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Spain Portion of Med Cruise

Posted by (Victorville, California, U.S.) on

Hello, my family and I are going on a Western Mediterranean Cruise in March. It is myself, my wife, and our two 15 year old daughters. We've been to Europe before and have traveled on our own but this is our first Med Cruise. One of the stops in Palma de Mallorca, and we'll be there from 9am to 5pm. I've been looking at excursions that the ship is offering but none of them are very interesting. Our family enjoys museums, shopping for art, site seeing, and good food. I've also looked up some of the things that there is to do in this port but if anyone can offer any other good ideas or things that they've discovered at these locations, that would be great. Also, the ship will be departing and returning from Barcelona, which we have been to before but the last 2 times we've been there we used an AirBNB. This time we are looking into hotels for 2 nights. If anyone can recommend a good hotel, doesn't have to be fancy, but somewhere safe for families and relatively close to the port, that would also be a great help. Our budget for the hotel per night is 325 dollars.

Thank you and Happy New Year.

Posted by
540 posts

Palma: you could consider the hop on- off bus to see the city in a day and have time to explore a few areas. We did that one day and saw quite a bit.

Barcelona: we were in Eixample and thought it was great location. Walkable and close to Metro. We did stay in apartment though to have room to spread out.

Posted by
33 posts

We did this same cruise (or same itinerary, is yours NCL?) in October. We chose to do a "Palma in Depth" shore excursion which was a mostly walking tour of some area highlights. The gorgeous gothic cathedral that we toured was one of the highlights of our entire trip. I would try to either find an excursion that includes this or try to make it there on your own. The streets and shops in Palma are very charming. We had a nice balance of some solo time in addition to the guided and informative portion. Going in we had expected Palma to be one of the less interesting stops (after Rome, Florence, etc.) and ended up enjoying it so very much. I hope you do, as well. For Barcelona accommodations we did an AirBnB in Paseo de Gracia, which was a phenomenal and convenient location. So I can't help any with hotel recommendations.

Posted by
64 posts

I did this same cruise last year and wasn't impressed with the excursions either. I opted for hiring a taxi and guide to drive me to first Valldemossa. A charming little town about 30 minutes from the port. (make sure and have a potato cake!) She then spent a few hours driving my all around Palma. She took me to all the major sites and to some others where most tourists don't get to go. Make sure to stop and go to the pearl factory where you'll find authentic beautiful pearl jewelry. It is right across the street from the bull ring. You will find taxi drivers waiting right outside the ship. I think the 4 hour trip cost me about 150 euros.

Posted by
168 posts

Thank you so much for the great info. The taxi tour sounds like a good idea and it looks like we maybe able to see a lot, thank again.

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