Dubrovnik Excursion Question

[Swick]

We’ll be doing the Viking Empires of the Mediterranean cruise in August.  In Dubrovnik, I think we’d like to do the included walking tour and then do the walls on our own. It looks like we can purchase tickets for that independently.  Is that correct?  Am I missing anything? Any suggestions/hints about the best way to go about this. Could book the wall walk through Viking but then we wouldn’t get the walking tour of old town.

[mlutz11175]

We did this earlier this week without difficulty.  Our walking tour guide pointed out the three gates to us.  We bought the tickets at the less busy Ploce Gate. Just follow the signs and the ticket booth was at the top.  For Pile Gate, I think the tickets are sold at the tourist office.  It was enjoyable and the view from the top was beautiful!  When you are done, the Viking shuttle picks up outside the Pile gate.  Although they pick up every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour, the bus will leave early if it’s full.

 

Ticket cost was about 35 Euros each.  They take credit cards.

Edited May 1 by mlutz11175
Added info

[Swick]

Thanks so much! You even answered the question I forgot to ask about transportation back to the ship!

[BlairsvilleCruiseGirl]

11 minutes ago, Swick said:

Thanks so much! You even answered the question I forgot to ask about transportation back to the ship!

If you're going in August, be sure to wear lots of sunscreen, a big hat and be prepared to sweat!  It's really hot with no shade up there and the sun reflects off all that stone.

[Swick]

Thanks. Totally understand and will be doing as you suggest.

[Murt22]

Thanks for the information - we just booked the included walking tour and had intended to do the wall on our own and you answered all the questions!

[mlutz11175]

Viking provided shuttle service between city center and ship in Athens, Corfu and Dubrovnik.  In Zadar and Koper, we were docked in city center.  Santorini was a tender port.  Shore excursions were supposed to tender from a separate area than independent travelers but due to rough sea everyone used the one by the cable car.  Long lines and very chaotic…we took cable car down for tender after tour but I think a lot of people who thought they were in the cable car line ended up finding themselves at the stairs.  Our departure was delayed that night to wait for everyone to get back.  We were on all day excursions in Katakolon and Kotor so I don’t recall land access there but I think Kotor city center was accessible on foot.

[Swick]

Thanks for the info on shuttles in the other ports…was wondering about that as well.  Slightly off topic of my original posts, but since some of you seem familiar with this cruise…any other recommendations for excursions to do or not to do? Specifically wondering about Santorinin and Athens. In Athens our focus is the Acropolis since most have not been there before.  Thanks again for all of the help!

[BlairsvilleCruiseGirl]

2 hours ago, Swick said:

Thanks for the info on shuttles in the other ports…was wondering about that as well.  Slightly off topic of my original posts, but since some of you seem familiar with this cruise…any other recommendations for excursions to do or not to do? Specifically wondering about Santorinin and Athens. In Athens our focus is the Acropolis since most have not been there before.  Thanks again for all of the help!

For Santorini, as MLUTZ11175 says, usually the ship first anchors offshore to allow everyone that is on a Viking tour to tender to waiting buses, which then drive up to the towns/excursions.  The ship then relocates down the coast to the dock by the Cable Car and anyone not on Viking excursions can tender ashore there.  The problem with this is, every other ship in port at that time is also tendering in there, as well as boats from neighboring islands, so it was an absolute zoo there when we finally got on-shore.  After trying to figure out which line was for the cable car, then watching other tenders dock closer to the cable car then Viking did (we were almost the furthest away) and everyone discharge and get in the "line" willy-nilly, we actually turned around and went back to the ship!  On the tender back to the ship was a couple that had taken the first included tour of the morning, walked around the town a little bit and were already heading back, while we hadn't even gotten to the top of the cliff!  So the bottom line is, take at least the included tour to get you up top - they'll give you a cable car ticket for the trip down.  Again, word of warning on the way down late in the day, there will be hundreds, maybe thousands, depending on how many ships are in port, of people also heading down on the cable cars late in the day, so you have to get there early so you don't miss the last tender.

