Excursions.. finding your own

[sweetbasil57]

We are sailing on the Epic May 6 2018, making plans. Does anybody have any recommendations for using other excursion company other then the ones offered by NCL, they seem awful expensive (600 for 2 to go the Vatican ) as a matter a fact, I would like to book my own. We are 2 couples sailing.

[All-ready2cruise]

It appears you'll be travelling in Europe, either Rome or Barcelona embark so I'd recommend looking into Tourbylocals... they offer a wide variety of tours which can usually be customized to suit your needs.

 

https://www.toursbylocals.com/

 

HTH, cheers

[MeHeartCruising]

Have you reviewed the Europe forums on this site? There are tons of of threads about various companies that people use in the various ports. And/or you can ask your question for each port in it's own forum. That should get your the most targeted audience and relevant responses.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

[Sundiego]

You will see ROME IN LIMO mentioned quite often. http://www.romeinlimo.com

 

We used them when in Rome and shared a tour with other cruisers in our roll call. Highly recommend!

 

~Denise

[cuterlmt]

I would also suggest looking at tripadvisor - they have great reviews to help out. Have a wonderful trip!

[Linda the Book Lover]

We did this cruise in July and we used https://italytours.eu for Rome & Vatican (no shopping time in the Vatican ), for Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast and Florence and Pisa. We booked Viator in Cannes Cannes Shore Excursion: Small-Group Monaco and Eze Half-Day Tour Barcelona we used www.BarcelonaDayTours.com

 

We found all of them through reviews on CC. Every last one was a great tour! All the tours included well-informed guides which we tipped because they did such a good job and made sure everyone had a great experience and every question was answered. Prices are about 1/3 of the price of the ship excursions. We had a van with 6-8 for each excursion. You can also choose to have a semi-private or private tour.

[Travel R]

You should also ask on the Roll Call for your sailing (https://www.cruisecritic.com/rollcalls/) - people on your itinerary may have already done some research and may have suggestions. Some may also have found great pricing and looking for others to share the excursion with (I did so on our last cruise).

[sweetbasil57]

You should also ask on the Roll Call for your sailing (https://www.cruisecritic.com/rollcalls/) - people on your itinerary may have already done some research and may have suggestions. Some may also have found great pricing and looking for others to share the excursion with (I did so on our last cruise).

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Budget Queen]

As mentioned, go to your roll call, and the Italy Ports of call board.

 

There are several options for the Vatican. I go the cheap simple route, by simply taking the train there for 13 euros there round trip. Then Vatican entry- fees

 

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/musei-e-collezioni/musei-vaticani-e-cappella-sistina/visita-libera-musei-vaticani-e-cappella-sistina.html

:)

 

 

Of course you have to be accepting of not having your hand held. IF you want a group guided from from the port, then check your roll call and join one of those tour groups.

[TinAlaska]

When I sailed Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Florence, etc. we just hired cabs at each port. It was fantastic. They were totally negotiable on price (I don't recall the specifics, but do recall it was a fraction of the shore excursion costs through the ship). They took us everywhere we wanted to go, and had suggestions for the most popular places. They didn't ask for payment until we returned to the ship, so we knew we wouldn't be abandoned mid-tour. We had total discretion over how long we wanted to stay at each location. It was perfect. I specifically used this method for driving the Amalfi coast in Naples and for a total tour of Rome including the Vatican, the Colosseum, etc.

[TSUmom]

You did not mention if you were embarking in Rome or Barcelona. I am assuming Barcelona because you mentioned shore excursions for Rome. We started out in Rome and spent 3 days pre cruise so we did everything on our own. As for the other ports we used Rome in Limo. You can check their Tour shares and see if there are already tour groups set up that you can join. We had a great time, my favorite cruise ever.