Katakolon & Messina-could we do "on our own" even though ship leaves early at 2PM?

[rockinpunkin]

Hello,

 

My husband and I will be going on our first cruise next month on the Holland America Noordam. We are planning to do “on our own” day trips at the ports. There are a lot of great information on this board! At most of the ports, the ship departs at 5 or 6PM so we are not worried about getting back in time. However, there are two ports – Katakolon and Messina – the ship departs at 2PM. In addition, the main attractions for these two ports (Olympia and Taormina respectively) seem to be further away from the ports, making us question whether we will be able to get back in time or whether we will get to see enough of the attraction. So we are considering paying for the shore excursion which is $75 for each person!!!

 

For Katakolon – if we were to do it on our own, I looked up the train schedule from Katakolon to Olympia. Our ship arrives at the port at 7am which means we can get on the 8:25 train (arriving in Olympia at 9:05). However, we’d have to get on the 11:46 train back to Katakolon (arriving at 12:28 which gives us some time around the port area). If we miss the train, the next will arrive back in Katakolon after 2PM.

 

Questions about Katakolon/Olympia:

 

• How many minutes does it take walk to the train station?
  
• How many minutes does it take to walk from the train station to the main attractions in Olympia?
  
• We would have less than 3 hours – will that be long enough time to explore the main attractions in Olympia?
  
• According to the cruisecritic.com review, they recommend that we should pay for the tour guide/shore excursion – do you agree? http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=124
  

For Messina – if we were to do it on our own, we’d take the bus because it lets you right off at Taormina. I read that if you take the train, you still need to take the bus up into town. So we will arrive at the Messina port at 7am. According to the bus schedule, we’d probably take the 8:45 bus (which arrives at 10:30 in Taormina). The other option is at 7:15 which I believe is probably too early – I’m assuming we’d have to walk a few minutes to the bus stop so we’d probably miss that one. We plan to take the train back from Taormina to the port because of the time issue.

 

Questions about Messina/Taormina:

 

• How many minutes does it take walk to the bus/train station in Messina?
  
• If we were to take the train to Taormina, how long would we have to wait for the bus to take us to the main part of the town? Or if we were to walk, how long would it take us?
  
• Is it true that the train runs every 30 minutes and it’s quite reliable?
  
• We would probably just be in Taormina for 2 hours – will that be enough time to see the main attractions?
  

Thanks, I know I have many questions!!! :p– I just wanted to get all the answers before we spend lots of $$$ on shore excursions. I don’t want to be stressed out about the time.

[rockinpunkin]

anyone have an opinion on this? thanks!

[Fblack]

I went to both places on the Westerdam. But we had a full day in Katakolon and half a day in Messina.

 

We had been to Taormina previously and decided to just walk around Messina. They had a nice square with a famous clock tower. As for Olympia, we had a full day and hired a driver for 4 hours.

 

First and foremost, DO NOT miss the ship. That's the first thing all cruisers need to know. Trains and buses run late, break down, have labor strikes etc. So what ever you do allow for extra time and possible problems. Personally, we liked Taormina far more than the ruins of Olympia. While the cruise excursions seem expensive, you will never miss the ship if you take one.

 

Here's one last tip. You will get a small brochure and map on the ship of each port. They will also list their "Port Agent" in each town. This is who you need to contact if you miss the ship.

[Bluesmama]

Hello,

 

My husband and I will be going on our first cruise next month on the Holland America Noordam. We are planning to do “on our own” day trips at the ports. There are a lot of great information on this board! At most of the ports, the ship departs at 5 or 6PM so we are not worried about getting back in time. However, there are two ports – Katakolon and Messina – the ship departs at 2PM. In addition, the main attractions for these two ports (Olympia and Taormina respectively) seem to be further away from the ports, making us question whether we will be able to get back in time or whether we will get to see enough of the attraction. So we are considering paying for the shore excursion which is $75 for each person!!!

