Rustybuttons123

I just used Twelve Transfers, they were pretty good. An 8 person van from Heathrow to downtown London is about £80. Go to http://www.twelvetransfers.co.uk

I've flown Easy Jet and Ryan in the past, no problems. But make sure you fare it out fully with bags and seats, then compare to BA, Alitalia, Vueling and same with those, check the total fare but flight times and convenience are factors too. Also check flights out of London City airport (LCY), that's really convenient though depends on where you're staying in London.

I've driven in Barbados, didn't get lost. Of course a tour guide is going to say its easy to get lost, they want you to buy their services. Car rental companies will deliver, just get a hold of some, check their rates and set it up.

I will be in Naples in May. I have always marveled at the beautiful pastel buildings on the water in photos that say "Naples". I wanted to experience the area. I see that when in port you can go to Capri and other areas. Does anyone know where these beautiful waterfront homes are? I saw them on Pinterest. It just said Naples. Thanks very much.:) This is my first European cruise!!! My 60th birthday!!!:)

Procida island is known for its picturesque, colorful harbor. This might be what you saw pictures of, Google for "port of Corricella". Ferries leave from Naples Harbor, you should be able to walk from your ship. The high speed ferry takes about 40 minutes. There's excellent seafood restaurants on Procida, go to La Lampara, has a spectacular view.

Not really proving your point as that's subjective- one person can't definitivley say that Seville is 'better' than Malaga as we all enjoy different things.

 

My point is that I would never have visited Malaga without going on a cruise and discovered how lovely it is- and I wouldn't visit any of those other places you listed either as my 'want to travel to' list is long enough as it is and mainland Spain isn't anywhere on it.

 

There's far too many places to visit in the world to make a land based vacation to every single one and then decide which I like best! Whereas on a cruise I get to make a slightly involuntary trip (seeing as the itinerary is not decided by myself) to destinations that were previously totally off my radar.

It would be unlikely you'd find Malaga more rewarding than the other places I mentioned, but you are correct it's entirely subjective...however, back to my original point that your cruise didn't go there and didn't give you the opportunity to compare. Although you could have done an excursion to Granada or Ronda but no time for both or any others and you would have had to trade off seeing Malaga.

You're also correct that there's many places in the world to visit, but all the inland areas too far from port areas you would miss entirely. You'd be surprised how much you can see land based, I've been to 110 countries in the past 35 years, some by cruise ship but more than 90% by land based travels. It takes time yes! I know many people who do both cruises and land based traveling.

It's really best to do your research on where to go, then decide how best to do it. Some areas are best by ship or only accessible by ship like Antarctica. But there's places best by land based travel.

You reminded me of another misconception....... travelling without a passport and "not being able to get home" .... you certainly can and will with the aid of the local US Consulate...... it may cost some $$$ and a little bit of time but as a US Citizen you are not locked out of the country for life without a passport. How do victims of crimes or lost identification get home??

 

You will not be able to fly to the next international port of call to get to your ship but you will get home....

 

Is it best to have a passport.... absolutely yes but the misconceptions are: 1) required 2) you don't have one and need to return home you can't

 

 

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I didn't mean to imply that you would be stuck somewhere indefinitely, that's absurd. The point was you couldn't QUICKLY fly home if you had an emergency situation. That's not a misconception, it's a very real situation.

I partly disagree. Yes, there's lots of places cruise ships don't go which would make nice land based vacations. And it isn't really fair to make a snap judgement about hating a whole country after spending 6 hours there. But I think it's an amazing way to discover lots of destinations you would never have seen otherwise. I'd never have gone to Madeira or Malaga (and in fact had barely heard of either) but since stopping at them on a cruise I would happily plan a land based trip to either. In fact sampling new places is now my #1 reason to cruise.

You kind of proved my point with Malaga, while it's nice it's not one of the better places to visit in that part of Spain, there's Granada, Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz, Jerez and the breathtaking white villages like Ronda.

Haven't heard most of these misconceptions except norovirus but that isn't a misconception, cruises are prone to norovirus outbreaks, it's why they push hand washing and have hand sanitizer dispensers all over the ships.

How about misconceptions that people who cruise have? The one I hear most often is that cruising is a great way to sample different places to know where to go back to for land based vacations. That's actually not true because cruise ships generally call at busy, high volume, mass tourism places, many times with pushy vendors and rude people that leave a bad impression. A prime example of this is Martinique, the only time I ever hear bad reports about Martinique almost always come from people who visited briefly off a cruise ship but people who have gone and spent time there love it and have a completely different take on it. And there's places cruise ships never go so you'd never see them to know the difference to compare.

