Disneyfriend

3 minutes ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Great to hear that you liked both these pictures and the full Athens trip report.  Keep research and planning.  With some many great options in Athens and only limited time, it is vital to prepare ahead.  What other ports are you visiting?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

For latest live/blog, see “Holy Lands, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Dubai, Greece, etc.”, with many visuals, details and ideas for the historic and scenic Middle East.  Connect at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2607054-livenautica-greece-holy-lands-egypt-dubai-terrypix’s/

Our cruise is also stopping in Mykonos, Santorini, and Crete.  We thought it was a lovely itinerary for a first visit to Greece!

We'll also be stopping for 2 ports in Italy, Messina and Naples.   It will be our second visit Naples but our first stop in Sicily.  

Terry, thank you for your last batch of pictures.  I loved the Athens trip report as well - what a treat!  

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

As a museum lover, and one who has visited the two museums several times each, I would vote for the National Archaeological Museum for a first visit and with children. It covers all of ancient Greece, not just the small area pertaining to the Parthenon. Although it doesn't have the modern and beautiful display galleries of the Acropolis Museum, the CONTENT is far superior.

 

You should definitely think about seeing only the "highlights" though, as the collection is huge.

 

Some of the things I will recommend (not all of them are easy to find in the museum):

 

-- The bronze statue of Poseidon (or Zeus, depending on your interpretation)

 

-- Beautiful marble statue grouping of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros

 

-- The gold items excavated from Mycenae by Schliemann (including the gold masks (you can't miss them, they are very near the entry)

 

-- Collection of Greek drinking vessels known as Rhytons shaped and painted to resemble various animals (very kid friendly)

 

-- The small scale replica of the statue of Athena Parthenos (the goddess for whom the Parthenon was constructed) that is supposed to be one of the few surviving "copies" of the actual statue (from antiquity) that would have been housed there.

 

-- Fresco fragments from Akrotiri (on Santorini)

 

-- The Antikythera Mechanism -- known as the "world's first computer" this sophisticated device was discovered in a shipwreck. Fascinating history. Have your kids read about it in advance (there are also YouTube videos):  

 

 

Cruisemom, THANK YOU very much for your thoughtful post, and for taking the time to recommend several important specific pieces to see.  I value your input and am going to actually print out your post for reference.  I appreciate your advice very much - thanks again!

Terry, thank you for your additional beautiful pictures.  It is obviously a gorgeous, well thought out museum!

Yes, you are right - we are in Athens for just a standard one-day stop on a cruise.  This will be our first and possibly only trip to Greece; it's not exactly a given that we will necessarily make it back there, living as we do in the western United States. 

You asked for more information about us. We are history enthusiasts but not true experts.  I homeschool my children, and we have spent a good amount of time studying the ancient civilizations.  Not that they are experts either, but both kids are reasonably well versed for their age in the history of Greece. My daughter especially loves art,  and my son loves all things military.  They both enjoy history quite a bit, considering their ages.  

Sadly, I think we need to decide between the two museums. While we could technically see both during our visit to Athens,  that would leave us no time to actually visit the Parthenon, get an overview of the city, have lunch, etcetera. So I think we're stuck with having to make a decision between the Parthenon Museum  and the National Archaeological Museum.  

Thanks again for the pictures and for your input!

Gorgeous,  gorgeous pictures.  Thank you for sharing them!

We are now  planning our first trip to Athens next year.  It will be myself,  my husband, and our 2 children - 13 and 14 at the time of travel.

We will take  a private tour that will  give us an overview of Athens plus a visit to the Parthenon.  And then we'll have the chance to visit either the Acropolis Museum  or the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.  For one  day in port, there is of  course not  time enough to do both.  I have read descriptions of both museums  and understand the different scope and focus.  But for those of you who have visited both, which of the two would you recommend - and why? 

Thank you much!

On 4/6/2019 at 6:52 AM, anricat said:

 

We are booked on the earlier one as well! 🙂 Yay! 

Oh good!  We'll have to stay in touch a bit over the next year and compare planning notes.  🙂

I thought of a good description of the Thieves of Ostia (and its sequels).  Think a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys type mystery set in the Ancient Roman empire, with lots of historical details thrown in.  They are entertaining and a bit educational besides.

