MEDITERRANEAN/GREECE SHORE EXCURSION OPTIONS vs. "Doing it on your own"

[lovebarbie]

I am looking to travel on the Norwegian Jade in May 2019. I look at the cost of the shore excursions and realize that could add another thousand, given that the 11 day cruise has a port almost every day. Given that I realize that with the cruise line tours, you are guaranteed not to miss your ship taking off without you, and safety concerns, etc.... is it possible to save a lot by trying to get your own transportation to some of the places offered in their tours? Or booking your own tour through an outside company? I realize the ship wants to make money on these tours, but with some being up to three hundred dollars, that is just too much per port. Is it easy to get around on your own? And safe in Greece?

Thanks!

[Froggitt]

All doable booking your own tour, save a lot eg www.privategreecetours.com we paid €400 (a few years ago) for a Mercedes van for 10 people, for a full day Athens tour (highly recommended). They know when the ship leaves, they know the routes to get there.

[Happy_Traveler_2008]

I was on a Med cruise and arranged for 5 private excursions for my family of 6. It was much cheaper and allowed us to travel at our schedule and avoid large crowds. I highly recommend it. Go to your roll call to find others interested in same excursions. Some websites even allow you to set up the excursion and for others on the same ship to join.

[jdvmd]

Have always done private excursions and arranged numerous ones for various roll calls. Much cheaper.

[WanderlustJourney]

Shore Excursions Group is great - http://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/

I used them a few times on my Mediterranean cruise this past summer. They also do have a guarantee that they will get you back to the ship on time. :)

[sanger727]

Where all are you stopping? There are plenty of greek islands that you can explore without a tour. We explored Rhodes on our own. In Mykonos we took the ferry to delos and explored it on our own. In Naples we took the ferry to capri and explored it on our own. In Santorini there were companies right off the tender dock that would tender you to the old dock where buses picked you up and took you to oia. Then there were return buses at regular interval to thira.

[littlelulu01]

Dubrovnik 10-13 euro taxi fare to walled city from the ship. There’s cash machines readily available in the walled city or most places take cc. There’s entrances to swimming areas along the wall.

 

Athens grab a taxi at the ship. It’s about 100 euro for a tour or 20 euro each way for ride to Acropolis. Acropolis and plaka lunch can take up a good chunk of the day.

 

Santorini- what previous poster mentions. You can add 5 euro to boat/bus ride and get cable car ticket in advance. This option is actually better than ships excursion which tenders to further port and gives less Oia time.

 

Recommend taking a look at ports of call boards. Also not to plan full days. Depending on the heat it’s nice to have a half day and then back to the nice clean ship for swimming, some sun and rest.

 

Mykonos actually has a beach of sorts right in town. Bring your ship towel.

[zqvol]

Most stops in your do not need a tour. Buy Rick Steves book and do it on your own, especially Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

[lovebarbie]

Shore Excursions Group is great - http://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/

I used them a few times on my Mediterranean cruise this past summer. They also do have a guarantee that they will get you back to the ship on time. :)

 

Thank you! Actually that is the same company I was going to book with (first time), and she did tell me they offer their own excursions and gave me this site. So I'm glad that you recommended it also. A cruise seems like a great deal (all inclusive) until you get your bill at the end and realize there are a lot of extra costs you didn't add up before-hand.

[lovebarbie]

Most stops in your do not need a tour. Buy Rick Steves book and do it on your own, especially Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

 

Thank you, Rick Steves books are great! I saved so much on our Hawaii cruise by renting a car for 4 of us for the day (under $30 divided by 4 people). It was pretty easy and went to the same places that the tours did.

[WanderlustJourney]

Thank you! Actually that is the same company I was going to book with (first time), and she did tell me they offer their own excursions and gave me this site. So I'm glad that you recommended it also. A cruise seems like a great deal (all inclusive) until you get your bill at the end and realize there are a lot of extra costs you didn't add up before-hand.

 

I have used them several times and will be for most of my cruises to come. Really good pricing and the tours are great!

 

For instance, in Naples I did this one: https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/explore-amalfi-coast-naples/EUNPAMALFI - LOVED this tour!

 

Next May I'll be doing this one in Naples doing the Amalfi Coast again! - https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/the-amalfi-coasts-big-three/EUNPTHREE

 

There are some places that I did just wander on my own (Santorini, Crete, Sardinia), but all other stops I used them with no issues :)

[bearette]

There's boards here for each area of ports. They are a good resource to do shore excursions on your own.

