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Rick Steves and Cruising


nordski
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I am so glad he does not recommend cruise visitors go to the Cinque Terre.

 

Me too. Cinque Terre is a great place to relax, but you can't relax when you have to make ridiculous connections to get there and then are on the clock with no home base. I do think it's a great post cruise destination to wind down. We went there after our Adriatic itinerary this summer.

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I am so glad he does not recommend cruise visitors go to the Cinque Terre.

 

I use the Rick Steves books for all our trips in Europe however I disagree with him on this one. He was on a Celebrity ship which is large and I can see why he wouldn't want the whole ship converging on the small towns of the Cinque Terra. When we went there, we were on a 680 passenger ship and the only one docked at Le Spezia. It was an easy train ride to the the last town and we purchased a train ticket combo with park pass that allowed you to hop on and off the train at each of the towns. We had a long day in port so no problem with timing. You can also take a ferry up if the weather is good and the season is on.

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I use the Rick Steves books for all our trips in Europe however I disagree with him on this one. He was on a Celebrity ship which is large and I can see why he wouldn't want the whole ship converging on the small towns of the Cinque Terra. When we went there, we were on a 680 passenger ship and the only one docked at Le Spezia. It was an easy train ride to the the last town and we purchased a train ticket combo with park pass that allowed you to hop on and off the train at each of the towns. We had a long day in port so no problem with timing. You can also take a ferry up if the weather is good and the season is on.

 

 

 

Good point.

 

I believe he is on the Reflection.

 

There are also some of us who would not be able to do a land trip to this area. On the other hand, always best to keep the impact upon locals, both positive and negative, in mind.

 

 

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I was on Celebrity Silhouete a few years ago and did Cinque Terra when we were docked in Genoa. I have to say that we had a really good day and not too bothered by lots of people. However it was very late in the season and we organised it ourselves to go on the train.

 

Rick Steves raises an issue that I feel is common in many places along the tourist trail and that is crowding. I'm thinking Positano and a lot of the Amalfi coast, Dubrovnik, Oia on Santorini etc. Venice is a wonderful city, but when you go back you realise just how much tourism has ruined the place. That is why I appreciate the overnights you get on Azamara so much. Dubrovnik takes on a totally different character in the evening. Same with Venice. A good reason to do land trips in your favourite spots.

 

Phil

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We were just in touch with one of our booked guides in Greece- he was all in a twitter and going to be filming with Rick Steven the next day. So we can assume that we must be doing something right according to Steves! Don't usually follow him but will be looking forward to seeing the show next year.

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I was on Celebrity Silhouete a few years ago and did Cinque Terra when we were docked in Genoa. I have to say that we had a really good day and not too bothered by lots of people. However it was very late in the season and we organised it ourselves to go on the train.

 

Rick Steves raises an issue that I feel is common in many places along the tourist trail and that is crowding. I'm thinking Positano and a lot of the Amalfi coast, Dubrovnik, Oia on Santorini etc. Venice is a wonderful city, but when you go back you realise just how much tourism has ruined the place. That is why I appreciate the overnights you get on Azamara so much. Dubrovnik takes on a totally different

 

character in the evening. Same with Venice. A good reason to do land trips in your favourite spots.

 

Phil

 

Good points, Phil. And this is why we do so much of our travel on land. Happily we are still able to do this. And we love to use ships as transportation across the seas!

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I was on Celebrity Silhouete a few years ago and did Cinque Terra when we were docked in Genoa. I have to say that we had a really good day and not too bothered by lots of people. However it was very late in the season and we organised it ourselves to go on the train.

 

Rick Steves raises an issue that I feel is common in many places along the tourist trail and that is crowding. I'm thinking Positano and a lot of the Amalfi coast, Dubrovnik, Oia on Santorini etc. Venice is a wonderful city, but when you go back you realise just how much tourism has ruined the place. That is why I appreciate the overnights you get on Azamara so much. Dubrovnik takes on a totally different character in the evening. Same with Venice. A good reason to do land trips in your favourite spots.

 

Phil

 

Completely agree Phil. Venice after 5 PM is magical while a few hours earlier it is almost unpleasant.

 

My cruises give me a flavour of places I would like to explore in depth via land trips

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Completely agree Phil. Venice after 5 PM is magical while a few hours earlier it is almost unpleasant.

 

My cruises give me a flavour of places I would like to explore in depth via land trips

 

I agree about Venice. The first time I was there, my romantic notions of the city were shattered and I actually gave up trying to enjoy the sights. It reminded me of a theme park without the requisite attention to traffic flow.

 

As Phil suggests, the second time we were on an Azamara itinerary and, with better planning and two late nights, we were better able to enjoy the experience and to tentatively imagine the charm of the city as it once was.

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The thing about Venice is to avoid St Mark’s Piazza and the Rialto Bridge. We bought a pop-up map which was very useful and walked all over Venice avoiding the popular areas. For most of the time we saw few other tourists - and this was in late June. We especially loved the Jewish quarter, which was very quiet.

