traveling to middle east by cruise ship.

Hi Pam, Check out this board for your questions about "Ports of Call" and private tours. You need to log in to "Roll Call" section for your exact ship's cruise date but you'll find others sharing info on private tours. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/ We have done this with our HAL, Princess, and Oceania cruises. IE: We did a private tour with "Champion Tours" on a bus (about 28 people) that passengers organized for an overnight in Cairo (as the ship was overnighting in Alexandria). Rooms at the Ramses Hilton. Lots of time at Pyramids and then a light show at night, Cairo Museum, Dinner River Cruise with music, Mosques and Citadel, plus Bazaar. We had a great guide and armed guards on the bus! Looks like you can do this in a van for your group: http://www.champion-tours.com/shore-excursions/quick-trip-to-cairo.html Antalya, Turkey is the same as your port? We did a fabulous day tour in a van with 4 others to Perge (Roman ruins), Aspendos (Roman Theatre Ruins) plus a huge Roman Aqueduct and then beautiful lush park with waterfall where mostly Turkish families visit. Ended up back in Old Town Antalya strolling with our guide. (don't have tour co. name) Here's a map with little drawings: http://www.daydreamvillas.co.uk/turkey/map.htm

My family of five went to Kusadasi, Athens, Crete, Rhodes etc. in April. I did a LOT of work on line, including "cruise critic". I found taxis or private drivers every where. It worked out great. They took us to small restaurants and give us a lot of information about the area. The cruise ship tours were all huge and were herded into big buses. I would recommend private tours, but again, it'll take a lot of time arranging it Good luck,
Elaine

Thanks so much for the tips, going to start searching for private drivers in each port, don't want to take with the ship and be on a big bus, waiting on alot of people dragging behind...