[Clay Clayton]

And your roll call is the best way to find others to join you and create a manageable sized group yet reduce the price.

 

 

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[KeithJenner]

I've done many Med cruises and have taken a grand total of two tours (ship or independent) in that time. They are generally very easy ports to do it yourself.

 

If you would prefer to have a guide, and not be messing around with public transport, then I would agree with the comments above. Try to arrange something via your roll call, or completely independently, rather than take the ships tours. However, if you just end up doing one or two then the reassurance and ease of doing the ship tour may be worth it. Given that we use tours so rarely, we don't find the ship ones too bad.

[Tricialy]

Not sure of all your ports, but we did a 14 day Adriatic and Greek Isles tour two years ago. Here's what we did:

 

Dubrovnik - took the NCL shuttle bus to the city and walked the walls. (so basically on our own)

Split - booked a tour through Viator - I think the company ended up being EuroAdria Tours or something similar, toured Diocletian's Palace and then they took us to Trogir

Santorini - NCL canceled our stop in Turkey, so we ended up with two stops in Santorini, probably my least favorite port on the entire cruise. There were too many people with 6 ships in port. The line for the cable car was incredibly long and people weren't sure where the line ended, so it was more of a mob scene. We ended up taking the ferry to Oia, beating all the ships tours and having about 45 minutes to walk around and enjoy the view before the masses arrived. Once the tours got there, it was two lines of people walking through the shopping area and was nuts - we didn't even get off the ship the second day. When we returned to Thira, the line to ride the cable car down was estimated at 2.5 hours, so we walked down the donkey path. Not a terrible walk, but I'd wear tennis shoes if I was going to do it again. I didn't believe how bad the cable car wait would be, even though I had read about it on the boards. It was hot and standing and waiting for 2.5 hours didn't sound like a lot of fun.

Corfu - picked up the city bus at the port that took us to Old Town, then took another bus to Sisi's Palace. It was an inexpensive day, the only thing we didn't count on was the nice lady who sold us the tickets for the bus and gave us a map told us there was a bus at 8 am to Sisi's and the first bus was at 9 am, so we hustled to stand there at the second bus stop for an hour. Also, she gave us a map, but the map was in English, but the street signs were in Greek (obviously) - we made it, but it was an interesting experience. (makes for a good story though)

Athens - One of our best tours - booked through PK Travel and we beat the big bus tours to the Acropolis, there was practically no one there when we arrived. We ended up with only 4 people on the tour (who happened to be our neighbors on the Jade)

Mykonos - took an NCL tour to Delos, we had some OBC to use, so decided to use it here. You could pick up a ferry and do it on your own, our tour leader did share lots of interesting information, so we would have missed that.

Olympia - booked an Independent tour, but I can't remember who the company was.

 

All in all - one of our favorite cruises ever. I hope you enjoy it too! We loved Croatia.

[mesci14]

Most stops in your do not need a tour. Buy Rick Steves book and do it on your own, especially Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

 

I used the Rick Steeves as a guide in helping us choose what to do. We had no problem in Athens....the challenging part were all the street signs were obviously in in Greek which was a challenge at times, but ultimately we had no problem and visited at a much cheaper rate.

[mesci14]

We loved Santorini, but we did the boat excursion for that one as it was very inexpensive.

[lovebarbie]

I have used them several times and will be for most of my cruises to come. Really good pricing and the tours are great!

 

For instance, in Naples I did this one: https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/explore-amalfi-coast-naples/EUNPAMALFI - LOVED this tour!

 

Next May I'll be doing this one in Naples doing the Amalfi Coast again! - https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/the-amalfi-coasts-big-three/EUNPTHREE

 

There are some places that I did just wander on my own (Santorini, Crete, Sardinia), but all other stops I used them with no issues :)

 

Hi WanderlustJourney!

Thank you for those links! What a savings on the Amalfi Coast tour! That is the exact thing I want to do while porting at Naples (I was on an Italy tour last August and while in Sorrento we only had one day and my group all wanted to go to Capri. So I really want to go back and see Amalfi. That tour is perfect because it also goes to Ravello and Positano, not just Amalfi. Did it go to the Villa Rufolo in Ravello? You said you are going next May. Are you by chance going on Norwegian Jade on May 12, 2019? That is the one I'm looking at because of all the ports, although I've never cruised on Norwegian. The second tour looks amazing also. I want to drive that winding road that goes through that arch above the road, it's supposed to be amazing views! Did your tour do that? I would love to hear more about it, and which one I should pick of the two you posted!

