Eastern Med Cruise

[Smithford]

Hi,

 

We are sailing on the Ocean Village Eastern Med cruise for 14 nights in June (Both itineries). Whilst we have visited some of the ports before either via a cruise or on holiday and so we have some ideas ourselves, we are looking for some advice as to best things to do / places to see in the following:

We are quite happy to hire a car / use public transport but we dont want to take organised trips unless we have to, (ie awkward to do on your own, busy stations etc)as we find many of them to be not worth the money. If there is enougth to keep us occupied in the local town / shops etc we are happy to return to the ship on some days to catch some sun.

 

Cephalonia

Katakolon - only here for the morning

Piraeus

Rhodes

Kusadasi

Mykonos

Santorini

We would also like to book a Hire car for Limassol - can anyone tell us if there is an office at the port - any web address / e-mail would also be useful, so can pre book as I have already done for both Corfu and Crete. Thanks

[HeinBloed]

Piraeus

 

It's very easy.

 

About 15 minutes walking distance from the cruise terminal there is the subway station of route 1 going to Athens Downtown.

 

Here is the operators website and here is the transport authority's website.

 

Taxis are just in front of the terminal building:

 

 

and here the price indication board:

 

 

So you see it's rather cheap to use a taxi.

 

Another nice option is to use the taxi to

 

Peace & Friendship Stadium

(Greek: Stadio Irinia & Felias)

 

and then take Tram route 1 along side of the Olympic venues of 2004 and slowly climb up to Athens downtown with a view to Acropolis and other historical sites. Very vivid through the streets of Athens:

 

http://www.tramsa.gr/html/en/diadromes.php?id=1

 

 

Rhodes:

 

 

You see - you have enough options just after you passed the port entrance.

 

Regards,

HeinBloed

[Bruin Steve]

My two cents on these ports:

 

Piraeus: Beware, many of those taxis at that taxi stand may be pre-booked, depending on how many ships are in port. We've done Athens "all three ways"--on our own, by ship's excursion and by private tour. Found it to be just too crowded and confusing on our own. We got lost a bit and didn't really see as much as we should have. The excursion we took in 2003--Acropolis and Cape Sounion really wasn't bad at all...but, yes, it is 40 people on a bus...This last cruise, we hired a taxi for the day to take us on a full day tour of the Pelopenesse region--Mycenae, Epidaurus, Corinth, et al. It was really quite fascinating...and, with just the two of us and our driver, we saw quite a bit...Cost for the day was 250 Euros plus tip...

 

Rhodes: Yes, the ship docked virtually across the street drom the gates of the walled city...You can easily just walk this one on your own. Do a little research first. Print out info and maps to take with you and you'll be just fine.

 

Kusadasi: Here my advice is to, most definitely take a private tour. We did a full day with Ekol Travel for $150 US TOTAL (including lunch) for the two of us. Our guide met us at the ship and took us to three ancient ruins: Miletus, Didyma and Ephesus. All three are fairly widespread and a good distance from the port - I would not try this "on my own"...

 

Mykonos: We actually just walked into town (a fairly healthy walk) but, had a taxi been available (there were none), we would have done that. No need for any kind of tour here.

 

Santorini: We've been here twice. First time, we did a half-day excursion (cheap enough), then walked around Thira on our own and took the public bus up to Oia. You can easily just wander on your own and take public transportation if you please. This last visit, we took the Cable Car up (the ship's tenders deposit you at the BOTTOM of the steep cliff and the Cable Cars are the best way up and down the mountain). At the top, in Thira town, we just found a rental car agency (there are several) and hired a car for the day. We drove on our own out to Ancient Fira (If you wish to do this, beware--this is one of the most treacherous roads you will find anywhere-one lane, dirt, multiple hairpin curves). The road only goes about half way up to the ruins...but, when you get to the top, there are the most incredible views you will find anywhere.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Good luck...

[Suesancy]

Hi - we too are doing Ocean Village in June - you aren't by any chance going on the 14th June are you? We are doing the b2b then - and are also looking at various private trips etc., as we don't really care for ship's tours. If you are on the same cruise as us we can may be hook up. I have just received prices for a private taxi tour to the Corinth Canal etc., from Athens - and for 2 people it was about 180 euros - but divided by 4 it is really reasonable.

We are getting really excited about this cruise now - it's a brilliant itinerary isn't it?

Happy Sailing

[Smithford]

Sue,

 

Yes we do go on 14th, but are travelling with some other friends who have never cruised before.

 

We have arranged Hire cars in a number of the ports, as even though they charge more for a one day rental - between four works out extremly cheap and are doing a couple of ship tours in others.

 

Not long to go now - I spoke to Ocean village yesterday and got our flight times from Manchester, we are going with Thomson 7:25 out 16:50 back. The other flight is with Thomas Cook this is 10am out 19:20 back.

 

These flight times are genuine, as they operated on Thursday .

[ZlistCelebrity]

hi

 

you will have a great time, we went on the thompson flight, the thos cook flight was delayed and didn't arrive until very late.

hope you get to santorini, great posts by people who've been we didn't get to anchor, lame excuse,

 

most ports are best on your own the ships trips are expensive for what you get

 

keep us informed how you get on especially santorini, we are jealous, could do it all again next week if we could spare the time.

 

cheers

 

pauline and rob manchester

 

Sue,

 

Yes we do go on 14th, but are travelling with some other friends who have never cruised before.

 

We have arranged Hire cars in a number of the ports, as even though they charge more for a one day rental - between four works out extremly cheap and are doing a couple of ship tours in others.

 

Not long to go now - I spoke to Ocean village yesterday and got our flight times from Manchester, we are going with Thomson 7:25 out 16:50 back. The other flight is with Thomas Cook this is 10am out 19:20 back.

 

These flight times are genuine, as they operated on Thursday .

[good old england]

hi,

going on ocean village on thursday for 2weeks flying from manchester,thomas cook.

could you tell me how close the docks are to beaches etc in the following ports.

limmasol

kudadasi

mykonos

crete.

thank you

les