Greek Isles - Port Questions

[marazul]

5 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

  I usually rent a car in advance. Is it easier just to grab at port?

No. Don't count on it. Most islands are small. The supply is limited and generally taken by people staying on the island. There may not be any agencies at the port. But you can do your research for each island and book a car in advance.

[Hlitner]

6 hours ago, tinkr2 said:

@HlitnerThanks for all the great info. First time to Greece, maybe 50th cruise. We hate group tours and love going off on our own. I had done zero research bc I was waiting to see if it was real . It seems to be. I usually rent a car in advance. Is it easier just to grab at port?

I think most folks have heard about the worldwide shortage of rental cars (due primarily to a slow down in manufacturing cars caused by the chip shortage).  For that reason along, we would not gamble on just being able to get a car at any port and think it is very wise to reserve well in advance.   That being said, although we are big fans of using rental cars on port days, we have found that we prefer to use public transit and our feet on many islands.   We do not normally even consider a rental car on Mykonos as we can use the local buses or a taxi if we are simply going to a beach (about all we do on that island other then spending some time walking around town).  On Santorini it really depends on what we plan.  If we want to simply spend our day divided between Oia and Fira (Thira) we do not rent a car.  But if we want to go all the way out to Red Beach (for a beach day) or Akritori or perhaps a winery then a rental car does put the entire island at your beck and call.  There are many smaller rental car companies on Santorini but we still think it makes sense to reserve a car during the busy season.

 

Rhodes and Corfu are both large islands where a rental car makes sense if one wants to do a lot of exploring outside the main towns.   But if only planning on going to a single destination it often makes sense to use taxis or tours.  But again, this will likely be a very busy year on the islands so if you want a car try to reserve in advance and perhaps you can find a deal with no deposit or cancelation penalties.  On our 14 day cruise we get two full days in Rhodes.  We decided to rent a car for only one of those two days (reserved in advance).  

 

Hank

 

Hank

[Ang517]

Thank you for all this great information! 
We will be traveling on the Odyssey in early May . Will the beach clubs in Mykonos be open by then ?(for beach pad rentals)

 

Rhodes- how easy is it to get a taxi or public transit to go to a beach? The cruise line offers beach tours but we usually go on our own so we are restricted to a timeline. Are there any beaches you recommend?

 

Chania- what is your favorite thing to do in Chania? 
 

thank you in advance!

[bennybear]

We got a taxi in Rhodes very  easily, and caught a public bus back to a nice beach with a lovely restaurant.

Mykonos will likely have beaches open then, take a local bus or taxi but do some research on which beach as some charge extremely high rental costs for chairs and umbrellas.  
Chania is a lovely town to wander in with an interesting market.  There are some really good restaurants on the waterfront if you wander a bit further from the usual tourist ones.    We also had enjoyed visiting the war cemeteries nearby.  

[Lois R]

Hi,🙂 not sure anything about beach clubs (not my thing) but my best suggestion is to contact the club directly via email.......chat with them 121..........then you will have first hand information and can plan accordingly.

[irvington]

In Rhodes I remember seeing a cab stand, with prices posted to various places, right after we left the ship. 

[monsterbari]

Cruising RCL to Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Crete and Ephesus (9/11/22) and several of the excursions I would have taken are sold out. I am looking into booking excursions from local sources as I have done in the past in Italy. 

How do you know if your cruise/ship is only allowing cruiseline excursions? I see no alerts on the RCL website, nor is there covid testing info for ports, etc. 

Can anyone provide some insight? 

Renee Walsh

[AlFrank]

On 4/6/2022 at 1:15 PM, monsterbari said:

Cruising RCL to Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Crete and Ephesus (9/11/22) and several of the excursions I would have taken are sold out. I am looking into booking excursions from local sources as I have done in the past in Italy. 

How do you know if your cruise/ship is only allowing cruiseline excursions? I see no alerts on the RCL website, nor is there covid testing info for ports, etc. 

Can anyone provide some insight? 

Renee Walsh

 

[AlFrank]

Call the cruise line excursion department.  I called HAL's and they said if you were vaccinated and boosted you could do independent tours