edinburgher

ALESUND is super easy to DIY yourself, and an attractive town to explore without any need for an excursion. Here is a good, quite recent thread which gives much info for you to read: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826391-alesund-norway/#comment-62526938 And as suggested in post #2, you could easily use the SEARCH option to pull up past threads and replies for all of these ports.

.and then the ferry to Portofino (returning the same way). Having never visited Genoa, others can perhaps help with the question about the train station, but we have visited both SML and Portofino using the ferry crossing both directions.I would suggest you train to SML, and go directly to Portofino as it is really tiny. You can explore there then cross back to SML as it too is worth a visit. Note that Portofino can be reached from SML by ferry, public bus, taxi or by walking if you are fit,as it is a relatively short distance between the two. By going in that order, you can maximize your time in each and already be in SML for the train back to Genoa for the time you plan to leave It should be easy enough to do on your own and cost a fraction of the shorex price but you will need to research train and ferry timings. Most scenic of course is the ferry ride both ways, but even one way would be better than none if the ferry timings do not work for you. i think the best view of Portofino is arriving FROM SML, but if you can only go one way and it is Portofino TO SML, position yourselves at the back of the ferry fror that same view. There have been recent threads on that same topic which you could search for and read for additional info. Hhere is one to start you off: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2878848-travel-from-genoa-to-portofino/#comment-63896768

We visited 3 "godfather villages" on our 4th visit to Messina but as it was offered as a shorex, had no need for a private tour. Fabulous scenery from on high,(very high!) but for anyone nervous about tiny twisty very narrow and very very steep roads, it maybe isn't for them. Despite having little or no interest in The Godfather films, we had booked for the scenic drive and it exceeded our expectations.

or a tour of the pretty Luberon villages and countryside if that is on offer as a shorex.

Quote Just love to hear, I took this awesome tour, ate these great TAPAS, took this walk in the morning... It's not the same as googling electronics or clothes. For travel I like to hear personal accounts, when possible. End Quote BUT PERSONAL ACCOUNTS ARE EXACTLY WHAT OTHERS WRITE ABOUT IN THEIR REVIEWS, and they sometimes also highlight "the bad and the ugly" alongside the "good", and as these comments can be equally helpful to read, I don't actually see the difference between these and what cruise pax might write when they post their own personal accounts either here or on your other threads. Wishing you good results with your trip planning "homework"

A quick google of "No Diet Club Bordeaux reviews" produces results of a few dozen reviews on sites such as Tripadvisor, Viator and others ready for you to read, and might be the best way for you to get multiple responses to your question.and of course, some reviews have photos too. When trip planning, sometimes Google becomes your new BFF.

an OOPS! on post#10 i had a senior moment when posting and said this : you found few of interest to you. it should of course have read you found A few of interest to you. Astonishing that the omission of a one letter word could give the very opposite meaning of what was intended..

Nice, but not mind blowing! Same for the Botanical Garden which we had only a few minutes in, but entrance was free so we raced around a small part of it. We might have admired it more had we had more time in it, but we still preferred the tour. incidentally, I have now noticed your location.We have been to Fort Myers, had four overnights there actually, way back in the day as part of one of our driving tours around Florida.. These gave us three days to explore the avenue with the palms along its length, Sanibel and Captiva islands, and our favourite, the Edison/Ford estates, which included a tour of the gardens and the exotic flora and fauna . We all enjoyed the estates more than we enjoyed Sanibel and Captiva, which we had not expected.. We stayed in FM as our thoughts of staying on one of the islands were dashed by them being almost fully booked and the little accommodation still available was wildly expensive. (it was around Easter)

The National Museum should certainly be #1 on your Edinburgh day. Has been a huge hit with children AND adults for decades. And entry is free although donations are welcomed. Also Our DynamicEearth. And they might also enjoy one of the several "Underground" tours, of which I would recommend The Real Mary Kings Close, opposite St Giles Cathedral so not out of your way. Explore the hidden streets and houses underneath the city. Read about it on their website.I think they would love exploring that as it is a popular group activity for kids birthday parties. And the adults might also be fascinated. Had you been visiting for longer, I would have recommended the second castle in Edinburgh, (Craigmillar Castle) instead of Edinburgh Castle. Our kids used to say it was " a real castle" and had huge fun exploring it each time they visited. Edinburgh Castle they were not as impressed with "as it has houses in it and real castles don't have houses in them"

