Port Help! Last minute booking

[steviem1]

We just booked for a cruise in Europe next month. We are repeating several ports and need some new options, since we have been to the most popular ones already. Would really appreciate any suggestions regarding private touring companies in these ports, so that we can see some new sights.

 

Rome, Athens, Izmir,Turkey, Valletta, Malta.

 

Thanks,

[sea-explorer]

A bit difficult to answer this one as I'm not sure what you've already seen. Also, do you want to se new sights within the towns themselves or venture further afield? We will be in a similar situation next year (re-visiting ports) so I have done a little research.

 

Rome: Can't be too helpful here..what have you already seen. If the usual sights..Colosseum, Vatican etc, have you thought about;

Scavi tour

Borghese art gallery, museum & zoo

A trip on the archeobus: (http://goeurope.about.com/cs/italy/a/archeobus.htm )

 

Further afield, I found this:

 

 

 

In town, (Civitavecchia )there is the Archaeological Museum and just outside the city the Terme Taurine (Roman spa)

About 25 km (16 miles) north of Civitavecchia is Tarquinia. A visit to this place could be one of the highlights of your journey. Here you meet the Etruscan civilization. The origin of Tarxuna, its Etruscan name, goes back to the 9th century B.C. Your visit should include: the National Museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi and the Etruscan Necropoli.

Palazzo Vitelleschi is itself a splendid building in gotic-renaissance style. The musueum hosts the major collection of Etruscan foundings.

The necropoli includes more than 100 tombs. Open and visitable are not more than 40. But due to the lack of adeguate lighting only a dozen can really be visited. The conditions for visiting the tombs can vary. The best is to check at the National Mueum. The necropolis is just outside the town of Tarquinia.

To visit Tarquinia the best is to hire a taxi for half day.

 

 

or what about a trip to Ostia? http://www.initaly.com/regions/latium/ostia.htm

 

You could hire a driver to take you directly, rather than travel from Rome. I haven't any personal experience of private driver's in italy, but there are many recommendations on these boards.

 

Athens. This will be a first time visit for us & we have booked Jordan.

http://www.athens-tours.gr/city_tour.html

 

There are several ideas for visits on his website if you have seen the 'usual' sites.

 

Izmir. This will be a repeat port for us too and we have been to Ephesus. Sites with extra info:

 

http://www.gofethiye.com/turkiye/izmir.asp

 

http://forum.kusadasi.biz/thread11931.html (lots of other info on this forum too.)

 

http://www.turkeyrealestate.co.uk/Turkey-Aegean/Izmir/Izmir-Historical-Sites/izmir-historical-sites.html

 

Valletta

Can't help too much here either..but have you thought about a trip to Marsaxlokk ..a fishing village with colourful boats

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/malta/09.htm

 

or Mdina, the 'silent city' and ancient capital?

 

Details of this & other ideas can be found on the same site given above.

 

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/malta/

 

Hope this is enough to get you started. Hopefully other posters will be able to suggest private drivers you can use.

[CintiPam]

Re: Izmir and Turkey: we had a wonderful private tour for two last month for our port day in Kusadasi arranged through Ekol Tours easily by email. We spent six hours doing exactly what I had specified: a heavy archaeological/history tour of Ephesus, St. John's Basilica, Archaeological Museum in Selcuk, and stop at the Temple of Artemis, with no shopping whatsover. We had a lovely new a/c Mercedes private van, and the guide turned the second row seats around so he could face us to talk between stops.

 

I have the name and phone number of our guide, who lives in Izmir, whom I am sure you can contact directly. We found his English excellent, he was great at adjusting his pace to ours, and his emphasis to our interests. We even visited a historic mosque in Selcuk because it was directly across the street from a place I suggested for a quick lunch which I had read about on tripadvisor. (BTW, he was happy to try it at my suggestion even though he knew nothing about the place, and insured we had excellent service.)

