We are taking our first cruise on a Holland America. Needless to say we are "asea", no pun intended. Some of the places we will stop we have spent a week in at one time or another in the past 10 years, Rome, Florence, etc. We found a web site that listed all the stops we will be taking on our particular trip, and it was like a Rick Steve's take on what you can and can't do on your own. We Cannot Find it again for the life of us. Of course our travel agent never heard of it. Was wondering if anyone out there had information on cruise ship stops. Most are not in the Rick Steve's book where we will be stopping. Here are some of the stops; Ponta Delgada,Sao Miguel, Azores,; Cadiz, Malaga, Cartagena, Spain. Sete and Monte Carlo, France. Liverno, Civitavecchia, Napels, . There are a couple in Malta and Tunisia. Any one know of this web site?
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
4856 posts
No idea of the specific website you are referring to. But Cruise Critic has Ports of Call forums that may be of help.vHeres the one for the Med: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/472-mediterranean-eastern-amp-western/
Posted by
Edmonton Canada
327 posts
Maybe it was this one?
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10189 posts
Try Tom's Cruise Ports-- free guidebooks, very good. Can't hyper link for you right now.
Posted by
OP
Dallas, TX, usa
323 posts
Thank you all for the reply's, we will look
Posted by
Greeley, co, usa
2404 posts
Ponte Delgada has an interesting downtown that you can walk through, The ship docks right there. There are several tours available, either thru the cruise line or right there on the dock. Cadiz also has the ships dock right at the downtown. Unless there is an excursion that you feel you must take, I recommend just walking around the town, Very interesting. I would love to visit again.
I visited Malaga but that was years ago and I just went to the beach.
Lots to do in Monte Carlo and nearby Nice. Rick’s France guidebook has lots of good info.
Livorno and Civ... are the ports for Florence and Rome. Both require a train ride. You can either go back to those towns, or find another place you can train to within your time constraints.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If you want a Rick Steves approach to cruising the Mediterranean , get his book Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports. In it, he details what's involved in seeing each port on your own, so you can decide if you want that, want the ship's tour, or want to arrange a tour on your own.
On the Cruise Critic website, find the Roll Call for your sailing. https://www.cruisecritic.com/rollcalls/ This way, you can "meet" others on your cruise, and can join private tours. This is "best of both worlds" - smaller groups than the ships tours, at lower cost than a private tour would be for just you.
Posted by
7662 posts
We travel quite a lot and do land tours, self-guided tours and cruises.
Others have pointed out the cruise critic website that is a great source of information. IF you join cruise critic you can post your own questions and get even more great information. Also, you can join the specific cruise you are booked for on the ROLL CALL.
I have been to almost all of the ports you listed. We mostly take cheaper private tours. Do some research and you will find some great ones. TripAdvisor.com is a great source. Also, if you can't find a tour company, Viator.com will find you a tour, we have had great success with them booking shore excursions.
Azores, check out http://www.azoresprivatetours.com/en
Malaga, we did a great tour of the Alhambra in Granada. We took a ship's excursion because of the distance from the port.
Monte Carlo, Lots to see in Monte Carlo, if you ship docks there, you can largely do that port on your own, unless you want to also visit other places like Nice.
Liverno- may people take a day tour to Florence, we had been to Florence before, so we took a great tour to nearby Lucca and Pisa.
Civita- this is the port for Rome, if you have been to Rome before, there are other tours you can take closer to the port. We did a great tour of Etruscian sites.
Naples, so much to see there, you can do Pompeii on your own taking the train or take a tour to Capri, Sorrento or the Amalfi Coast.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7029 posts
Here's the link to Tom's Cruise Port Guides that Bets referred to.
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
You can start with the cruise line. They have a list of excursions at every port. My take is anything that can be done with the cruise line can be done on your own (or at least faster and less expensive by hiring a private guide).
Next read cruise critic information on the port. You can also "meet" people online who will be on the same cruise if that's interesting to you. They often have a meet up early in the cruise. If you hit it off with some fellow cruisers, great. If not, you're not obligated to spend time with anyone.
If you see something you like, figure out if it's something you can do on your own? In some cruise ports, I hire a taxi, in others I hire a local guide that I connected with before the trip. Most of the time, I walk and take local public transportation to get around.