Any recommendations for companies that provide shore type excursions in Italy, Spain and France?
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
Those are countries and some are very big countries. How about narrowing it down to a few cities? Also you can goggle the cities and find tour companies on their web sites.
Posted by
OP
San Jose
2 posts
We've found lots of companies that provide day trips in the cities we're going to visit (Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice, Provence, Barcelona) but we don't know if they're reputable. Hoping to get some recommendations.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
We have generally found that all of the companies are reputable. You cannot start with the assumption that everyone will rip you off or your trip will be miserable. Privately arranged tours will almost always be better than a ship excursion. However, remember when you are on your own -- you are on your own. The ship will not wait five minutes for you. So plan accordingly.
You really need to do your own homework. Cruisecritic.com is a good place to start. Review each port carefully. Some ports are a long way for the advertised stop. For example -- Civitavecchia is about an hour and half via train from Rome. Same for Florence. Most guidebooks will be helpful once you are in the city. We pay particular attention to what is available mostly in the way of walking tours (and some bus tours) that are available through the TI. Some of our best tours have been "Show and Go" which we have found via the internet, guidebook, or TI. For the first time visit the hop on/off bus can be great way to see a lot in a limited time. Barcelona and Rome are good examples where the on/off bus works well.
Nice and Naples are entry points to else where. From Naples it is Pompeii or Capri.
While some posters like to rip on ship's excursions, remember that they are handling everything for you so you have to do nothing except pay. When you are on own, which most of the ship will be, you have to do your homework and know what is available at that port and how to take advantage of it.
We have been on seven European cruises, have hit all of those ports at least twice and never used a private tour company because they are very easy to do on your own if you do the advance work.