11 Night W. Med / Morocco Cruise in October. Need Excursion Ideas. So many stops!

[Funcouple]

Going to Europe for the first time.

 

11 nights (9 cities) Western Mediterranean & Morocco cruise round trip out of Barcelona, Spain.

 

Are excursions necessary in each port? Can these cities be done walking or short taxi ride from the ship? Rome comes to mind as a must and I understand that it's a distance from the ship. I don't have much knowledge of the the other cities. I will read through all of the posts. If anyone has any immediate thoughts then please go ahead and reply.

 

Interests include: Food, culture, country side, wine, history (in small doses), prefer to stay out of the museums unless it's an absolute must see.

Organized tours are ok once in a while (must do's) but not interested in doing orgainized tours at each port unless it's absolutely necessary. Of course, we want to be safe and if we're on our own then we will only do it in areas that are considered to be safe.

 

Barcelona, Spain (2 days pre cruise).

 

Marsielle, France

 

Cannes, France

 

Livorno, Italy

 

Rome, Italy

 

Ajaccio, Corsica, France

 

Tangier, Morocco

 

(Cruising the Cabot Strait)

 

Valencia, Spain

 

 

Thanks.

[luvnorway]

Most of the ports you are visiting are on the itineraries of many cruise lines, so I'm sure you'll be able to find all the information you need by just using the "Search this forum" function on this board for each individual port. Almost everything you could ever want to know is here and it is particularly useful because it is written from the viewpoint of tourists who, like you, only had a very short time in the city and started out from the location where the ship docked or tendered to. Don't forget that Morocco is in Africa, so search for info on Tangier on the Africa/Middle East Forum.

 

We visited Tangier for the first time in Nov. - chose to wander around the Medina on our own and enjoyed doing so - were not solicited by "guides" or vendors at all once we got out of the port area. We walked from the ship to the Medina and felt completely safe. BTW - I've always felt safer in European cities than in some in the US and South America.

 

Since this is your first trip to Morocco, you might not feel comfortable exploring on your own - we had already wandered through other Moroccan Medinas in Casablanca, Marrakesh and Safi on our own on previous cruises, so we knew what to expect. I'm sure most posters on Cruise Critic will tell you to take a ship's shorex or hire a guide in Tangier, so I'm including some sources that I found helpful in case you want to consider seeing it on your own.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=382228

http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/tangier-tanger-tanja-mar-t-tan.htm

 

There have also been some good threads on this forum re DIY vs shorexes vs taxi/private tours that should be helpful.

[RTLS]

Hi,

 

That itinerary sounds excellent and it may be one we'd like to do at some point.

 

Would you mind sharing with me the name of the cruiseline?

 

Thanks

[Funcouple]

Hi,

 

That itinerary sounds excellent and it may be one we'd like to do at some point.

 

Would you mind sharing with me the name of the cruiseline?

 

Thanks

 

We're using our favorite cruiseline: Celebrity.

[betonic]

The aquarium in Valencia is awsome!! We took a taxi at the dock and were there several hours. The aquarium is built in 7 different buildings, one for each of the continents, really fabulous.