Back from Eastern Mediterranean recently?

[rottyg]

Our first time to Eastern Mediterranean on the Galaxy :) and finalizing Shore Excursions. We already have private tours in Istanbul and Ephesus but trying to decide if we should take ship's tour to Lindos in Rhodes, Athens and Santorini. We like to do staff on our own but would not like to miss out :cool:

Thanks!!:p

[CoralReef]

We were on Galaxy in May. There is a lot of good information on the ports at the Port of Call forum-- for instance, a lot on Athens, which is very easy and cheap to do on your own by taxi or metro, thus beating the bus crowds to the Acropolis.

 

For Rhodes, we took the Lindos tour, and while the Lindos part was great (incredibly beautiful, interesting village, fascinating history), we really didn't like the long sales stop at a ceramics store. We had to wait for 45 minutes while people bought stuff, so we didn't get as much time in old town Rhodes as we had hoped. I can't really recommend the ship's tour for that reason.