What tour have you done/doing in Mediterranean

[FierceAXBoi]

So many to choose from.......Not sure which one to take when it comes to Pompei.......In Rome whch do I take Classic Rome? Baroque? or Vatican? I know these tours are expensive. I never been to Europe so I dont know if its like the Caribbean where you can do a tour on your own. I wanted to do Rome on my own but its $89 so i might as well may the rest and take the tour.......Any suggestions?????

[hotspur]

I wanted to do Rome on my own but its $89 so i might as well may the rest and take the tour.......Any suggestions?????

Walk from the dock in Civitavecchia to the train station. For less than $20 you can buy a round-trip ticket to Rome and the train will get you there faster than the bus. There's a stop near St. Peter's as well as the Rome central station. Use the subway to get around the city. Stop in a place on any street corner for a tasty Italian lunch. Then take the train back to Civitavecchia. Piece of cake--or should I say cannoli.

[FierceAXBoi]

Ok first stop is Sicily what would you do

1 Taormina and Mt Etna

2 Mt Etna by itself then check out the town near the aship 9assuming theres one)

[hotspur]

Ok first stop is Sicily what would you do

1 Taormina and Mt Etna

2 Mt Etna by itself then check out the town near the aship 9assuming theres one)

Afraid I can't help you on this one. The only time I docked in Sicily was in Messina to drop off a passenger who needed emergency medical care. Hope someone else can give you help with that one.

 

If you're stopping in Livorno it's a short, cheap train ride to Pisa to see the leaning tower and the even more grand cathedral (or is it just a "church"). If you want to get to Florence or Siena it's probably better to take a ship's tour. Have fun. The Med was our first cruise and still the best. Really miss Renaissance: smaller ships, freestyle, lots of balconies, and low fares--hard-to-beat combination.

[FierceAXBoi]

i am having such a hardtime with these tours............i gone to alaska, bahamas and the caribbean. Its so much easier to do tours there. I am just afraid that I am going to pay $$$$$$ to see something I could of walked to or something that isnt all that.........

[fmax]

Do a search for the specific ports you're stopping at and you'll probably find advice from those that have done ship tours, private tours and on their own. Then you can decide which ones you need to do an organized tour for, and those you can do on your own.

 

For organized tours, check if there's a roll-call for your cruise and, if not, start one. There you'll be able to post for fellow cruisers who are interested in doing private tours (you'll be able to find recommendations for private drivers on these boards) and you'll find that the private tour is more economical (and adaptable).

 

Frances

[CarlNcl]

The official Rome tourism site is http://www.romaturismo.com

with info on all the free and pay attractions and public transit info

For under $5 you can get an all day public transit pass.

 

The official Italy site http://www.italiantourism.com

 

The PBS Europe travel guy Rick Steve's has a lot of info and guide books http://www.ricksteves.com

[dock]

Could you be more specific? Which ship , which ports and when. Did Med. last July on Liberty and we are booked for Eastern Med. August 2006 on Galaxy. Re: Pisa ship docked on a Sunday so we took a cab to Pisa rather than the train. Also I booked tower climb prior to cruise online. If you want to do Florence I also suggest the ships tour.

[suec12]

I think it would be a good idea to take a tour in Rome - I assume your ship docks at Cittavechia? Just getting into Rome and then getting to the sites that interested you could be a bit of a challenge if you're not used to using European public transportation. I suggest you choose the tour that interests you more - either religious Rome (Vatican) or ancient Rome. Plus for your visit its nice to be on a narrated tour - I always enjoy sites more when someone is giving me some background info. Also tours usually have priority entrance into sites - you won't be wasting time standing in line. As to Pompei - it might be easier to do on you own but again it's also a good place to have a tour guide

[Bruin Steve]

So many to choose from.......Not sure which one to take when it comes to Pompei.......In Rome whch do I take Classic Rome? Baroque? or Vatican? I know these tours are expensive. I never been to Europe so I dont know if its like the Caribbean where you can do a tour on your own. I wanted to do Rome on my own but its $89 so i might as well may the rest and take the tour.......Any suggestions?????

Check out my review on our last Med Cruise here:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=1775

 

I go into detail on all of the shore excursions we took...On that cruise, we went with ship's excursions in EVERY port...

 

Of course, your itinerary and choices may be different.

 

As a veteran European traveler and cruiser, here is my general take on excursions/tours/port visits in Europe:

 

There is no one way to see the European ports that works for everyone...we all have our different criteria, wants, needs and budgets...

 

That said, you generally have three choices:

1) Ship's excursions

2) Private guides

3) "On your own"

 

1) Ship's excursions are genrally the simplest and easiest way to go. Everything is arranged for you by the cruise line. There's little risk. You won't get lost, you won't miss the ship. You don't have to ante up cash at inconvenient times, trust some unknown with your credit card. There can be no confusion as to the cost or agreed upon "what's included or not". The bad points are that you have no say-so in the itinerary and you're on a bus with 25-40 others, some of whom can be slow or annoying. Of course, some folks love the cameraderie with fellow passengers...And You will get a decent tour without risk.