 

For Katakolon – if we were to do it on our own, I looked up the train schedule from Katakolon to Olympia. Our ship arrives at the port at 7am which means we can get on the 8:25 train (arriving in Olympia at 9:05). However, we’d have to get on the 11:46 train back to Katakolon (arriving at 12:28 which gives us some time around the port area). If we miss the train, the next will arrive back in Katakolon after 2PM.

 

Questions about Katakolon/Olympia:

 

• How many minutes does it take walk to the train station?
  
• How many minutes does it take to walk from the train station to the main attractions in Olympia?
  
• We would have less than 3 hours – will that be long enough time to explore the main attractions in Olympia?
  
• According to the cruisecritic.com review, they recommend that we should pay for the tour guide/shore excursion – do you agree? http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=124
  

For Messina – if we were to do it on our own, we’d take the bus because it lets you right off at Taormina. I read that if you take the train, you still need to take the bus up into town. So we will arrive at the Messina port at 7am. According to the bus schedule, we’d probably take the 8:45 bus (which arrives at 10:30 in Taormina). The other option is at 7:15 which I believe is probably too early – I’m assuming we’d have to walk a few minutes to the bus stop so we’d probably miss that one. We plan to take the train back from Taormina to the port because of the time issue.

 

Questions about Messina/Taormina:

 

• How many minutes does it take walk to the bus/train station in Messina?
  
• If we were to take the train to Taormina, how long would we have to wait for the bus to take us to the main part of the town? Or if we were to walk, how long would it take us?
  
• Is it true that the train runs every 30 minutes and it’s quite reliable?
  
• We would probably just be in Taormina for 2 hours – will that be enough time to see the main attractions?
  

Thanks, I know I have many questions!!! :p– I just wanted to get all the answers before we spend lots of $$$ on shore excursions. I don’t want to be stressed out about the time.

Hi fellow New Yorker,

Have you checked out your ship's Roll call? Its a great place to "meet" up with folks in advance who may be on your cruise, have already researched these ports, and who may also looking for alternatives to the costly ship excursions.

These two ports are very easy to do on your own.

For example, in Katakolon we are renting a car with another couple and driving to ancient Olympia.,

In Messina I arranged for a minivan for 16 people and an English speaking driver (not guide) to take us to Taormina and back.

We all share the costs. While these means of transport are certainly costly than using the train or bus, it also means we dont need to "waste" our limited port time waiting on the public transport schedules and also walking to where you get the train or bus.

Enjoy your cruise, we are also leaving next month and can't wait!

Margo

[4friends]

We pre booked private tours. In katakalon, we booked a well recomended taxi driver because we wanted to maximize our time. The charge was $40.00 euros per hour, but you would not have to rely on the train schedule. We were able to see the museum at Olympia, which I highly recommend, and then the site. We spent at least 3 hours and didn't see the entire site. We also went to a winery for a pre arranged tour. We still had time to wander around Olympia for a bit. We were in port 9 AM to 5 PM. We didn't dock in Messina, but we stopped in Catania from 7 AM to 3 PM. We booked a godfather tour that took us to small Scilian towns where parts of the movie was filmed, as well as going to Taormina and we were back to the ship by 1:30 PM. If you want specific info on these tours let me know.

[Ship's Wake]

We cruised on the Noordam in late May, and had the same port times as you mentioned.

 

In Katakolon, we rented a car from Hertz (just one short block from where the tender dropped us) for 50 euros and split the cost with another couple, which came out to 25 euros per couple.

 

Driving directions were a breeze - we were at the site in about 35 minutes. Just follow all the taxis and buses headed there from the ship, and do the same returning back to Katakolon.

 

Doing it this way was much less expensive than a taxi (they were asking 120 euros for 1.5 hours at Olympia before returning).

 

The train sounds good (and is cetainly cheap), but the time constraints with the schedule eliminated it as an option.

 

At Olympia, go to the museum first (no crowds yet). By the time we finished the museum, the tour groups were entering. By the time we got to the ruins, most of the tour groups were at the museum.

