Bus trips

[snorkle lover]

We just completed our third Regent cruise ( one in the Caribbean and two in Europe).  There are many things we love about cruising particularly just unpacking once and many things we love about Regent such as the cabin size, included laundry and business airfare. However, what we do not care for are the excursions that necessitate long bus rides. Just wondering if anyone has been on an itinerary that offered a selection of excursions without long bus rides ( long being an hour and longer).

[slidebite]

It's going to depend on the port and where the excursion is. We've done ports with excursions that have almost non-existant bus rides, and others pretty much 2 hours each way. It's going to depend.

 

For example, if your port is Marseilles but you want to go to Avignon, you're going to have a fairly long bus ride, can't do much about that other than chose a different excursion. But, there will almost certainly be a choice of excursions closer than that... question is if they interest you.

 

Only advice I can give is read the excursion descriptions carefully and if it doesn't give a bus ride distance/length, google maps the distance between your port and the excursion destination. It may very well be longer than that as that's usually direct and buses like to do a couple stops, but it should give you an idea.

 

If your budget allows, you could always opt for a more personalized experience at many ports.

[RELS]

Sometimes there is more information on the length of the bus ride in the excursion description document you get once on board. This is the one that comes with the "change my excursion." form and should be in your suite with your pre-booked tickets. If you find out that one of your tours is eight hours with a three-hour ride each way, you can change at the destination services desk.

[cwn]

In the Caribbean Islands this past Dec almost all the ports had tours no basing required….water based tours that you met the tour boat at the end of the dock or walked to the end of the dock and boarded an open air touring train or joined  some kind of a walking tour in the town. One of the best tours we have ever done was in Roatan…Meet the Dolphins…. It was a get in water thing but you had to bus across the island which was nearly a hour ride in rush hour traffic on 2 lane island roads through the major city. The other good one was in Australia….111/2 bus tour on the Great Ocean Road…would not have missed it.
 

When Regent docks at an industrial port for a major city, it is hard to get to points of interest with an hour or more bus ride each way.

 

Agree with Rels either in the disclaimer section on the online reservation form or the onboard info sheet. I have usually found a good description on walking distance, number of steps and bus travel time. Just have to read all the information  and if you have a question check with the Destination people.

[curmudgeon98]

We definitely consider extended bus time as a major negative for any excursions (whether Regent or other lines).  We will often pass on excursions that would otherwise be interesting because of that.  If the bus trips are too long, and it's something we really want to see, then I look at that as a sign that we should probably return on a longer land-based visit.  Cruise port stops often give just a taste.

[mj_holiday]

While long bus rides can be a pain, I also like to use the ride as a chance to look at the country side. 
Some of the long bus trips that I am glad we took are:

1. Very long ride to the pyramids,

2.Fairly long ride to Petra,

3.Long trip to Peggy’s Cove, 

4. South Africa had some fairly long trips several days. Worth it. 
As said above, reading the description and checking the distance will help keep you from being surprised.  
Checking the port locations will help before you book the cruise. 

[cwn]

7 minutes ago, curmudgeon98 said:

We definitely consider extended bus time as a major negative for any excursions (whether Regent or other lines).  We will often pass on excursions that would otherwise be interesting because of that.  If the bus trips are too long, and it's something we really want to see, then I look at that as a sign that we should probably return on a longer land-based visit.  Cruise port stops often give just a taste.

I agree with that up to a point and don’t like as a rule long bus tours.

 

We had been to Australia twice before on extended land tours driving ourselves or using the wonderful trains or flying to connect distant areas,  one was for 6 weeks the other for 4. But enjoyed the GOR so much it was worth seeing it again with  neither  of us driving.
 

This is definitely a case of one size doesn’t all. So far we have been able to find tours that fit our needs/interest. Our first Regent cruise just after they had tours included we could walk and climb steps, no problem, but abilities have a sneaky way of changing.

[cwn]

3 minutes ago, mj_holiday said:

While long bus rides can be a pain, I also like to use the ride as a chance to look at the country side. 
Some of the long bus trips that I am glad we took are:

1. Very long ride to the pyramids,

2.Fairly long ride to Petra,

3.Long trip to Peggy’s Cove, 

4. South Africa had some fairly long trips several days. Worth it. 
As said above, reading the description and checking the distance will help keep you from being surprised.  
Checking the port locations will help before you book the cruise. 

Totally agree with you. The first 2 places you mentioned we did the bus ride, worth every mile/minute in the bus to see, but I would not go to those places on any kind of land based tour. One day was great but it was definitely enough. Drinks and food we didn’t have to worry about, worth ii!
 

We did a camping trip to the northern most point of New Foundland one summer but didn’t have time to see Peggy’s Cove so we did that tour from the ship, again well worth it.

[papaflamingo]

As everyone said, bus rides are completely dependent on the distance from the port to the sight.  It's definitely not the a "rule" on Regent, depending on port you can get tours as long as 12 hours or as short as 1 hour.