The main onboard difference between river and ocean cruising is, IMHO, the evening entertainment which we found quite sedate on our one and only river cruise. (14 nights Budapest to Amsterdam) If you like to dance every night until the early hours, join in karaoke, spend time in the casino etc, than river cruising may not suit you, as most evenings on ours, entertainment was very low key, consisting of a quiz, or a glass blowing demo, or local singers/musicians. I don't know if that was typical of every river cruise or not as we only so far did one. Evenings aside, you will more likely enjoy everything else on offer, and that includes the company of interesting fellow pax regardless of their ages, and September evenings should still be light enough to enjoy your own company (and a glass or two) sitting outdoors (or in the observation lounge) enjoying the scenery as one of the joys of river cruising is close cruising. For what it's worth, I think that, if you expect quieter evenings, and not "party" evenings, you will be fine.

But to do that in place of the amazing things lynncarol did on her tour with Saga, you will be missing out on the essence of Iceland. SueMo, we also did that one. Post #6 Highly recommended tour. We had a short amount of time after returning to Akureyri, enough for a quick scoot around town, but we didn't think we missed much by going out on tour.

i looked it up and think it could have been Plaza de la Marina, very close to the walkway which passes between the two gardens running parallel to the main road outside the port gates. There are bus stops there and, i think, a tourist info booth. Whatever, it was very convenient.

Do you have a restaurant or two you recommend for local dishes, please? You asked the same question for Bordeaux, and as Barcelona is so much larger and spread out, andTripadvisor Barcelona has over 700 restaurant reviews in all sorts of categories,including steak, fish, vegetarian, vegan, local, Mediterranean, Spanish, Chinese and many more, I am suggesting the same selection process I suggested to you for Bordeaux. Also do you want fine dining, cheaper eats, indoor or outdoor seating etc? And in which areas of Barcelona would you like to find restaurants? An area which might be convenient for your accommodation? (we use online maps to locate dining options close to our accommodation then read reviews of them) or where you might be around lunchtime on a given day, because sightseeing can be tiring and you may not feel like trailing a long way across the city on foot or by bus or metro to reach a particular restaurant and would prefer something closer to hand. it is either a case of doing a little pre-trip "homework" or taking pot luck walking in to one you like the look of at the time. Using the filters will help you narrow the number of restaurants you might want to consider, because the bigger the city, the bigger the number of choices and the more time you need to search through them to find which might suit you best. Once you find some restaurants of interest to you, do try general internet searching for reviews of each as there are sites in adition to Tripadvisor, although that is usually a good starting point Hoping you used the same advice to find Bordeaux restaurants and that you found few of interest to you.

time for 2 of us to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa and then see a few things in Florence. You don't actually say what the "few things in Florence" are, but It may not be possible to do as much as you hope to, due to the necessity to pre-book timed entry tickets to several sights in Florence, in addition to pre-booking your tower climb. You will first need to decide what your "few things" will be. Having decided, can only suggest you then look at the official websites for your preferences to find out when ahead of time you can actually begin to pre-book for each, also the pre-entry time at which you must arrive (some but not all will have this) Then book your entry tickets. Only then would you be able to begin looking for a driver and vehicle who thinks your timing might be doable even with minimqal time at each stop. There was a recent thread which I definitely think you should read in its entiretly and post #36 in pqarticular as it describes the reality of following a programme similar to what your own might be. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2882298-florence-questions/#comment-63879668

As an aside, edinburgher, I love your city. Have spent many wonderful days there and always find something new to “discover”. Thank you janetcbl for your comment. I agree that it isn't a bad place to live. Many tourists coming to Edinburgh are time restricted to the Castle/Old Town/Royal Mile area and completely miss several other lovely/interesting sights which require a stay of several days or subsequent visits, so it was good to read that you take the opportunity to expand your sightseeing areas when you can.

You could very easily take the train from Genoa to Santa ML and the short ferry ride to Portofino, and return to Genoa the same way without needing a guide, and it would be inexpenswive compared to the cost of a guide plus mini bus or two taxis for a group of 8. You could also explore Genoa on your own in the afternoon (do a little online homework before leaving home) or hire a guide to give your group a walking tour.

We visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center en route to Portage but none of the four of us enjoyed it for a number of reasons and it may be that reviews will be mixed for those same reasons. On the other hand, we also stopped at Potter Marsh bird sancuary as the two we were with were twitchers and it was #1 on their to-do list of stops. We didn't expect to enjoy that visit much at all as we have very little interest in birds,, but there were so many birds to watch that we actually did enjoy it. For that reason i would recommend Potter Marsh over the Wildlikfe Conservation Center.

