Describe The Very Best Port Tour That You Have Ever Enjoyed?

I think our best port was Stanley in the Falkland islands. We did the 4WD trip to Vouleenteer Point to see the thousands of penguins. It was a private tour with Patrick Watts & went very smoothly. The small village feel of Stanley was a touch of Britain near the bottom of the world. Highlight of our 29 days cruising in South America.

 

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Absolutely agree!! This is the #1 excursion that we have taken. Will never forget the drive out to see the penguins!!! And... we completed the day in Stanley at a local pub.

Loving this thread as it is bringing back many happy excursion memories.

Jan

Enjoying this thread and the happy memories. Also saddened that many will not get to experience the wonders of Turkey due to all the unrest.

I too have been on many of these tours. Thanks to all who specifically mentioned their tour operator. The information is not of much use to those looking for tours without the specifics about the tour operator.

A tour I haven't seen mentioned is one we took from Greenoch through the Highlands with David Frood. He was excellent and we had a wonderful day. I recommended him to other friends who were going later that year and they also enjoyed him.

A Celebrity tour of the Tuscan Countryside. Doesn't sound like much and was quite a long coach trip but well, well worth it. Truly, authentic Italian hilltop towns, with virtually no tourists (well apart from us!) + the most delicious lunch imaginable at an AgriTourism Farm. All produce grown on the farm - including the wines served with lunch. Views to die for. Totally unbelievable!

I appreciate naming specific tour guides. (I'm taking notes.)

One of my favorite tours is Sail Calabaza in Barbados. 40' catamaran limited to 12 guests. So relaxing. :cool:

I thought CC guidelines said posters were not supposed to name private guides/agencies unless they were specifically asked to do so?

"We welcome the legitimate review or recommendation of tour operators, guides, property & business owners in ports of call. You must post your recommendation in response to a request for that specific information or your post will be removed without notice."

(Emphasis mine)

:confused:

I thought CC guidelines said posters were not supposed to name private guides/agencies unless they were specifically asked to do so?

 

"We welcome the legitimate review or recommendation of tour operators, guides, property & business owners in ports of call. You must post your recommendation in response to a request for that specific information or your post will be removed without notice."

 

(Emphasis mine)

 

:confused:

While I agree with you about the rules I find this pos isn't breaking any. The OP asked to describe the very best port day we've had. To properly describe the experience I feel it is fair to mention the name of the tour operator in this circumstance.

whatever will bewilder me

Depends on the itinerary......in Alaska, specifically Ketchikan, A Float plane tour with ISLAND WINGS is one of my all time

favorite things:D.....flying to the Fjords is amazing.

 

Ephesus, Turkey........now that is really amazing. I sailed Rome-Rome back in 2012 and most of the tours (non-cruiseline) were organized

by a couple of people on the roll call and although it has now been 5 years:eek:.....that was my best cruise ever. As much

as I enjoyed all the stops (LOVED Santorini), Ephesus really blew me away..... I would recommend it to everyone. Not

even sure cruiselines go there anymore with all the tumult going on in Turkey.........

Another not really a port, was when I was on my adventure cruise to Antartica and we stopped at Palmer Research Station. All our landings were fantastic, but this was a one of a lifetime stops. Our ship had to drop off a staff member and we had the pleasure to tour the research station and met all the staff.

There are so many....

Top on my list would be almost any of the excursions from the Xpedition.

Other impossible to foget experiences:

The fairy penguins out of Melbourne

the helicopter to the glacier and dog sled ride in Alaska

Private tour to Ho Chi Minh City on Tet eve (fireworks....)

balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings (and the tombs) (river cruise)

Xian - terra cotta warriors (not from a ship tour, but should be visited by everyone)

Many more

While I agree with you about the rules I find this pos isn't breaking any. The OP asked to describe the very best port day we've had. To properly describe the experience I feel it is fair to mention the name of the tour operator in this circumstance.

 

whatever will bewilder me

Thank you for your comment. I did respond to the poster whom asked about my Lake Como tour, but it must have been taken down, even though it was a direct response to her question. However, I was able to email her with my information...:) Again, many thanks for your kind words!

Our two day tour with SPB tours in St. Petersburg. We saw so much in the two days and our guide was wonderful. Took a ride on the subway and ate locally.

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Dunns River Falls bus tour the time we went. Flat Tire on the way to the Falls, one passenger sprained an ankle at the Falls (got lame medical attention), bus wreck on the way back to the ship. Made a lot of friends on this tour. Almost everyone on the tour have joined in other cruises together. We also did substantial drinking after the tour.

