Private tours on Western Med. cruise.

[maidncruze]

Hi, I am new to cruising and we will be taking our first cruise on August 12th. We start and end in Barcelona. Our stops include....Nice, Florence, Naples, Croatia, Venice, Kotor and Rome.

 

In regards to excursions, can anyone recommend private tour Companies/people that they have used to get them around.

 

Your help would be much appreciated.

[TLCOhio]

Hi, I am new to cruising and we will be taking our first cruise on August 12th. We start and end in Barcelona. Our stops include....Nice, Florence, Naples, Croatia, Venice, Kotor and Rome. In regards to excursions, can anyone recommend private tour. Companies/people that they have used to get them around. Your help would be much appreciated.

 

Welcome to these boards! Here are a few key suggestions from someone who can say "Been there. Done that."

 

As you can see on the below link, we just got back less than a month ago from being on the Solstice visiting all of these ports.

 

1. I would suggest going to the roll call for your Aug. 12 cruise. You can link to that at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1321294

 

2. Look through the live/blog posting that I did and is linked below. That provides lots of ideas, pictures, background, etc., on these wonderful ports and the many options there. We used RomeInLimo for some tours in Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast areas.

 

3. Barcelona is a wonderful city and I hope you have added time there before and/or after your cruise.

 

Let us know any added questions after reviewing some of these ideas, experiences, links, etc. Below are a few sample pictures for what you can enjoy on your cruise. Happy to share more and answer any questions. The only "dumb question" is one you don't answer. People are happy to be helpful on these boards, through your cruise roll call, etc.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Just back from a June 7-19 Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc. These postings are now at 21,349 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2011, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 46,531 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

Appreciate those who have “tuned in” for these two posts. Don’t be shy and feel free to comment and/or ask any questions of interest.

 

 

The Celebrity Solstice is positioned in the Villefranche harbor with this beautiful setting surrounding the ship.:

 

 

 

As we sailed into Venice, here is a tighter shot of the main square and the crowds that were there around 1 pm on June 14. Next are a couple of other views from that great sail-in to Venice and the sights of various interesting buildings and church. Love Venice so, so much!!:

 

 

 

In Dubrovnik, we started with a local cab driver who gave us a “panoramic tour”, including crossing this unique bridge near the main cruise ship docking area. Then we drove up and up through narrow twisting roads to the high point overlooking Dubrovnik and near the cable car high station. From this point, we could also see part of Bosnia and and Montenegro. The “super star” view was down below with this angle of the harbor and walled city. Beautiful!!!:

 

 

 

Overlooking Positano, this is the view as we dined, family-style for lunch, at the Elisir di Positano per La Caglioita. The views here were super and the sun came out in strong force as we enjoyed our three-course lunch with local wine and drinks.:

 

 

 

From high above Kotor, this is the view of the fjord bay with the Solstice in prime position to soak up the spectacular sun on our visiting day there.:

 

 

 

When the sun was setting as the Solstice sailed from Rome to Naples, here was the visual on the back lawn on the ship’s top, back level. Dramatic and beautiful!!:

 

[Essiesmom]

Suggest you log onto Amazon.com and order Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports. Just published last month. He tells you how to diy all of your ports except Kotor. Tells you how to get off the ship to a starting point, what transportation costs/should cost; where the bathrooms are, where internet is, and how to catch up with your ship in the next port if you miss sailaway...Rick Steves is all about getting the most for as little money as possible. EM

[Turtles06]

OP: you will find the most info about private tour operators by going to the Ports of Call forum; select Europe and that will bring up links to the various ports in the Med. Do a search, and ask questions if you need more info.

 

Last year in Rome, based on the glowing recommendations in that forum, we used Romeinlimo.com for a one-day tour from Civitavecchia port, and they were fantastic. They continue to get raves on CC, and I think they are also available in other Italian ports besides Rome. They are well worth checking out.

 

Barcelona is very do-able on your own.

 

Welcome to cruising, and have a great trip!

