wing

We liked Guadeloupe. We rented a car and went to Saint Fransois and further to the headland. It is an amazing place.

Anse Dufour is great for snorkeling. I would recommend that to everybody who comes to Martinique. Anse Mitan is not as great as Anse Dufour. We saw just a few fish there

We rented a car for the whole day and visited Balata Gardens on our own. It was very interesting. 

On 2/18/2020 at 7:40 PM, Oliver Hansen said:

Hi everyone! We are planning a day on our own in Tallinn, any tips for a lunch except Old Hansa? As we are there in summer I think my family would prefer to sit outside. Based on what I read so far there should be some restaurants/breweries on the main square. Is there any beer gardens somewhere in the center? This should lovely 

We were in the brewery called Beer House and it was very good. It is in the old town near the main square

On 2/11/2020 at 11:19 PM, cntrymum said:

 Feedback from anyone who has used one of the smaller tour operators would be appreciated. 

Hi. We used Red Sun Tours for our 2 day tour of St. Petersburg. Booking was easy,  Elena was so prompt in replies and answered all our questions. We knew from the begining we were in good hands. When we arrived and got off the ship our guide and Elena met us by the ship with smiles and hugs, we felt like we arrived to our friends.

It was really nice to be on a private tour, we had skip-the-line tickets and the tour itself was customized for us. So we saw those sites what we were interested in. BTW the tour cost was pretty reasonable. With Elena's help our plans and hopes became reality and the tour exceeded all our expectations. 

On 1/19/2020 at 10:00 PM, trosebery said:

 

There's just the trade-off of the higher prices and the larger groups -- and since larger groups are slower, the itineraries usually don't get to visit as many sights. (I also like my groups as small as possible so that I can ask lots of questions of the guide, which is one reason why I selected a private tour with Red Sun Tours on our last visit.)

 

Bottom line is that you won't be unhappy if you book a tour with the cruise line. But I would strongly recommend doing some research first to see if that's the *best* choice for you.

It is really nice to have a private small group tour. I think some of the private tours are quite reasonably priced, if you go with an independent company.  We had such a tour with Red Sun Tours and their price was very good. We had really high quality tour. What surprised us most of all,  we had skip-the-line admission to the museums and churches. We never waited in lines. Then we could talk with our guide and ask questions. We knew not only about culture and history of St. Petersburg, but about real life from a local. That was an amazing experience, very interesting.  It's more like to be with a local friend. 

We had a small group tour with Red Sun Tours and it was fantastic. Very reasonable price. Getting off the ship was surprisingly easy

On 1/11/2020 at 5:30 PM, trosebery said:

 This last summer, we were through immigration in 5 minutes (and since we on a private tour with Red Sun Tours, we could then leave immediately without having to wait for other cruisers! Loved that).

We too had a tour with Red Sun Tours and immigration was easy and fast. Although we were not in a hurry and left the ship at 8.30 how Elena recommended us to do ( our ship docked at 7 am). I liked the idea as we were not with the first wave at the immigration.

We had a 2 day private tour with Red Sun Tours when we were on a Baltic cruise. It was fantastic. Our guide was Lena and she was great. She shared some amazing stories of  past and present life of locals what we liked so much. 
We never waited in lines and had an easy access to all attractions which was impressive. 

We didn't take any roubles with us for the shore excursion in St. Petersburg. We paid by card to Red Sun Tours on arrival. As i know all restaurants and shops take cards there.

We uses Red Sun Tours in St. Petersburg. Very personal touch, just exceptional. We had a fantastic tour. Initially we needed a private tour focused on our preferences and they designed an excellent tour itinerary for us. Our guide was so warm lady with a great knowledge, we knew so much about Russian culture and history; it was so sad to say goodbye to them..

I recommend them highly 

it was our first time in Marseilles, so we decided to book the Aix en Provence tour with Provence Amazing Tours. Our guide was Laurent - very accommodating and knowledgeable.  it was nice! I would recommend them.  Also have good walking shoes and be ready to have a full stomach when the tour is done.

it depends on time what you have for Crete. We rented a car for a day and traveled to Chania and relaxed on the beach in Retimno. Private tour is probably better though

On 3/8/2019 at 10:21 PM, lorrainemargaret said:

Hi we are going on baltic cruise with C/M in may,,Can anyone advise please We will do ship excursions or tour in St Petersburg,But which of the other ports are easy to get off ship and do on our own/ Amsterdam/Copenhagen/Warnemumde/Tallin/Helsinki/Stockholm/Aarhus IF anyone can give me any ideas of which cities are easy to get around from port I would be very grateful or if any are better doing trips,Also any idea what weather will be like in May?So we have some idea what to pack,Appreciate any info

I think most ports you can do by your own. In some cities you may just walk to the city. In most Baltic ports it was quite good and easy way to travel by metro or taxi. We did Amsterdam, Copehnagen, Tallin and Helsinki on our own. In St. Petersburg we had a tour with Red Sun Tours

We stayed at Hotel Arc La Rambla. It is in the very center just on Las Ramblas and not far away from the port

Nattie,

We were 3 on the 2 day tour and paid about 1200 $. We booked with Red Sun Tours. They were very responsive and nice to deal with.

