Lipari, Palermo, Tunisia Excursions

We are doing the Wind Surf cruise that departs on Sept. 25th. Any input on excursions to Lipari, Parlermo or Tunisia? Particularly interested in the excursion to the Island of Panarea as an option on th Lipari stop. It is a fairly pricey excursion ($169) but sounds interesting and other postings indicate Lipari itself isn't that great. There are 3 excursions on the Palermo stop - Monreale, Panoramic Palermo and one th the northern coast to of Cefalu - or better to just do on our own? Tunisia - do on our own or take an excursion? I have heard good things about the Bardo Museum?

Thanks for your input in advance.

Beverly

Usually locals will offer their tours at much lower prices, but there may be no guarantee of the quality.

Here's a site with some information on the Sicilian/Lipardi places:

http://www.bestofsicily.com/sights.htm

The cathedral in Palermo is close by (you don't need a tour to get there), but I've heard the outlying ones are spectacular. It depends too on how many churches you want to hit.

Here's some information on Tunis; there are many other sites, of course:

http://www.amideast.org/programs_services/exchange_programs/Mepi-Bip/newsletter/spring05/tunis_may05.htm

Looks like travel on your own is really easy, but there's a lot to see in a few hours. There isn't supposed to be a whole lot of either Punic or Roman Carthage left, the site is of real historic importance and worth a visit for that alone. The Bardo is said to be quite good--it's also the old royal palace. Any tour of the souk (market) in the medina (old town) is likely to take you to somebody's cousin's shop and things will be cheaper if you wander around and bargin on your own. From everything I've read this is quite a safe area for Westerners, though (like any cathedral tour) I would dress slightly conservatively--covered arms--to respect the locals' sensibilities.

But the problem is time. Remember in Tunis we are landing a little outside of the city, so have to plan time to get into town. The advantage of this trip is that we visit a lot of interesting places. The disadvantage is limited time in each. So I'm going back and forth on organized tours too. Perhaps other people want to add their opinions on this.

Anyway, we'll be in Room 120 so if we don't chat before perhaps we can talk about this on board.

Thanks Cool Cruiser. I will check out your sites. I am thinking by the number of visitors to this site before a remark was left that the 3 ports I inquired upon are not that frequently visited. We are going to be in cabin 306. Hope to see you on the ship.

Lets try to get together on the eve of embarkation. Perhaps we could arrange a few group trips. We are a group of 4 with my parents and will be in cabins 327 and 329. See you then! Julie