Best excursions

Hello, We will be traveling from Barcelona to Athens...stopping along French Riviera, Santorini, Florence etc. Which excursions are really worth it? And which cities should we explore on our own?

Thanks!

1st, you need to decide what YOU want to do/see....a guidebook is very helpful! You should always know something about the places you visit! Once you decide what is important to YOU...we can help with HOW to do it! Many times, excursions aren't needed at all...so do your research, and tell us what YOU want to do!

A tough question to answer without a little more info. What are your interests, have you been to Europe before, how experienced as a traveler are you, what are your ages and do you have any mobility issues. We need to know the actual stops as well. Santorini can be done as a ships tour, as a private tour ( we did it with a group of eight) or totally OYO by boat bus combination or rental car. Florence is my favorite Italian city but is a long and full day from Livorno. We use the train but I have taken trains all over Italy and am comfortable with them, others would say that is a risk. Where along the Riviera do you stop as there are multiple ports and the best tour may thus vary. Once you know exactly where you are going, the Europe ports of call thread here will help. Also look at R Steves Mediterranean ports of call as well as other tour books. On line check out Tom's port guides. For the best help you will need to be more specific with your questions.

Thank you so much for your reply!!

And duh! ;p Of course you would need more information...sorry about that!

My husband and I will be traveling and we have no mobility issues. We have traveled quite a bit and have spent time in Florence, Rome and down the Amalfi coast. We have not been to Cinque Terre nor to the French Riviera or Greece. We love sitting in cafes (coffee and vino!), we love history and we love walking and we love the beach. I imagine we will mostly explore on our own...but I thought we would try a few of the excursions to areas we are not as familiar with. So if anyone has any suggestions about French Riviera, Santorini or Cinque Terre, I would really appreciate it! Thank you so much!

If you take the tour on Santorini which includes walking up the volcano- it's very hot and there's no shade! I've never made it all the way up... if it includes swimming in the hot springs, have costumes on under clothes as there's no real changing facility.

One idea for that island is to book a hire car on line from the top of the cable car- specify automatic if that's what you're used to.

For a coach tour, you'll be allowed off the ship at the ferry port, but still have to make your way back down the cable car or the nearly 600 steps..the other passengers are tendered.

What cruise line are you sailing on? Your itinerary sounds similar to the one we took in 2013. MY personal experience with NCL tours, VERY pricey and did not return the value for the money. BUT there were several people (older, 60s & 70s) that did things on their own and were robbed. Which is why we did the NCL tours in the first place. 1) because we don't know the area and who or how to get a tour on our own. 2) Safety AND ship waits for passengers on a ship purchased excursion. Ship does NOT wait for passengers exploring on their own. FYI.

It would also be helpful to know exactly what ports you are on your itinerary. CInque Terre is difficult from LIvorno as a DIY, but easy peasy from La Spezia. That said, you don't need a guide for CInque Terre, just transportation.

The port in France might also make a difference as to recommendations (although Nice is an easy DIY from most of the ports that the cruise lines generically refer to as "French Riviera". )

We've just come back from a cruise with some similar locations. I was our first time, so we did a lot of ship excursions - in a lot of cases we would not do the same again. But being the first time, we played it a bit safe.

For Livorno, consider Pisa? It is less than half the time of the trip by train to Florence, and has a few things going for it (leaning tower, medieval city etc). It is also a more compact place to explore. Florence can be done by train, but it did leave us with little time to actually go in anywhere. We walked past the Uffizi, past David, over the Ponto Vechicco (and back) and past the Duomo, but had little time to actually go into any of them and explore in detail.

Rome is too big to explore in 1 day, so accept you won't see it all (we tried, and failed after an epic route march across the city!). The cruise ship offered a train excursion that was a pullman style coach set dedicated to the cruise ships (there were 2 in port that day). Stopped at St Peter's station and had a guide that took us to St Peter's Square and collected us again 8 hours later. So the transport to the city was comfortable and dealt with for us, while we had the day to ourselves to explore.

We stopped in Salerno (near Naples) and did a long excursion that included a boat trip to Capri, then a boat to Salerno and bus to Pompeii. All 3 places are on our list to go back to. I'm not a fan of the guided tour, but the guide we had for that day was really very good and made the trip to Pompeii really interesting and fun. Make sure you take water, it is very dry and with little cover gets very hot. Depending where you stop, I'm sure it would be possible to do any part of that yourself by public transport or from a port taxi.

