HAL Shore excursions in Europe

[LILynn]

This is my first HAL cruise. Last year I was on the Grand Princess and we did some of the Princess shore excursions. I was really happy with them - the guides were great, the busses were very comfortable and I was very glad that in the ports that we did shore excursions we did them.

 

We are going on the Prinsendam in September and I am thinking about the following HAL ship excursions.

 

Antwerp - full day to tour to Brugges

La Corona - I cannot decide if we should attempt to take the train on our own to Santiago de Compostela - any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sete - full day tour to Carcasonne

Livorno - full day to Sienna and San Gimignano

 

The other ports - Amsterdam, Greenwich, Porto, Lisbon, Monte Carlo and Rome are on our own or we have arranged for drivers.

 

If you have done any of these shore excursion I would love to hear what you thought of them or any other recommendations that you may have for these ports.

 

Thanks in advance

Lynn

[jhannah]

I believe you will find HAL tours quite comparable with Princess, or any other lines for that matter. They all use substantially the same vendors in each port of call.

[Jade13]

This is my first HAL cruise. Last year I was on the Grand Princess and we did some of the Princess shore excursions. I was really happy with them - the guides were great, the busses were very comfortable and I was very glad that in the ports that we did shore excursions we did them.

 

We are going on the Prinsendam in September and I am thinking about the following HAL ship excursions.

 

Antwerp - full day to tour to Brugges

La Corona - I cannot decide if we should attempt to take the train on our own to Santiago de Compostela - any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sete - full day tour to Carcasonne

Livorno - full day to Sienna and San Gimignano

 

The other ports - Amsterdam, Greenwich, Porto, Lisbon, Monte Carlo and Rome are on our own or we have arranged for drivers.

 

If you have done any of these shore excursion I would love to hear what you thought of them or any other recommendations that you may have for these ports.

 

Thanks in advance

Lynn

 

 

Lynn, the excursion from Liverno sounds very good. As I recall it is the most expensive one they offer in the port. I would do it if I didn't have a group together from our roll call. Btw, I went directly with HAL last year for a Canapy Tour in Alaska and it was first rate.

[jtl513]

Of all the ports you've listed, the only one we did a HAL excursion in was Monaco, and we thought it was worth the money. We saw a lot more than if we had just tried to walk around. There's quite a bit of walking required as it is. About midway through the tour you leave Monaco and go up to a high point in France overlooking Monaco. At the end you can go into the Monte Carlo casino for a price ... IIRC it was about 12 Euro ($15). The only person on our bus that I know did it said it wasn't worth the money.

 

In Livorno we took the HAL transfer to Florence and walked around on our own. As luck would have it, we were there on a Monday and all the best museums were closed, but we saw a few churches. On the bus there was a guide of sorts that passed out maps and answered questions anyone had ... and of course recommended certain shops. She led us from the bus drop-off point to a square and told us to be back at a certain time.