 

Before we parted after one of the best sightseeing days of my life, he mentioned many other places we could tour with him upon our return to Turkey.

 

I assume you already have toured Ephesus, but would be happy to supply our guide's name and phone number for you to contact him directly if you have any interest. Simply email me at psmeyers@fuse.net.

[jethelicopter]

In Rome, I would definitely try to use Fabrizzio with allarounditaly.net

We just returned and he was absolutely fantastic!!! We had a great time with him and he made sure we saw everything. He even set up a guide for us for the Vatican/Sistine Chapel.

 

In Valetta, I just extremely disappointed. There really isn't much there, and I certainly wouldn't spend money on a private tour guide for such a small place. You could probably walk the whole island yourself!

 

Good luch and have fun!!!

Molly

[Westaussie]

There is so much history and so much to do in Malta - Mdina, the old capital, is lovely. Then there are the glass factories (beautiful products) and silver/gold filigree jewellery. This site might help http://www.touringmalta.com/index.htm

 

The island is 110 square miles - not exactly small!

[bellagirl]

Hi-I can only help you out with some of the cities that we've visited. IN Rome, we used rome in limo at romeinlimo.com. They were fantastic. Had Duman as our driver and saw everything we wanted to see. ie. Colosseum,Palatine Hill,Capitoline Hill, the Keyhole of Malta,The Pyramid(that was neat!),Roman Forum,etc. We also hired a guide for St. Peter's by the name of Sarah, she was great too.

In Athens, we were lucky enough to stay 3 nights pre-cruise and our hotel was directly underneath the Acropolis. Needless to say, we did the tour on our own and it was very easy. From the Acropolis, we just walked to the Plaka area,had a great lunch and did the Ancient Agora and surrounding area.

In Turkey, we hired Kagan Kosagan as our guide. There were about 20 of us and he showed us Ephesus and two days in Istanbul. Excellent guide. He books up quickly though.

Enjoy your Med. ports! Shelly:)

[Travel to Ports]

Can I assume that you have posted this question on your roll call? Many of us crazies spend a year or more planning our ports and you might benefit from asking this of those folks with whom you'll be sailing? Could even join some small groups who may be looking for a final 2 passengers to complete their vans?

Good luck,

David

[steviem1]

Since NCL decided not to reposition the Jade to the Caribbean, this itinerary is fairly new, so that most everyone on it has booked recently. Wish that there were more people on the cruise thread to connect with. Just trying to pick up some additional info from the port thread. Thank you all for your help and keep it coming. My head is swimming with info.

[ta tommy]

Jethelicopter wrote: In Valetta, I just extremely disappointed. There really isn't much there, and I certainly wouldn't spend money on a private tour guide for such a small place. You could probably walk the whole island yourself!

 

 

 

 

reply: WHAT???? Nonsense........Valletta is ouzing with history, actually Malta is ouzing in history and beautiful sights. This is the first time I've read that someone was disappointed. Over 2000 years of History and you say there isn't much to see!!!!!!!!

[samavarcruiser]

Izmir(Ephesus)

www.ephesusexcursions.com

[Grandpaul]

Hi-I can only help you out with some of the cities that we've visited. IN Rome, we used rome in limo at romeinlimo.com. They were fantastic. Had Duman as our driver and saw everything we wanted to see. ie. Colosseum,Palatine Hill,Capitoline Hill, the Keyhole of Malta,The Pyramid(that was neat!),Roman Forum,etc. We also hired a guide for St. Peter's by the name of Sarah, she was great too.

 

We used Rome In Limo also and we too had Duman as our driver. I'm sure Duman remembers my wife making sounds in the back seat as he found his way through the traffic. Really funny. We saw those same sights and another plus was we didn't have to stand in line for tickets. We had a tour guide named Mary at St. Peters who also did a great job. I complimented her on being 20 and able to speak 2 lanuguages fluently. He could speak 3. I can't speak one fluently. That whole cruise was the trip of a lifetime and our tour of Rome was the highlight.