1 hour ago, anricat said:

 

Hi! 🙂 I'll check out the books for sure. We always need new audiobooks as my daughter does competitive gymnastics and we spend a lot of time in the car going to/from the gym (which is 20-30 minutes away depending on traffic)! 

 

I'm actually just thinking/planning way way ahead. We are doing Greece in 2020 (one of the 9 nights). We did Barcelona-Rome last year and spent several days in Rome after (and my DH and I visited Rome some years before that as well). We feel like we've pretty much done what we want in Rome so I'm definitely looking forward to something further afield. 

 

Thanks for the tour recommendation! 

Ah yes, audiobooks are my very favorite way to redeem our time in the car!  My kids have listened to a LOT of good audiobooks this way.  🙂  Sounds like we are very similar there.  

We are booked on the 2020 9 night Greek cruise as well, the earlier one that visits Sicily!  You  too, or  are you booked on the other one that stops in Croatia?

Hi Anricat,

I recognize you from the DIS boards.  🙂

I have looked into the same issue.  One option I found was My Best Tours. They primarily do golf cart tours in Rome, but after setting one up with them I was so pleased with their communication and customer service (and reviews) that I ended up hiring them for our airport-Rome and Rome-port transportation.  (They use minivans for their transfers.)  One option they gave us from Rome to Civitavecchia was a stop touring Ostia Antica, the old port of Rome.  It is very well  preserved and in some ways like visiting Pompeii, from what I gather.

If you decide to visit Ostia, make sure to read The Thieves of Ostia to your little  one. It's historical fiction set in Ostia circa 78 AD.  Very cute and appropriate (in my opinion) for maybe 6-16 year olds.  There is a whole series, if you  like it, and available  in both paperback form and on Audible.  

Which cruise are you taking again, if I may ask?  We're on the Rome-Barcelona this summer.  

Thank you, Marazul!  I appreciate your input.  Lucky you to have lived in the area!  🙂

We have a private tour lined up for our single day in Cannes this summer.

We can choose between:  Nice - St. Paul de Vence - Antibes  *or*  Nice - St. Paul de Vence - Eze

It's our first time to the area, and I know that we can't go wrong either way.  Just wondering if those who have been to both might recommend Antibes or Eze?

(It's for our family or 4, including an 11 and 13 year old.)

Thank you!

Thank you for your lovely report and pictures!

I'm so happy to hear the golf cart tour was so positive.  We have two different golf cart tours booked with My Best Tour in June, and I am *really* happy that your experience matched up with their very positive reviews!

We are signed up to do this after our upcoming cruise in June.  We'll get picked up, take a half day introduction tour to Barcelona, and then get dropped at the airport in the early afternoon.

Barcelona Day Tours did agree to customize our tour to include a guided stop at La Sagrada Familia, plus a sit down lunch.  Those were the two things that I personally was most interested in for our first visit to Barcelona.   They gave us the option to have a driver-guide or a driver with a separate tour guide.   They also allowed us to extend the tour from 4 hours to 5 hours by paying a reasonable supplement.  

So I can't vouch for them personally yet, but I can tell you that they were very happy to customize our day according to what our family's priorities were.   I have been very pleased with their prompt and polite communications, and look forward to a great day with them.

1 hour ago, CCJack said:

sure,  can you send me a note my  address is 21jackj at geemail and I will reply

Thank you!  I just sent you an email.  🙂

34 minutes ago, CCJack said:

We just got back from our MSC cruise last week (December 2018).  We booked a private guide since we are a family of 6 and it was more economical than a ship excursion.  I can highly recommend our tour guide if you would like let me know.  I am sure she would tailor to your time allotment.

 

I can say that Genoa was my favorite stop of the cruise.   Personally, I would not let this be your "short" stop.   We did all 3:  SM., Portofino, and old Genoa (which is very close to where our ship docked.)    I think on your own is doable, but with a local guide, they can really get you on the train, ferry quickly since they know the ropes, and schedules, etc.  There are express trains vs. trains that stop between Genoa and SM as an example - our guide exchanged tickets from one to the other to help save time and get a better time, etc.

 

You will not be able to walk along the coastal road between SM and Portofino.  It is gone in at least 2 places.   Our guide indicated they are hoping to have it repaired by Easter 2019, but I sensed that people are not optimistic on that date.   We saw the construction equipment (cranes) which have been located in the damaged areas so that means they have at least begun the work, that is good news.

