Any recommendations for Kotor, Corfu, Athens,Chania Crete, Argostoli Kefalonia

[jtsbusiness]

I am shortly going on a RCCL cruise to the above mentioned places and would dearly love some recommendations of what to do and where to go. I fear a lot of places might be shut as they seem to be closed from end of October and I will be travelling in November!! (Bad planning!):eek:

 

I will be travelling alone on a limited budget and in the past I usually tried to go 'local' when I went with my husband. However I am not sure how safe this will be on my own. Maybe I would be better with ship tours, and again any recommendations for these would be brilliant.

 

I wondered whether I could safely walk around Kotor and go to the top of the hill for site seeing. We have 5 hrs there but as we dont dock until 2, I feel I will probably have no more than 3 hrs to wander around before it gets dark.

 

We went to Athens a few years ago and took a fantastic taxi tour round all the ancient sites so would like to do something different this time. 8 hrs in the afternoon, so again probably only 5 hrs before it gets dark.

 

I have never been to Corfu, Crete or Kefalonia but they are places I have always wanted to visit. Corfu is again 5 hrs in the morning. Crete wll be 8 hrs morning and afternoon and Argostoli will be 7hrs.

 

I love to get the feel of a place and meet local people as well as absorbing the local history.

 

Any thoughts would be very very welcome

[ravensbad]

My suggestion would be to check the Ports of Call forums:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

[jtsbusiness]

Thank you. I did but there's nothing recent and they were not on RCCL.

 

I had hoped for more recent help.

[jmf123]

Thank you. I did but there's nothing recent and they were not on RCCL.

 

I had hoped for more recent help.

 

I think you will find many options on Tripadvisor. As an example, there are 167 Top Attractions with recent reviews for Corfu: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189458-Activities-Corfu_Ionian_Islands.html. You will see that you can view excursions by attraction type (tours, museums, landmarks, shopping, etc.). Enjoy your cruise! :)

[tidygirl]

We did some of these ports Oct. 2015 we had our 4 adult kids (1 of those a son-in-law ) so we did some private tours

Corfu - we did a private tour to Mt Pantokrator, Angelokastro, Keiser throne and Corfu old towns fort

Athens - did public transportation to check out all the main attractions

Kotor -we did a private tour there to but wish we could have had time to hike to the fort! I think I would feel comfortable doing that by myself and then there are alot of shops and some churches to check out all within a reasonable walk from the ship

Kefalonia did a private 4x4 land rover tour very bouncy but fun.

Not sure if you check your roll Call whether you could join some others or get some to join you.

If you have more questions I can dig out my trip information and see if I have the answers.

[IsanTom]

Just because it is end of season doesn't make the port more dangerous. You will always have pickpockets in tourist areas, so be careful, other than that, have a great cruise. Take each port individually and talk with your fellow cruisers about options and I am sure

you'll have a great time. Less tourists means less crowded towns and tours. Even lower pricing.

[easyboy]

I am shortly going on a RCCL cruise to the above mentioned places and would dearly love some recommendations of what to do and where to go. I fear a lot of places might be shut as they seem to be closed from end of October and I will be travelling in November!! (Bad planning!):eek:

 

I will be travelling alone on a limited budget and in the past I usually tried to go 'local' when I went with my husband. However I am not sure how safe this will be on my own. Maybe I would be better with ship tours, and again any recommendations for these would be brilliant.

 

I wondered whether I could safely walk around Kotor and go to the top of the hill for site seeing. We have 5 hrs there but as we dont dock until 2, I feel I will probably have no more than 3 hrs to wander around before it gets dark.

 

We went to Athens a few years ago and took a fantastic taxi tour round all the ancient sites so would like to do something different this time. 8 hrs in the afternoon, so again probably only 5 hrs before it gets dark.

 

I have never been to Corfu, Crete or Kefalonia but they are places I have always wanted to visit. Corfu is again 5 hrs in the morning. Crete wll be 8 hrs morning and afternoon and Argostoli will be 7hrs.

 

I love to get the feel of a place and meet local people as well as absorbing the local history.

 

Any thoughts would be very very welcome

Unless you would join a private tour with your cruise mates on your Roll Call, I suggest joining a RCCL shore excursion.

By yourself walking around, there is no guarantee on safety.

[AussieVisi2r]

From your list I have done Athens and Chania.

Both amazing.

Athens we negotiated a taxi and did all the hot spots. Sensational!!!!!!!!!!

Parthenon, Temple of Zeus, modern olympic site, plaka, markets and so much more. Markets were one of the highlights.

 

Second time I did a ships tour to the Corinth Canal and ancient Corinth

 

Chaina was also great. No tour needed. We wondered into town to the fantastic waterfront. Did a very cheap boat trip, ate amazing food at a little restaurant and wondered around the old town. There was a shuttle bus into town for about 5 Euro.

 

I did a blog of the trip if you are interested.

http://www.rainatravels.com/europe-2013/8-athens/

 

and http://www.rainatravels.com/suezcanal2015/12-greece/

 

Have a great time. It was fantastic.

 

Raina

[Bobal]

Unless you would join a private tour with your cruise mates on your Roll Call, I suggest joining a RCCL shore excursion.

By yourself walking around, there is no guarantee on safety.

 

Is this from your personal experience of Kotor :confused: Having visited Kotor several times, including just last week, I would say you will have no issues walking around on your own, or climbing the walls on your own. The main problem may be the weather, it can be very rainy in November and when we climbed the hill last week we said how slippery it would be had it been raining.

