Free Time in Ports

[Sails Up]

We are considering a river cruise in the south of France and wondered about free time in each port. It is hard to tell from the descriptions in the brochures just how much time is spent on included tours and how much "free" time is left over in each port. How do we find this out? Would like to hear of someone's experience with this itinerary. N

[Buckland]

I think no matter where you go, or what cruise you take - including the big ships in the Mediterranean - you will never have enough time to see everything there is to see. In some of the little towns we went to where there was only one or two main attractions, we had enough time ( usually one to three hours ) to kick around. I looked at our cruise with the idea in mind that it would be a "sampler". If we found some place that we really liked we would plan another trip to go there specifically.

 

It would be great if the ships could spend an over-night in each place, but that would increase the cost astronomically. Nighttime docking fees are very high. Besides, the ships have a schedule to keep. I think a great trip would be one that has "hop-on, hop-off" options. That way we could spend more time in our favourite towns.

 

In any case, we still had a great time and would not have missed it for the world!

 

Buck

[Sails Up]

Thanks, buck, for the thoughts on port free time...N