Newbie here. Does anyone just walk around a port without doing a tour??

We are cruising on the Marina from Rome to Monte Carlo and going to Rome a few days early. We will do some tours in Rome, but not sure I want to plan out every port. Can you just explore on your own?

of course you can

no one will stop you from wandering on your own

do some research on the port in case there is something you may want to see or just wing it

Many ports lend themselves to DIY tours. Do a little basic research, decide what you want to see, make a bit of a plan and go for it.

One gets to do and see what they want at their speed. Many of my best port tours are done that way.

Let me add, once one gets into many port centers, they will find excellent 1-2 hour walking tours of the city at a fraction of the costs of organized tours from the ship.

Some cities, like Venice, paying for a tour/guide is down right silly.

Greetings from South Beach. Misssmb. You can certainly explore posts on your own. To make the most of your visit, do some research. If you end up in South Hampton, Britain, for example, on certain days there is a fabulous walking tour of the town. It's free, led by volunteers. We learned about it from someone talking about it outside QM2 at dockside. Word of mouth is also a good thing. If you are a beader, there are fabulous shops for you in the Gothic Quarter shopping area. Seek and you might find something ineresting.

Mary

Some of our best memories come from days when we just let our feet lead us. With a little research before hand and with some help and maps from the tourist info that is almost always set up for cruise arrivals, you can be off and exploring! Ask any local where to get the best coffee (or beer, or tapas, or . . . ) and they will be happy to guide you and tell you some great stories. Just learn how to say “thank you” and “please” in whatever the local language is and you will be treated well. Getting lost adds to the fun!

We are cruising on the Marina from Rome to Monte Carlo and going to Rome a few days early. We will do some tours in Rome, but not sure I want to plan out every port. Can you just explore on your own?

I find that the Rick Steves city guides have some great self-guided tours mapped out. Very detailed. They also have variations depending on how many days you have available.

Enjoy your trip!

Donna

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We are cruising on the Marina from Rome to Monte Carlo and going to Rome a few days early. We will do some tours in Rome, but not sure I want to plan out every port. Can you just explore on your own?

What are your ports? Some are very easy to just wander or take short public transportation to sites. Also, check out the sticky at the top of the threads for Free O shuttles into towns.

I find that the Rick Steves city guides have some great self-guided tours mapped out. Very detailed. They also have variations depending on how many days you have available.

 

Enjoy your trip!

 

Donna

 

 

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We do a few prearranged tours on each cruise, but not usually through a cruise line. The rest of the time, we do some research, and go into town on our own. Rick Steves is a good resource. Oceania has free shuttles to most towns, if they are not easy walking distance from where the ships dock.

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We are cruising on the Marina from Rome to Monte Carlo and going to Rome a few days early. We will do some tours in Rome, but not sure I want to plan out every port. Can you just explore on your own?

Like most of the other posts say do the research before you go. Google each port you are going to for their local tourist board info. At most ports a rep. from the local tourist office will come on board to hand out maps and info. use their services. Wandering around a small port like Portofino is very relaxing without the structure of a tour guide

Yes, absolutely. You can explore on your own, or even arrange your own tours at a port. We arranged our own, private tour in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As long as you are onboard the ship at the time given, you may do whatever you like in a port.

Personally, I think it would be best to check the Ports section of Cruise Critic or post your ports on here, and someone will give you guidance. Most of what has been said is right.

Personally though, I do book the ships transfer in Taormina as I don't want to be standing in line down in Naxos waiting to get up in to the city. It was a good thing we did it this time as the ship went on to Messina and we did have transportation to Taormina which is a port I would not want to miss.

I also book "something" in Venice for the same reason. I don't want the hassle of getting from the ship to St. Mark's square and this is the easiest way to go. Then I just tell them I want to DIY and find the transportation back at the end as it is a long want from where the ship docks to St. Marks.

Others may do things differently, but this is just my opinion.

We tend to do a lot of private tours as they are sometimes more interesting and always less money.

Research your ports and check the ports section.

