Shore excursions for Galaxy in Eastern Med.

[oldparents]

We are going on the Galaxy in late May starting in Rome and visiting Santorini, Rhodes, Athens, Ephesus, Mykonos and Istanbul. We really do not want to use a lot of the ship's excursions. Can people post ways they have seens these locations enjoyably?

 

Also, my sister in law wants to hire a small sail boat or catamaran for a day out on the Mediterranean. Any thoughts or input there would be appreciated.

[Rev22:17]

oldparents,

 

We are going on the Galaxy in late May starting in Rome and visiting Santorini, Rhodes, Athens, Ephesus, Mykonos and Istanbul. We really do not want to use a lot of the ship's excursions. Can people post ways they have seens these locations enjoyably?

 

Honestly, the ship's excursions are the best way to see Rome, Athens, Ephesus, and Istanbul. The major attractions in these cities have queues awaiting admission that are often two to three hours long. If you try to visit the major attractions on your own, you will spend about half of your time in these cities waiting in line for admission. The operators of the ship's excursions, however, are able to reserve tours of the major attractions in advance so the shore excursions bypass the queues for general admission and go right in at the scheduled time. The normal shore excursions also include lunch in a decent local restaurant and some independent time in a reasonably safe area for shopping, taking in the local culture at a sidewalk cafe, or whatever else you might decide to do.

 

For those who know the "lay of the land" in these cities or who want a whole day of free time for shopping, taking in the local culture at sidewalk cafes, etc. in Rome or Athens, the cruise line offers "shore excursions" called "Rome on Your Own" and "Athens on Your Own" that provide only round trip transportation between the pier in Civitavecchia or Pireaus and the downtown area of the espective city. The guide povides some narration en route and, upon arrival in the destination city, a short briefing on the lay of the land and instructions as to where and when to meet for the return trip before setting the participants loose. This is the most seamless transportation between the pier and the destination city, so it will maximize your free time at the respective destination.

 

I can't provide any advice for Santorini, Mykonos, or Rhodes because I have not been to those islands.

 

Also, my sister in law wants to hire a small sail boat or catamaran for a day out on the Mediterranean. Any thoughts or input there would be appreciated.

 

I'm not sure how to advise you. The Mediterranean is "not exactly" the Caribbean or the Mexican Riviera. I don't recall seeing any sailing excursions in any of my ports of call there.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Norm.

[leenie29]

We are going on the Galaxy in late May starting in Rome and visiting Santorini, Rhodes, Athens, Ephesus, Mykonos and Istanbul. We really do not want to use a lot of the ship's excursions. Can people post ways they have seens these locations enjoyably?

 

Also, my sister in law wants to hire a small sail boat or catamaran for a day out on the Mediterranean. Any thoughts or input there would be appreciated.

 

We did the Galaxy 11/20/06 Eastern Med. I'm not a ship's tour kind of person but I was traveling with my husband and our kid who are. I was surprise how much I enjoyed, they were honestly very good with good knowlgeble, entertaining guides.

 

We did the ship's shore excursion in Athens, Ephesus, Mykonos, and Istanbul. When we sailed the only way to see Delos (off Mykonos) because it was off season was through the ship's shore excursion. That was a can't miss excursion in our opinion (we love history) and one of our best guides. Istanbul we did the 2 day tour which was also wonderful. Ephesus was crowded and we walked passed many lines. You're going during tourist season and you will probably spend less time in lines with the ship's tours.

 

Santorini and Rhodes can easily be done on your own. The dock is right near Old Town in Rhodes. Or you can rent a car and drive to the Butterfly field in Rhodes, which is pretty. Santorini you have to tender in but there really isn't a shore excursion that you can't do on your own.

 

We spend an extra day pre-cruise and post cruise in Rome. I would highly recommend ICON Tours for the Vatican and the Forum. You will avoid lines with these tours and they kept my kids very entertained for the entire tour.

 

Another thing to consider is that if you take a ship's shore excursion in Mykonos and Istanbul you can stay in town and not have to pay or make a reservation for the ship's shuttle back to the ship.

 

A big factor is the time of year you are going. The last thing you'd want to do is miss the ship.

 

HTH,

Eileen

[Nerang]

Hi Oldparents , If you are sailing on the Galaxy on the 5/21/07, there is a thread already going with fellow cruisemates sharing tours in places you have mentioned. Have a look under the thread Galaxy 5/21/07.

[tom_uk]

You might want to check cruisecal (http://www.cruisecal.com) and find out how crowded Santorini will be the day you're there. The problem at Santorini is that if you don't do an excursion you get tendered into a small landing area below Fira town, from where there are are only three ways up: a) by cablecar; b) by donkey; c) walking up the donkey track. On a day with a number of ships calling, this will get very congested. The advantage of doing an excursion to Oia is that you get landed at a different dock in a different part of the island, you'll get met by a bus at that dock, and the excusion ends at Fira town where you're free to stay & explore until you're ready to hit the queues down.

