family oriented is perhaps a bit more challenging.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I mean like a week near a beach in a hotel and then a week/10 days on a cruise. We like to explore, so we will leave the ship at ports and visit the sights, we did this on the Western Med cruise.

We really liked RCCL, but not many cruises are on the routes I want, and what there is, is very expensive, so just wondering if anyone can recommend any other cruise line and areas to stay.

It may be a bit different for UK cruisers -- most of the regular posters are from the US. (And when we travel across the pond, most of us want to see the famous sites, not spend time on the beach, which we can do closer to home and probably cheaper....)

I'd suggest talking to a local travel agent, they may be able to suggest something more like what you're looking for.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yes, I mean like a week near a beach in a hotel and then a week/10 days on a cruise. We like to explore, so we will leave the ship at ports and visit the sights, we did this on the Western Med cruise.

 

We really liked RCCL, but not many cruises are on the routes I want, and what there is, is very expensive, so just wondering if anyone can recommend any other cruise line and areas to stay.

Ok. Can't say that I have seen anything that complex offered by cruise lines. Recently there have been some additions to some cruise line programs...usually something like 5 days touring the area countryside and famous landmarks, before getting on the ship.

Again, generally, you can make these arrangements, whether they be a week on a beach, or days touring in the area, cheaper on your own. Cruise line mark up for this sort of thing can be huge.

It's really quite easy to make the arrangements for your land stay on your own, separate from the cruise, and much less expensively.

Do pay attention to the port times when looking at MSC and Costa cruises, I've noticed that they often have quite short days that aren't conducive to seeing much. On the other hand, they have options that leave from many different ports in Italy vs. the same one or two that the other mass lines use.

P&O have lots of sailings from Malta, if that would be of interest? Although the week long cruises seem to be either Italy or Greece, only the fortnight ones visit both.

We're planning a week in a hotel by the beach in Malta and then a week long cruise on Oceana; it will be our first cruise with P&O so can't comment on that aspect but we have been to Malta before. There are some nice beaches/ hotels and nowhere is more than about an hour from the cruise port. P&O agreed to book our flights for a week earlier for a surcharge and we booked accommodation direct with the hotel.

Thanks for all thre replies, looks like I will go down the DIY path, I have found a good cruise from Venice with MSC, visiting some Italian & Greek ports, I can find cheap flights if I vary my travel dates, much cheaper than booking with the cruise companies, so now I am just looking for accomodation, ideally with a beach area near Venice, or maybe I will hire a car for the week and stay abit farther away from Venice.

I would definitely do DIY for the land portion of your trip. Whenever anyone else gets involved in the booking they naturally have to be paid for what they are doing. That will mean adding their 10%.

I have not costed it but if you are going from Venice, have you considered hiring a car and going to Lake Garda? It is on my travel wishlist after having visited Lugano in Switzerland.

I looked at hiring a car, it was very expensive, around £600 per week for a family car, there are also lots of restrictions around Venice, so I don't know how we would cope leaving/returning to venice, as there are very few hotels with parking etc.

I am looking at Lake Garda, by train looks the best options, around 90 mins, just concerned with cases etc, so looking at 4 or 5 nights Lake garda, then come back to Venice the day before the cruise leaves (paranoid we will miss it!!!), so we can explore Venice.

Regarding the "stay" part of your trip...simply stay wherever you please :). If you want to stay in Italy you have lots of choices for either a beach area or one of the major lakes (such as Garda, Como, Maggiore). Another big decision is whether you want to totally rely on public transportation (or a tour) or would prefer to simply rent a car. If you stay in Greece it becomes a bit more complicated since you would want to also consider some of the Greek Islands (which can generally be reached via ferry).

This can also be used as a learning (and fun) experience for the 11 year old. Kids at that age are usually very comfortable using the internet (a great tool for travel research) so you might ask him/her to do some research and come up with some suggestions. I still remember when we took our, then, 9 year old DD on her first trip to Europe. When we were planning the trip (which was a rail trip) our DD made it very clear that "it was here trip too" which made us smile. But we did seek her input which turned out to be a smart move :).

Hank

I am looking at Lake Garda, by train looks the best options, around 90 mins, just concerned with cases etc, so looking at 4 or 5 nights Lake garda, then come back to Venice the day before the cruise leaves (paranoid we will miss it!!!), so we can explore Venice.

Lake Garda is a great option.

You can leave your "cruise" luggage at the left luggage office in Piazzale Roma.

https://trasbagagli.it/en/pg/view/53/luggage-storage-venice-piazzale-roma-airport

Then take the train to Lake Garda.

When you return, stay at a hotel very near Piazzale Roma. And, if you have not been to Venice before, consider staying there for 2 nights instead of one.

An alternative would be to stay at the beach at Lido di Venezia instead of Lake Garda. The Alilaguna line will get you there from the airport. Then you can use vaporettos to sightsee in Venice and the other islands, and to go to the cruise port. No cars, no trains. Buy the multi-day vaporetto pass, it will save you money.

I’m going to differ a little and advise you to see if any of the well-known travel agents are doing a deal on hotel plus flight, and maybe plus cruise. Sometimes the hotel plus flight offers are cheaper than just the flight alone.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

I booked the holiday independently, 7 day MSC cruise with the Fantastica experience so we get the larger Balcony Cabin, booked flights directly to suit us and booked 4 nights on the Lido di Venezia at a nice hotel, so it's within easy reach of the centre or we can stay in the Lido area.

It worked out allot cheaper than booking as a tailor made package through a travel agent.

My only concern is our ship arrives back in Venice at 09:00, our flight back home is 21:30 from Treviso, what time do you have to disembark the ship for? is there anywhere to store cases at baggage collection or near the port? as we will have the day in Venice before we head to the airport after dinner.

My only concern is our ship arrives back in Venice at 09:00, our flight back home is 21:30 from Treviso, what time do you have to disembark the ship for? is there anywhere to store cases at baggage collection or near the port? as we will have the day in Venice before we head to the airport after dinner.

Yes, there is a left luggage office at Piazzale Roma, the same place you'd need to be to get either the bus or a taxi to Treviso. Information here: https://trasbagagli.it/en/pg/view/53/luggage-storage-venice-piazzale-roma-airport

If your flight departs at 21:30 you'll want to be at the airport by 19:30, which means leaving Piazzale Roma by 18:00 by bus (schedule here: http://www.atvo.it/allegati/aeroporti/venezia_-_aeroporto_treviso_dal_8.01.18_al_24.03.18.pdf) or 18:45 by taxi. Add in some time to retrieve your bags and to get back to Piazzale Roma from your restaurant ... well, that's pretty early for dinner. You'll need to find a place that serves continuously.