ShoreExcursions/Windstar

[ninelives]

We’re doing a WS cruise from Athens to Barcelona. Anyone have any thoughts on which day excursions are worth doing? Or can some of these be toured by ourselves..We’ll be doing Athens, Rome and Barcelona on our own.  Thx

 

 

 

 

Athens

 

Monemvasia

 

Gythion

 

Messina (Taormina)

 

Sorrento

 

Ponza

 

Rome

Portoferraio

 

Bastia

 

Calvi

 

Mahon

 

Palma de Mallorca

 

Barcelona

Edited July 22, 2019 by ninelives

[ellbon]

Mahon  you could walk and  enjoy the town.  Sorrento pre book a private tour  to up the coast or ferry over to Capri. the  ticekt booth is near the tender dock. 

[Traval]

Not sure if the following will be of any interest to you but here are some of the things we have done on a similar Windstar cruise.

 

Monemvasia    Easy to do by yourself.The tender dropped us at the port and we started a slow walk towards the rock, over the causeway and up the gentle incline.Through the gate and into the walled town.

 

Gythion     We took the ship's tour to Mystras---coach across the plains of Laconia with a brief stop in Sparta before reaching Mystras, a very old Byzantine walled town which I found absolutely fascinating---beautiful churches with icons.

 

Sicily     You can easily wander around Taormina by yourself and visit the Greek theatre.  We took a tour with 'Sicily Life' to visit some of the places where scenes from The Godfather were shot including the bar where Michael meets Apolonia and the church where they marry.Our guide,Luca, more or less then took us to various other places of interest to us.

 

Sorrento   You already have some suggestions but you could also take the train to Pompeii or Herculaneum

 

Mahon    We found a cruise which took us around the harbour---a lot of naval history here.

 

Palma    The cathedral is nice but we like to take the little train --a lovely ride of about 1 hour up to the north west of the island through olive and lemon groves. Once there, take the tram to the port and have some lunch and sangria.

 

Hope the above is of some help to you.

[ninelives]

Thx to both of you..very helpful

[3kidslater]

We spent some precruise time in Athens and through a tour company had a private driver take us on a day trip to Corinth. There were a few other interesting stops enroute.  (sorry I don't have the details available)  The same company arranged a private guide for the acropolis and the driver agreed to take us to the port the morning we departed. Price was reasonable.  In Sorrento we used "Private Tours of Southern Italy" and a driver took 4 of us to Pompeii.  There we were met by a private guide. After seeing Pompeii, we drove the coast and stopped at a lovely restaurant for lunch. Next he drove us to Positano where we had time to wander the town. We also spent some time in Sorrento when we got back before returning to the ship. We had a great time and the opportunity to see so much more than any of WS shore excursions. If you have the time in Barcelona, the monastery Montserrat is lovely. Everything else in Barcelona we did on our own.

 

[Doh15]

Note that the boat is using Messina not Giardini Naxos as the port for Taormina (Taormina is about 30-40 minutes away by car from Messina).  I expect you could find a private transfer and/or tour if you want.  

[ellbon]

5 hours ago, Doh15 said:

Note that the boat is using Messina not Giardini Naxos as the port for Taormina (Taormina is about 30-40 minutes away by car from Messina).  I expect you could find a private transfer and/or tour if you want.  

I saw that too,abd thought the taxi ride would be far. Love Taormina.

[milepig]

When we were at Messina there was a line of cabs waiting just outside the port. Four of us hired one for I think a half day and we paid around EU100, maybe less (this was a few years ago). He drove us up to Taormina, waited for us and then on the way back drove through Messina showing us stuff. It was a good time and after lunch we went back out by foot to explore a couple of the places that looked moderately interesting.