Arranging private tours for group of nine

[emcc]

Our family is booked on the March 16th sailing of the MSC Splendida; we are a group of nine including two grandparents, four parents and three perfect grandchildren. We would like to arrange private tours at most of the stops but have no idea how to go about it. Any suggestions on "how to" or specific contacts would be wonderful. We will stop in Katakolon, Greece, Athens, Rhodes, Alexandria, Heraklion, Valletta, Messina and Naples. We have already arranged for a car/van in Messina as my husband is from Sicily and wants to take our grandchildren to his home town on the slopes of Mt. Etna.

 

Thank you in advance for any assistance. We are so excited.

[jspqld]

hi emcc

Four of us did the almost exact same cruise on the splendida in November & we had a ball! Instead of Valletta, our cruise stopped at Barcelona & Genoa.

I understand what your going through as far organising tours. We used private Taxi/tours a few times & found them to be great. A lot of them have access to minivans or may be able to hire a second car to fit all 9 of you.

In Naples, we actually did the ships shore excursion of the city & we actually quite enjoyed it & it wasnt too expensive. If you want to go to Pompeii as we did on a previous port stop, you can do it very easily & cheap by train, you just need to jump on a short 10 min bus ride from the port to the Garibaldi train station. Then about a half hour or so by train.

In Heraklion, you can do some walking & shopping in the city area that is next to the port & there is a brilliant old venetian fort right on the harbour that is well worth exploring as it has been kept in very good condition. In Alexandria, do not even think of doing anything other than the ships shore excursion.

The following three private tours were fantastic. In katakolon try looking up TaxiKatakolo, Athens try Athens-taxi & in Rhodes try Viptaxi.

 

Good luck & hope you have a great time like we did

[Misty1937]

Hello EMCC

I can only really advise on Katakolon where we hired a car with another couple from our cruise. It is so simple to drive to Olympia with easy to follow directions. I am sure you could hire a minivan there which would work out a lot cheaper and also enable you to "do it" at your own pace with the varied age group you have. I can advise the name of the hire car firm we used if you like as I think the price for 9 of you using a taxi would be pretty hefty.

 

In Athens we caught the bus from the port and did our own thing for E2 each. All the best for a great cruise.

 

Cheers, Misty

[sbhdmh]

Our family is booked on the March 16th sailing of the MSC Splendida; we are a group of nine including two grandparents, four parents and three perfect grandchildren. We would like to arrange private tours at most of the stops but have no idea how to go about it. Any suggestions on "how to" or specific contacts would be wonderful. We will stop in Katakolon, Greece, Athens, Rhodes, Alexandria, Heraklion, Valletta, Messina and Naples. We have already arranged for a car/van in Messina as my husband is from Sicily and wants to take our grandchildren to his home town on the slopes of Mt. Etna.

 

Thank you in advance for any assistance. We are so excited.

 

First, welcome to CC. It has been a great source of information for me as I planned our 2 most recent cruises.

 

You want to go to the Ports of Call section of the main message board and click on Europe. There you will find areas for Greece, Italy and Other Med Ports. On those boards you will find an amazing amount of information. Read various threads, do searches for specific information and even post questions as you did here. You will probably find discussions/ recommendations/ warnings about various private tour operators in each place you are visiting. You can also go to the Roll Call section and click on MSC. Once there you will need to look for your sailing. You can find other people who are also doing the same research. MSC roll calls tend to be pretty slow, though, so don't expect too much information there.

 

Post again if you have more questions. Have a great trip!