Windsurf Barcelona to Lisbon

[llegislate]

Shirley

 

Bon Voyage! Can't wait for a detailed write up of your Windsurf Cruise. You certainly have done your research and can't wait for all the pointers on Windsurf cruise. Best Linda

[alias58]

Last September, while on a 14-day Mediterranean cruise, we stopped for one day in Tangier, Morocco. Prior to us leaving on our cruise, a tour guide was recommended and we contacted her by email. She was excellent. She was friendly, knowledgeable, spoke good English, and much cheaper than the tour offered by the cruise line. She, at one time, worked at a Moroccan travel agency. She arranges 6-hour tours of Tangier for more than four people in an air-conditioned van for 40Euros PP including an authentic Moroccan Lunch With Local Music.

 

At first, I was hesitant on what to expect regarding our day trip to Tangier (Africa), since this was my first trip. However, I like groups of less then 12 people. Our tour guide and the small group made it easy and made me feel comfortable. I enjoyed this trip so much, I’ve decided to go back on another group trip again soon on my next vacation.

 

It just confirms my decision that me and my friends made the right choice selecting Private City Tour in Tangier and had good luck with our guide Nezha. I liked that she gives every detail (cost and itinerary), and what she said was true. Nezha’s tour was great, very educational and concentrate for getting to know the area and the people we are visiting, with planned activities that give us the best flavor and feel of Tangier as a cosmopolitan Moroccan city. We had time to explore on our own and plenty of time to shop, (it wasn't her focus!) I found this one of the most enjoyable tours ever! It was so nice not having to worry about making reservations, finding somewhere centrally located, and having transportation. I am so glad that my friends and I found about Nezha. She can be reached at: visitmorocco2@gmail.com She will definitely see me again.

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Bon Voyage! Can't wait for a detailed write up of your Windsurf Cruise. You certainly have done your research and can't wait for all the pointers on Windsurf cruise. Best Linda

 

 

 

Back home after a fabulous vacation. As I had mentioned in previous posts we cruised from Barcelona to Lisbon our first week and then flew to Milan for 3 days around the Lake District of Italy and then down to Tuscany for 6 more wonderful days.

 

I have another post telling everyone how perfect that we found the WindSurf. Now given that this was our first cruise aboard any of the WindStar Ships we of course could not compare this sailing to any past sailing of these ships. In the past when ever we returned from a cruise on one of the major lines we came back with great memories and impressions, but for some reason something was missing. Last year for example along with 4 other couples we sailed on Holland America's Oosterdam. We all occupied SS suites and we had cocktail parties everynight. We had a great time. I would recommend this ship to anyone looking for a beautiful large ship to cruise on and have a great time. My DH and I might be descriped as foodies and as you can see by my name we really enjoy wine. We found dinning on the Windsurf to be very much like dinning at one of our favorite restaurants, very good food along with service that went beyond our expectations. I'm certain that the size of the ship made a large difference in our experience. We loved the casual feeling of the voyage, in a way it was like being invited on to someones priviate yacht (given it was a little larger then most that you find in Newport Harbor here in California). Here are a few hints that might be of help to anyone taking this cruise:

 

Wine Shopping in Barcelona. IMO forget Corte Ingles and go directly to Lavinia Wine Store on Diagonal 605. This is an upscale shop with knowledeable English speaking staff. Along with another couple we purchased and took aboard 2 cases of wine. We took a cab to the shop, after making our selections they packed it up for us in stryoform boxes and we took another cab back to the hotel. Remember to shop on Saturday the store is not open on Sunday. We did encounter the $10.oo corkage fee, but we expected that so it was no surprise.

WHEN IN BARCELONA TAKE EVERY PRECAUTION TO PROTECT YOUR BELONGINGS. Several passengers on our cruise losts things to pick pockets in this city. I had purchased a City Safe Purse secure hand bag to carry and found this to be a very wise purchase.

While I had done some research on places to dine in Barcelona we tended to just stop and eat when we saw a place that we thought would be good, MISTAKE.

Isiza, we did on our own, the ship had a bus at the dock to take us into town, we walked around and got a good feeling about the city. We walk to the top of the fort which gave us a good view of the city, we ate at a little cafe in that area. In hindsite I think lunch on the ship would have been alot better and cheaper!

Palma, we took the ships city tour. Very interesting, our two men loved it.

Tangier's, we used Aziz Gran Tour. Aziz did a good job showing us around the area and keeping us safe and not lost in the Kasbah. One word of caution, if you are not interested in purchasing rugs tell him or else you will waste your time at a rug store and the men there are very very pushy! Also we were very glad to get back to the ship for our afternoon meal.

Lisbon, our friends that we were traveling with had a friend living there so he gave us some suggestions of things to see. Sunday isn't a great day to find good places to eat. Our hotel The Marriott recommended The Sacramento restaurant for dinner. Pricy but very good.

Hope this is helpful. If you like check out some of my other posts regarding this great cruise. Shirley

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Shirley

 

Bon Voyage! Can't wait for a detailed write up of your Windsurf Cruise. You certainly have done your research and can't wait for all the pointers on Windsurf cruise. Best Linda

 

Hi hope you have had a chance to check out my review. Great ship, great cruise, wish I was still aboard. Shirley

[yogagal47]

thinking about the Nov 4 Windsurf Barcelona to Lisbon or the Nov. 3 Windspirit Barcelona to Lisbon(for '07) . Also considering Windstar Barcelona to Lisbon on October 20('07), which has different ports than the first two. Any thoughts from experienced cruisers regarding ports and the weather for this time period ? We have cruised the med twice on Windstar-both times on the "surf" late sept/early october Nice-Rome and Rome-Malta. Thanks for your help.

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Shirley

 

Bon Voyage! Can't wait for a detailed write up of your Windsurf Cruise. You certainly have done your research and can't wait for all the pointers on Windsurf cruise. Best Linda

 

Linda finally finished touching up all my pictures, almost took longer then the cruise! Hope you enjoy them. Shirley

http://community.webshots.com/user/wanderingwinos

[MGC]

thinking about the Nov 4 Windsurf Barcelona to Lisbon or the Nov. 3 Windspirit Barcelona to Lisbon(for '07) . Also considering Windstar Barcelona to Lisbon on October 20('07), which has different ports than the first two. Any thoughts from experienced cruisers regarding ports and the weather for this time period ? We have cruised the med twice on Windstar-both times on the "surf" late sept/early october Nice-Rome and Rome-Malta. Thanks for your help.

 

We had really nice weather on our early-November cruise last year Barcelona to Lisbon (no rain, sunny, mostly warm), but what we found as much as anything was that it was already off-season in a lot of the ports. It was really noticable in Portimao and Ibiza.

[Funcouple]

Great useful info for Tangier and the Medina! Thank you.

[gymswim]

Beyond what others have shared, I have three additional experiences from the Lisbon-Barcelona WINDSTAR cruise.

We LOVED the Alhambra it and it was one of the highlights of the trip! It is worth the bus ride.

In Barcelona, we hired a car and driver to take us around the city, both during the day and at night to see the Gaudi architecture. It was well worth it.

Because we love architecture, we arranged our own day trip up to Bilbao for a private tour of the Guggenheim museum designed by Frank Gehry. I wrote to the museum several months in advance to reserve an english speaking docent. We paid about $60USD in addition to the general admission fees.

The travel time by air is like flying between San Francisco and LA. We toured the museum and were back in Barcelona in time for dinner. (Most people don't eat until 9pm). Outside of the wonderful time we had aboard ship, seeing the Guggenheim was the ultimate highlight of our whole trip. It is one of the most wondrous new buildings I've ever seen.

Bill