 

If you have to decide between Genoa city and making the trek to SM and Portofino, I would do Portofino - although I recommend all 3 stops. 

 

Have fun..... 

 

 

Thanks for posting, CCJack - I really appreciate your input.  

It's especially helpful to talk with someone who has recently been.  I knew there were recent floods that had partially destroyed the road to Portofino, but I had not been able to figure out how much has been repaired in the last few months.  

How did you get to and from Portofino, then?  I would love to hear any and all details about your day, as much as you would like to share.  🙂

Yes, I would be very happy to get the name of your guide since you were so pleased with her.  We too are a huge fan of private guides for a variety of reasons.  We economize in lots of areas in our life, but don't mind splurging on a good private guide when traveling - especially to these places were are likely to visit only once (or twice max) in our life.  

Thanks again for posting!  I'm glad you had such a good trip.  Where else did you visit on your cruise, if I may ask?  I'm surprised Genoa was your favorite stop - that's great!  What made it your favorite?  🙂

19 hours ago, Giantfan13 said:

We just did a MSC cruise and visited Genoa and found it one of the mot interesting ports on our itinerary. We stayed entirely in town and loved wandering about on the narrow streets. One of the highlites that might appeal to your kids is, we took the funicular, up to the highest point with magnificent views of the entire city. They also have a cable car that also takes you to the top of the city, but we preferred the funicular.  

I know the need to get 'out of town' but were really found Genoa very charming and again, it was one of our favorite ports.

Cheers

Len

Thank you, Len.  The funicular does sound like a lot of fun.  Everything I've researched about Genoa looks genuinely interesting.  I'm glad to know you enjoyed it so much!

AAAGGGH . . .   I want to do both!!  Seriously!  

We loved our half day in Kinsale.  We took a historical walking tour (with Don & Barry's - excellent) and had a fabulous lunch at Dinos, right on the water.  Kinsale is charming and picturesque, and definitely has quite a bit of history, if that interests you.

We took a one day tour with Tours by Locals, so after our visit to Kinsale we had enough time for a visit to the Jameson Distillery in Middleton.  I'm not much of a drinker - in fact, I took my very first sip EVER at the end of this tour - but I still found the tour quite interesting.  And the drive between Cobh and Kinsale, and Kinsale and Middleton, was gorgeous.  Lots of green rolling hills and beautiful scenery.

And even with all that, we visited the Cobh Heritage Center for about an hour.  This is a fabulous activity to do at the end of the day, because we were literally steps away from our ship.  It's a great little museum , but again, I really like history.

Hope this helps.  We had a lovely day in the area and made a ton of great memories!

Thank you both, very much.  I appreciate the advice!

Any other input also very much welcomed.  🙂

I am looking for some advice here.  Our cruise ship stops in Genoa next summer.  This is our first time in the Mediterranean, so everything will be brand new.  We're a family of 4, with 11 and 13 year old children.

We have a very port-intensive itinerary, so I'm hoping to make Genoa our easy/light excursion day.  It's the half way point of our cruise, and it is sandwiched between Livorno and Nice.  I really hope to keep our excursion at about 4-5 hours that day so that we can sleep in and still get back early enough to have a relaxing afternoon on the ship.

We have already booked Papillon for a private excursion out of Livorno, and they have a lovely 5 hour excursion out of Genoa that includes Portofino/Santa Margherita/Camogli.  This may be just about perfect for us.

On the other hand, I'd love to see a few highlights of Genoa as well.  St. Lawrence Cathedral looks gorgeous, for instance.  

There is a tour that combines all of the above, but it's 8 hours - just too long for what I was hoping to do this day.

So if we have to decide between touring Genoa and touring these cities on the Italian Riviera, what do you recommend please?

We did something very similar this past summer.  After a week touring London, we moved to Canterbury and stayed there in a hotel (Abode Canterbury) for two nights before our cruise out of Dover.

To maximize our time, we set up a full day private tour with Jane at https://toursoftherealm.com/.  She met us in the lobby of our Canterbury hotel and then walked with us to Canterbury Cathedral for a private tour.  This took approximately two hours.