The other thing that helped was buying a 3 day Vaporretto ticket, so we could see the Grand Canal from the water and get from one end of it to the other without having to push through the throng.

 

 

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I agree about Venice. The first time I was there, my romantic notions of the city were shattered and I actually gave up trying to enjoy the sights. It reminded me of a theme park without the requisite attention to traffic flow.

 

As Phil suggests, the second time we were on an Azamara itinerary and, with better planning and two late nights, we were better able to enjoy the experience and to tentatively imagine the charm of the city as it once was.

 

Nordski, one of my favourite memories of Venice is leaving the ship at 07.45, and buying a ticket for the Doges Palace as it opened at 08.30. I wandered those beautiful rooms with only my thoughts for company and as I left at 09.15 saw two noisy large groups of Japanese tourists about to enter.

 

Venice is a glorious city but you have to be creative to enjoy it during the day I've found.

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The thing about Venice is to avoid St Mark’s Piazza and the Rialto Bridge. We bought a pop-up map which was very useful and walked all over Venice avoiding the popular areas. For most of the time we saw few other tourists - and this was in late June. We especially loved the Jewish quarter, which was very quiet.

The other thing that helped was buying a 3 day Vaporretto ticket, so we could see the Grand Canal from the water and get from one end of it to the other without having to push through the throng.

 

 

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Great advice, and those were eventually the strategies I adopted.

 

In retrospect, it would have been extremely useful to have known about CruiseCritic and its very helpful posters back then. :)

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Nordski, one of my favourite memories of Venice is leaving the ship at 07.45, and buying a ticket for the Doges Palace as it opened at 08.30. I wandered those beautiful rooms with only my thoughts for company and as I left at 09.15 saw two noisy large groups of Japanese tourists about to enter.

 

Venice is a glorious city but you have to be creative to enjoy it during the day I've found.

 

If we ever return, I'll keep this strategy in mind. It was clearly a very special moment.

 

Certainly Dubrovnik has a very different atmosphere if one takes a taxi to arrive ahead of the throngs.

 

It would be interesting if Steves were to venture next on an Azamara cruise and then post his assessment and suggestions.

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I remember when Rick Steves got his start with his first shows on Public Broadcasting in the US. He was all about what he calls travel through the back door - independent land tours, using public transport and/or rental car, not a tour, and visiting the main cities but exploring the countrysides, staying in local accomodations. Now he has gone totally mainstream - well, that is good business for him.

He promoted the Cinque Terra as a special place, so much so that it is often over-run with crowds. Now he runs a big bus tour organization.

Somehow I have a problem with someone who produces a guidebook on Italy and doesn't include Sicily, but runs organized bus tours in Sicily. What happened to "through the back door" travel?

Only happy that we visited Venice for 3+ magical days back in May 1993 before cruise ships, and Dubrovnik for 3 days, and done about 2 dozen land trips in various places in Europe, so we got to see a lot of places without the crowds. His guidebooks have some merit, but I find doing my own extensive research always leads to a most enjoyable experience for us.

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I remember when Rick Steves got his start with his first shows on Public Broadcasting in the US. He was all about what he calls travel through the back door - independent land tours, using public transport and/or rental car, not a tour, and visiting the main cities but exploring the countrysides, staying in local accomodations. Now he has gone totally mainstream - well, that is good business for him.

He promoted the Cinque Terra as a special place, so much so that it is often over-run with crowds. Now he runs a big bus tour organization.

Somehow I have a problem with someone who produces a guidebook on Italy and doesn't include Sicily, but runs organized bus tours in Sicily. What happened to "through the back door" travel?

Only happy that we visited Venice for 3+ magical days back in May 1993 before cruise ships, and Dubrovnik for 3 days, and done about 2 dozen land trips in various places in Europe, so we got to see a lot of places without the crowds. His guidebooks have some merit, but I find doing my own extensive research always leads to a most enjoyable experience for us.

 

I agree that Steves may be altering some of his original principles.

 

But personally I consider his changes to be primarily tactical not strategic. In my view, his core belief has always been that travel broadens one's insights into other cultures and provides a base for a better understanding of others. Hence his tagline, "Keep on travelling."

 

In his original view that was best achieved "through the back door", and there are some of us who participated in that approach. However, I think his goal of encouraging more contact, especially between peoples of Europe and North America, led him to be less "purist" on the means of that contact. I too am surprised that he has written about cruising as he has, but I think he is trying to suggest a way of encountering cultures, both past and present, in the most immediate way possible within the increasingly popular framework of a cruise.

 

Where he and I part company, perhaps, is in his optimism concerning the understanding that travel encourages. And I am certainly less positive that cruise ships permit a great deal of meaningful encounter. However, it is always delightful to, at the least, encounter guides who wander off script to share their views on contemporary life. And perhaps some encounter is better than none, particularly in our increasingly more tribal present. Therefore I look forward to his TV show and further suggestions he may make.

 

Although my task here is not to defend Steves on all particulars, it will be, in my view, unfortunate if his dream of broader understanding is incorrect and my more skeptical view proves true.

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