Dunns River Falls bus tour the time we went. Flat Tire on the way to the Falls, one passenger sprained an ankle at the Falls (got lame medical attention), bus wreck on the way back to the ship. Made a lot of friends on this tour. Almost everyone on the tour have joined in other cruises together. We also did substantial drinking after the tour.

I think this counts as best After The Port Tour category.

(I love the sprained ankle/lame medical care pun)

If this was your best tour I shudder to think of your other experiences! :eek:

Dunns River Falls bus tour the time we went. Flat Tire on the way to the Falls, one passenger sprained an ankle at the Falls (got lame medical attention), bus wreck on the way back to the ship. Made a lot of friends on this tour. Almost everyone on the tour have joined in other cruises together. We also did substantial drinking after the tour.

Since we are adding a different twist...Four of us took a tour all over Santorini with the best offered company. The driver, I was told later that he did not speak much English and was really trying to sabotage this company, paid no attention to our requests until we demanded what we wanted. He took us to a restaurant that was out of many items and drove us past all types of buildings that were started, but just left. Yes, we saw the ugly part of the island. Finally we were able to take our real tour...this driver was on the phone constantly and laughing all the time...total rip off and I wrote about it on another social site...now I look back and laugh...

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One very memorable tour was May 2016 on our Celebrity Adriatic cruise. We arranged a private tour (4 of us) online. We toured Dubrovnik and Cavtat. Our guide was wonderful. It was very humbling to listen to his matter of fact descriptions of the bombing of Dubrovnik in 91-92, when he was a teenager. We all had lunch overlooking the Adriatic in Cavtat and he introduced us to the local beers. It was a wonderful day.

I loved reading everyone's journeys. I noticed Montenegro in your post Worldtrekker & I wondered if you remembered the name of the tour company. We

will go there next May - ham, cheese, wine & medieval villages sound fantastic! Thanks!

 

Betty

Hi Betty,

My mom and I joined others for that tour so we did not plan it, but the itinerary was this:

00:00 – 01:00 Kotor walking tour

01:00 – 01:30 Panoramic ride to Budva

01:30 – 02:30 Budva walking tour

02:30 – 03:30 Driving to Cetinje, photo break

03:30 – 04:30 Walking tour of Cetinje and some free time

04:30 – 05:00 Ride trough rocky mountains to Njegusi village

05:00 – 05:45 Snack in local restaurant, visit of the smokehouse

05:45 – 06:30 Ride back to Kotor, amazing view to Boka Bay

If you Google, Medieval Montenegro tour for cruise, you should find it. The max guests are 8. It was a beautiful day in great part to the people we met in the tour and our lovely guide! We got back to Kotor with enough time to wander the walled city there as well.

Cheers

Ship excursions vary by location and vendor. Some good, some not so good. I have taken many. Ship excursions are good for people who don't like researching ports. They are often too expensive and take large groups. I research every port before I cruise. I bring maps and info. Do not rely on the ship to provide good info. I prefer booking privately. I rely on reviews to help me pick a tour. I have taken very good tours. I have also been disappointed. Small groups work best. Tours with a single person being both guide/driver are to be avoided in congested areas. The best tours ever were in Italy. Used RomeDayTours in several locations. You do not always need an excursion. In many ports, you can explore on your own.

Agadir, Morocco. This was a totally unplanned excursion. Our original excursion plans with a large CC group got cancelled on the dock after the buses the CC'er had arranged never showed up. So we decided to take the free shuttle into "town". We were thinking, ok, we'll just walk around the town like we've done in other ports. Well, "into town" turned out to be the middle of a big parking lot at an abandoned building with about 50 taxi drivers waiting to pounce on people exiting the buses. Given that we had planned an excursion out of town and had not done any planning or thought of where to go, we decided to take up one of the taxi driver's offers of 35 Euros to tour the city. Keep in mind that I do extensive planning prior to a cruise, so if we are going to walk around, I already know the places I want to go. This was totally different and totally spontaneous (very hard for this engineer). We told the driver we wanted to see a souk and look for a leather jacket. He told us the regular souk as closed so he took us to a smaller souk. Outside the souk were parked one car and a camel. By now we were thinking, "Oh boy, we are getting taken for a ride alright". We asked the driver to meet us back in an hour or so. "Oh no," he said. He would stay with us the whole time. Well, that was a comfort. Anyway, it turned out to be a really cool place. He did take us to a leather store later and I did buy a leather jacket (although I suspect the store owner was a relative :)). We got to know the driver, the culture, the history, all from a local who was very proud of his country. It was the best day.

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