Athens to Istanbul - Windstar Shore Excursions

[luvtosail61]

Is it best to book Windstar's shore excursions for the Athens - Istanbul itinerary? We have looked at what they have to offer and they seem to be good.

 

Also, has anyone ever used Windstar's pre/post hotel and tour package?

[6rugrats]

Is it best to book Windstar's shore excursions for the Athens - Istanbul itinerary? We have looked at what they have to offer and they seem to be good.

No, I don't generally book shore excursions through the ship, feeling they are overpriced and not what I want.

 

I think most of these ports are very easy to do on your own. You can visit the Ports of Call section for this region on this webpage and research what other people are doing:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

 

Also, has anyone ever used Windstar's pre/post hotel and tour package?

Again, no. I can do better booking on my own. I find these packages to be way overpriced.

[Lvwindstar007]

We have used Windstar pre/post packages several times...including our first time in Istanbul. They are excellent but rather expensive, not great values. Now we typically make our own res but buy their transfers. We have done many of their shore excursions and found them generally to be excellent. You can almost always do better on your own BUT the first time in a new port, why not rely on the ship excursions!

[SB_Travlr]

We used the Windstar pre-cruise hotel in Istanbul, (at that time, the Hilton) and thought it was great. We had a lovely room with a view of the Bosphorus and a huge marble bathroom. Plus it's nice to be met at the airport by a guy with our name on a card! We added a couple of extra nights, and they offered a choice of various tours around the city during our stay.

 

Back in 2004 when Windstar still cruised French Polynesia, we chose the pre-cruise stay at Ta'haa, and IIRC got a much better rate than if we had stayed at that plush place on our own. We rationalized by saying "When will we ever be able to come here again?" ;) We're sorry Windstar stopped the FP cruises, but c'est la vie.

[Divegal]

We just returned from the Istanbul to Athens itinerary on June 3, and had a fabulous time on the Wind Spirit. It was a truly beautiful experience.

The only port we booked an excursion on was Ephesus (Kusadasi, Turkey), because we wanted to make sure we took full advantage of all the history there. I arranged our excursion through AboutEphesus.com at half the price that was being charged on the ship for the excursion, even though the tour was just for my husband and myself. They met us on the dock with our name on a placard. Our tour was lovely, and unhurried. We saw people from the ship and they were not having the experience we were.

There is a briefing in the early evening every night about the port that you will be seeing the next day. We felt that gave us plenty of information about what we were about to see, so we did other ports on our own.

[firststeps]

Hi Divegal... we will be doing this cruise in October. First time on Windstar line. Any recommendations for either on the ship or in ports? We have extended in both Athens and Istanbul and have hired private guides for both of those cities as well as for Ephesus. Anything you could offer would be appreciated. Did you find a particularly good restaurant? Place to purchase items? Places to avoid? What was your FAVORITE experience, etc...

 

Thanks.

[crystallake]

The outside terrace at Strofi restaurant in Athens is an amazing view of the Acropolis and excellent food. Also highly recommend Yelda at privatetoursinturkey for Ephesus tour. Fantastic!!!

[themutis]

Glad to hear you liked Strofi - we have reservations on their terrace in August - always good to hear from some one who enjoyed it!

[luvtosail61]

How did you make the reservations at Strofi?

[themutis]

If you go to their website (just search for Strofi Athens) and click on Contact - on the right side of the page is an online reservation request.

 

They were very responsive.