MarleneAm

Thank you for the advice. I appreciate it. Right now, we are not offered the excursion that you are describing. The monastery and Delphi are at the same time. So, you have to choose between one or the other. The Delphi tour is only 4 hours - so by the time you tack on the tender time, it doesn't sound like it is going to be as in depth as we would prefer at Delphi.

 

Perhaps they will add a 3rd excursion with the two combined - that would be ideal.

 

It makes no sense that there are only two 4 hour excursions for a port that we are in for more than 12 hours.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts. Truly appreciated:D

Itea is a small town that is a drive away from Delphi and an even farther drive away from the monastery in an empty mountainous part of Greece. If they don't offer the combo tour to the monastery, go to Delphi and absorb as much as possible in the time available. The guides give a lot of information. Delphi site involves climbing up and down uneven levels. Then after excursion you can spend rest of day taking it easy in Itea and/or on ship. In monastery they sold local produce: honey and various liquors like walnut and sour cherry brandy, perhaps they also sell them in Itea. They were delicious.

I suggest you take the ship's tour and use the option that also goes to the monastery, which is one of only 3 remaining Byzantine monasteries in Greece. When planning for this port for a 2011 cruise, my friends, the independent tour planners, could not find a guided excursion at Itea and rented a taxi driver that came up from Athens. So they had to read tour books to get all information and they didn't go to the museum at Delphi- a great loss, it is a must see. While the ship's tour was a crowd, it was run by a licensed guide who really knew what she was talking about. But even the guides for the ship's tours were arranged in advance and had to come up from Athens for the day. So if you want a knowledgeable guided tour, I suggest the ship's excursion. I am glad I paid the extra money to take it. And it included a delicious greek lunch.

If you end up going to Mt. Etna, you can let your husband and other volcano lovers go

up in the cable car, while you stay at the level where the gift stores are which is older lava. Everybody should bring jacket, gloves and hat; it's real cold and windy up there. While you are waiting for the volcano lovers, try all the flavors of the local honey. My favorite was orange blossom, but chestnut was delicious too.It's the best honey I'v ever had and much better than the honey in the gift stores in Taormina. Inside the gift stores you can use the toilet-bring small Euro coins-and try out the delicious pistachio brittle. There are other things to browse for. Also the drive up to Etna is very interesting and beautiful, many changes of flora, fauna and climate. I don't like volcanos and I am clumsy, but I felt ok staying at the gift store level where the buses/cars are parked.

If you can coordinate with your friends, I really suggest you take a private excursion that includes some time at Etna and some time in some other places, like small villages. If it's nice weather,Taormina does have beautful views up and down the coastline as well as the Greek/Roman theatre that itself has great views of Etna. Private excursion will let you customize the experience both to your desires and to weather conditions, so you don't end up having to visit a volcano in the rain or empty plain if it's broiling hot.

Use search feature for Sicily excursion companies; there are several with wonderful reviews of individually tailored tours.

They specialize in the white wine Vernacchia di San Gimignano: the stores representing vineyards will let you taste it first. They also sell a variety of Tuscan food products-olive oils, vin santo, salami etc. They have very high end ceramics. And they do have art galleries :i saw a lot of wqtercolors of the Tuscan region. They have delicious gelato

so you don't have to buy food on an empty stomach.

Like Cruisemom42, I also hope you'll come back and share if your request to skip the carpet demonstrations, etc. was honored.

 

I think seeing it would be a neat experience. However, most port times are so short - there are other things we would rather be doing, etc.

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Please note that after visiting Ephesus and the Terrace houses you will need a restroom break. Unless you want to wait in a long hot line for a turkish toilet at the site, the optional shopping stop will allow you to use a modern restroom and relax in airconditioning. I recommend a leather factory since much more limited inventory so you can get out much sooner. If you don't buy anything, please give the tour guide a small extra tip in lieu of commissions from the shop.

Also if you plan on buying nothing, wear a strong charm to ward off the salesman's anger.:)

I was the only one in our group not to buy a jacket and the only one

to get both the real evil eye from my salesman and a bad stomachache, even though we ate nothing on this excursion. The tour guide tried to pressure us to go also to a carpet factory but we had agreed in advance that we were going only to the leather factory for bathroom break. Those of you lucky enough to be impervious to the evil eye don't have to worry about wearing the charm.:)

We were using Ephesus Shuttle and we had a good tour guide. At our request she let us off on a real shopping street in Kusadasi so we could window shop and buy souvenirs. The rest of our group went back to the boat; it was a short port call.

Thanks but unfortunately they are booked for the date we want to go

Ontario Cruiser:(

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Maybe you could ask who they recommend you use instead of them.

Then check their recommendation out on Trip Advisor.

Or use the company who do the American tours and ask if they could do

a Canada tour

Can anyone tell me where they went on these tours? What towns did you visit? Did you stop and visit anywhere or just photo stops? I'm wondering what you do and where you actually go for 5 hours.

Thanks!

