Colourful Coasts - Excursions

[Cruise Babe 48]

Hi

 

I am trying to ignore all the terrible reviews:mad: and am now planning our holiday in more detail and hoping all the problems are sorted by February.

Can anyone help me with the following questions about excursions.

 

I have a copy of the Colourful Coasts Excursions guides. Have you been on any excursions which you would recommend. Or equally any excursions we need to avoid. Do they send a booking sheet, departure times costs etc before arrival on the Island Escape.

 

Thanks

Cruise Babe:)

[Cymro1953]

Hi Cruise Babe,

 

The stuff is waiting for you in your cabin when you arrive with details of the excursions. You book them at the shore excursions desk on deck 5.

They also do a Shore Excursion Showcase at 6.30 p.m. on arrival day, repeated on day 2 at 10.15 a.m.

Apparently Thomson's are working on some sort of online booking system so you can book before you go, but not working yet.

 

We would recommend the Taste of Madeira one in Funchal. We wanted to do this as we could come down in the straw toboggans. (extra charge).

We did price up a local firm that was recommended on here but he was not much cheaper for nearly the same itinerary and we would have had to pay to go up in the cable car which would have made it dearer.

At the end if you want to can stay in town to see it or go back to the ship.

We went back to the ship for lunch and picked up the boys and went back into town in a taxi.

 

We also loved the Fire Mountain one in Lanzarote, we did the camel ride and went up the volcano for the demonstrations. Everyone enjoyed that.

 

We did the Volcanoes and wine one in La Palma, it was O.K. nothing special.

Save the volcano for Lanzarote.

 

I am not one to say stay on board when in port, but I wish we had in Agadir.

It's not a place I ever want to visit again.

 

Berwyn

[Cruise Babe 48]

Hi

 

Thanks for the info about excursions. I think I read that you had planned to visit Taroudant in Morocco. I had my eye on this excursion, how was it?

[jogilbert100]

Hi

 

I am trying to ignore all the terrible reviews:mad: and am now planning our holiday in more detail and hoping all the problems are sorted by February.

Can anyone help me with the following questions about excursions.

 

I have a copy of the Colourful Coasts Excursions guides. Have you been on any excursions which you would recommend. Or equally any excursions we need to avoid. Do they send a booking sheet, departure times costs etc before arrival on the Island Escape.

 

Thanks

Cruise Babe:)

 

Hi cruise babe,

Although I haven’t been on a cruise before..... Will be my first one on Island Escape in March, I have done the Volcano's with Thomson in Lazaretto before and would defiantly recommend it..... Although I found the couch trip tour around the volcanoes very boring at the end of the excursion but I think this was mainly due to our tour guide having the most boring voice.

Other then that I cant give any more advice as I haven’t been to any of the other destinations the ships stops at, although I’m going to take Berwyn's advice and sit Agadir out as iv been to Cairo and hated it, and from what I hear this place is worse.......

Hope you have a lovely time :)

[Cymro1953]

Hi

 

Thanks for the info about excursions. I think I read that you had planned to visit Taroudant in Morocco. I had my eye on this excursion, how was it?

 

As far as the basic excursion is concerned it was O.K.

On the way to Taroudant we stopped to see the tree climbing goats, they were brilliant. Don't forget to tip the owner a couple of dollars if you get off to take pics.

We stopped at a beautiful hotel for coffee just before going into town.

the giude takes you around and through the old market, now that was interesting and you could see and smell the spices all piled up and the proper normal stuff the locals buy.

 

But then he led the group to a small square that was full of tourist type shops and basically you were stuck there until he was ready to take the group on.

The pressure to buy is very bad. It was much worse than Cairo and Alexandria, in comparison they were a doddle

I know it's their way of life, but it's not mine. People should have been given the choice whether they wanted to stay and play shop with the natives.

There is a small open exit that takes you to the street and turn right and a few yards down the road you are in the main square with cafes in it. Head there, the one on the far side of the square was nice. (We spotted the one with most Europeans in it and headed there).

 

You won't get left behind as the coach picked us up there.

 

At least it was better than staying in the town of Agadir. Cleaner and not so smelly.

