Cruise Ship Excursions

If I may, you would be better served by taking this query to cruisecritic.com, which is totally "populated" by people who are well informed about cruising.

Jennifer, You might find it very helpful to invest in a copy of the Meditteranean Cruise Ports Guidebook. I haven't seen it yet, but believe it was written to help cruise passengers tour on their own, rather than using the pricey excursions offered by the cruise lines. It would probably be a good investment! Happy Cruising!

I usually start by checking out cruisecritic.com. There is plenty of information about the ports of call. Although I think the cruise critic contributors lean heavily toward cruise line excursions, the reviews give you a decent idea what activities are reasonable to plan; then you can see if there are local tour alternatives (or just do it on your own). More often than not, you can find a local tour guide that will provide a better experience at half the cost.

Viatour is a middleman agency that sells tour companys tours, they themselves are not a tour company. They however are reliable and reputable for France at least that I can confirm, so imagine they are reliable and reputable for other countries. I would however look at pricing out the tours myself as they often charge a bit more then if you buy the tour directly from the company. Good idea to go to the cruisecritics.com forums,, the folks there will all have more to say as the forum is all about cruising.. there are specific forums for each port of call, and each cruise ship line and even each cruise ship and date of sail.

Thanks for the very informative suggestions. I will visit cruisecritic.com for excursion ideas.

Jennifer, at cruisecritic.com, go ahead and register, join the "roll call" for your specific cruise, and you will get SO MUCH information that your head will be spinning. Lots of passengers work together on that forum to fill private (non-cruise-ship) excursions, usually at better prices than the cruise ship offers.

One more vote for the cruisecritic website and as already suggested joining the roll call for your cruise where others on your cruise are discussing private shore excursions.

One more vote for the cruisecritic website and as already suggested joining the roll call for your cruise where others on your cruise are discussing private shore excursions.