Greek Isle cruise ports

Hi everyone, we are going on our first family cruise vacation (family of 4 kids ages 12 and 10) and decided to head to Europe and do a little venturing by going on the Greek Isle cruise on the star in August. A couple of questions about the ports which are Kotor, Corfu, Santorini (Oia), Mykonos, and Dubrovnik.

I think we are going to try and do our own thing in Kotor and Dubrovnik although we may do the Boka Bay Catamaran Sail & Beach. Any good ideas for Kotor, the catamaran sail seems a bit pricey? The catamaran would be fun to do since we've never done that but with a price of about $650 not sure that's really worth it. Old Town Dubrovnik seems easy to get to by foot so we'll do that.

We were thinking of doing the beaches in Corfu (not sure what beach but says it goes to a resort) and Mykonos (Kalafatis beach). Should we take the cruise excursion to these beaches or is it easier to get there via bus/taxi? We would like to see Mykonos town so doing a bus/taxi to the beach then to the town sounds good. My wife is more into doing stuff thru the cruise as to not get left behind or anything like that so I'm trying to get her to do a bus/taxi but not sure how easy it is.

Santorini I think we are going to do the Greek celebration although we wish it allowed more time than an hour in Oia. But any suggestions about Santorini to sway us away from the Greek celebration I will definitely consider.

Thanks for any responses, we are very excited for everything to come together.

You may also want to post this on the Greece Port of Call Forum for more response.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=594

I think we are going to try and do our own thing in Kotor and Dubrovnik although we may do the Boka Bay Catamaran Sail & Beach. Any good ideas for Kotor, the catamaran sail seems a bit pricey? The catamaran would be fun to do since we've never done that but with a price of about $650 not sure that's really worth it. Old Town Dubrovnik seems easy to get to by foot so we'll do that.

Obviously these things are down to individual interests, but for a first visit to Kotor, I wouldn't be looking at doing anything other than staying in the old town and climbing up the city walls for the views. Kotor is possibly my favourite of all the Med ports for just wandering round. The walls are quite hard work, but well worth the effort.

I don't know much about the Catamaran tour, but it will pass the same places that you will pass when sailing into and out of Kotor. It's a spectacular area to sail through, but you will get plenty of opportunity to see it on the ship. Personally, that would be quite a long way down my list of things to do in Kotor, although of course it may be just right for you.

Kotor is also very easily walkable from the port. The ship literally docks just outside the city gates. It's like they have just parked it up there. Dubrovnik, on the other hand, requires a taxi or shuttle bus ride to get to the old town (although this is also well worth doing). It is a bigger town, and another of my favourites.

Of those I've been to santorini and Mykonos. Can't remember if the cruise port is right outside the town in Mykonos or if there was a required shuttle that took you into the town. But you'll get to the town there, don't need to plan for that. Sorry we didn't go to any beaches so can't help with that. We did DIY and took a ferry to Delos and then returned to explore the town. Should have plenty of time to take a taxi to a beach.

Can def do santorini on your own. When we got off the ship, there were a number if vendors selling transportation to oia. They took you to another dock by boat where there were buses to take you up the hill to oia. Then they had buses scheduled all day at the meeting spot to return you to thira. You did have to make your way back down the hill at the end. Had time in oia to explore, take pictures, and have lunch.

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Obviously these things are down to individual interests, but for a first visit to Kotor, I wouldn't be looking at doing anything other than staying in the old town and climbing up the city walls for the views. Kotor is possibly my favourite of all the Med ports for just wandering round. The walls are quite hard work, but well worth the effort.

 

I don't know much about the Catamaran tour, but it will pass the same places that you will pass when sailing into and out of Kotor. It's a spectacular area to sail through, but you will get plenty of opportunity to see it on the ship. Personally, that would be quite a long way down my list of things to do in Kotor, although of course it may be just right for you.

 

Kotor is also very easily walkable from the port. The ship literally docks just outside the city gates. It's like they have just parked it up there. Dubrovnik, on the other hand, requires a taxi or shuttle bus ride to get to the old town (although this is also well worth doing). It is a bigger town, and another of my favourites.