 

For Messina, we used the ship's tour to Taormina, as the time window was too short for us to risk going there by train on our own. This was the only port stop that we used the ship's excursion. We generally prefer to do the ports on our own, but will take a ship's tour if we can't make the time work for us on our own.

 

Joe

[rockinpunkin]

Wow, thanks everyone for your replies! I'm going to check out the roll call thing. I didn't know about that.

[travelinstructor]

We are on the Noordam July 28 and were planning on taking a bus to Taormina rather than the ships transfer. Do you know of anyone on your cruise that did this? Did they have any trouble? I also thought that if we get stuck in Taormina we could taxi back to Messina. With a 6 person family I'm trying to avoid the cost of the cruise ship excursions.

I appreciate any info you can share.

[rockinpunkin]

We are on the Noordam July 28 and were planning on taking a bus to Taormina rather than the ships transfer. Do you know of anyone on your cruise that did this? Did they have any trouble? I also thought that if we get stuck in Taormina we could taxi back to Messina. With a 6 person family I'm trying to avoid the cost of the cruise ship excursions.

I appreciate any info you can share.

 

Personally, we are probably going to pay for the shore excursions by the ship because of time (and it's only the 2 of us).

 

I've been researching the bus schedule and it doesn't really fit our time. Our ship arrives at 7am and departs at 2pm. As you can see down below, I'm assuming that we won't be able to make the 7:15am bus so the next one is at 8:45am which means we get to Taormina at 10:30. However, for the return, we'd have to jump on the 11:40 bus back to the port which gives us about an hour in Taormina. Here's what I found for the bus schedule:

 

BUS - about 1 ½ hour trip.

 

Bus schedule: http://www.interbus.it/

Just in case you don't know Italian - the first pull down is "from" city (Messina), the 2nd pull down "to" city (Taormina), the 3rd one is time (but you don't have to choose anything), the 4th one is day (starts with Monday = Lunedi)

[/url]

 

Messina to Taormina:

Depart: 06.40 Arrive: 08.10

Depart: 7:15 Arrive: 8:10

Depart: 8:45 Arrive: 10:30

Depart: 9:45 Arrive: 10:35

 

Taormina to Messina:

Depart: 11:40 Arrive: 13.25

Depart: 12:30 Arrive: 14:15

Depart: 13:40 Arrive: 15:25

 

 

Also, check out these discussions - some people have been on the bus and the trains as well. Also, on these links, they mention private tours which may be an option for you.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=939865&highlight=messina+taormina+train

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=952835&highlight=messina+taormina+train

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=952252&highlight=messina+taormina+train

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=932046&highlight=messina+taormina+train

 

 

[globalnomads]

We did the train in Katakolon 2 weeks ago; our ship was in port (not tendered) at 7am and all aboard was 1:30pm.

 

It was easy, as we left the dock and walked toward the street that makes up the town, there was a set of information guide/brochures in every language possible that showed the station at the far end of the street. Only a few blocks, and back towards the ocean. Station is a misnomer, its just a small shack in front of a parking lot.

 

I downloaded the current (and correct!) schedule here:

 

http://www.ose.gr

 

and here, although they don't really match up for times on this one, it has some other information:

 

http://www.olympia-greece.org/katakolon-train-bus.html

 

There's no ticket vendor, you buy your fare on the train. We left at 8:36 and arrived on schedule in Olympia after many stops for locals. We had plenty of time in town and at the site to look around and return on the 12:05 train. Katakolon is one end of the track, Olympia is the other so no way can you get lost on this one! The train ride was about 45 minutes, even with local stops.

 

Highly recommend the museum first, so you know what the piles of rocks are/were. Also a guide book - we had Fodor's on all of Greece and it had lots of information and a layout to follow.

 

We even had time for a coffee & baklava in Olympia!

[agabbymama]

But be prepared for the unexpected. I had the schedule for the train on our Med cruise in Oct '08. Unfortunately the train broke down and wasn't running the day we were there. We enjoyed walking the one main street

of Katakolon and shopping. Back to the ship early for lunch and a huge Sundae.