 

The best of it is the excursion details say you are going to the "Ancient walled City of Taroudant" as we approached, the guide said as the walls are made of mud brick they decay and need replacing every 3 to 5 years, so no part of the "Ancient Walls" are more than about 5 years old :)

 

I see Joglibert agrees with me, you can smell the place as soon as the ship docks, it smells like a public toilet.

 

Berwyn

[Ski expert]

We have got our tickets today for our cruise on 12.2.10. and it gives all the excursions and prices which to be honest don't seem that expensive. I have been on the Madeira-Seekers website and looked at their costs. You can get a taxi, jeep or minibus through them for a full / half day very reasonable if you can arrange to share with someone else on your cruise.

[boat77]

I would also recommend Taste of Madeira on Madeira as well as Fire Mountains on Lanzarote.

 

Excursion to Souss in Agadir is really an experience, but not one you can't live without.

 

On other islands I don't see much point of taking an excursion as you can spend the time you have on your own as well. Anyway, the long stays are on Madeira, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Loro Parque may be the thing for someone on Tenerife.

[davecttr]

If you like spectacular scenery I recommend the Scenic Mount Teide excursion on Tenerife. If you get good weather the views are to die for and last year we had a excellent guide who spoke very good english. The only problem is there is not enough time to go up the cable car to near the summit. If I visit there again I might try and organise a taxi straight to the cable car and give the view points a miss.

[julie62]

We returned from the Island Escape on the 8th Jan. The Touradant tour, I can only describe as awful, and I speak for most people on the coach. The whole place stank of urine and we didn't smell orange groves or coffee/spices.

 

We were led to a market through narrow passages which was littered with people sitting in dreadful states.

 

We were led to a particular part of the market where we were left for 30mins. Whilst there we were pestered into buying anything we looked at. We were relieved when the 30mins was up.

 

Afterwards we were led through the streets to the square, where we were left for a further 30 mins. This was infact the worst part of the trip, that's if it could get any worse. The square was filled with men begging and in awful states. Most had disabilities or had other problems. There was several children, who looked like street children. They continually sniffed glue out of bags. Several tried to approach the group and tried pulling at one womans bag. the experience was awful and will live with me for a long time. The poverty and despair in their faces was horrible and not something you want to see on holiday.

 

The whole experience was awful and we continually felt threatened, we were all so relieved when the coach arrived to collect us. We all thought we were going to get robbed.

 

The coach journey took over an hour to get there and the scene was really barren with very little to look at on the way. I certainly wouldn't recommend Tourandant to anyone and the tour description is nothing like the trip itself.

 

Two others in our group did the two market tour, which they enjoyed. On there return to the coach though, they found out that two women had been locked in a cafe by the owner, until they handed over 20 euro's. This was for nothing they were just told they had to hand over 20euro's otherwise they wouldn't be let out. they handed over 20 dollars and they unlocked the door and they ran out!

 

My advise, be very careful in Agadir if you have to visit.

[Cymro1953]

If you were to ask DW about it, I think she'd agree with Julie. I did tell Thomson's in the questionaire after the holiday and said they should drop Agadir and we'd even prefer 2 days in Funchal instead.

 

Berwyn

[boat77]

If you like spectacular scenery I recommend the Scenic Mount Teide excursion on Tenerife. If you get good weather the views are to die for and last year we had a excellent guide who spoke very good english. The only problem is there is not enough time to go up the cable car to near the summit. If I visit there again I might try and organise a taxi straight to the cable car and give the view points a miss.

 

This is true. I've been on Teide on another trip. The problem with Teide is that it tends to collect clouds and then there's very little to see there. If the weather is clear, then it is surely worth visiting.

[Masal]

I Loro Parque may be the thing for someone on Tenerife.

 

We did the Loro Parque trip and although the shows there were great the time you had there was really rushed, you felt like you were rushing from one show to the next and didnt have time to see anything else there, so would not pay that sort of money for it again

[boat77]

We did the Loro Parque trip and although the shows there were great the time you had there was really rushed, you felt like you were rushing from one show to the next and didnt have time to see anything else there, so would not pay that sort of money for it again

 

So that would be something to do with your free time and own schedule rather than the available excursion. I haven't been to Loro Parque, but thought that 3 hours would be enough to see what it has to offer. The tickets to the zoo are quite expensive anyway.