These are my favourite ports of call, we did all of them on our own and all easy ports, I totally agree with post above, kotor just beautiful ship docks right in m Dole of town, in Dubrovnik we jumped on local bus to city, cheap and easy to do bought tickets to walk the wall. But equally nice to just walk the city. In Mykonos again ship was tender to port, and was in Mykonos town, walked the town and then caught local local bus to paradise beach, it was lovely but in hindsight would have probably stayed in Mykonos town. In santorini, we gir of ship, literally few steps to cable station to take you to the top and the town, you can walk up steps or get donkey ride personally I wouldn't, town lovely and great views from top

In Corfu we got local bus to town, didn't take long, very very easy and nice beach or town to explore.

Fabulous ports of call, I would repeat in a heartbeat. Enjoy

Hi everyone, we are going on our first family cruise vacation (family of 4 kids ages 12 and 10) and decided to head to Europe and do a little venturing by going on the Greek Isle cruise on the star in August. A couple of questions about the ports which are Kotor, Corfu, Santorini (Oia), Mykonos, and Dubrovnik.

 

I think we are going to try and do our own thing in Kotor and Dubrovnik although we may do the Boka Bay Catamaran Sail & Beach. Any good ideas for Kotor, the catamaran sail seems a bit pricey? The catamaran would be fun to do since we've never done that but with a price of about $650 not sure that's really worth it. Old Town Dubrovnik seems easy to get to by foot so we'll do that.

 

We were thinking of doing the beaches in Corfu (not sure what beach but says it goes to a resort) and Mykonos (Kalafatis beach). Should we take the cruise excursion to these beaches or is it easier to get there via bus/taxi? We would like to see Mykonos town so doing a bus/taxi to the beach then to the town sounds good. My wife is more into doing stuff thru the cruise as to not get left behind or anything like that so I'm trying to get her to do a bus/taxi but not sure how easy it is.

 

Santorini I think we are going to do the Greek celebration although we wish it allowed more time than an hour in Oia. But any suggestions about Santorini to sway us away from the Greek celebration I will definitely consider.

 

Thanks for any responses, we are very excited for everything to come together.

Dubrovnik is best done on your own. Be sure to walk the walls.

Corfu, I don't advise going to the beach. The island tour we did included an ancient monastery and we go to see a lot of the island. Save your beach time for Mykonos.

Santorini is great, not sure about the Greek celebration. I recommend taking a tour or excursion, and see as much of the island as possible. The island is crowded and going DIY you can waste a lot of time trying to catch a taxi or bus. Don't even think of doing the donkeys.

Thank you for your feedback, its been a tremendous help. It seems that its pretty easy to get to wherever we want to go off the ship. I will definitely post in the thread above and thanks again for all of your suggestions.

Since Kotor is my favourite European port I will give my 2 cents.

I agree with above that its an easy walk from the tender spot (even easier than Dubrovnik) and the walls are a great walk around if you have the energy.

Some people booked trips up the valley in cars to really see the view too.

Also get up early for the sail in....stunning and Fjord like.

Corfu is great but the beaches don't need a whole day. Maybe a walk around Cordu old town or the fortress than the beach?

just curious how you enjoyed the cruise ? what did you end up doing in each port?

Hi, Mykonos town very near to the port either shuttle or share a taxi you can walk but it is a trek. Lovely little town cobble streets and white washed houses. A nice beach can be found by taxi not too far from town. Beware super paradise is nude gay male or not beware if that is your thing ??!!??

We have been to Mykonos a few times and liked Ornos beach not too far in a taxi.

Santorini: easy to do by yourself. If you get off early enough when we were in last time there were 7 boats in it was like a bun fight. This spoilt it for us.

Please don't use the donkeys it is cruel.

If you try to walk up instead of using the cable car be very wary coming down we saw loads of people slip.

Easy enough to pick a trip to orla.

Corfu: there is plenty to see in the town its self lot of historybeen there a few times but can't recommend a beach near enough to the town.