 

This was one of our lazy days after all the hustle for the other ports.

[Ship's Wake]

We are on the Noordam July 28 and were planning on taking a bus to Taormina rather than the ships transfer. Do you know of anyone on your cruise that did this? Did they have any trouble? I also thought that if we get stuck in Taormina we could taxi back to Messina. With a 6 person family I'm trying to avoid the cost of the cruise ship excursions.

I appreciate any info you can share.

 

Hi Travelinstructor,

 

Some cruisers from our roll call arranged a private tour for Taormina that also went to a few villages as well. They seemed quite pleased with their tour. I don't have the details of who they used, but I would guess that you can arrange a private tour for six for less than the price of HAL's shore excursions.

 

While this would be more expensive than the bus, you would get more out of your limited time in Sicily and take away the uncertainty of getting back to the ship on time.

 

Joe

[Ship's Wake]

We did the train in Katakolon 2 weeks ago; our ship was in port (not tendered) at 7am and all aboard was 1:30pm.

 

It was easy, as we left the dock and walked toward the street that makes up the town, there was a set of information guide/brochures in every language possible that showed the station at the far end of the street. Only a few blocks, and back towards the ocean. Station is a misnomer, its just a small shack in front of a parking lot.

 

I downloaded the current (and correct!) schedule here:

 

www.ose.gr

 

and here, although they don't really match up for times on this one, it has some other information:

 

www.olympia-greece.org/katakolon-train-bus.html

 

There's no ticket vendor, you buy your fare on the train. We left at 8:36 and arrived on schedule in Olympia after many stops for locals. We had plenty of time in town and at the site to look around and return on the 12:05 train. Katakolon is one end of the track, Olympia is the other so no way can you get lost on this one! The train ride was about 45 minutes, even with local stops.

 

Highly recommend the museum first, so you know what the piles of rocks are/were. Also a guide book - we had Fodor's on all of Greece and it had lots of information and a layout to follow.

 

We even had time for a coffee & baklava in Olympia!

 

That worked out great for you! We also wanted to take the train. Unfortunately the Noordam tendered and although we were on the first tender we did not make it to Katakolon until around 830am, which did not give us enough time to make the train.

[Bluesmama]

We are on the Noordam July 28 and were planning on taking a bus to Taormina rather than the ships transfer. Do you know of anyone on your cruise that did this? Did they have any trouble? I also thought that if we get stuck in Taormina we could taxi back to Messina. With a 6 person family I'm trying to avoid the cost of the cruise ship excursions.

I appreciate any info you can share.

Well we have booked a minivan to fit 15 with an english speaking driver (not guide) to take us to Taormina and back. Its more costly than train but we can go on our schedule and not have to wait for the train schedule. You can also booka guide this way with your vehicle for a little more money. I imagine taking the ships excursion for 6 people at each port will be very expensive....go on your Roll Call and see if you can get others to share the costs.s

Enjoy!

Margo

[Seaclam]

We will be cruising with Noordam next month and will have a port call at Messina from 7am-2pm. I did some more research by reading previous posts related to Messina->Taormina and here is what I found:

 

1. Walk from port to train station is on the order of 15 min

2. The bus won't work for our schedule as the only bus that might work is 8:45 departure that means 10:30am arrival -- too late.

3. Train schedule can be found at Trenitalia site. There is a train leaving at 8:00am, arriving Taormina-Giardini around 9am.

4. Taormina-Giardini is at sea level that is much lower than Taormina itself. There is bus running every 30 minutes from train station to Taormina. If you want to walk, I looked up map on Internet and it's probably 25min hiking uphill. Taxi might be an option if there are not a lot of people fighting for getting taxi.