 

2) No matter what some folks tell you, Private guides will likely cost you a little more (unless you manage to get one with a van and can arrange for a group of six splitting the cost). If you go this route, get reccommendations here on this board. Some are very good, others can be major disappointments...or even prove completely flakey. You take the risk...You also take the risk of finding possibly flakey tour-mates. The benefits are that YOU control the itinerary, you have the guide pretty much to yourself, you don't have to wait for 40 people to get on or off a bus. Drawbacks? In Italy, most of these guides are not licensed to give you tours through Pompei or the Vatican or other sites--they can only drive you there and you may have to hire an additional local guide...Also, unlike the ship's tours, not everything is included--you'll spend extra for admissions fees at sites, lunch and other incidentals.

 

3) "On your own" sounds good to a lot of folks...Definitely CAN be the cheapest (Of course if you get lost or miss the boat, it could end up costing quite a bit). You definitely get the most "adventure". But, frankly, for first-time visitors on a cruise port stop, I don't advise it. Sure...if you know the town or if it's a small and easy to figure out town and you've done the research, IN SOME CITIES, it works fine...We did Copenhagen on our own last year--but we'd spent several days there in the past, knew it well and the ship docks close to the center of town...We did Tallinn, Estonia on our own in 2001, but there, it's a fairly small town and our ship docked walking distance and we DID OUR RESEARCH...

BUT, here is the MAJOR kicker...A lot of the Mediterranean ports, the ship docks VERY FAR from the attractions and sites you'll want to see (especially Livorno, Rome, Naples, Villefranche)...It's not just a case of getting off the ship and walking somewhere. You've got to deal with taxis, trains or buses. You probably don't know the schedules, the fares, what reasonable travel times are like. You can easily get lost, miss a connection or run into transit strikes, dishonest cab drivers or any of a number of problems...If you don't know the town or your research is not perfect, you are probably not going to be able to see a lot in most of these places (Of course, if your cruise takes you to a port like Dubrovnik or Mykonos or some smaller port where they have free shuttles from the ship or where town is easy walking distance and you have no desire to visit other nearby sites, you may be fine.)

 

The big question is your budget. If you can afford private tours or ship excursions everywhere, take them (and in places like Rome, Naples and Livorno, opt for full-day tours--no point being deposited back at the ship, an hour from town with 5 hours left in your port day)...

 

If you can't afford this everywhere, choose your tours wisely...Take some sort of tour in the big cities with the distant sites and figure out how to see the small towns on your own...

 

Good luck...

[JHUNTGOLF]

Hi FierceAXBoi,

 

Bruin Steve gave you some great advice. We did the Med last August on the Liberty. You can see the review I wrote at

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=229209

 

Between Bruin Steve's review and mine, you should get plenty of ideas.

 

I knew that time in the ports was at a premium so I did as much research as I could and then decided which ports we would opt for private tours and which ones that we would do on our own. We did private tours in Rome (Highlights of Rome with a driver/guide, but we did the Vatican on our own), Naples (Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast), Messina (Taormina and Mt. Etna), and Livorno (Pisa and Florence). The other ports: Dubrovik, Venice, Cannes, and Barcelona we did on our own. Many months in advance of our cruise, I made reservations with Drive Amalfi (Salvatore Lucibello was my contact) for all of the private tours as well as transfers to and from the ship. As Steve mentioned, we were able to greatly reduce our per person cost because I booked everything for 16 passengers. Just to give you an idea of how much we saved, Carnival wanted $65 per person for a one-way transfer to the ship. I got it for less than $24 per person. Similarly, Carnival wanted $165 per person for the all-day tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. I got it for about $98 per person and this included the entrance fee for the Greek Theatre. If you're interested in contacting Salvatore, let me know. His e-mail address has changed from what I put in my review. I hope this info helps.

 

John

[scorpiojem]

Hey Bruin Steve: I just wanted to say "thank you" for all the wonderful tips you've provided on these Boards. I've seen your responses on different issues, and it certainly seems like you have a wealth of information to pass on to us "first-timers". DH and I will be taking our first Med Cruise on the Galaxy in August, and you've definitely answered a lot of questions I had in my mind regarding types of tours, etc. Thanks again for all your insight and useful tips.

[retired and happy]

Hi John

 

Thanks for your advice. My head is spinning in trying to maximize the time spent in each port and deciding the best way to tour. Amalfi Tours has been recommended by others on these boards as well and I did find that the website was unavailable when I tried. If you could get me the new address am interested in seeing what I can arrange. We'll be on Brilliance of the Seas on October 24. Thanks so much.