Enjoy

just curious how you enjoyed the cruise ? what did you end up doing in each port?

The cruise was great. My family had a great time at all the ports and we did everything ourselves. Mykonos we took a bus to Platis Gialos which was very easy to do and had a great day, Corfu we walked to town, Kotor we walked into town and up the cliff steps to the church, Dubrovnik we took a cab to town and walked the wall. Santorini which is amazing was actually our least favorite place due to the amount of people there, how long it took to get up into town even with the high speed boat/bus transfer. People pushing the line forward and a little girl almost got pushed into the water. Rude people all over the place. We walked the donkey path down which was a mess at night. We didn’t fall but I don’t recommend it. If we were to go to Santorini again I think we would’ve led stay there and enjoy it more without the crowds and rude people, I couldn’t even see my son who is 10 and could only hold his hand and people were trying to push us apart to get in front of us and jump ahead in line. It was our first time to Europe with the kids and we had a blast besides that incident. Before the cruise we were in Rome did 3 nights then took a train to Venice.

Here is what we did in each port....not a family but there were four of us.

Corfu - we wandered the town and generally enjoyed just being there.

Dubrovnik - caught a taxi (fixed price and cheaper for four that using the per person NCL provided bus - and we beat the crowds to town somewhat) to town, immediately went up the walls (it gets hot and we were there in April so i can't imagine what it is like in the middle of summer) and after walking the full circuit, we came down and enjoyed time wandering the town. We had a great typical dessert - Kremepita....be sure to try one!

Mikonos - I could swear we docked but maybe I am wrong, I remember we walked across the parking lot and along the road rather than waiting for the provided shuttle bus into town. Seems like it was a 10-15 min walk as opposed to waiting 15 for the bus. In town we wandered for a bit, then grabbed a taxi to the aforementioned Super Paradise beach (we were four gay men). It is not all gay, it is not nude only, and on May 2nd it was pretty empty! LOL. But it was my birthday and by gosh I was going swimming so we did...we were the only folks in the chilly water! We were there a couple of hours and then headed back to town. Can't remember whether the restaurant whose beach we were using called the taxi or if it was waiting, but it wasn't a big issue. Back in town we had a GREAT late lunch for my birthday - grilled octopus and whole grilled fish...not cheap but oh so tasty! Keep in mind that the price you see for the fish isn't a per person price, it is the per kilo price so what we thought was going to be a $15 meal per person ended up being closer to $100! LOL live and learn.

Santorini - we rode the cable car up and had pre-rented a car. Highly recommend this. We left town and headed toward the lighthouse with stops along the way at the black beach, the red beach, and anything else that caught our eye. The wine co-op caught our eye on the way back so we stopped for a tasting. They had wine and tasty morsels out which we enjoyed only to find out that we were supposed to pay for the tasting - they presumed we were with the cruise bus tour that was there. Anyway, I didn't feel too guilty as we ended up buying wine so they got our money! We then drove back through Fira to Oia where we parked in the city provided free parking lot and wandered the town and had a delicious lunch. During lunch I spotted a hotel with a cave pool and said, that's where I want to spend my next big birthday...and so that comment has generated the adventure that starts in two weeks! We are quitting work, heading on a TA to Spain for a month, followed by Italy, and then a week in THAT hotel in Santorini so I can swim in THAT hotel on my birthday!

Like so many other PPs, I believe all of these places can easily be done on your own and without worry about missing the ship. I also think since you are taking your kids to such a far away place, that you ought to consider doing things you can't do on a typical Caribbean cruise. I mean where else can you take a cable car (or a donkey) up a cliff?

Have a great cruise!

Santorini can be awful if there are a lot of ships in. I would check whatsinport.com to see how many other ships are there the same day. Last time we were there the wait time to go up the cable car was over an hour and people coming down said they had waited over 2 hours to get back down. As we had been there before we decided to just have a drink by the cable car and got back on the tender. If you are lucky enough to get up to Thira then just a short walk through the town takes you to the bus station for a very inexpensive trip to Oia.

