Med Cruise - Here is what I am thinking - Help!

[LILynn]

We are going on the Grand Princess leaving on Sept 1. We get into Rome the day before we leave. This is my first trip to Europe but I have been on numerous cruises. First Princess ship - we picked this one soley for the ports

 

Here is what I am thinking based on reading these boards for the last month - what do you all think???

 

Rome - Arrive 8:15 AM the day before the cruise. I have a driver to the hotel (is a cab better???). We are staying at a hotel close to the major sights and I thought of doing the hop on, hop off bus that day. Maybe an evening walking tour of Rome. We do not have to be at the ship till 3 or 4 so I thought we could hire a driver that day to go to the Vatican and then on Citavecchio

 

Monte Carlo - Train or bus to Nice and Eze on our own

 

Florence - I know most of you will think I am nuts - but the ship offers an excursion - 2 hours in FLorence (I know - what can you do in only 2 hours!!!) where I thought we could walk around and see the town and then the rest of the day is a trip to the Chianti region stopping in Greve in Chianti. With this trip being so port intensive - I thought that this would be more relaxing than trying to see all the museums in Florence.

 

Naples - Can't decide between ship excursion to Pompeii/Amalfi Coast drive with stop and lunch in one of the Amalfi towns OR Pompeii/Lunch in Sorento/afternoon in Capri.... Any suggestions????

 

Kusadasi - Private tour with people we met on Roll Call

 

Santorini - Up in the air as to ship excursion - Oia and Winery Lunch/Tour or on our own

 

Athens - ship excursion to Acropolis and the other historical sites,Plaka, lunch

 

Up in the air - Corfu, Mykonos, Katakalon.

 

We are staying in Venice for one night. I figured just walk and explore that city.

 

Sorry to be so long - ANY suggestions, comments would be great. Thanks

 

Lynn

[Queenk2]

Lynn,

Why not hire a private driver in Nples and he can take you to Pompeii and then to lunch and on to Positnao and Ravello as well as Sorrento?

I can personally recommend Nello . He did a tour for us last year and was wonderful! He can be reached at info@drivesorrento Please tell him Karen sent you!

[wwinfl91]

HI Lynn,

 

We are going to be on the Golden in Nov leaving from Rome and hitting at least one of your ports, Livorno. We were on the Golden in 2003 and did Monaco, Florence, Naples, Kusadasi, Athens and ended in Venice where we stayed 3 extra days.

 

I have a Yahoo group site set up for our cruise with lots of info about Livorno (Florence, Pisa, etc.) as well as loads of info on Rome that might help you. There is also a file there containing the write-up of what we did on our cruise in Athens, Kusadasi and Naples.

 

Here is the link to it.

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goldenprincesstransatlanticnov2006/

 

I agree with the idea of doing a private driver in Naples but be careful not to overreach in what you try to do in one day. Getting to and seeing Pompeii will take up most of a morning and depending the day you are there the traffic down the coast can be really terrible. We did Pompeii, Herculaneum, the museum of Archeology in Naples and several other sites in Naples with a private driver.

 

In Athens we did the Acropolis and Agora ships tour with lunch in the Plaka. We enjoyed it as an introduction to Athens where hopefully we will get back to again someday.

 

In Kusadasi Ephesus is definitely worth seeing whether by private or ships tour.

 

You probably won't need a driver to see the Vatican but getting a driver to take you to the port seems to be the best option.

 

If you can afford the time and money see if you can arrange at least one more day in Venice. We were there from Saturday when the ship arrived until leaving on Thursday early afternoon and still didn't see everything we wanted to see. It is a mystical city that will enchant you.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[missyal]

Santorini--own your own. Easy to do. We just walked around there on our own too. Breathtaking. Great food almost anywhere you stop.

Monte Carlo-If you go to Eze, make time for a stop in St. Paul De Vance. Wonderful little artsy village, so very French!

I agree with other post about a driver for Naples.

Rome-hop on/off is fine for limited time. Remember to count the tiem you may wait at the stops.

Venice is great to get lost in.

All JMHO.

Enjoy-sounds like you have an awesome trip planned.:D

 

Missyal

[JXOPF]

We just returned from a port intensive Greek Islands cruise. By the time we got to Mykonos, we were thrilled to spend the better part of the day at Paradise Beach, relaxing, reading and sipping since all our other stops were heavy touring, walking, etc. :p

 

Santorini - We did a 2 hr. city tour then spent the rest of the time on our own, shopping and eating. Awesome awesome places to sit, sip and gaze. Then took the cable car back down to the ship.

I heard the winery tour was good, too, tho we didn't go.

[wblevin]

We just got back from seeing Ephesus. We booked a private tour with Meander Travel (email address istanbultours@meandertravel.com) for $30 per person - $120 total (not Euros). I cannot speak highly enough about this company and our tours. They were waiting for us out on the pier with a huge brand new van that could have accommodated 10-12 people (there were only 4 of us!). Our driver never said much of anything, but our guide Hakan was fabulous. He is actually an archeologist at Ephesus and was full of information. We started out with a tour of the Virgin Mary’s house, then on to Ephesus where he guided us around the entire site and then we stopped at the remains of the Temple of Artemis. He then told us we were going to have lunch (all included in our price) at a silk rug manufacturer. Now, after having done a ship excursion in Tunisia several years ago and sitting for over an hour while they showed us rug after rug – this was the very last thing that we wanted to do, however, he had been so kind on our tour, none of us had the heart to turn him down. So we emerged from our van at a lovely “house” where we were escorted to the side yard where they proceeded to wine and dine us with a 6 course meal (my husband insists it was the best meal of the week) including appetizers, wine & sodas, various vegetables, salad, chicken and fruit for dessert, all brought out to our tableclothed table under some trees in the yard! Afterwards, they invited us to see how the silk is taken from the chrysalises of the silk worms (48 to make one strand of silk!) and how the rugs were then woven by young girls at a loom over the next year to year and a half. It was actually fascinating. No high pressure sales pitch – we used the facilities and returned to the van. It was a great day. We tipped our guide well. HIGHLY recommend!