 

Carol

[bethesq]

Carol, we will also be on the Oct 24th Brilliance sailing. There will be four of us. We also were attempting to decide whether to use private tours, but we felt that with only 4 of us that it would be much more expensive.

 

For experienced cruisers:

 

How worried should we be if we do private excursions about getting back in time to catch the ship?

 

We are trying to find excursions that do not consist of just looking out a bus window.

 

Has anyone done the RCCL "evening gondola ride with serenade?" Is it less expensive to just book your own? Or if you do it on your own, are there more people per gondola? Each couple feels that a romantic evening gondola ride is a must do so any suggestions on how best to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated. In making cost comparisons, it might be helpful for you to know that RCCL is charging $114 for their excursion.

 

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer us.

 

Beth

[DebNJoe]

Carol, we will also be on the Oct 24th Brilliance sailing. There will be four of us. We also were attempting to decide whether to use private tours, but we felt that with only 4 of us that it would be much more expensive.

 

For experienced cruisers:

 

How worried should we be if we do private excursions about getting back in time to catch the ship?

 

We are trying to find excursions that do not consist of just looking out a bus window.

 

Has anyone done the RCCL "evening gondola ride with serenade?" Is it less expensive to just book your own? Or if you do it on your own, are there more people per gondola? Each couple feels that a romantic evening gondola ride is a must do so any suggestions on how best to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated. In making cost comparisons, it might be helpful for you to know that RCCL is charging $114 for their excursion.

 

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer us.

 

Beth

Beth,

We were on the Liberty last Sept/Oct. It was our first trip to Europe, so I can tell you we were not experienced with the areas. I did lots of research for months ahead of time. The only ship excursion we did was Capri/Sorrento/Pompeii. We choose to do the ship's tour because we definately wanted to visit Capri, and due to the logistics, we wanted to play it safe. It was a very good tour and we did enjoy it very much, however it was the most expensive tour that we did.

 

We connected with others on our roll call for private tours in Florence, Messina and Cannes. This was very nice, since we were in groups of 8 traveling in vans rather than buses, which allows you to get closer to many of the sites especially Florence. Plus after months of corresponding, we felt like we knew each other. In fact we have made some lasting friendships. The good private guide will plan to have you back at the port at lease one hour before sailing. We were stuck in traffic in Messina due to an accident, but the tour guide advised us that the Carnival Bus was behind us! He told us that they always try to plan it that way "Just In Case" Of course - there are no guarantees.

 

Dubrovnik, Barcellona and Venice were "on our own" ports. We took a gondola ride (no serenade) for 1 hour for 100 euro. There were 4 of us, but the price would have been the same for 2. Still about 1/2 what the cruise line charges.

 

As the others have said, do your research. Decide what the "must see/do" items are, many things can be booked ahead of time online. In Venice St. Mark's Basilica and Doges Palance Secret Itinerary were ones that I did book ahead.

[sunsetme]

what would you recommend in istanbul and kusadasi?

which ports can you do on your own--santorini, mykonos, rhodes, athens?

what to do in naples?

where is the best shopping--no i dont want a rug.

thanks

[Dorothy]

Next month, My DH and I are leaving on NCL's Jewel. Ports of Call are Barcelona, Sicily, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice and back to Barcelona.

 

I just booked next years cruise on RCL's Splendour of the Seas. The itinerary is Venice to the Greek Isles, Turkey and back to Venice.

[JHUNTGOLF]

Hi John

 

Thanks for your advice. My head is spinning in trying to maximize the time spent in each port and deciding the best way to tour. Amalfi Tours has been recommended by others on these boards as well and I did find that the website was unavailable when I tried. If you could get me the new address am interested in seeing what I can arrange. We'll be on Brilliance of the Seas on October 24. Thanks so much.

 

Carol

 

Carol, you can reach Salvatore Lucibello of Drive Amalfi at the following e-mail addresses:

 

salvatoredriveamalfi@hotmail.com or *****.

 

John

[Kindlychap]

I don't mean to be rude - and I have just posted some queries on ports myself - but sometimes I think that the art of reading a guidebook has been lost.

 

Europe is not Mars. Neither is there a thief behind every cab window. Europeans are, in the main, very helpful and friendly - possibly less so in France and England, but more so in Italy.

 

You are spending a lot of money on the cruise. Why not spend just a little more and buy some guidebooks? I tend to find that the best combination is one high on pictures and low on text, and then one (the Rough Guides are good) that concentrates on minor detail instead of pictures....

[Kindlychap]

what would you recommend in istanbul and kusadasi?

which ports can you do on your own--santorini, mykonos, rhodes, athens?

what to do in naples?

where is the best shopping--no i dont want a rug.

thanks

 

If you are thinking of going to Capri from Naples, remember that the heat is ferocious in the summer, and the island is spoilt because of tourists until about 4-5 pm.

 

You might be better staying on the mainland.