There are two Marina Rome to Monte Carlo itineraries listed , the 2018 cruise is the same itinerary as we are doing on Riviera in August, with Portofino, Olbia and then the French Riviera ports of Bandol, Toulon, St Tropez and finally Monte. All of these ports you can walk off and explore the towns, though Olbia is really just a working port. In Bandol and Toulon, you can get the train to Marseille if you wish.

The 2019 cruise goes to Livorno, and then some Spainish ports before Monte, there's a current thread about Livorno on here which is worth a read, but in general most ports in Western Med you can get off and explore the town/city yourself if you do a bit of Internet hunting

The port section on CC will help, but if you look up the tourist info on each port on the web you can get a lot of more info, plus Whatsinport website is also good as well as the others mention above.

Yes, absolutely. You can explore on your own, or even arrange your own tours at a port. We arranged our own, private tour in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As long as you are onboard the ship at the time given, you may do whatever you like in a port.

Yes, but what one may do is almost never the same as the wisest thing.

Motivated passengers, i.e. those who do their research, regardless, very often give advice on these boards which is misinterpreted, sometimes willfully, by those who want to hear that walking through five thousand years of history is equal to viewing those same sights in context.

Short answer, if you truly want your monies worth, pick an option:

A) Do the research and planning on your own.

B) Pay a Guide who will do all of that for you

C) Admit to yourself that you're just one of those people for whom having set foot in a place IS the experience.

google the city name/country that you're interested into Frommers.com and then look on the left margin. Or simply google 'frommers, venice'

there you will usually find "walking tours" and sometimes you'll find several. These are DIY and do a good job of telling you what you're seeing, its history, and then, very specifically, how to get to the next sight. They will also tell you what to see "if you only have 1 day" itineraries.

I've used Frommers, Fodors, RickSteves, Lonely Planet, and the tourist board webpages for the specific port & town. Often the NYTimes will have an article about a particular city in their travel section so check that out as well.

I've gone to thrift shops and found older Frommers books and have torn out the walking tours section & maps and taken it on cruises with us. Or go to the public library, check out the book and photocopy those sections or scan them at home into your computer and print.

That way you can build your own diy tour to see what you want to see....military history, art & architecture, museums, and often those guides can point you to the 'restaurant & cafe' areas of town.

Frommer's even has listed on their walking guides "take a break" and offers 2 or 3 cafes located where you are on your walk.

for some of us, research is half the fun of the cruise, but others want the luxury of having someone else do it for them--which if fine --you are on vacation after all!!!

and i forgot to list one other great service in some cities.

hop on-hop off (HOHO) buses are in several cities and can be a wonderful, stress-free way to see a city.

Some people hoho immediately because they want to see specific places before they get crowded, others like to take the entire loop first to get an overview of the city--there is no wrong way.

the route maps of the various companies (sometimes there is only 1 HOHO company in a city) can be found online so you can see if it is going where you want to go. The website usually posts a timetable as well so you can see how long it will be before the next bus comes along.

we most recently used a HOHO in Dubai and O made it easy for us to book it using our OBC--a HOHO rep was in the Nautica Lounge and simply took our room # and we were on our way to the bus. In this case, it also served as the shuttle out of the port.

I suspect there may be different stages of foreign cruise travel. When we first started real travel, I was content to look at the offered cruiseline shoreex, and go with the flow. It was great. Sometimes the day was a pleasant blur and that was fine. Over time, I have found that because I didn't do any real research on what we would be seeing, some of those initial destinations are now quite fuzzy.

Then I moved on to selecting private tours - taking what was on offer. We got more out of being in a small group.

The third stage (where I'm at now) is that I thoroughly research the ports we are visiting, and the surrounding area. I then choose whether we will use local transportation (including HoHo buses - cbb's post on the subject is on point!) or I will contact a local guide to put together a custom excursion. This in-depth research has really helped with the memories of what we see. I think at some point we will graduate to the final stage, been there, done that, seeing it again because we liked it the first time, no longer stressing on the destination research.