Next, she drove us to some tiny villages in the English countryside.  We stopped for lunch at an English pub that was - no joke - some of my favorite food from our entire trip.  We explored a tiny stone church that was a great contrast to the magnificence we had just experienced at Canterbury Cathedral.

Jane drove us next to Dover, where we spent another 2-2.5 hours exploring Dover Castle, including the WWII tunnels.

Finally, she drove us to St. Margaret's Bay for a lovely look at the White Cliffs.

I can't tell you what a lovely day we had.  Jane was warm, knowledgeable, and funny - and an excellent driver.  She managed to give us a day that was very full and yet very relaxing.  It helped, too, that Jane is from Kent and knows it extremely well.  I truly can't recommend her enough.

Enjoy . . . I wish we could do it all over again!

For those of you about to leave, I wish you a lovely trip.

Since I'm trying to make the same decision for next summer, please report back how your Livorno port day was! :)

My husband and I stayed in the Gothic quarter and loved it. We visited all three locations. I think you'll like Bari Gotic!

Thank you, MCazer! :)

In terms of ranking them for lodging locations, I would rank La Sagrada Familia third. You definitely need to visit La Sagrada Familia, but staying in the area isn't particularly useful, in my opinion. The other two options are directly adjacent to each other and either would be fine, I think. I would prefer staying the Gothic Quarter area myself since I like the older style of the architecture and general feel of the place. But there is nothing wrong with the Plaza Catalunya area. You will probably end up mingling you're walking and dining between the 2.

Thank you. I keep reading very mixed reviews of the Gothic Quarter. Pictures look charming, but I wasn't sure if it would be a good place for a family to stay, you know?

I am planning next summer's Mediterranean cruise. Our family - myself, husband, 13 year old daughter, and 11 year old son - will spend three nights post-cruise in Barcelona. This will be our first visit.

We know we want to rent a highly rated vacation rental through AirBnB or Home Away. I even have several lovely choices, since I'm looking this to book this far out. But I need help narrowing down my search from these three areas. From my research, they are all reasonable choices. I'm just not sure how to choose.

Which of these three areas would you recommend a family focus on for their first visit? One of us has slight mobility issues, so we'll be walking some but will also take taxis/tours etc. in order to minimize the shoe leather a bit.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

The only decision you should make before the day is to have a selection of bills in your pocket.

Only you can decide how much, and it should reflect on the standards.

But here's my suggestion......

 

If it works out well, £30

 

If it's exceptional & the driver/guide goes the extra mile, £40.

Mebbe pull out £20 from a pocket like that was your plan, then add the balance from your wallet with your thanks..

 

If it's an "OK" tour, £20

 

Those are the figures I'd suggest to an Arizonan who can't disguise his accent, being a Brit I'd probably tip about £10 less, but there's no right or wrong answer.

 

If the driver/guide was poor but pleasant and the problem was inexperience, I'd make it a nominal £5, mebbe £10 with a friendly suggestion of one or two things he/she needs to brush-up on.

 

If he/she was a miserable sod I'd give nowt & say nowt, and have a few drinks that evening using the tip-money that the miserable sod didn't get. :beer-mug:

 

JB :)

John,

Thank you *very* much for taking the time to type out such a thorough reply. Absolutely perfect and very helpful - many thanks!

Yes, you are right that I won't be fooling anyone as to my tourist status once my mouth is opened!

And you are also right that I of course won't make a decision until each day unfolds. I meant to frame my question as to a "maximum"/upper limit regarding a nice - but not ridiculous - tip.

Your response is so good it could almost be a sticky post! Thank you again.

Thank you, Lifeasme123, for the original post. I'm glad you had a great tour experience! May I ask what you ended up tipping, if you don't mind sharing?

I have a similar question. Our family of four has 5 upcoming private tours set up (two in England, two in Ireland, and one in Scotland). All five of these tours are roughly 7-8 hours long and include transportation in a minivan-type vehicle. The prices vary, but are around US $600-$700 apiece. (Still often cheaper than similar cruise excursions for a party of four.)

Assuming excellent, friendly service, would a tip of around £40-50 for the day be about right . . . hitting that sweet spot that shows sincere appreciation without being unnecessarily extravagant or showy? (In Ireland it might be approximately 40-50 Euro?) Yes, I know it is not *required*. I do understand. But I am asking how that type of tip would be viewed.