Istanbul>Athens questions

[PurpleCow]

Can anyone advise me about how much and what kind of money I need to carry? I know everything onboard and many purchases on shore will be covered by credit card, but what about cash? DH wants to send me with travelers cheques. Would it be best to carry these, along with some cash, and change it on the ship?

 

My other question regards shore excursions. I'm traveling with my 80 year old aunt, mentally spry, physically not so much. Most of the interesting cruise-offered shore excursions are listed as physically challenging. Exactly what does this mean? I thought we would probably do better privately booking some touring or just taking off on our own. Any suggestions?

 

We're sailing 2 weeks from today (yay!) and I'm getting antsy.

[Liat]

The money for Turkey is the New Lira - each Lira being worth about $0.73. Greece and the Greek Islands use the Euro; each Euro being about $1.22. Dubrovnick uses the Kuna and the rate is about 6 Kunas to the dollar.

In Athens I would recommend George the Greek taxi service because he and his drivers all speak good English. His website is: http://www.greektravel.com/taxi/ and his e-mail is: greektaxi@aol.com A full day in a four person Mercedes is (or was in 2003)

280 Euros.

Walking the Wall in Old Dubrovnick might strenuous. Just take the shuttle to the Old City, get a few dollars worth of Kunas outside and walk around the central part of the city.

On Santorini you can take the cable car up the hill to town and stroll about. There are local buses to take you across the "spine" of the island and it is not difficult walking.

Keep in mind it will be sunny and hot, so wear loose clothing, broad brimmed hats, good sunglasses and sunblock.

Taking you own taxis is a good idea providing you get the price settled first.

We used our ATM Debit card without trouble in Athens, and this is the cheapest way to get local currency, but many places will take US$ and you can use you credit card in almost any store and most retsaurants for the best rate of exchange.

[PurpleCow]

Thanks, Phil. Just the kind of information I needed.

[new_cruiser]

We recently returned from Istanbul Athens (on Windstar rather than Oceania). In Turkey, just about every place would take dollars or Euro as easily as Turkish Lira. The only exception is admission fees to museums and historic sites where you will need Turkish currency.

 

We used ATMs in Turkey and Greece with no trouble. They were plentiful and give good exchange rates. In Turkey, at least one charged a fee (under $2) but that isn't any worse than you would pay to exchange currency and most of the credit card companies seem to be charging 2-3% for foreign currency purchases now. In Greece there wasn't a fee. (I've wondered if the EU doesn't allow ATM's to charge a fee because I can't recall ever getting a charge for ATM there.) Athens and the Greek islands had more places that only wanted Euros.

 

I do carry Traveler's checks for emergencies. I've had a couple of times (not while traveling fortunately) where the magnetic strip on my ATM card stopped reading so I like having a non-magnetic back-up. They aren't as handy as credit cards or ATM cards because in Europe they generally have to be exchanged at a foriegn exchange place or your hotel.

 

Make sure to let your credit card company know you will be traveling so they don't stop the card for unusual transactions.

[mike35]

We were on the recent Insignia Istanbul to Athens cruise and loved every minute of it.

 

Re the suggestion to contact "George the taxi driver" in Athens, just be SURE you know what you are paying for. You will get taxi service, and just that - not tour guide service. We misunderstood, and after paying an exhorbitant amount to have our driver drop us off at the Acropolis, and then drive us around for about an hour, we concluded that we could have done much better by just renting a taxi at the pier.

 

Mike

[Billybob62]

Mike: Do you have any suggestions on shore excursions for the Istanbul - Athens cruise. We are 3 couples who will be on the Nautica next May and are particularly interested in your experience on Corfu, Mykinos, Rhodes, Santorini and at Katakolon. It appears that Dubrovnik is easily done on your own, as may also be true on Mykonos. Thanks for the advice on George the Taxi driver in Athens. If we do a tour in Athens, we want more than a taxi driver. Thanks in advance.:) :) :)

[PurpleCow]

I've booked Greek Taxi (http://www.greecetaxi.gr/) for a full day in Athens. The office manager has been very personable and most helpful. She hasn't found us a driver for Rhodes, so if anyone who has been has a suggestion . . . I've booked Adnan Duvenci (turkishguide@superonline.com) for Istanbul and Kusadasi. I think we can do the rest ourselves or choose a ship's tour. I'll post when we return the end of the month.

[mike35]

Mike: Do you have any suggestions on shore excursions for the Istanbul - Athens cruise. We are 3 couples who will be on the Nautica next May and are particularly interested in your experience on Corfu, Mykinos, Rhodes, Santorini and at Katakolon. It appears that Dubrovnik is easily done on your own, as may also be true on Mykonos. Thanks for the advice on George the Taxi driver in Athens. If we do a tour in Athens, we want more than a taxi driver. Thanks in advance.:)

 

We rented a car in Corfu - very reasonable (stick shift only). We traveled all over the island, did some shopping, ate some great seafood, and visited a beautiful beach. Santorini was our favorite island! We pre-booked a guide, who turned out to own a wedding photographer business as well. Not only was he exceptionally knowledgeable, but he took tons of pictures of us, and at the end of his tour, he transfered these photos to a CD and gave it to me. I promptly made 5 copies of the CD to give our other friends . We also had an excellent tour guide in Rhodes; he even took us to his home so he could give us a bottle of his family's "private reserve" olive oil! We explored Mykonos on our own - easily done and quite rewarding, expecially if you hike to the top of the village to the windmill; from here, you get a spectacular view of the entire island. We rented a car in Katakolon and drove to Olympia - immensely interesting (and I only got lost once!!). We also did Dubrovnik on our own - took a cab to the entrance to the walled city, and traversed the beautiful wall. We rented the audio "tour guides" which did a good job.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Mike

[Billybob62]

Mike: Your response was very helpful. Do you know if we can rent a car in Corfu that will comfortably fit 6 people? Also, are you willing to share the names and contact info for the guides you used on Rhodes and Santorini? While many people do Santorini on their own, it appears that in order to get the most out of the time on the island, a guided tour will get us to more places than doing it on our own. Was that your experience? Thanks for getting back to me.:) :) :)

[LV Tapper]

We're interested in obtaining our own guides in Barcelona (pre-cruise) and

Istanbul (post-cruise) for the September 20th sailing.

 

Has anyone taken this trip, and if so, would appreciate any input.

 

Thank you. LV Tapper

[aoco]

LVTapper

In Istanbul we used:

Nejat Incedogan.

E-mail Address(es):

*****@yahoo.com

Nejat was wonderful..He is everything that you would want your guide to be and then some. He is a very kind, sincere, knowledgeable man. He made Istanbul the highlight of our cruise!

Connie

[mike35]

I just have to "piggyback" on aoco's recommendation of Nejat, both in Istanbul and Ephesus. We can't imagine finding another guide with the knowledge, enthusiasm, rapport, and friendliness as Nejat. He seemed to know everyone in every venue, and one could sense the esteem in which he was held.

 

Nejat was not only our wonderful guide, but he has become a lifelong friend.

 

Mike