Thanks for the info! I'm so excited.

[lovebarbie]

Where all are you stopping? There are plenty of greek islands that you can explore without a tour. We explored Rhodes on our own. In Mykonos we took the ferry to delos and explored it on our own. In Naples we took the ferry to capri and explored it on our own. In Santorini there were companies right off the tender dock that would tender you to the old dock where buses picked you up and took you to oia. Then there were return buses at regular interval to thira.

 

Which do you recommend, Oia, or Thira, or is there time to do both? Yes, the cruise goes to SANTORINI, MYKONOS, ATHENS, RHODES, and CRETE!!

[lovebarbie]

Dubrovnik 10-13 euro taxi fare to walled city from the ship. There’s cash machines readily available in the walled city or most places take cc. There’s entrances to swimming areas along the wall.

 

Athens grab a taxi at the ship. It’s about 100 euro for a tour or 20 euro each way for ride to Acropolis. Acropolis and plaka lunch can take up a good chunk of the day.

 

Santorini- what previous poster mentions. You can add 5 euro to boat/bus ride and get cable car ticket in advance. This option is actually better than ships excursion which tenders to further port and gives less Oia time.

 

.

 

Thank you, Littlelulu. What is the cable car ticket for? Is it like the cable car that takes you up the hill in Anacapri to the top of the Isle of Capri?

[lovebarbie]

Hi Tricialy,

Thanks for all the info. So you actually went on Norwegian Jade? Was it before or after they refurbished the ship in 2017? I have never gone on NCL before, so I little nervous because of negative reviews I read. But I guess there's always negatives on any tour. Some people just come on to post complaints, right? This cruise I'm looking at goes from Rome to Santorini, Athens, Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete, Sicily, Malta, Naples, Florence and back to Rome. I'm surprised to read Santorini was your least favorite? It is the one must-see island I had on my search. Maybe it's just the scenic photos I always see... was it just the crowds that made you not like it, and can you please tell me what the cable car is all about? I'm wondering if it's like the cable car I took up the hill in Anacapri. Thanks!

 

Not sure of all your ports, but we did a 14 day Adriatic and Greek Isles tour two years ago. Here's what we did:

 

Dubrovnik - took the NCL shuttle bus to the city and walked the walls. (so basically on our own)

Split - booked a tour through Viator - I think the company ended up being EuroAdria Tours or something similar, toured Diocletian's Palace and then they took us to Trogir

Santorini - NCL canceled our stop in Turkey, so we ended up with two stops in Santorini, probably my least favorite port on the entire cruise. There were too many people with 6 ships in port. The line for the cable car was incredibly long and people weren't sure where the line ended, so it was more of a mob scene. We ended up taking the ferry to Oia, beating all the ships tours and having about 45 minutes to walk around and enjoy the view before the masses arrived. Once the tours got there, it was two lines of people walking through the shopping area and was nuts - we didn't even get off the ship the second day. When we returned to Thira, the line to ride the cable car down was estimated at 2.5 hours, so we walked down the donkey path. Not a terrible walk, but I'd wear tennis shoes if I was going to do it again. I didn't believe how bad the cable car wait would be, even though I had read about it on the boards. It was hot and standing and waiting for 2.5 hours didn't sound like a lot of fun.

Corfu - picked up the city bus at the port that took us to Old Town, then took another bus to Sisi's Palace. It was an inexpensive day, the only thing we didn't count on was the nice lady who sold us the tickets for the bus and gave us a map told us there was a bus at 8 am to Sisi's and the first bus was at 9 am, so we hustled to stand there at the second bus stop for an hour. Also, she gave us a map, but the map was in English, but the street signs were in Greek (obviously) - we made it, but it was an interesting experience. (makes for a good story though)

Athens - One of our best tours - booked through PK Travel and we beat the big bus tours to the Acropolis, there was practically no one there when we arrived. We ended up with only 4 people on the tour (who happened to be our neighbors on the Jade)

Mykonos - took an NCL tour to Delos, we had some OBC to use, so decided to use it here. You could pick up a ferry and do it on your own, our tour leader did share lots of interesting information, so we would have missed that.

Olympia - booked an Independent tour, but I can't remember who the company was.

 

All in all - one of our favorite cruises ever. I hope you enjoy it too! We loved Croatia.