[TLCOhio]

Suggest you log onto Amazon.com and order Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports. Just published last month. He tells you how to diy all of your ports except Kotor. Tells you how to get off the ship to a starting point, what transportation costs/should cost; where the bathrooms are, where internet is, and how to catch up with your ship in the next port if you miss sailaway...Rick Steves is all about getting the most for as little money as possible. EM

 

Excellent above summary and tip on this Rick Steves' book. Here are some additional research/planning options to consider:

 

You might grab, maybe from your public libraries or ask for them to do a book transfer they can process for you, such super excellent visual books such as Eyewitness, Insight, etc. Rick Steves, Fodors, Frommers, etc., can work well, too. In my opinion, no one travel book has it "ALL", perfectly and completely for all of your needs. These resources, especially the visual ones, can you help better figure out your priorities, in advance, for what you want to do and see. That early research is very important. Don't wait until you get on the ship to "GUESS" what might be of interest. I always build a "file" on my laptop computer for each port stop with highlights from that reading and then pulling up stories/articles from the travels sections of the New York Times, Telegraph of London, Wikipedia, etc. All of those help to consider your many great options. Amazon can be very good in providing such books at reduced prices, plus some used books websites. Lots of great options!!!

 

Especially in these days of the Internet, it makes things easier to research and plan ahead. You can use Google.com for great access to various text items, plus a wide variety of visuals and maps. One option for some private tour and other local options is to contract the tourism office in each of your ports. You can use Google.com and put in the search term such as "city/port name tourism office". Then follow-up to each of those office by e-mail, ask your questions, get their suggestions, options to consider, etc.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Just back from a June 7-19 Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc. These postings are now at 21,773 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2011, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 46,691 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

Appreciate those who have “tuned in” for these two posts. Don’t be shy and feel free to comment and/or ask any questions of interest.

[Thechats]

A few years ago I arranged private tours with RomeInLimo (http://www.romeinlimo.com/) in both Florence (included Pisa) and Rome and could not have been happier with them. I made my selection based on reviews in TripAdvisor and just noted they are still rated #1 for Rome (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d1739408-Reviews-RomeInLimo_Private_Tours-Rome_Lazio.html). The driver-guides were both great and willing to adapt the tour according to what we liked (e.g., drove us through the Tuscan hills on the way to Florence when he found out we liked wine). There were 8 of us traveling together so the private tours were quite reasonably priced. For example, our per person cost for a full day tour was less than what the cruise line charged just for bus service to/from Florence! I cannot recommend RomeInLimo highly enough and think you'd be quite satisfied if you book with them. That's a great itinerary so have fun!

[EGCruisers]

Of the ports you mentioned, we have only done Rome. We used Romecabs. They were excellent. They met us at the airport, took us to see as much as time would allow and then took us to the ship. When we disembarked the same driver was waiting for us. He took us back to Rome and took us to more sights, including the Vatican where a private guide was waiting for us (extra charge, of course), and then to our hotel near the airport. We would highly recommend them. Their restaurant recommendations were very good as well. We would definitely use them again. Our trip was in 2009.

[merprincess]

Loved RIL for our Med. cruise in May. We went to all the ports you mentioned. We had Clara in Florence; Ronaldo in Rome; and Tony for the Amalfi Coast - they were all fabulous.

We used Sylvie di Cristo (independent guide) for the French riviera and she was fantastic as well. You can read more about these tours on the Italy and France ports of call for Europe.

We did Barcelona, Kotor, Croatia and Venice on our own, which we found quite easy to do with research as recommended by Terry.

[maidncruze]

Merprincess,

 

What stops did you do in Naples? Did you make it over to the Island of Capri?

[alcpa1]

Your best bet for your Naples stop would be one of the recommended guides in the Ports of Call boards. Do check out the Roll Call, there may still be space available with a group or two there. Excursions in Europe are expensive so cost sharing in a small congenial group is the way to go.

Now on to Naples.....Transportation from Naples to Capri is via ferry. The seas do not always cooperate. If you have not been to the Amalfi Coast or to Pompeii please consider this day trip instead. This is best done in a small van (14-16 pax.) Large busses cannot negotiate some of the Amalfi roads and it would be a shame to miss Positano.

Have a wonderful cruise.

[maidncruze]

Hi Terry,

 

I've booked our private tours for Livorno, Naples and Rome but the one that I wanted to use in Villefranche is booked. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

Frank

[MATRAVELER]

We always use Rome in Limo and have booked them again for the Italy ports on our September Solstice crusie. Fantastic company.