5. However, the only train for returning trip that might work for this schedule would be 11:55am departure that means 1:05pm arrival at Messina centrale station. If the train is on time it would work. However, if it is late for any reason we would miss the 1:30pm all-aboard cutoff. The train earlier than this would be 10:44am departure -- not worthwhile if you can only stay 30 minutes at Taormina.

 

Does anyone know in general how likely the trains run on-time between Messina and Taormina-Giardini? How strict is 1:30pm all-aboard deadline? I assume it would be too risky to take the train scheduled to come back at 1:05pm if ship is leaving at 2pm, right?

[buggins0402]

We're in same situation with an MSC cruise - 7 am to 2 pm. I was thinking of possibly taking a Taxi earlier than the train would leave (about 7:30)that would drop right in town, would save the time of the bus from train station and would be more scenic. Then we could take the 10:44 train back that would get us back around 11:30, enough time to check out Messina a bit. Would be great if we got off and found we could make that 7:15 bus - but that would be a stretch.

 

So I guess my question is does anyone know the cost of a one-way taxi to Taormina from Messina? We bought the cheap seats on a November cruise and would hate to have this one shore excursion cost 20% the cost of the cruise, so we're trying to DIY.

 

Alternatively, it might be nice to just call this the "down day" and just see a liesurely see a few sights in Messina. I haven't figured this port out and it's driving me nuts - do you race around trying to see the "best highlight" in a real short period of time - or do you just say I'll do the next best thing with no stress?

[kauaisam]

Well we have booked a minivan to fit 15 with an english speaking driver (not guide) to take us to Taormina and back. Its more costly than train but we can go on our schedule and not have to wait for the train schedule. You can also booka guide this way with your vehicle for a little more money. I imagine taking the ships excursion for 6 people at each port will be very expensive....go on your Roll Call and see if you can get others to share the costs.s

Enjoy!

Margo

Hi, Margo... Can you tell me which tour company you went with so I could compare prices from Messina to Taormina. I know it has been several months since you've been there. I am hoping you still have this info.

 

Thanks.

[hat776]

I don't really think you should contemplate hiking the hill up to Taormina.

It is extremely steep and windy (in fact when we went there by coach I was car sick). Apart from the bus up from Giardini Naxos, there is also a cable car - or at least there was a few years ago.

Buggins = it's irritating that sometimes it is not so much the distance that creates the problem, it's the bus/train time table.

I don't think it's right that cruise ships put in Messina (Taormina) in the itinerary and then we find that unless we take an organised excursion it is practically impossible to get to Taormina in the time available. (similar to Cassis !!!)

There isn't much to see in Messina , I'd have much preferred Palermo.

[hat776]

Buggins - Just in case you don't know - Italy has its own sub forum on CC Western Med and there are some threads about the Messina/Taormina problem.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=14753969

[gardenprincess]

Good morning....I was in Messina on a cruise in July and we (6 of us) went with Mario Astone, who is a Tour Guide, who took us around Messina and into Taormina. He was wonderful!!! He had us all day and charged us way less than what we'd have paid using the ship's tours. Actually, we did everything on our own in each city we visited. Saved a ton of money and saw a lot using trains and hop on/hop off buses.

[Scotswoman]

We had intended to take the train - the walk from the port to the station takes perhaps 15 minutes, but the only train back to the port would have left us stressfully close to sailing time! So we joined forces with a young couple from Canada and hired George with his taxi for - if I remember correctly - 60 or 70 Euros. He dropped us off at Olympia for two hours and picked us up again at the agreed spot. His running commentary was delightful - and we all had an excellent day! Before we left on our trip, I had printed out a site map of Olympia and lots of information on the various temples etc. Do your homework before you go - it pays huge dividends!

Scotswoman

[knock]

We went to olympia late September we were docked at the wharf it was about 15-20 minutes walk to train station, we caught the 8.36 train there and return on the 12.00(noon). We went to the Museum first not a lot of people there early did the ruins - then walked back to the station had plenty of time and the train only cost us for 4 people 12 euro retuned trip. I agreed with scotswomen do your searches on the compter and you can save a lot of money we did