British Isles itinerary (Do it yourself) Ports of Call

[jdc2204]

We are on the Brilliance of the Seas July 18,2019 sailing. Our port stops are Edinburgh, Inverness (Loch Ness), Glasgow(Greenock), Dublin(2 days with overnight), HolyHead Wales, St Peter Port Channel isles, and Dover England. The cruise oridgnates from Amsterdam. Question: In your opinion which of the ports of call can we do on our own, without a booked excursion? Any help is appreciated.

John 

[FionaMG]

There are some very knowledgeable folks over on the British Isles board so it would be a good idea to post your question there too: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/148-british-isleswestern-europe/

[Hoopster95]

1 hour ago, jdc2204 said:

We are on the Brilliance of the Seas July 18,2019 sailing. Our port stops are Edinburgh, Inverness (Loch Ness), Glasgow(Greenock), Dublin(2 days with overnight), HolyHead Wales, St Peter Port Channel isles, and Dover England. The cruise oridgnates from Amsterdam. Question: In your opinion which of the ports of call can we do on our own, without a booked excursion? Any help is appreciated.

John 

 

I did this exact sailing last year. A full descriptive and photo review of each port is here:

Click on the "Hoopster95 created a topic" sentence immediately below

• Edinburgh... absolutely, on your own ... do your homework on how to get there and back to the ship on time
• Inverness (Loch Ness)... cannot do on your own. Everything you need to see is spread out
• Glasgow(Greenock)... nope, too far from everything
• Dublin(2 days with overnight)... 100% yes, both days if you wish. Dublin is awesome! Would've loved 3-4 days there
• HolyHead Wales... no, too far from everything
• St Peter Port Channel isles... yes, absolutely 
• Dover England... yes, however you'll be missing some of the best things around that area I believe. To see the Cliffs of Dover, Leeds Castle or Canterbury, you'll need to figure out how to get there... ie perhaps a tour is best

 

Have fun planning 

 

[ecslady]

Did a similar itinerary on Celebrity a few years ago.  Dublin, St Peter Port on your own.  I can't comment on Edinburgh as we did not stop there.  All the others, do a tour. Private tours are rather expensive, but better than the ships tours.  It's a great itinerary, so enjoy!

[Dred pilot Roberts]

Dover has a city bus that runs from the port with on stop in downtown and the next at Dover castle.  We did that in the afternoon and it was great the castle is excellent and downtown was very walkable and nice.

[SparklyPinkCruiser]

I agree with posters above.

 

Edinburgh - Definitely do on your own. We took the buses around and it was VERY nervous. Whatever you do, DO NOT use the ship's shuttle. I can't even begin to tell you the issues that the passengers ran into with using the shuttle. Which they could have saved with a $1 bus ride. We did a food tour (Eat Walk Edinburgh) which was AMAZING, as well we walked around Edinburgh and explored Edinburgh castle on our own. Amazing!

 

St. Peter Port - We did a walking tour in the morning then spent the rest of the day on our own. I ate the best chocolate of my life there. It was at Ben Le Prevost chocolatier. I still dream of that chocolate. It was better than any chocolate we got in Belgium!

 

Dublin - We got off on our own and did an Afternoon Tea tour on a double decker (Vintage Tea tours), walked around a bit on our own and the highlight of this day, and one of the highlights of our whole trip was touring Kilmainham Gaol. You have to book tickets ahead. Try not to miss this. 

 

Inverness - We did an amazing tour with Laura Moon of Inverness Tours. 

 

Glasgow - I loved this day, but I definitely think you have to do it with a tour company to get the most out of it.

 

The rest of them we didn't visit.

 

Enjoy - best cruise of my life!!

[bespin]

It is very easy to take a train from Dover to Canterbury and back in a day on your own. Both towns are walkable to and from the train stations.  We did it a couple of years ago, and very much enjoyed touring the Cathedral and walking around the towns.

 

 

[SparklyPinkCruiser]

7 hours ago, LauraLap said:

I agree with posters above.