 

As for the other ports the suggestion to visit the ports of call board or Trip Advisor is the best idea. There will be people with much more information on those forums and, despite the fact that you want to concentrate on Royal Caribbean, if you are on a budget the cruise ship excursions will usually be the most expensive way of doing things. Join your roll call to see if anyone is doing private excursions which you could join, particularly in the case of Athens which is a big city to negotiate from the port.

 

As for Chania, Corfu and Argostoli - all are really nice towns and very easy to walk around on your own. But Trip Advisor will give you a much better idea on specific things to visit/look at

[Cruiserbillyboo]

If only 5 hours in Corfu, then just go into town and walk around. Lots of cool sites to see, right there, all within walking distance of everything. The town is roughly 15-20 mins walk from the cruise terminal, or a very short shuttle ride. Absolutely no need for a ship's tour, or even a guide. If only 5 hours there, this is a definite DIY port. These links might help:

 

http://www.allcorfu.com/we-corfiot-0410.html

 

 

It's a lovely port.

:)

[vickiw0318]

Just did a cruise with most of these ports. I too was traveling alone, but did some walking about with another solo traveler that I met on the thread for my cruise and joined company with a nice group of ladies that I met on my two tours.

 

Kotor is a tender port and even though I was in line to get tender tickets at 11:15 (for an 11:30 start time), I ended up on the ninth tender. A friend and I just walked around the town and felt perfectly safe. The same with Corfu. We bought a shuttle ticket on board and just spent a couple of hours in the town. We had a bit of a wait for a shuttle and there was a bit of a walk to the terminal to pick it up. (There is a shuttle service from the pier to the terminal available.) The time there felt really short.

 

I did take a ship's tour into Athens. We walked to the top of the Acropolis, saw the Acropolis museum, had a great drive through town and then dinner and shopping time in the Plaka. I don't anticipate that I will ever be back so this was a good choice for me. The traffic going from Piraeus to Athens was heavy at our 1:00 o'clock arrival time. We got back to the port much faster.

 

We went to Mykonos, not Crete, so no experience with that one.

 

I did another tour in Argostoli/Kefalonia. We toured a monastery (okay), saw the Melissani Cave and generally drove the island. We had a shopping stop as well in another small town alongside the Ionian Sea. I really enjoyed seeing the island. The town looked very nice and I do wish I had had the chance to explore it as well.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I too have had to make the change from traveling with a spouse to traveling solo and am just really starting to get the hang of it. I am a bit on the shy side so putting myself out there has taken some effort. It is worth it.

[jtsbusiness]

Thank you everyone. It looks like I can take my walking shoes and enjoy the local scenary. Just praying now for some good weather.

 

The Canal tour sounds good for Athens as I have toured all the main sites and agree the traffic and hubbub is frantic. We had a fantastic taxi driver that collected us and took us to the Accropolis before the crowds got there. Fantastic!

 

Vicky do they have a Singles meet on the ship? They did on the Princess and Celebrity ships but have not seen any mention on Vision of the Seas.

 

Thank you for your good wishes:)

[Rustybuttons123]

I spent a few days in Kotor last year, wasn't on a cruise, was on a driving trip through the Balkans. Kotor is fabulous town, very historic and picturesque. Yes, it's safe to poke around on your own. It's not that big so you could see it in a few hours, though more time and catching the evening atmosphere with the hill lit up would be great too. Was in Athens too, not a cruise either, we were in Turkey took the ferry to Chios then flew to Athens, stayed 3 nights. Of course see the Acropolis, there's also the Temple of Zeus, Socrates prison (free, it's just in a park) and find a good restaurant the food is great, moussaka and spanokapita usually cheese or spinach, you can't go wrong.

[ladavis88@hotmail.com]

We recently returned from a cruise which included Crete. We went on our own that day, and it was very easy. There is a city bus stop right at the pier, with a manned booth to buy tickets. It was just over 3 euro for a round trip ticket, and the bus runs about every 15 minutes. The bus drops you off and picks you up at the market building. The harbor area is easy to walk to, has lots of shops and restaurants, and many beautiful sights. We walked out to the lighthouse, which is free, but be sure you have water if it's a hot day. We walked on the upper path out to the lighthouse, but it was a difficult walk, as the rocks are very uneven, so we opted for the lower path on the return. It's a nice town to shop, and dine, without needing a guided tour.

[vickiw0318]

Just pulled out the Cruise Compasses. There was a Singles and Solo Travelers get together at 11:30 pm on Day 2 in the Viking Crown. It was to be self-led.

[bay guy]

For Kotor, walking around town is easy and safe.

 

In Corfu, we did a private tour with Corfutaxi.com which was excellent and very highly rated on Tripadvisor.

 

We also did a private tour in Kefalonia, can't remember the name of the company right now but it was on the ports forum page.

[Hoopster95]

I will be travelling alone on a limited budget .....

I wondered whether I could safely walk around Kotor and go to the top of the hill for site seeing.

 

Here's a full photo review of Old Town and walking up (and down) the fort, this is a must-do!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2108833&highlight=corfu&page=9

 

I have never been to Corfu.... Corfu is again 5 hrs in the morning.

 

A photo review of walking around Corfu's Old Town, another easy do-it-yourself day and totally beautiful, easy to do for your short time in port.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=44365633&highlight=Day+6#post44365633

 

Have a great cruise! :D