Med Cruise Port Maps

Taking our first Med cruise on Princess and wondering if any kind of "maps" are offered to passengers by Princess of the ports. Not the ones that show where all of the jewelry stores are, but something a bit more helpful if one is planning to walk around in the port. Ports include Rome, Genoa, Naples, Athens, Greek Isles, etc.

I'd suggest that you get a good guidebook that will direct you to various sites as well as giving info on open hours, etc. Most cities on Med cruises are very "foot" friendly after you are out of the terminal area, but you are right that the maps you'll get from the cruise ships are very biased.

Princess does provide sightseeing maps. They are not usually very good.

If you are going to tour on your own. Get a guide book. Rick Steves's Med Cruise ports is very good

Agree that the maps provided by Princess aren’t very helpful & that Rick Steves’ cruise port books are much better.

I think that the free Tom’s Port Guides are an even better resource for use in ports.

https://www.tomsportguides.com/

We were on the Crown last month in the Med; Rick Steve's book on the Mediterranean was my "bible." All suggestions were spot on. Tom's Port Guides were quite helpful as well! Don't depend on Princess maps.

The Med is quite different from the Caribbean. There are no shopping maps because there are no chains of jewelry stores and tourist traps that pay the cruise line to recommend them. The ports are not destinations developed to attract tourists. Nor are the excursions. I find Streetwise Maps to be great, as well as more basic maps in guidebooks. Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports, as mentioned several places, is excellent, and for ports he doesn't cover he recommends Lonely Planet. I have bought them at Barnes & Noble, But you can also get them at amazon. EM

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Streetwise+maps

https://streetwisemaps.com/

Absolutely do not wait to get maps from Princess. Sometimes you'll receive a good local map but more often you'll get the Princess published version that highlights shopping areas. Do advance research using Rick Steves and Tom's Port Guides to know what interests you most. It's impossible to see everything in one day. Rick Steves books can help you decide where to go. Tom's Port Guides can show you the best way to get there.

Join the roll call for your cruise. On European cruises you will find people who plan private guides in a minivan and are looking for others to share the cost.

Tom's cruise port guides are carefully researched. Combine those with Rick Steve' s book and you have fantastic information to optimize each port experience.

I noticed when we were on the Royal last month that the library had travel guides for ports throughout the world. I can't remember if they were Lonely Planet, Fodors, or what, but they had multiple copies of the ones that would be applicable to all different Princess itineraries.

I'd still plan in advance and bring a Rick Steves book, but if I got to the ship and realized I'd forgotten it, I now know to try the ship's library.

Rome and Naples are large cities. They have tons of places to visit within them and nearby. You definitely need guide books and not just some little map of the "port" area! I don't use Rick Steves but prefer the smaller city guides byDK Eyewitness Travel. They have their Top 10 books for many cities and they are easy to carry. One big book for all doesn't work for me. This way you can take the small book with you while on shore.

Rome and Naples are large cities. They have tons of places to visit within them and nearby. You definitely need guide books and not just some little map of the "port" area! I don't use Rick Steves but prefer the smaller city guides byDK Eyewitness Travel. They have their Top 10 books for many cities and they are easy to carry. One big book for all doesn't work for me. This way you can take the small book with you while on shore.

Rick Steves also has smaller “Best of”, “Snapshot” (color) and “Pocket” (color) guidebooks for most cities but they are still best for people on land tours. His Med & Northern Europe port books are for people during a day in port. That’s most helpful for me during a day of independent touring in ports & I simply remove the pages for each port. I either staple the pages together or use his guidebook travel binders to create smaller guidebooks without carrying one big ports guidebook.

I sometimes use a DK Guidebook pre-cruise to see color images & to discover things to see. However for my day in port having the individual Rick Steves port guides and Tom’s Port Guides works best for me. Although there are no right or wrong guides but merely opinions about what works best for each of us.

I basically go out to multiple sources to put together my map packet for any set of ports. I use guide books, internet sites, Toms Port Guides and even old atlases. You can use google maps as well to print segments. After printing a map I like I highlight places of interest, restaurants, shops, etc. If I am doing a self guided tour I can plot out my best route in advance.

Agree that the maps provided by Princess aren’t very helpful & that Rick Steves’ cruise port books are much better.

 

I think that the free Tom’s Port Guides are an even better resource for use in ports.

I think it totally depends on the port. I've used some Tom's Guides that were good, others that were pretty bare bones. (E.g., his coverage of the walk down the rock of Gibraltar was so spotty that I doubt he did the walk at all, or talked to anyone who did. Is that someone you want to guide you on a 3-hour hike?) And I kinda trust the Steves' team more, both in terms of comprehensiveness and objectivity. They write travel guides as a profession. Tom is a seemingly nice guy who goes on cruises, by his own account takes ship's excursions, and writes them up.