 

For Athens, try to get the earliest tour to the Acropolis as you can, because it gets very hot and crowded the later in the morning you go.  We were on the first tour, and we were able to walk right in and the crowds weren't bad, but by the time we were leaving there were hundreds in the queues, standing in the heat, waiting to enter.

[mlutz11175]

We spent two days in Athens before our cruise, visiting the Acropolis, New Acropolis Museum, and archeological museum, so we chose the Delphi excursion on the first day of cruise to see a little of the surrounding area.  In Santorini we did the Best Of Santorini excursion.  It was ok but Oia was very crowded with four ships in port that day.  The included lunch was good.  Neither of us remembers anything else from that day other than the cable car fiasco so it certainly wasn’t all that memorable for the extra cost!

 

If you have extra time after the Acropolis tour, the shuttle pickup location is very close to the pedestrian friendly Plaka shopping area.  I thought prices in Greece were very reasonable, for food and souvenirs.

 

In hindsight, we preferred the included walking tours where available to the ones where we drove on a bus for an hour each way to see something.  It seemed we saw a lot of roadside scenery but didn’t really get a good feel for the area.  My favorite excursion was Ancient Olympia.  All of our guides were great but the one on that excursion was very knowledgeable and personable.

[Swick]

Thanks to all that have graciously replied and shared wonderfully helpful info. 

[longterm]

9 hours ago, Swick said:

Thanks for the info on shuttles in the other ports…was wondering about that as well.  Slightly off topic of my original posts, but since some of you seem familiar with this cruise…any other recommendations for excursions to do or not to do? Specifically wondering about Santorinin and Athens. In Athens our focus is the Acropolis since most have not been there before.  Thanks again for all of the help!

If you have a chance, do see Delphi; it's not nearby, so it's a bit of a journey, but of all the places we saw around Athens, it was my favorite.

The Acropolis Museum is just as fantastic; it's probably the best archaeological museum I've ever seen. We didn't go down below--I *think* you can--but just being able to see through the floor was pretty amazing.

[Nemo2005]

@mlutz11175 do you recall if there was a shuttle in Kotor, too?  Or, is that port walkable to the town area?

[GonzoWCS]

Thanks for this information.

 

Cheers

[mlutz11175]

3 hours ago, Nemo2005 said:

@mlutz11175 do you recall if there was a shuttle in Kotor, too?  Or, is that port walkable to the town area?

There was not a shuttle in Kotor.  I believe the city center was walkable from the port but our bus excursion was so long we had no extra time to check it out.

[ddeprez]

On 5/1/2024 at 8:57 PM, mlutz11175 said:

We did this earlier this week without difficulty.  Our walking tour guide pointed out the three gates to us.  We bought the tickets at the less busy Ploce Gate. Just follow the signs and the ticket booth was at the top.  For Pile Gate, I think the tickets are sold at the tourist office.  It was enjoyable and the view from the top was beautiful!  When you are done, the Viking shuttle picks up outside the Pile gate.  Although they pick up every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour, the bus will leave early if it’s full.

 

Ticket cost was about 35 Euros each.  They take credit cards.

We were just there two days ago, and had the exact same experience! Walk took us about 1.25-1.5 hrs with lots of stops for pics. Easy process!

[ddeprez]

On 5/1/2024 at 9:30 PM, BlairsvilleCruiseGirl said:

If you're going in August, be sure to wear lots of sunscreen, a big hat and be prepared to sweat!  It's really hot with no shade up there and the sun reflects off all that stone.

In August considering the heat factor, you may want to consider taking the first available shuttle off the ship to town, and do the wall walk first if you can book an afternoon included tour. Find out from the excursion staff if you could just meet your afternoon tour at the shuttle stop, or maybe even shuttle back to the ship for a quick lunch and pick up your afternoon tour.  Just an option to consider if timing works….