British isles shore excursion recos?

[TomInNYC]

We are taking the British isles cruise this August....any shore excursions ro recommend? Any to avoid? Are there ports that are just as easy to explore on your own?:)

[pennys mum]

Which ports are you visiting?

[RickT]

Most of the major cities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, etc) are easy to do on your own. Many have a hop on hop off bus to give you a few hi-lites.

[Esk]

Make the effort to go to Bath- (from Southampton?) too beautiful. I'm biased though!

 

 

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[TomInNYC]

Thank you for all your input...FYI, the cruise leaves from Amsterdam and visits Liverpool Inverness Dublin Belfast Cork and lastly, Bruges

[Whitla42]

Hi

Belfast has a lot to do depending on how long you have ashore.

Giants causeway is lovely about two hours from belfast , but really worth doing if you have the time.

Tour bus ( which will probably be at the ship) will take you around Belfast and see all the sights . Peace walls , Harland and Wolfe ship builders ( who built a famous ship) .

If you are into Game of Thrones a lot of the film sites are good to see , there is a day tour doing this but is a long day too.

[Whitla42]

Con:

Some people get together and hire out a taxi ( I think u can pre book these) and do what they most want see .

If there is anything of particular interest to you let me know and I will get you more info.

 

Tracy

[ccotting]

Did this cruise 2 years ago. Recommend Busybus if you are doing tours outside of the ship. We used them and they were excellent. Also, for Belfast, the ship's tour only reflected Protestant Ireland. As a Catholic, I was disappointed and, have been told that, if that is your interest, to book a Black Cab private tour.

[phabric]

Check out Cruise Critic - Port of Call - Britain, a great place to ask questions.

 

Join your Roll Call, there might be private tours you can join.

[4774Papa]

This question has been asked and answered many times on cc. Go to the Britain section and run a search on tours.

 

Here is my review of our cruise with details on tours.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=221137

[busymumofthree]

Hi Tom

 

Thats a very interesting itinerary - only one English Port but 3 Irish and 1 Scottish!

 

I can comment on both Liverpool and Cork as we know those areas well.

 

If you're a Beatles fan, then Liverpool is of course their home - you can visit the Cavern and there is a Beatles Museum. Its a vibrant city in its own right and you can do a hop on hop off bus and see the (very modern) Cathedral, or ferry across the Mersey, or possibly visit Anfield football ground (if you're a footie fan). You could also hop on a train and go to Manchester for the day which is another great northern city. or, depending on how much time you have, do a typical seaside day in either Southport or Blackpool.

 

And you will love your stop in Cork - a wonderful city (my husbands family's home town!). Personally, for me, Id get out of the City and go either west to Kinsale or East to Cobh (in fact, thinking about it, you may actually dock in Cobh - in which case thats a lucky treat!). Cobh has a great museum dedicated to the Titanic as it was the ships last stop before that fateful night. Kinsale is a beautiful old fishing village on the coast west of Cork city. And if you're in Cork for any part of the evening then the main street there (whose name escapes me for the moment?) has lots of bars with traditional live Irish music.

 

And Bruges we know well too - all you have to do is get from the port into the city itself and you'll be happy. The main town square is a treat - house drawn carriage rides and lots of restaurants to sit and watch the world go by.

 

Hope you have a great time here!

[chuly]

We are taking the British isles cruise this August....any shore excursions ro recommend? Any to avoid? Are there ports that are just as easy to explore on your own?:)

Have you Joined our Roll Call? We have a very active roll call with lots of good advice from fellow cruisers and our own "Cruise Angel" Becky who has created an amazing Wix website with all the information you may need.

[clandestino_usr]

Con:

Some people get together and hire out a taxi ( I think u can pre book these) and do what they most want see .

If there is anything of particular interest to you let me know and I will get you more info.

 

Tracy

 

We're on the same cruise and we just did that for the Cork stop, we went through a private driver & guide. On the other spots, we plan to go hop-on/off. The only excursion we take with Celebrity is Inverness & the Loch.

[texasgirl29]

We did the British Isles and French Open on Celebrity Eclipse in June. I have a very long, very photo heavy review which you can see if you look at the link in my signature. In Liverpool we did the Magical Mystery Tour http://www.albertdock.com/attractions/magical-mystery-tour/ and enjoyed it very much. In Cobh (Cork) we went on a tour with eCoach (Butler Tours) ecoach.ie -- our guide/driver got us to Blarney Castle before the crowds. I hope you can spend some time in London before your cruise.

JoAnn

[2theship]

Dublin is easy to do on your own. A taxi might be cheaper than the ship shuttle. Depending on your interests there's either Trinity College to visit the Book of Kells and the library or a trip to the Guinness brewery.

[Doctor G]

In Belfast we had a private tour with Paddy's Black Cabs. It was all day and we drove along the coast to Giant's Causeway--definitely worth the trip. Later we went to the Titanic Museum in Belfast (where Titanic was built), and I thought it was one of the best museums I have been to. In Liverpool we took a tour to Northern Wales with Busy Bus. Again, it was all day, but I really enjoyed the scenery in the country side.

 

Have a great trip.

Carolyn

[srdancer]

Bruge- Wonderful chocolates of course!!

If you saw the movie Monuments Men- the da VincI Madonna and Child rescued near the end is in the Church of Our Lady.

[NantahalaCruiser]

Thank you for all your input...FYI, the cruise leaves from Amsterdam and visits Liverpool Inverness Dublin Belfast Cork and lastly, Bruges

Out of Inverness, I heartily recommend you look into a guided day-long tour with Hugh Allison - the owner and head guide with Inverness Tours. A few years ago, my wife and I, along with 4 fellow CC members from our rollcall, took an 8-9 hour tour with Hugh from Inverness to the Isle of Skye and back. Hugh is an outstanding historian and author of several books on Scottish history; but is also a wonderful storyteller and congenial guide. You cannot go wrong booking with him. You can reach him at invernesstours.com or see the reviews on TripAdvisor - they are listed there as Inverness Day Tours as #2 of 48 tour companies out of Inverness.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[Traveling Library]

Liverpool took a 3 hour tour with Beatles Fab 4 Taxi. You pre-book the taxi and so we shared it with 2 other cruisers. The driver provided the narration. We stopped at all of the boyhood homes, Penny Lane, the church and Eleanor Rigby's grave and other sites. The tour was great. Earlier we walked off the ship and took a 1 hour city tour. Make sure you also visit the Maritime Museum. Wonderful exhibits.

In Edinburgh I hope you are going to the Military Tattoo. This is a must see!!

Enjoy your trip.

[macaroni]

We used Fab4 in Liverpool...great 3 hour tour...in Dublin, pre book your trinity college, book of Kells...took taxi from ship...faster than ships transfer...head out early as traffic gets bad after 8am. Used butlers for Cobb/cork...10 of us in the group. Got to blarney castle first on line.