Black Sea

[kej1]

Has anyone been to ports like Sebastopol, Yalta, Odessa, Varna, Nessebur, and Constantia? Any suggestions on what to do? Private tour or a seabourn group tour?

[lord of the seas]

Has anyone been to ports like Sebastopol, Yalta, Odessa, Varna, Nessebur, and Constantia? Any suggestions on what to do? Private tour or a seabourn group tour?

 

Yes ,I did the Black sea on Spirit and Odyssey

 

Yalta is my favourite.I prefer to do my own thing and do not go on tours after thirty one years of cruising,but I would look at the tours as they are well organised.Varna and Nessebur are not great in my opinion.I often stay on the ship if there is a port that I have been to before and did not like too much.

[alexandra cruiser]

I s one of the cruises on my short list for next yr....just got of the Norway one,,and loved it and first cruise with Seaboun,,,not able to find much info on these ports,,,looked under section here on CC..not a lot,,,and no guidebook???like Frommers or Fodors??yikes...thanks in advance,,,,;)

[Janikwa]

I took a Black Sea cruise last summer on Silver Spirit. The area is beautiful. In Yalta we took a Silversea-organized excursion--worth it to see the important historic sites, if you're interested. I expect that Seabourn has a similar excursion. In Sebastopol we walked around on our own enjoying the sights (and looking for a pharmacy, my traveling companion having picked up a cold.) It happened to be their independence day, so there were a lot of locals on holiday--as well as a small, pro-Soviet demonstration! In Odessa we took a morning-long walking tour, after which you could stay in the city or return to the ship. It was delightful.

 

Depending on your interests, I think you could have a wonderful time on an organized tour or just on you own.

[merryecho]

I did this trip on Oceania and loved it. Odessa has an amazing art museum, but you need to make arrangements with a guide in advance, as it was closed, and they opened it just for us. Full of works by Russian impressionist artists I had never heard of- better than the Musee d'orsay. Just rush through the first couple of rooms of religious art if that isn't your taste. Skip the archeology museum if you can, mostly potsherds. People watching is fun- husband was drooling over the huge number of beautiful women wearing Very skimpy clothes.

From Sebastapol we arranged, again in advance, a tour to the site where the charge of the light brigade was fought- fascinating, then on to a small village that was home to a cold war top secret submarine base, that you can also tour.

Forget which town had Stalin's summer home- that was interesting too.

Be sure to get a guide for Yalta if WW2 interests you. You can sit at the round table you see so many pictures of with Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill- it made the story come alive.

For a guide we used one of the companies often mentioned on this site- Denrus, Red October? Don't remember which.

[alexandra cruiser]

never looked at Oceania,,,took one 5 yrs. ago,,nice but not exactly luxury ,,maybe new Marina,,,prefer smaller ships,,,but will look into it,,like lots of options,,oh,,funny about hubby,,same thing with mine in Russia,...never saw so many pretty women,,in such revealing clothes,,,hubby thinks they re looking for US men to marry,,,,???:D

[merryecho]

Alexandra- we enjoyed Oceania, but given a choice I would pick SB. DH didn't like hauling a suit along on a european trip, so O fit him better, but of course the new dress policy changes that.