Just my quick opinion:

It sounds like you are a good candidate for non-tours. You just need transportation. For most, you don't even need to waste money on private drivers. Get familiar with the local transportation. For instance, trains are actually reliable in Italy. Everyone has the anecdotal experience, but in my decades of training through Italy and Germany and Austria, I have not had an issue. It is my primary mode of getting around. For Livorno, Civi, La Spezia, trains are a good way to explore.

From Livorno, I would also recommend doing Lucca, a wonderful town. Walk up on the ancient fort walls, visit their ruins, look at the beautiful cathedral (pay particular attention to all the different columns), stop at a sidewalk cafe and sip and watch. Personally, having spent several nights at an agriturismo just outside of Pisa, I really can't advocate for Pisa. There is really just the tourist area with the Tower, the Bapistry. Always overrun with people and no place to sit, relax and have a sip. It is too far to Cinque Terre from Livorno - even if you pay up for a private driver - you don't really get to experience CT.

From Civi, yep, train it into Rome. Pick only one thing to see/do. Then, use the rest of your time to do what it seems you like to do - walk around, watch the "world" go by, find a nice outdoor cafe on a piazza and sit a spell. I always find this better than getting driven in a private car, sprinting by everything, and only getting out for a moment.

If you do port at La Spezia, then I will say go ahead and visit Cinque Terre. Do it by train or the possible ferry. I can't comment on the ferry as it never ran during the times I've stayed in CT (in the Spring). Money is wasted on a guide here as there is nothing to be interpreted or pointed out - the villages themselves are the "attraction." Just know that, with the now-thousands that descend from the ships for CT, the atmosphere is seriously deteriorated in the daytime. Wall-to-wall people walking down the narrow walkways, overcrowded restaurants.

I suggest you visit the Ports of Call forums here on CC for good suggestions. There are some truly good posters there with decades of travel experience in all those ports. They can turn you on to alternatives to ship excursions.

If you port in Monte Carlo, Nice or Marseille see if your cruise line offers an all-day excursion that heads to

Saint Paul de Vence

This is a beautiful, Medieval village high atop a mountain with fabulous views and, narrow cobblestone streets with dozens of interesting shops to explore.

We booked a fabulous cruise excursion for our Monte Carlo visit that took to Cannes, for a few hours, Grasse for a perfume factory stop and off to Vence which was spectacular.

We finished with a marvelous, delicious dinner at at lovely restaurant halfway between Vence and Monte Carlo.

What specific ports are you calling at? What cruise line are you traveling with? Have you joined your roll Call?

Jonathan

Do advance scouting to get an idea of whether immediate port area is of interest or if you want to go inland. For example, Livorno and Civita Vecchia have little to offer except trains to places worth seeing. Go on line for train information re: each port - trenitalia for Italy, comparable sites for other countries. You can plan your own tours with actual train times/connections. As Slidergirl mentioned, Lucca (a compact walled medieval city) is ideal from Livorno. Small enough to get a real feel - while Florence is too far - and far too rich an experience - to consider on a port call. From Naples try Pompeii with a group you put together from your roll call with hired car/van. Forget Capri on a day with thousands of other cruise passengers in town.

From Livorno, I would also recommend doing Lucca, a wonderful town. Walk up on the ancient fort walls, visit their ruins, look at the beautiful cathedral (pay particular attention to all the different columns), stop at a sidewalk cafe and sip and watch.

Someone finally recommends Lucca, a wonderful town much closer than crowded Florence! :cool:

We found the Rick Steves books indispensable for planning and self-touring. At Villefranche we took the train to Monaco for the morning and then back from there to Nice for a great lunch then wander along the beachfront and back through town to the train station in the afternoon. Train back to Villefranche. We're fortunate to live near the Rick Steves' "Europe Through the Back Door" store & HQ near Seattle so can drop in and do planning right there.

From Livorno we trained to Pisa and were glad we did. Even with wife's wheelchair it was easy to do the trains and cross Pisa to the main sights. The most surprising being the indoor cemetery with graves of a lot of very famous people. On the walk back to the train via the very pedestrian friendly "mall" we stopped into a little restaurant for a very nice lunch catering to locals, not tourists. On organized excursions we don't get that.