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You drive around and look at the scenery and stop for photos where there are beautiful views ( there are many of them), famous monasteries or quaint villages. If you want you can stop and tour 19th C palaces. It's a panoramic veiw of a beautiful island. We loved it, but some people have complained there are too many olive trees. Check their suggested tours.

Has anyone had any experience with any of the Corfu taxi tours. The two that are listed on Trip Adviser seem to be the same same group, Corfu Taxi Tours and Corfu Taxi Private Tours. I am being quoted rates in the e40 to e50 per hour per cab which compared to Valletta is only e20 per hour per cab. Is it the inflation that Greece has undergone or what?

We had a wonderful 6 hour day in October 2011 with Dimitri of Corfu taxi tours. It cost 40E/hour in 2011. The members of Corfu Taxi tours speak excellent English and give interesting talks. They have suggested tours but if you are particularly interested in something, the tour can be modified to suit your interests. We were interested in photography and old style customs so we went into very small villages and skipped the Palaces. The roads are very narrow, we were lucky to have such a good driver who could literally drive to the inch. At the end of the tour we went to lunch at a restaurant used by the cab drivers, it was authentic, inexpensive and the food was delicious. It was one of the best days I had on the cruise. If you don't want to spend 40E/hour, you could rent a car and drive yourself to the places you wanted to go. Some people have taken public buses to beaches, etc. Or you could try to organize a bus excursion including a boat ride. Or you could take your chances and just

hire a taxi driver at the port or in town after you had done sightseeing the town, but no guarantees on how good his English will be.

Price sounds pretty high. :( Here's a much lower cost option that we plan to use. Take the AVTO bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma and the People Mover from there to the cruise terminal.

 

The AVTO bus will take you from the airport to Piazzale Roma for 5 Euros pp (4.5 Euros pp if you by 2 or more tickets online). Check out the ATVO bus at this link: http://www.atvo.it/index.php?lang=en&area=23&menuid=35&view_pc=!#

 

You can buy tickets at the airport or at a small discount at this link: http://88.36.245.11/webticketing/configuratore.jsp

 

From Piazzale Roma, you can take a 3 minute ride to the cruise terminal on the new overhead People Mover for about 1 Euro pp. More information on the People Mover at this link:

http://livingveniceblog.com/venice-instructions/venice-transportation-options/peoplemover-tram-marittima-port-piazzale-roma/

 

HTH.:)

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The OP asked for the price to the SAN BASILIO Terminal, not the main Statizione

Maritime. Your directions and websites are NOT for SAN BASILIO but for Statizione Maritmo. There are 2 cruise terminals in Venice.

Azmar -

 

Can you tell me where the best site is to pre-book a land taxi?

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I don't know how to prebook a land taxi, but if you just go to the taxi stand you can get a metered taxi that will drive you to San Basilio terminal. When I did this in 2011, the cost of the taxi was 35 euros,

including the extra night charge since my delayed plane got in at 11:30 pm. At night no traffic it took about 25 minutes. The taxi drops you off outside the large shed. You have to take your luggage around the corner to the shed door to check in. After you check in, your ship should have a little shuttle bus from the terminal to the ship.

I have another possibility for you. We were in Dubrovnik the first of October. We hooked up with another couple on our cruise and hired a taxi for a half day tour. We went to the bridge and to the cable car overlook but did not ride the cable car. We also went to Cavtat, a charming resort town. We walked through town and up to the top of the hill to a family mausoleum and to the city's cemetary. We paid by the hour and split the cost so it cost 100 euros per couple. I would advise setting a price for where you want to go before getting in the cab. If not, be aware of the cost per hour and how long you want to tour. We were dropped off at the Pile gate and walked the sea side of the wall. Stunning. We loved seeing both places.

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You could arrange this or a similar tour in advance with Taxi Dubrovnik dot com and get people from your RollCall to share with your. Five of us had

a wonderful time with Mikos of this company; we went to the bridge, to the top of the cable car to look at the view, to Cavtat for about an hour and then we had lunch in an old inn in the countryside,then we came back to Dubrovnik to tour.

Montenegro (Kotor, Budva) was a part of Yugoslavia until 2006 along with Koper (Slovenia) Dubrovnik(Croatia) and many other ports so it's not surprising that it's in Rick Steves book. It was disappointing that Kotor was not in his Mediterranean Ports book.

ace-j, Thanks for posting -- you've made my research a little easier. My wife and I will be joining the Seabourn Quest in Venice (Suite 917) and continuing on to Ft. Lauderdale. Hope to meet you on board.