Biggest misconception I find is that "a passport is required for Caribbean cruises"

You're correct, it's not required for closed loop cruises but it's a good idea to have one anyway. If you had a family emergency and had to fly home you wouldn't be able to or if you missed the ship at a port and needed to fly to rejoin or home.

Pacaya volcano is in Guatemala. Antigua is a city in Guatemala, Pacaya volcano is about 20 miles to the SE of Antigua. There's also Lake Atitlan to the west of Antigua, very beautiful and plenty of hiking opps.

I did a similar excursion in Ethiopia. Was traveling through the country with a friend, we pulled into the dusty non-descript town of Arba Minch and checked into the only decent hotel in town, and "decent" is a stretch. Off to the bar, we order two beers and the guy hands us two warm beers, and these aren't cellar temperature they're hot beers! He informs us the little beer chiller fridg is broken, we spot a chest freezer next to it and ask him to put the beers in the freezer for about 20 minutes. While we're waiting for the beer to chill we ask about things to do in area, he tells us to go to the "crocodile market". Now this isn't a market like you'd think, its a place on Chamo Lake that borders the Nechisar National Park where they collect in large numbers on the lake shore, and there's also lots of hippos to see. Gives us directions to find the guy in town with a boat.

Next morning we set off to find the guy with the boat, he drives us to the little marina and we get into this 20ft aluminum boat and off we go. Get to the area where the famed "crocodile market" is, 20ft Nile crocs by the hundreds, some sunning themselves on the beach and some in the water, and there's hippos. Marveling at these creatures close up one hippo gets a little frisky and creates waves that starts tossing the boat violently side to side....at this point I become keenly aware of the potential danger. If we capsize and get tossed into this lake we're croc food. We ask the boat driver to back off a bit, up so close isn't so important, stayed a bit then we head back. On the way back, I asked if that has ever happened and he says yes, sometimes by accident and sometimes a hippo can get aggressive. Although not something that happens frequently, its rare.

Love our travels through Africa, have had some memorable trips. Haven't been to Botswana yet but that's on the list, also Mozambique and Malawi. Have also been in parts of West Africa and North Africa.

I did self disembark on Saturday arriving NY, was off the ship at 6:50am, had a 10:45am flight booked but switched to a 9am flight when I got to the airport, and still had more than an hour to wait, had just carry on bags and Im precheck for security so whirled through. Arriving Southampton isn't much different timewise, and I've sailed in that direction too and have flown out of Southampton airport. 9am is doable if there's no great delays and if it's a weekend traffic isnt so much an issue, I wouldn't do it if it's a weekday. Other considerations when deciding whether to risk missing the flight is when is the next flight, what's the likelihood of it being full and what's the change fee? Also have the airline's number handy to call if you're not going to make it so you're not a 'no-show'.

I just stayed at Grand Harbour about a week and a half ago, it's fine for one night, it's never been anything to rave about but is nice. Service in the bar was painfully slow, the breakfast buffet was good. For dinner you're better off to go to the Duke of Wellington pub, about a 5 minute walk.

St Barts is overrated and overpriced because it's considered a chic destination for the jet set celebrity crowd and with prices to match. It's very nice but if your looking for a French Caribbean island then Guadeloupe and Martinique are nice too, much cheaper and with more to do. But if you do head to St Barts, villa rentals don't necessarily need to break the bank. I've rented in the off season and waited till last minute (about one week prior) to book one, at that point anything available, which there always are in off season, you can get lower rates. We had a 3bd villa with private pool for €250/night, asking price was €500/night, so we got it for half price last minute.

If you ever have more time, you should actually go to Montserrat and stay a week. There's flights and a ferry from Antigua. I've been both before and after the volcano. Plymouth, the former capital, used to be a bustling little place until it was buried, now its a modern day Pompeii and you can visit with police escort as there's some safety issues, you don't just go and poke around by yourself. A new airport was built since the volcano, the old was destroyed. There's no large hotels, just guesthouses or villa rentals ranging 2-5 bedrooms many with private pools and not expensive comparatively to other islands. Its a slow paced island, friendly people, very pretty black sand beach at Woodland's beach.

I travel pretty light, taking the QM2 soon for a 7 night transatlantic and just bringing a medium sized rolling case (56 cm x 35 cm x 22 cm) that won't exceed 20kg, and one hand luggage (35 cm x 25 cm x 18 cm) under 10kg.

I pack knowing I can do laundry on board if necessary, and also includes formal clothes. There's an art to packing light. You can use several methods, the simplified quick method is lay out everything you want to bring then remove half of it and pack what's left. Keep color schemes similar so that you can mix and match everything you've packed and shoes and accessories can be minimized. The long term method is to keep track of things you've packed on past trips that you didn't use, leave them out next time, eventually you scale down packing quite a bit. When I travel and not taking a cruise requiring formal wear, I use an even smaller rolling case and can go for weeks.