[KeithJenner]

The cable car takes you from where the tenders drop you off up to the town. The only alternative, as mentioned, is the footpath which the donkeys use (either walking or riding the donkeys).

 

We used the cable car up and walked down. It’s not a great walk because of dodging the donkeys and their mess. It’s also a bit slippery.

 

When we went (on the Jade a few years ago), we were the only ship in port and it was really busy in town. Since the ships stopped visiting Turkey, more are going to Santorini and I believe that the queues can be fairly unbearable.

 

It’s a nice port, but I certainly prefer others. We went to the town where the cable car goes and it was a nice place to walk around etc. We were discussing it the other day as it’s possible we will end up there again next Summer and decided that we would take a boat to another town if we went back again.

 

From reading other people’s comments about Santorini, it certainly seems that the crowds are a big problem. It was too busy when we were there and sometimes they have many times more cruise passengers there than we did.

 

The Jade is a great ship, by the way.

 

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[sanger727]

Which do you recommend, Oia, or Thira, or is there time to do both? Yes, the cruise goes to SANTORINI, MYKONOS, ATHENS, RHODES, and CRETE!!

 

 

 

Oia, no question. Now you will have to pass through thira because that’s the town at the top of the cliff where the ship tenders. But we spent a bulk of our time in oia.

 

 

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[xitappers2bx]

I am looking to travel on the Norwegian Jade in May 2019. I look at the cost of the shore excursions and realize that could add another thousand, given that the 11 day cruise has a port almost every day. Given that I realize that with the cruise line tours, you are guaranteed not to miss your ship taking off without you, and safety concerns, etc.... is it possible to save a lot by trying to get your own transportation to some of the places offered in their tours? Or booking your own tour through an outside company? I realize the ship wants to make money on these tours, but with some being up to three hundred dollars, that is just too much per port. Is it easy to get around on your own? And safe in Greece?

Thanks!

 

We have spent the last two summers traveling in Europe, and last summer spent several weeks there. We booked all of our tours etc through Viator. On the cruise part, we only did one tour and ended up doing it through NCL out of convenience. Viator is owned by Trip Advisor (I believe) and they contract local (and approved) tour operators and I believe they have an entire section for cruise travelers in each city. I don't know if I would trust just a random company, I also would suggest looking at the specific port boards, there is an insane amount of information and you can usually tell who is hawking their own stuff versus legitimate businesses. Europe is really expensive, but it's a far trip, and you really cannot discount just how much of an experience it is (and how much we all grow just by having those experiences...)

[WanderlustJourney]

Hi WanderlustJourney!

Thank you for those links! What a savings on the Amalfi Coast tour! That is the exact thing I want to do while porting at Naples (I was on an Italy tour last August and while in Sorrento we only had one day and my group all wanted to go to Capri. So I really want to go back and see Amalfi. That tour is perfect because it also goes to Ravello and Positano, not just Amalfi. Did it go to the Villa Rufolo in Ravello? You said you are going next May. Are you by chance going on Norwegian Jade on May 12, 2019? That is the one I'm looking at because of all the ports, although I've never cruised on Norwegian. The second tour looks amazing also. I want to drive that winding road that goes through that arch above the road, it's supposed to be amazing views! Did your tour do that? I would love to hear more about it, and which one I should pick of the two you posted!

Thanks for the info! I'm so excited.

 

I'll be on the Epic around those dates (May 2019) doing the Western Med itinerary that does include another stop in Naples... YAY! :)

It did go to the main area in Ravello, we had about an hour of free time to walk the town and visit where we wanted. I wandered around in Ravello, enjoying some of the beautiful ceramics that come out of these areas. I bought an oil pourer (I was on a mission to buy on this trip) in Amalfi from a lemoncello store at the foot of the steps to the church (best lemoncello in all of Amalfi as far as I'm concerned). Definitely try the creme limoncello, very different taste from the straight limoncello :) We had most of our free time in Amalfi on the last tour. The one I want to do this time has free time in Positano, Amalfi and Sorrento, where we didn't really have that on the last one. The Amalfi Coast is an amazing drive, be sure to get a spot on the right side of the mini bus (water and best views will be on the right as you drive).

 

Oia in Santorini was also a huge highlight! I just posted my tips for Santorini on my blog - https://wanderlustjourney.ca/2018/04/09/cruise-review-11-day-mediterranean-cruise-norwegian-spirit-day-7/

I did Oia on my own using the public bus, very easy and cheap (€1.80 per direction from Fira).