I think for the OP, you need to determine if you have any interest in doing some advance work. If not (and that's fine!) go on a ship's tour, and then wander around the port when you return for local flavor.

I think it depends on where you are traveling and how far the dock location is from interesting sites. I love just walking around if we dock near the center of a smaller city and I more or less can understand the language. Lots of walk off opportunities in Alaska, Norway, and between Buenos Aires and Rio. On a recent Hong Kong to Bangkok cruise, we did nothing but ship tours and were glad we did. Lots of places to see that require reliable transportation and were some distance from the port. Docking locations were changed substantially for Bangkok and DaNang. Knowing that the ship would wait for us removed the stress of being caught in bad traffic.

Check your roll call for info from other cruisers on what they are planning.

Mary

If it’s your first time to the port a tour of some type is great for an overview. But there are a lot you can do yourself, Portofino for instance. But it depends on what you want to see. I wouldn’t never recommend someone just walk around Livorno if it’s your first time in Tuscany.

...and probably not for OP's cruise but there are several locations around the world that i would ONLY take shorex....safety first, as well as often the best guides and best vehicles have been scooped up by O.

Also as has been pointed out, shorex is the stress-free way to see ports especially if, in places like Bangkok or Hanoi or Beijing, among others, your goal is quite a distance from the ship and traffic can be fierce.

Never good to stress over getting back to port in time!

Cruise bus tours generally do not appeal to us so we always research ports and plan accordingly. We learn and remember more when we do our own research.

Rick Steves guides to cruising are our best source.

We’ve hired lots of private tour guides, especially if first time visitors.

We’ve booked our own museums, trains, attractions, city tours.

We’ve ridden hop on, hop off buses, trains, trolleys. Occasionally we just ride the circuit for the full route, especially if it is a repeat port.

Oceania ‘s European cruises are very port intensive. We will pick a port or two and pretty much take the day off, other than riding the ship shuttle and looking around.

This is always useful when in planning mode.

http://www.tomsportguides.com/

Rosalyn

What are your ports? Some are very easy to just wander or take short public transportation to sites. Also, check out the sticky at the top of the threads for Free O shuttles into towns.

We are going to Portofino, Olbia, Bandol, Toulon, St. Tropez and Monte Carlo.

There are two Marina Rome to Monte Carlo itineraries listed , the 2018 cruise is the same itinerary as we are doing on Riviera in August, with Portofino, Olbia and then the French Riviera ports of Bandol, Toulon, St Tropez and finally Monte. All of these ports you can walk off and explore the towns, though Olbia is really just a working port. In Bandol and Toulon, you can get the train to Marseille if you wish.

 

The 2019 cruise goes to Livorno, and then some Spainish ports before Monte, there's a current thread about Livorno on here which is worth a read, but in general most ports in Western Med you can get off and explore the town/city yourself if you do a bit of Internet hunting

 

 

The port section on CC will help, but if you look up the tourist info on each port on the web you can get a lot of more info, plus Whatsinport website is also good as well as the others mention above.

We are doing the same itinerary as you.

We are going to Portofino, Olbia, Bandol, Toulon, St. Tropez and Monte Carlo.

For Toulon, I would highly recommend some kind of Tour that gets you deeper into Provence. Whether there's a private tour going on your roll call, or something through the ship. Provence is beautiful.

Lots of good advice here :)

One other thing to consider in some ports is getting a rental car for the day. We have done this on small and medium-sized islands including Antigua and Lanzarote. I would say roughly 80% of the time we get off and walk or use public transit or taxis independently, the balance split between private tours, independent car rental, ship's tour, or staying onboard to enjoy the ship all to ourselves lol.

In many ports (but not all), a car rental or private tour is going to be the best way to see a specific list of "must-see" places independently (ship's tours usually have an option that will work for this as well). If you are happy to wander and just soak it in, walking and/or public transit is great.

Not sure anyone has yet mentioned that Trip Advisor and Google Maps can be good resources for opening hours and busy times. In last few years, you can now click through in Google Maps place listings on opening hours and see a graph for how busy a given hour in the day usually is at said place (stores, museums, parks etc).