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After just returning from a cruise on Insignia that visited many of these ports, I recommned these excursions: In Corfu, take a private tour with Dimitris of CorfuTaxiprivate tours. In addtion to the tourist visited highlights, he will take you deep into the countryside to see the authentic old Corfu villages and even old authentic Greeks in traditional dress. He will drop you off near Corfu town so you can explore the town. If you are hungry, he will take you to an authentic taverna for delicious food. His English is impeccable and he is a gentleman. In Dubrovnik, if you are not up to extensive walking, I recommend you take an excursion with Mikos of TaxiDubrovnik. He took us to all the vantage points to see Dubrovnik from high up, then to the resort town of Cavtat, then deep into the countryside for an authentic Croatian lunch in a beatuful country setting near an old mill and mill stream. Then we returned to Dubrovnik for a walking tour by ourselves-we had a long port call in Dubrovnik. In Kotor if you have nerves of steel, I recommend you take the excursion to the ancient capital over the famous road with the 25 hairpin switchbacks. For this excursion it is very important to be in a vehicle with a narrow wheelbase. Those in the full size buses were scared because their wheelbase was wider than the road sometimes. Kotor is the place to take a ship's excursion, if you are going over this road. Those who went to Perast for Our Lady of the Rocks were disappointed. Those who climbed up 1000 feet to the top of the fort around Kotor had a great view but were very tired and the footing was slippery. Kotor itself has a large number of medieval churches and squares so you could just wander around town; the gelato is delicious.

thanks for the tips, my friends... unfortunately, I badly hurt my calf muscle six weeks ago...it's almost fully healed now, but I don't want to exert it too much until the trip...we're planning on doing a lot of walking, but the wall around Dubrovnik has me a bit concerned...

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With iffy leg, skip the wall and all its steps, just walk around the old town and go into the churches and monasteries and museums. If you get tired walking, go to a cafe, sit down and have a delicious icecream soda or something else you like and use the cafe's restroom. The people on my cruise, even those young and in good health, who walked the wall were too tired to see anything in the old town, they just took boat rides to the island of Lokrum from the old port in town. I skipped the walls and had a great day-just don't drink the beer on tap- drink your beer out of a bottle.

Buy calendars with photos of the islands-5x7 inches. On Santorini they had calendars of only Santorini and then those of mixed islands. I bought 8 of them, but I had to keep

2 for myself- they were too beautiful to give away. The honey on Santorini is delicious.

They also had keychains with special blye eye and other good luck amulets. For yourself, the jewelry on Sanotrini is gorgeous and unique, byzantine and reporductions of ancient style but very expensive due to price of gold.In Mykonos beautiful also but more moduren style. If you see olive oil soap anywhere, that's a good present too, but buy some for yourself. In Corfu, I hear they make kumquat liquor.

Thank you Dubrovnik Travel Lady for all your excellent advice! I just returned from a cruise that stopped in your beautiful city and I was very happy to have the knowledge you have so generously provided. Hvala!

My first Carribbean cruise was on the Regent Star in March of 1990, out of Montego Bay, to Gatun Lake, Aruba and Curacao, with my parents and a friend of mine. My parents and I agreed that the food was the best we had ever eaten anywhere.The Grand Midnight buffet has never been equaled in my experience. We had so much fun doing the old cruise things-we brought simple costumes for the costume party but the ship had supplies of crepe paper etc to jazz up your costume.- we owned part of a race horse in the derby. We played in cut throat trivia contests. In Aruba we stayed til late at night and the ship brought on a local band and we had real Carribean music on Carribean party night; everybody was dancing.People were even dancing one rough night at sea up until the piano slid all the way across the room ! The passengers were very friendly to each other and made conversation outside the people they came with.

My parents continued to cruise on Regency- went on back to back Carribean cruises in January 1991, including islands never visited by other ships, like Marie-Galante - and to Alaska on the Regent Sun with a multi day land excursion that went everywhere and on a complete transit through the Panama Canal from Ft.Lauderdale to San Diego in April/May of 1994. They also went on a Black Sea Cruise in October of 1994, when service had started to go downhill and had booked part of Regency round the world Cruise for 1995 when line went backrupt. Fortunately, Mastercard was holding the deposits in escrow, so they got the money back.My parents cruised on some other small ships- the Royal Solaris and the Olympic. Before they died, they had to switch to the new big ships but they never enjoyed them as much as Regency.And now I have to cruise on big ships:I've been on RCL,NCL,and Princess. It's very nice to be on a cruise, but it's not the same friendly experience and the food, compared to Regency, is like a cafteteria.

Cruising brought happiness and spared misery in my parents latter years.

My parents loved to travel and used to drive around Europe & USA & Canada by themselves. But after my father turned 80, he wouldn't travel and made excuses not to go on any trip. My mother got seriously depressed for some years. Finally my mother and I realized that my father refused to go on vacation because he could no longer handle being responsible and remembering things, even though he would not admit it. After some difficulty,we convinced him to go on a cruise, where he would not have to worry about being responsible. We all went on a Panama Canal cruise on the much missed former Regency cruise line. My parents both cheered up immensely and kept on cruising together for the rest of his life. Cruising was great for both of them, since my mother could make friends, stay up late and go on shore excursions while not worrying about my father, who was happy reading on deck in the fresh sea air or napping in the cabin and had food available whenever he wanted it. So I recommend cruises as the best vacation for older people-they are well taken care of and can participate in whatever level of activity they are individually up to, without the burden of worrying about the other one every minute of the day.And even the less physically active get the mental stimulation of being in new places, seeing new things and

eating different food!