Arcadia excursions in the Med Can't decide!

[NBJ]

There are 6 of us going on Arcadia September 20th, to the med. We can't decide on whether we should do our own trips from the dockside, or book with the ship. We are all first time cruisers, so please, any advise or help on any topic would be greatly appreciated. We are early sixties, so up for anything, no fitness problems (as Yet):confused::)

[Britboys]

Hi NBJ, Welcome to Cruise Critic UK.

 

It would probably be helpful if you posted what Ports you are calling at as there are a huge number of them in the Med. Some are easy to do your own thing from, others not so easy. I am sure if you let everyone know where you are calling, you'll get lots of helpful replies.

[LibraLass41]

If the ports are your first visit, which it sounds like they maybe, then for Rome I would take a pando tour. The most important thing to remember is the SHIP WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU IF YOU ARE DELAYED for any reason if you make your own arrangements, but with a P&O trip the ship waits for the coaches.

Rome is 1 1/2 hrs from the port, and is a very busy city.... Excursions are expensive, but you are fast tracked into the main tourist attractions and do not have to queue. Like the Vatican and Colosseum.

The trip 'Essence of Rome' is a 11 hr trip includes a 3 course restaurant lunch and also takes you to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St Peters Basilica, Trevi Fountain , Roman Forum and Colosseum -inside.....£95pp last year but amazing if you have not been to Rome before.

[NBJ]

The ports we are visiting are, Barcelona, St Tropez,Cicitavecchia,Palau,Naples,Alicante,Gibraltar. Thanks for responding, I have only just found how to use this site, so excuse me if I mess up.

[marlin48]

Hi NBJ,

Never been to Barca on a cruise but had a great 3 days there, just get into the city and walk up Las Ramblas and if you want to see the city get on a tour bus at the top they are frequent reasonably priced as well as good tours, one of my favourite cities.:)

Hope this helps.

[vivienne-j]

Hi

 

Barcelona is VERY easy to do on your own, if you know where you want to go. There are (when we went in 2004) taxis from the dockside (we went straight to Nou Camp to keep my then 15 year old happy!), then found it very easy to pick up taxis wherever we needed them - outside the main sights - Parc Guell, Sagra Familia (? - you know, the Gaudi cathedral), etc.

 

Also, there should be a free (?) shuttle bus from the ship to the centre of town.

 

Plus, there's a HOHO (hop on hop off) bus run by the Barcelona tourist people (?) which you can get (more than one route - blue and red routes, if my memory serves me correctly), so research what you want to see and which route fits - or wait for the floods of replies on this board!.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Vivienne

[vivienne-j]

Hi again.

 

Nearly forgot. We stopped at Civitavecchia as well. We did the "Rome on your own" tour, which got us to Rome and back without worrying about missing the ship, then wandered around on our own once we were there. Quite a lot of interesting "tour guide" style chat on the coach on the way there, but were thankfully left in peace and quiet to recover from a long day on the way back! And as the above post says - the ship WILL sail without you if you're not on a ship's tour.

 

Vivienne

[CASPALL]

Alicante was a very pleasant surprise for us. We never expected to enjoy our day there as much as we did. We walked around the town, sat out in a little square and listened to excellent street musicians, did a little shopping and had a nice tapas lunch before walking the prom and heading back to the ship.

 

A tip on Barcelona - go to the main El Corte department store and head for the top floor where there is a cafeteria and restaurant. You dont have to eat there but you could have a drink and enjoy the views from the windows.

You will find their supermarket in the basement - a good place to shop for a nice bottle of Cava etc before going back to the ship! Theres also an El Corte in Alicante but the views aren't as good.