LOL hilarious thread. I've booked a terrible suite, please help me.

I would definitely rent a car, there's no drop fee. We rented a Volvo last year in San Diego and dropped it off at Las Vegas airport a week later, still no drop fee. You can rent an economy car for $50/$60 for the day or go for a mustang or camaro convertible for $100. And take the coastal highway rather than the freeway if you have time to kill, will take longer than 2 hours but places to stop. Get on I-5 north till San Clemente, exit and take rt 1 thru Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Long Beach.

Get typhoid too.

Cruising is the most relaxing way to vacation. I'm not cleaning, cooking or planning, just auto pilot the whole week with the lovely sound of the ocean.

 

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I agree, it's very relaxing. Great way to decompress. That's why I book transatlantic crossings every so often, and get them cheap last minute, fly one way with ff miles.

But there's a difference between vacation and travel. Main difference is its purpose, travel is to really experience a place and can mean forgoing any luxuries. I've done trips in Africa that involved long drives up to 10 hours over bone jarring roads visiting remote villages. Accommodation can be a hut with a mat, or room with concrete floor, rock hard bed and if you're lucky a private bath with running water, super bonus if its hot water. Have had some very rewarding trips. Some can be so tiring that you need a vacation when you get back lol

"Unpack once", you hear that so much, like it's a terrible dreaded chore. I do more land based travel than cruises so quite used to living out of a suitcase, and that's literally what I do, I don't actually unpack. Everything is rolled and organized, rotating things to the bottom then top as I need them, so there's no digging or tearing it apart looking for items. I travel for weeks with just a 19" rollaboard, and do laundry on the fly. When I do cruise, unpacking seems weird lol, and I'm also bringing stuff I wouldn't take on a land based trip.

Tobago is fabulous, but has remained under the radar for mass tourism. Mainly it's hard to get to, you have to really want to go there, no direct flights from the US, you fly via Trinidad. Airlines have tried and failed over the years. AA had a flight from SJU but that didn't last long, then Delta tried a weekly flight from ATL, that didn't last long either, in fact they cancelled the flight when we were booked to go, they could get us there but return flight and those thereafter permanently cancelled. They agreed to convert our tickets to a one way and refund the difference then we separately booked a flight back via Trinidad.

It's a beautiful island with a mixture of things to do, not just beaches. Just hire a cab to take you where you want to go. For the forest there's local guides when you get there, some will rent rubber boots if it's particularly muddy from rain and lead you into the forest. Go to Speyside afterwards, very beautiful, have lunch at Jemma's or the Blue Waters Inn. There's also Little Tobago, you'll need to hire a boat in Speyside or there may be some scheduled boats, just inquire when you get to Speyside. There's good snorkeling in the tiny cove on Little Tobago and hiking trails.

The other popular activity on Tobago is going to "Sunday School" in Buccoo every Sunday night. It's far from what the name implies, it's a street party with steel pan bands, food stalls, very local experience.

There's also some forts but if you've been to various Caribbean islands they are nothing to knock yourself out to see, a few cannons. And there's the mystery tombstone in Plymouth, quick stop if you're in the area, don't make a special trip.

I prefer ocean crossings with no stops, so sea time for me is why. Taking the QM2 soon transatlantic. Cruising to visit places is not good, limited time. Definitely don't cruise for food, while its always very good but I'd rather be eating all the wonderful local cuisines around the world instead.

There's different schools of thought regarding tours or doing it on your own. You get a better cultural experience if you immerse yourself in it rather than the buffer zone of a tour with a guide who is leading you everywhere and doing everything for you. History can be found on the internet, why do you want to waste your time while you're there learning about it? Make the most of your time, do your research ahead of time, go and see what you like on your own schedule. Cut the apron strings, Cartagena is a piece of cake to get around, very tourist friendly.

Port of Scarborough is Tobago. Not sure what your interests are but a very nice beach is Pigeon Point, its near the airport, maybe 10-15 minutes from Scarborough. There's an entrance fee and it has facilities, here's the website for more info:

http://www.pigeonpoint.tt/

I'm not sure they take US dollars, just have the cab driver stop at an ATM and withdraw some TT. Take out enough for some lunch, there's several places to eat, local favorites roti, macaroni pie, curry dishes, flying fish.

If you like hiking, bird watching, nice scenery and more of the local scene head the interior forest reserve and/or towns in the north Speyside and Charlotteville. Close to Charlotteville is a picturesque secluded beach, Pirates Bay, its a bit of a hike from town and a lot of stairs but alternatively you can hire a fishing boat to take you around the point and pick you up at a set time.