 

Edinburgh - Definitely do on your own. We took the buses around and it was VERY nervous. Whatever you do, DO NOT use the ship's shuttle. I can't even begin to tell you the issues that the passengers ran into with using the shuttle. Which they could have saved with a $1 bus ride. We did a food tour (Eat Walk Edinburgh) which was AMAZING, as well we walked around Edinburgh and explored Edinburgh castle on our own. Amazing!

 

I just read this again. The buses were so easy, ... meant to say, it was VERY easy and at first I was nervous, but there were seriously no issues and with people speaking English, always have locals willing to help!

[shemp2000]

• Edinburgh... caught bus at port....did on our own, some took the train instead of the bus
• Inverness (Loch Ness)... we got a rental car and headed north..castle, wiskey, chocolate
• Glasgow(Greenock)....took a train
• Dublin(2 days with overnight)... 20 minute walk to city  tram.  can walk everywhere once in town...Had the Dublin pass.
• HolyHead Wales... did a local bus tour that caters to cruise passengers
• St Peter Port Channel isles... stayed on ship due to weathrr
• Dover England... took a cab to cliffs, walked to castle only because we had no cash

[debgreg]

17 hours ago, LauraLap said:

I agree with posters above.

 

Edinburgh - Definitely do on your own. We took the buses around and it was VERY nervous. Whatever you do, DO NOT use the ship's shuttle. I can't even begin to tell you the issues that the passengers ran into with using the shuttle. Which they could have saved with a $1 bus ride. We did a food tour (Eat Walk Edinburgh) which was AMAZING, as well we walked around Edinburgh and explored Edinburgh castle on our own. Amazing!

 

St. Peter Port - We did a walking tour in the morning then spent the rest of the day on our own. I ate the best chocolate of my life there. It was at Ben Le Prevost chocolatier. I still dream of that chocolate. It was better than any chocolate we got in Belgium!

 

Dublin - We got off on our own and did an Afternoon Tea tour on a double decker (Vintage Tea tours), walked around a bit on our own and the highlight of this day, and one of the highlights of our whole trip was touring Kilmainham Gaol. You have to book tickets ahead. Try not to miss this. 

 

Inverness - We did an amazing tour with Laura Moon of Inverness Tours. 

 

Glasgow - I loved this day, but I definitely think you have to do it with a tour company to get the most out of it.

 

The rest of them we didn't visit.

 

Enjoy - best cruise of my life!!

So interesting to read this thread as we live in the UK and we are going to Scotland (Edinburgh) for the first time just before our Asian Cruise in March even though we have travelled all over the world 🙈 We often neglect what is close to us. We live in Liverpool which is a fantastic City and which I’m pleased to say is getting more and more Cruise ships stopping here. Once the new Cruise terminal is built I hope many more will also sail from here 😊

[purescottish]

Edinburgh born and bred here...Our buses are fantastic and travel all over the city

prices

for a single journey  ( you must have the correct money as no change is given)

Adult £1.70

Child 5-15 yrs 80p

 

For a day ticket  (this is a single ticket that you can use on all Lothian Buses ALL day) just buy it on the first bus and keep it and show the same ticket to the driver of any further buses you use

Adult £4.00

Child 5-15 yrs £2.00

again, you must have the correct money as no change is given

If you are super organised, you can buy a pre paid app on your phone here https://www.lothianbuses.com/tickets/

I hope you all have a wonderful time in my city

Read the review by Hoopster95, he explains step by step how to get around better than I could and I live here LOL

[debgreg]

26 minutes ago, purescottish said:

Edinburgh born and bred here...Our buses are fantastic and travel all over the city

prices

for a single journey  ( you must have the correct money as no change is given)

Adult £1.70

Child 5-15 yrs 80p

 

For a day ticket  (this is a single ticket that you can use on all Lothian Buses ALL day) just buy it on the first bus and keep it and show the same ticket to the driver of any further buses you use

Adult £4.00

Child 5-15 yrs £2.00

again, you must have the correct money as no change is given

If you are super organised, you can buy a pre paid app on your phone here https://www.lothianbuses.com/tickets/

I hope you all have a wonderful time in my city

Read the review by Hoopster95, he explains step by step how to get around better than I could and I live here LOL

Thanks we are really looking forward to it staying in Motel One for 3 nights late Feb 🤗 booked to watch Jersey boys 

Edited January 20, 2019 by debgreg