Our cruise will go to :
Naples
Sicily (Messina)
Dubrovnik
Kotor
Corfu
Corsica
Toulon
I have the RS Med Cruise Ports book. It doesn't mention Sicily, Kotor (Montenegro), Corsica (France).
Do you have experience with those areas? We don't really care to spend a day riding on a bus. Museums and walking tours or nearby sights are good. We will be in the Sicily area for some time, independent of the cruise.
Thanks!
The old-town of Kotor is incredibly small and easy to do by yourself as a walking tour. It is found in the Croatia and Slovenia guidebook as a day trip option. It has a similar feel to Dubrovnik, only smaller with a wall you can hike and lots of small churches. You will definitely want to be on deck as the boat moves through the "fjord" to reach the town, the scenery is spectacular. You will also pass Perast, another town that you can visit by bus from Kotor that has a quaint church on an island.
Thanks! We will be in Naples, and my husband wants to do the museum and city walk RS. In looking through the Princess options, they have several coastline drives (Amalfi). I've never been there and wonder if I'll regret not taking one of those just to see that photographic view.....
When I briefly visited Corsica with a rental car, I think I used a Michelin Green Guide. You also can buy a printable PDF version of just a Corsica chapter from Lonely Planet for $3.50.
In case others reply, which port on Corsica?
From the Messina Maritima RR Station (I assume near the port but do not know for sure) you can reach Taormina-Giardini in about an hour. From the rail station you'd take a bus (pretty frequent) up to the town, which is intensely touristy but really lovely and in a spectacular setting. I think any cruise guide would say that's your top day-trip destination from Messina since you have limited time available if not on a ship-sponsored bus trip. It's possible there is bus service from the port of Messina directly to the town of Taormina as well. A cruise forum might be a better source of info since not too many of us here take cruises.
Although I'm sure Taormina is nicer in the evening when the daytrippers have left, it's a smallish town and from the standpoint of sightseeing (as opposed to just relaxing), I think you can knock if off on your Messina day and won't need to return to it during your free time in Sicily. Sicily has a wide variety of sights scattered all over the place.
If for some reason you don't want to target Taormina on your day in Messina, you might consider Acireale. It was recommended to me while I was in Sicily, but I didn't have time to visit it. Online information suggests that it's an attractive Baroque town, not too large. It can be reached in as little as 76 minutes by train from Messina Maritima, but many of the trains take 1-1/2 or 2 hours.
There's a good chance there are non-cruise-related bus tours offered from Messina if you have a burning desire to see Mt. Etna.
My wife and I visited Kotor in October. The sail into/out of the port was amazing. When we disembarked we went through the line of taxi drivers intending to do our own thing. However we eventually spoke to one driver who offered to take us on a tour. We negotiated a price of 60 euros (30 each). We had a great 4 hour informative private tour through the mountains and to Persat. (We didn't take the option of sailing out to the island.) On returning Robert took us on a walking tour of Kotor - about 45 mins. A real hidden gem.
The website cruisecritic.com has a "ports" section, with lots of ideas and information about almost every port of call in the Mediterranean, what to do, how to do it and what it will cost. It is a useful site.
At Naples you can do Pompeii and / or Herculaneum. We took ship excursions and did one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Naples' traffic jams can be horrible and both our groups got back to the ship later than planned. Ship excursions cost more than going on your own, but the ship will wait for you if there is a delay in getting back -- not so if you are on your own. Walking the wall in Dubrovnik is a must -- just get an early start. From Kotor a certain road that leads away from the bay inland. It goes up the side of a steep mountain and has 25 numbered 180 degree switchback turns and at least 75 other sharp turns. Rock wall on one side and nothing on the other. Can't remember the name or number of the road, but it went to the towns of Njegusi and Cetinje. The views are spectacular, but, if anyone in your party is prone to motion sickness or has a problem with heights you might want to have your guide avoid this this road. Don't mean to rain on your parade, just don't want you to get into a hairy situation without any knowledge. You can go to bing.com, use the map feature, and see aerial views of the road from &*%$.