I agree, private tours are better for seniors. We were on a private tour with my mum who is 75 y o. I was initially worry about her mobility, but the tour was well planned by Elena of Red Sun Tours and became a nice visit for both of us. My mum loves history and art and our itinerary was tailored accordingly.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and caring. if she saw my mum tied she could find a park bench or a cafe where we could relax for a few minutes; it was nice, when we were sitting together as friends in the Peterhof gardens by those nice flowerbeds and fountains and our guide told us about her past and present. On a group tour you can hardly experience that. 

On 3/7/2019 at 5:56 PM, ubarpants said:

When I contacted the bigger agencies for a private tour, it wasn't a great experience either. I sent a specific email with what I wanted to see, what I wanted to skip, and noted unusual pieces like wanting to go to the Hermitage late on Wednesday to see the peacock clock winding. All three of the more popular agencies responded with what looked like a form email listing their standard 3 day itinerary and didn't customize it for my requests. I ended up booking through a smaller company that's rarely mentioned here but well reviewed on other sites, mainly because they were the ones who actually read my request and sent me info that matched what I was looking for and were fantastic throughout the customization process.

 

Don't feel like you have to pick from the companies that are recommended here the most frequently. It seems some companies pay for these recommendations in the form of discounts, so there will always be a bias toward those.

Following the recommendations of our friends we used Red Sun Tours for our 2 day visit to St. Petersburg. They are not frequently mentioned here, although their rating on Trip Advisor is high. They customized a tour for us, as we wanted a private tour. But as i know they arrange group tours as well.

I think for the first visit you may do sights what are must-do's - the hermitage museum, Peterhof gardens with fountains, the Spilled Blood cathedral. And you may include 1-2  less touristic places. It might be a good combination. 

We did similar thing last year with Red Sun Tours. On the first day we had a city tour, then we visited the hermitage museum, after that we drove to Peterhof gardens. On the second day we had a tour of old beautiful metro stations, then Pushkin apartment museum  about 1 hour, Dostoevsky museum about 45 minutes, farmer's market and Spilled Blood cathedral. At 4.30 we were back at the ship. It was excellent timing; we had a fantastic tour.

On 2/1/2019 at 11:56 PM, jgcruz said:

We will be visiting St. Petersburg and are wondering if we should go on an excursion given by the cruise line or hire a tour guide. I'm not sure about visas and wondering if we took the cruise sponsored excursions, would we be allowed to walk around on our own afterwards?

I would recommend to go with a private tour. it is even cheaper than to go with a cruise ship tour. I see many people here go with Alla and SPB tours. Seems they are busy tour companies with hundreds people every day. If you prefer less mass tourism i can recommend to use a smaller company. We had a tour with a company called Red Sun Tours. Honestly we felt as Royalty passing by a crowd of 100s people who were in the line to check in with those big companies. You will see.  And attitude and care of a company who has  one - two groups a day i think is different. Our van was nice and clean. Our guide was  the best what we have ever experienced.

we did Barcelona by our own. It is really easy.  Public transportation is very good.   We took HOHO bus both routes. It is worth it. went to the National Catalunya museum and spend half a day there. It is great. We were lucky to get tickets to the Football match and watched Barcelona team playing with Sevilla. Liked that!

We were on the Costa late October from Barcelona sailing. Our taxi dropped us off be the ship terminal, just outside of the terminal. baggage handlers took our large luggage with room tags and we went inside to check in.  It was easy

On 6/20/2016 at 5:04 AM, canadian9981 said:

My family and I will be on Harmony visiting Palma de Mallorca in August. I have read that this port is easy for DIY. I have a few questions:

 

- Does RCL offer a shuttle from the port to the Old Town?

- If they do have a shuttle, how much do they charge?

- How far is Bellver Castle from The Cathedral area? Is it walking distance?

- If not walkable, are taxis readily available to and back from the castle?

- How much will the taxi ride cost?

 

Thanks for any recommendation you can offer.

We did Palma de Mallorca by our own. We took a bus and went to the city center. Then by the main street we went to the Cathedral de Mallorca. We love to walk. And it was a nice day although it was November

Go to visit St. John's Cathedral. It is breath-taking.

WE were in Kotor 2 years ago. We had a very good guide book and walked through the town by our own.

It is a very nice place.