Lunch closures in port

[disneygirl1972]

We will be sailing the Greek isles: Dubrovnik, Croatia; Corfu, Santorini, Athens, Katakolon. Is there an observed lunch closure for shops & galleries? TIA

[DEL67]

I cannot speak for the Greek Islands, but we did not notice any lunch closures in Athens and Dubrovnik. However, when are you going? Our guide told us many store and restaurants close in Dubrovnik for the winter.

[disneygirl1972]

We will be sailing May 2013.

[trav25]

We are going May 2013 too. We are going on the Paul Gauguin. We went with them2 years ago to Tahiti and loved it! New ship and new itinerary to Europe. What ship are you going on? We start in Venice on May 18 going from Venice to Athens then another right away from Athens to Istanbul. Trying now to figure out each port.

[disneygirl1972]

We sail May 18 as well, but with Royal Caribbean. 7 day cruise w/ 2 days in Venice pre cruise & 1 day post cruise.

[trav25]

We will be arriving into Venice on May 15. Long trip from the west coast. We know we will be wigged out the first day. 16th we plan to just wonder around. 17th we are thinking of doing a context tour to the outer islands. We didn't want a buying land tour. We want a historical/cultural tour. We used them before and they are wonderful! Small group/ PhD level when we had them before. We ranged our own hotel but we will use the ship for transfer. Fun to plan this isn't it?!

[UKBayern]

We will be sailing the Greek isles: Dubrovnik, Croatia; Corfu, Santorini, Athens, Katakolon. Is there an observed lunch closure for shops & galleries? TIA

 

Lots of countries in the Med have ridiculously long closing hours at lunchtime. Especially "normal" shops where locals would buy (some touristy trinket places might be open), and especially when it is hot. As a general rule in Greece the shops are all closed between 12 and 4 or 12.30 till 3.30. Best advice: "When in Rome do as the romans do". Do your shopping in the morning and then have a long lunch. Churches will be open. Google the places you want to go, museums may or may not close for lunch. Major tourist attractions like the Acropolis will of course not close during the day.

 

Generally as a rule, most museums in Europe are closed one day a week (mostly Monday, could be another day, sometimes closed museums will be open for ship-sponsered tours).

 

Also check which port stop falls on a Sunday. On the Med, many shops will be closed on Sundays. In Dubrovnik, in the main street only a few shops were open, and to our horror in Cadiz Spain literally absolutely everything was closed.

[sunshinechgo]

Hey Disneygirl - I am going on the same ship with you. I am going with my sister and niece. It's her graduation gift from her 2 aunts.

 

We arrive the day the ship leaves due to vacation days that I have. We are staying overnight in Venice on the way back.

[Rock51]

Hi Disneygirl, I'm on that cruise also. What your plans for port?

[Hlitner]

You will not encounter many "lunch closures' or "siesta closers" in either Greece or Croatia. This is primarily an issue in Italy, Spain and Portugal and in some places of France.

 

Hank

[UKBayern]

You will not encounter many "lunch closures' or "siesta closers" in either Greece or Croatia. This is primarily an issue in Italy, Spain and Portugal and in some places of France.

 

Hank

 

This is absolutely not true, certainly outside the main season everything is closed in Greece and Croatia in the middle of the day. May could be regarded as not being high season.

[Hlitner]

This is absolutely not true, certainly outside the main season everything is closed in Greece and Croatia in the middle of the day. May could be regarded as not being high season.

 

Really? Very interesting. We were in both Greece (Athens) and Croatia (Dubrovnik, Korcula, and Split) this past April/May and had no issues with mid-day closures. We would agree that this could be a problem in some of the smaller towns...but these are not normally on cruise line itineraries. Funny you mentioned the subject because we were just discussing (this evening) a long driving trip in that part of Europe for next April/May and had no concerns when it came to Greece, Croatia or Slovenia. But Italy is another story :) We would agree that on some of the Greek Islands many things will still be closed off-season...not just mid-day but totally closed.

 

Hank

[Keith1010]

My experiences have been much like Hank's.

 

I have seen very few lunch closures.

 

Keith

[ducklite]

I was in Greece, Croatia, Italy, and Montenegro this year in June and NOTHING was closed in the tourist areas. The only place we found closed for lunch was the Apple store in Rome, they closed from 12:30-2:00 for lunch and reopened promptly. We used that time to have lunch ourselves at a nice little cafe a few doors down, which obviously was not closed for lunch. This was in a very non-tourist area.

[aohkay]

The closures in Greece were very true in a different time and different era. They cannot afford the closures now...especially when there's cruiseships in town.

 

Two years ago we didn't encounter any closures anywhere in Europe.

[UKBayern]

We have just returned from a Med cruise: in Malta, Heraklion, Rhodos everything closed in the middle of the day. 2 Years ago in Corfu everything was closed from 12 to 4 too. Sundays is even worse: in Cadiz, Rome and Dubrovnik ab-so-lutely ev-ery-thing c-l-o-s-e-d, also the knickknack shops. Cruiseship or no cruiseship in town.

[Hlitner]

We have just returned from a Med cruise: in Malta, Heraklion, Rhodos everything closed in the middle of the day. 2 Years ago in Corfu everything was closed from 12 to 4 too. Sundays is even worse: in Cadiz, Rome and Dubrovnik ab-so-lutely ev-ery-thing c-l-o-s-e-d, also the knickknack shops. Cruiseship or no cruiseship in town.

 

Hmmm. We must be going to different Dubrovniks. We were just there in early November on a Sunday and just about everything was open and the walled city was absolutely packed with tourists (we were surprised to see so many folks this late in the season). Agree that Malta does close-up and Rome pretty much closes (stores/boutiques) on Sunday and even much of Monday.

 

Hank

[ducklite]

Hmmm. We must be going to different Dubrovniks. We were just there in early November on a Sunday and just about everything was open and the walled city was absolutely packed with tourists (we were surprised to see so many folks this late in the season). Agree that Malta does close-up and Rome pretty much closes (stores/boutiques) on Sunday and even much of Monday.

 

Hank

 

We also spent two days in Dubrovnik this summer and NOTHING closed for lunch.

[zqvol]

We are going May 2013 too. We are going on the Paul Gauguin. We went with them2 years ago to Tahiti and loved it! New ship and new itinerary to Europe. What ship are you going on? We start in Venice on May 18 going from Venice to Athens then another right away from Athens to Istanbul. Trying now to figure out each port.

 

 

We will be joining you on the Athens - Istanbul leg. We have been to the Greek islands twice, though Canakkale and Rhodes are new stops for us. I will be happy to give you suggestions on the other ports. Still working on Rhodes. I know what we are doing in Canakkale, but doubt that others would be interested, though I will be happy to share details when I work them out.

 

Our experience in Greece and the islands is that nothing closes for lunch, or anything like that. They are too dependent on the tourist trade to shut down when ships are in port, especially on Patmos, Santorini, Mykonos and Kusadasi. We also found that to be true on the Dalmation coast.

[Capricruiser]

Speaking for Katakolon, EVERYTHING is open when there's a cruise ship in port. No cruise ship? The town is zipped up closed. The same applies to most cruise port towns in the Med.

[Hlitner]

Speaking for Katakolon, EVERYTHING is open when there's a cruise ship in port. No cruise ship? The town is zipped up closed. The same applies to most cruise port towns in the Med.

 

Most cruise ports? How about Naples, Marseille, LeHavre, Malta, Sorrento, Salerno, Palermo, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Dubrovnik, etc etc. Me thinks you painted with too broad a brush :) The reality is that many European/Med ports are pretty large cities where a few cruise ships have relatively little impact.

 

Hank