[oldparents]

Thanks for the input so far. We have signed up for the thread about our particular cruise. But we would really love to hear from people who have been to these destinations and hear what you loved, what you liked and what you would advise against.

 

I love these boards because of all the valuable info out there.

[Seabee]

Check out the Ports of Call section for Europe. There is a ton of info on Private Drivers which is the best way to go.

[Chick's pal]

We did this itinerary in November 2006.

We are generally "do it yourself" tourists.

The time of year made things a little different than they would have been during summer--not as many crowds and some seasonal attractions were open fewer hours

 

Mykonos: We paid $6 per person to take the shuttle bus to town and back (unlimited). You can see "town" and you could walk there, if the road was not a narrow one without sidewalks that shares with traffic. Because Mykonos was pretty quiet, we wandered on our own, took lots of photos of the windmills and window-shopped.

 

Rhodes: An awesome place to just walk and wander. Pay individual admissions to the archeological museum and the Palace of the Grand Masters. Shopkeeper are so, so friendly. No need for a tour here, unless you want more information than you can read about in a guidebook beforehand.

 

Santorini: We'd been here once before and did Fira. This time we went to Oia. You can take the city bus for about 1 Euro each way, but it runs on a specific schedule, like every hour or two hours. Not every 10 minutes like a big city. We ended up taking a taxi to Oia for $15. Caught the bus back to Fira when we were done. No tour needed in Oia. It's an artist colony type flavor and of course the scenery and architecture is photo-worthy. Others are right about getting up to Fira...you must take the Funicular, donkeys or hoof it on your own. None is too difficult.

 

Athens: We'd been here once before and took the metro to the Acropolis. This time we took the metro to the archeological museum. You might benefit from a tour here. Cab drivers want to take you for the day. If you are adventurous, you can do the metro for 0.70 Euro per person each way. The walk to the station from the port is about 30 minutes, totally urban and safe.

 

Istanbul and Ephesus: We booked a private service to provide tours for 2 days in Istanbul and 1 day in Ephesus. We are only two people, but it was still cheaper than the ship's tour and on our terms completely. Our cost included an English-speaking guide and a driver and the vehicle! All admissions costs were included. Tour guides can bypass lines to get you in to the attractions. I would ABSOLUTELY recommend Sammy's Travel for these locations. The guides were just fabulous, especially the younger woman in Ephesus. You tell the service exactly what you want to see or what you don't want to see. I do want to warn you that you'll have a carpet presentation in both places. There is no getting around it. It is their culture. You might want to measure some of your rooms at home before you go if you think you might be tempted.

 

Are you stopping in Naples? Depending what you want to do there, there are a number of options, some good by yourself, some with a ship's excursion. For instance, I would not recommend Capri without a ship's tour, but I would recommend Pompeii without it. We did Pompeii on our own once, the next trip we did an Amalfi Coast tour with a private company.

 

In Rome we have used driverinrome.com. If you just have one day, they can take you everywhere you want to go within the city proper. It's a good little "appetizer" of Rome. Then throw your coins in the Trevi Fountain and plan a multi-day trip in the future. If you're staying in Rome pre-or post-cruise, then I really recommend the 110 Tourist Bus. I think it was 15 Euros a day per person, hop-on, hop-off all day from 8am to 8pm. We used this as our method of transportation for three consecutive days as it was cheaper than a taxi to anywhere we wanted to go. It stopped right outside our hotel.

 

Hope this general overview gives you a few ideas. We really loved our Eastern Med cruise. ENJOY YOUR TRIP!

[oldparents]

Thanks so much. That was exactly the kind of info we were looking for.

 

I am contacting Sammy's right now.

 

We spent a week in Rome last year so are only coming in 1 day early and know what we would like to see again.

 

What about the Amalfi Coast? What tour company did you use and was it worth the time and money?

[rman738]

Old parents (and others)

 

We cruised the Med last June. We had met about 40 plus people thru Cruise Critics starting about a year before the cruise. We arranged our own tours that had anywhere from 6 to 16 people traveling in private buses and vans. At most locations we had multiple vans from the same company riding together. Our cost was about 65% of the price of similar tours thru the ship. Our tours were more personalized. The cruise arranged groups on large buses of 50 people or so. The attention we received was incredible compared to what I have experienced from ship excursions in the past. The only problem with this concept is that the ship will wait for you if your ship excursions runs late. They will NOT wait for privately arranged tours if they are late. That can be expensive.

Rich

[Chick's pal]

For the Amalfi Coast, I wish I could give you a good review of the private service we used. Unfortunately the entire coast and all the way up into the hills it was fogged in completely the day we'd booked our tour.

 

The tour went on anyway and while we enjoyed seeing the villages, the fog and heavy mist made it very difficult to enjoy it completely because visibility was extremely limited all day. For instance, we had lunch at a wonderful hilltop restaurant that bragged about an awesome vista. We saw solid white!

 

We are telling ourselves this is nature's way of saying, "Come back to Amalfi!" Who are we to argue with that?

 

That said, I would still recommend a private tour for this area, as much of the smaller villages have places inaccessible to large vehicles.