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Corfu - if they offer the 4x4 driving adventure, it’s a hoot. You need to be able to drive a manual transmission. You get a great island tour in a follow the leader style caravan of open top 4x4 vehicles, with a little bit of off road driving, spectacular photo ops, and lunch a great taverna. Narrow winding roads and Greek driving habits make this a real thrill. I loved it.

For Santorini, I highly recommend Captain Ted’s Santorini Sailing. Book direct for your group. You will talk about this day for the rest of your life. Chances to to cliff jump, swim in the hot water of the caldera, fresh grilled seafood on board, and plenty of local wine for the grown ups. If you have one splurge on your trip, do this.

Hi everyone, we are going on our first family cruise vacation (family of 4 kids ages 12 and 10) and decided to head to Europe and do a little venturing by going on the Greek Isle cruise on the star in August. A couple of questions about the ports which are Kotor, Corfu, Santorini (Oia), Mykonos, and Dubrovnik.

 

I think we are going to try and do our own thing in Kotor and Dubrovnik although we may do the Boka Bay Catamaran Sail & Beach. Any good ideas for Kotor, the catamaran sail seems a bit pricey? The catamaran would be fun to do since we've never done that but with a price of about $650 not sure that's really worth it. Old Town Dubrovnik seems easy to get to by foot so we'll do that.

 

We were thinking of doing the beaches in Corfu (not sure what beach but says it goes to a resort) and Mykonos (Kalafatis beach). Should we take the cruise excursion to these beaches or is it easier to get there via bus/taxi? We would like to see Mykonos town so doing a bus/taxi to the beach then to the town sounds good. My wife is more into doing stuff thru the cruise as to not get left behind or anything like that so I'm trying to get her to do a bus/taxi but not sure how easy it is.

 

Santorini I think we are going to do the Greek celebration although we wish it allowed more time than an hour in Oia. But any suggestions about Santorini to sway us away from the Greek celebration I will definitely consider.

 

Thanks for any responses, we are very excited for everything to come together.

We have been to all the ports you are to visit except Kotor. We live on an island on the coast of Georgia and can go to the beach every day if we wanted that.

We don't travel to Europe or anywhere to go to the beach, except perhaps Hawaii.

We like to see historical or cultural sights. Don't ignore those sights, even if you do go to the beach some.

Dubrovnik is a wonderful city that you can do on your own, visit the monastery and museum in the city, walk the walls.

Corfu, we took a great tour of the north end of the island, visiting an ancient monastery among other things.

Mykonos, walk around the town and perhaps take a tour on the ferry to Delos, loads of history there.

Santorini is awesome for its beauty. Take a tour of the island that includes a winery.

Been to these ports several times. Often, the key to what you do is the time you get there and when you leave. If you are on the cruise that gets to Santorini at lunchtime and leaves at 10pm it is worth going on the ship's cruise to Oia because you will get a dedicated tender to a port down the coast to catch the bus - no crowds. After getting back to Fira, you can spend time there and watch the sunset from up there. After that the other ships will probably have gone and the trip down on the cable car will be no problem.

Corfu has a HoHo bus the leaves from the town. There is a bus from the port into the town that was only 5 euros each way last year.

Dubrovnik definitely use a taxi. Cheaper than the bus and easier to get back too without queues. Don't miss having one of the Ice Creams . You will need some local currency to buy anything because they are not allowed to use euros, but there are some small change places in the main street.

Mykonos the ship either docks or tenders. If it docks, there is a courtesy bus to town, or for a few euros, you can catch a boat taxi by the dock gate. Plenty to see walking round the town for a first visit.

Haven't done Kotor for a few years but a trip either on a tour or local bus through the tunnel to Budva on the coast is worth doing if the hiily walks in Kotor itself are too much in the heat. You will probably only have half a day there so no problem with the sail in or out depending if it is morning or afternoon- spectacular as it is the most southerly fjord in Europe (and it is a lot warmer than the northen ones!) The trip in and out will take something like an hour and a half and at one point you will feel like you could shake hands with the people on the land.