Utterly confused about shore excursions...

[TGS]

My husband and I are on the WindSurf Rome to Barcelona cruise that departs July 5. I have read a lot in these forums and elsewhere that ship-organised shore excursions can be overpriced and overcrowded. We have never been to any of the ports that our cruise goes to (Portoferraio on Elba; Porto Vecchio on Corsica; Alghero on Sardinia; Palma de Mallorca, and Mahon on Menorca) so we are keen to see the sites rather than lie on a beach or go shopping; both activities which we can do at home. I have tried searching for private tour operators in each port but am not having much luck. Given this is our first cruise (but hopefully not our last), perhaps we would be better off going with the Windstar excursions this time?? Does anyone have any advice they could offer? We are in our mid-to-late forties and both pretty fit, so don't mind doing a bit of walking.

[clubmacca]

My Husband and I have just returned from a Nice to Rome 7 day cruise on Windsurf and had a fabulous time. We too were unsure of what to do for our shore excusions and in the end did a combination of Windstar and our own thing. The tours offered by Windstar that we took were excellent and I did not think they were overpriced for what we saw/did and the very informative tour guides. The only port we did the same as you is Elba, which we did on our own and found this very easy, a mixture of walking, local tourist train (that picks up from just outside the boat) and local bus over to the lovely beach side. The tours we did were to areas we thought we could not do on our own. I hope you have a fantastic time. We will definately be doing another cruise next year - you will love it!!!

[6rugrats]

The night before you reach each port, there will be a talk in the lounge. You can get lots of information there on what there is to do in the port and they will provide maps, etc. Also, go to the Ports of Call section of this webpage and look, or try using tripadvisor.com.

 

IMO, you don't need a tour guide for any of your ports. I have always found the DK series of travel books, especially the DK Top Ten, very helpful in doing it myself.

 

P.S. It's really hard to read that small font.

[2serendip]

When we were on Windstar a few years ago, we visited Palma de Majorca and Mahon. We did Palma on our own and had a lovely day -- shared a taxi ride to the Cathedral which we visited and then walked around the Old Town, and had a nice cafe lunch, and then walked back to the ship along the promenade by the marina. In Mahon we took one of the ship's excursions and enjoyed that very much also. We have taken may Windstar excursions throughout the Mediterranean, and I don't remember having any problems with overcrowding or anything else -- most have been excellent.

[TGS]

Sorry about the small font half way through my initial post; not quite sure what happened there!! :confused:

 

Thanks for all the replies. There are some great suggestions there. I think we will wait until be are on board before we make any decisions. We were thinking that we could do the Palma and Elba ports by ourselves at the very least.

 

If anyone has anything further to add, I'd be most appreciative!