Example: we were in Cartagena, Spain, and visited a shop Tom "highly recommended." It was indeed a good place to buy souvenirs, but when I mentioned the Tom's Guide connection he told me that Tom had just been in there that afternoon - he was on our cruise - and they were friends. That left me open to wondering why Tom devoted 2 of the guide's 27 pages to photos of the stuff in the shop.

Later in the cruise we were on a bus tour and by complete coincidence sat in front of Tom. I knew it was he because he was talking about himself to his admiring seat mate...constantly and loudly enough to make it difficult to understand the guide.

So maybe I'm biased.

We often find great local maps when getting off at ports inside the cruise terminal. Even if we’ve found some maps prior to the cruise, many times those inside the cruise terminal are better (and larger and easier to read which unfortunately is becoming more important!).

Rick Steves also has smaller “Best of”, “Snapshot” (color) and “Pocket” (color) guidebooks for most cities but they are still best for people on land tours. His Med & Northern Europe port books are for people during a day in port. That’s most helpful for me during a day of independent touring in ports & I simply remove the pages for each port. I either staple the pages together or use his guidebook travel binders to create smaller guidebooks without carrying one big ports guidebook.

 

I sometimes use a DK Guidebook pre-cruise to see color images & to discover things to see. However for my day in port having the individual Rick Steves port guides and Tom’s Port Guides works best for me. Although there are no right or wrong guides but merely opinions about what works best for each of us.

Agree. Landed in Barcelona yesterday and have the Rick Steves pocket guide as we'll spend the week here before our Med cruise where we have downloaded portions of Tom's Port Guides for the few days that we'll do as a DIY tour. Bought the Rick Steves port guide for the Baltic cruise in July and have ripped it apart (as he recommends) and are only carrying the portion(s) for the port where, again, we will do a DIY walking tour.

I highly recommend doing your homework in advance so that when you travel; you arrive at your destination with a good plan in mind. Enjoy!

I am more of a land traveler(especially in the Med region)than a cruiser so I don't know about those specific "port guides". Rick Steves seems to be well liked by American tourists but is not thought of well by folks who actually live in the cities he writes about. That's why I prefer getting information from other sources like the books I mentioned or the Trip Advisor forums for each city.

I am more of a land traveler(especially in the Med region)than a cruiser so I don't know about those specific "port guides". Rick Steves seems to be well liked by American tourists but is not thought of well by folks who actually live in the cities he writes about. That's why I prefer getting information from other sources like the books I mentioned or the Trip Advisor forums for each city.

Why is he not well liked by folks who actually live in the cities he writes about and how do you know this?

I like the info provided by What's in Port website, used it a great deal for my recent So. America cruise.

https://www.whatsinport.com/index.htm

When I first visited the Med, I purchased a guide, didn't use it as much as I thought I would. Now I research online, plus go to my local library. I like DK and Lonely Planet guides, I've never been a Rick Steves fan.

If you are talking about the free maps that you get on the ship, they are absolutely totally useless unless you should happen to run out of TP.

DON

Why is he not well liked by folks who actually live in the cities he writes about and how do you know this?

I have read many many responses to questions in Trip Advisor city forums when people mention his name. I suppose it is because he has a very hurried picture of each city and mentions a couple of places that are not necessarily the best ones mentioned by folks who actually live in those places.

He just does not have a great rep outside of the USA.

The Med is quite different from the Caribbean. There are no shopping maps because there are no chains of jewelry stores and tourist traps that pay the cruise line to recommend them. The ports are not destinations developed to attract tourists. Nor are the excursions. I find Streetwise Maps to be great, as well as more basic maps in guidebooks. Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports, as mentioned several places, is excellent, and for ports he doesn't cover he recommends Lonely Planet. I have bought them at Barnes & Noble, But you can also get them at amazon. EM

 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Streetwise+maps

 

https://streetwisemaps.com/

I agree about these Streetwise maps. They're laminated and thin so you can pack them in whatever you're carrying for the day. They reference monuments and other main sights. I find them very easy to use. I put a tiny post it on the map for our hotel, then one for each tour meeting place or venue we plan to visit. Makes it easy once you're there.

We got a local Vodafone SIM for one of our smartphones so we could use Google maps. It worked in every country except Montenegro. We put the SIM in DH's phone as mine was our primary contact number. DH then set his phone as a WiFi hotspot so I could connect to it for internet purposes. This worked very well, especially in the larger cities. The advantage of online maps over paper maps is the online maps show you where you actually are, which really helps in cities with poor street signage.

In Kotor (Montenegro) we picked up a local map from the tourist office and that was all we needed there.

Princess does provide sightseeing maps. They are not usually very good.

 

If you are going to tour on your own. Get a guide book. Rick Steves's Med Cruise ports is very good

I 100% agree....great book...handy size.

We have always had good luck using Rick Steves guides and Tom's Port Guides. Also, ahead of your trip you may want to watch some of Rick Steve's travel videos which are available online for free.