Visit either Totem Bight or Saxman, both easy by public bus, and explore town on foot, including Creek Street.. Pick up a free DIY walking map from the tourist info booth at the dock. There are also good and really inexpensive buses running around town and a free shuttle bus. We really liked Totem Bight. It is a State Historic Park and plenty online info if you search. It sits waterside and the public bus from town has stops almost at the entrance. It is very easy to get to, is flat for strolling around and has quite a few points of interest . Entry is also only a few $s as it is a State Park and there is a very good gift shop by the entrance. (or was pre-pandemic) Strolling Ketchikan and visiting Totem Bight make for an easy, low key and inexpensive day out with interesting sights. along the way. Others go to Saxman which we didn't so I know nothing about it.Find info on both online. If you cannot decide between the two,, check reviews for both on Tripadvisor Ketchikan to help you decide.

, it will just be three days of exploring waterfalls. They are mightily impressive and different from each other, but you could experience so much more. The tour described above actually shows off some of the natural wonders which are unique to Iceland and cannot be found anywhere else in the world, which is why they are some of the reasons tourists visit Iceland, and I would urge you to give it serious consideration. Did you have different reasons for visiting Iceland? And the Golden Circle is also more than "a waterfall". It may sound a bit "touristy" to visit Geysir, but once there we surprised ourselves by being especially enthralled by Strokkur which shoots up every few minutes with a truly impressive display of the force of nature. Kayaking? you could do that in many other countries..........

We stopped at Godafoss, the thermal vents at Namafjall Hverir, saw amazing volcanic rock formations at Jolasveinarnir i Dimmuborgum, a small continental rift area, visited Lake Myvatn,capped it off with a swim at the Nature Baths. A wonderful day. We did the same apart from the swimming bit! We had a really enjoyable day out, and shared the minibus with others on our sailing. It was one of our best days in Iceland. Gullfoss and Godafoss are very different waterfalls, so even if you already saw one, the other will be a different experience.

both of us were underwhelmed with Isafjordur. It seemed too small a village to accommodate the influx of so many tourists from the cruise-ship. Totally agree. There is little to interest cruise pax unless they take a shorex. There were only a couple on offer and as neither was of interest to us we simply walked around for a short time and visited the small museum. We were back onboard in under 2 hours, but it could have been a bit less than that, even walking slowly.

You are spolied for choice as la Spezia is actually really well located for visits to several charming towns and has a train station.. As above, Porto Venere would be the closest and no need for a rental. Further afield,"Tuscan gem" Lucca if you have not previoisly visited. Also further afield in the opposite direction, Santa Margherita Ligure is pretty and also offer the option of a really short but scenic ferry ride across to tiny pretty Portofino. A rental isn't really necessary for any of these options as there are trains, although I believe Porto Venere is served by local buses as it is so close. Images and tourist info for Porto Venere, Lucca, Santa Margherits Liguria and Portofino online also travel options betwen la Spezia and all of them. Try Rome2Rio for starters. And you could use the CC SEARCH option to pull up previous threads for all of the above mentioned and read the results for more info.

Although it was some time ago, that is exactly what we did . At Coquimbo port there were many taxis waiting with one person in charge organising tours at fixed prices. We shared with another couple, drove through the Elqui Valley to Vicuna, had some free time there, visited a pisco distillery and enjoyed a few tastings, then down to la Serena where we had more free time to explore a little of the cetral area. We used some of it to visit inside the small Archaeological Museum to see the #1 exhibit, an original Easter Island moai(sp?) one of only a small number to be found anywhere other than on Easter island itself. It was an enjoyable day.

Thanks for acknowledging as not everyone does. As we usually arrive into in Cassis by car with our French friends, we have no first hand knowledge of trains or buses, but I do know that both options connect Marseille and Cassis, therefore I suggest you spend a little time online searching for both bus and train info between Marseille and Cassis. Train will probably be faster than buses, but fares for either will be a lot less costly than several hundred euros, even for 5 people. i honesly didn't understand this: that with all the bus fares, train fares and taxi fares you have to pay to get to Cassis, it will be very close to a private transfer

Do you know of any restaurants personally, or a nice cafe. There could have been changes including business closures and price and/ or menu changes since 2020, so as suggested above, better you check current reviews on eg Tripadvisor. Oysters are popular,cultivated in the nearby Bay of Arcachon, a little to the south of Bordeaux.