PITravelBug

Your insight is appreciated. Seems like the excursion to Pompeii is the way to go! We booked this tour with Costa with hesitation after reading a lot of poor Costa reviews. What sold us was the excursions, so we really want to make the most of our limited shore time! Thx again!

:)Thank you for your insight! Much appreciated!

We are sailing on Costa out of Marseille in March 2018 to Savona, Catania, Naples, and Barcelona. Currently, we plan to take Costa excursions to Genoa, Taormina, and Pompeii and then explore Barcelona on our own. We have limited time in most ports (from 1 PM to about 7 PM), and we are people who like to see as much as possible. We questioned booking Costa excursions vs. doing these on our own. We're a party of 7 Americans. Looking for suggestions if anyone has experience doing these experiences independently. We've traveled a lot in Europe - have an international drivers license, etc., so we know how to navigate, but the price of the Costa excursions was not bad, so we questioned the headache of making arrangements independently. Here are a few specific questions:

 

1. Is Genoa better or as good as seeing Monaco or Portofino (we've done the Cinque)?

2. Can Pompeii be done in a more timely fashion independently, or is the tour and guide worth it here due to knowledge/faster admission, etc?

3. Is there anything to see - any place special to eat - in Savona?

4. Is it possible to get to Taormina using public transit? We've heard don't bother driving here.

5. Is there anything great in Marseille to see before or after the cruise? We're taking a train in and out of Marseille via Paris, so we want to allow as much time in Paris UNLESS Marseille has something worth our while.

6. I don't know if we'll have enough time after Pompeii to see any of Naples, but is there anything that comes highly recommended if we do?

7. Unrelated to excursions, but will it be warm enough to swim on a cruise in early April?

 

Thoughts anyone?

Not coming from Northetn Norway.... MINNESOTA! Thanks so much for your reply!

We are sailing on Costa out of Marseille in March 2018 to Savona, Catania, Naples, and Barcelona. Currently, we plan to take Costa excursions to Genoa, Taormina, and Pompeii and then explore Barcelona on our own. We have limited time in most ports (from 1 PM to about 7 PM), and we are people who like to see as much as possible. We questioned booking Costa excursions vs. doing these on our own. We're a party of 7 Americans. Looking for suggestions if anyone has experience doing these experiences independently. We've traveled a lot in Europe - have an international drivers license, etc., so we know how to navigate, but the price of the Costa excursions was not bad, so we questioned the headache of making arrangements independently. Here are a few specific questions:

1. Is Genoa better or as good as seeing Monaco or Portofino (we've done the Cinque)?

2. Can Pompeii be done in a more timely fashion independently, or is the tour and guide worth it here due to knowledge/faster admission, etc?

3. Is there anything to see - any place special to eat - in Savona?

4. Is it possible to get to Taormina using public transit? We've heard don't bother driving here.

5. Is there anything great in Marseille to see before or after the cruise? We're taking a train in and out of Marseille via Paris, so we want to allow as much time in Paris UNLESS Marseille has something worth our while.

6. I don't know if we'll have enough time after Pompeii to see any of Naples, but is there anything that comes highly recommended if we do?

7. Unrelated to excursions, but will it be warm enough to swim on a cruise in early April?

Thoughts anyone?