Wendy The Wanderer

I've heard that you can get decent French wines fairly cheaply, so I'd try that grocery store. I've never done this myself.

Well I'll be sure interested to hear what you do and how you like it. We'll be there in December, although not on the TP.

I'm curious about private tour guides, but also about what you can do or see on foot from the docks. Not eager to drop an arm and a leg on tours, since we're already doing that for the trip itself. Our cruise also includes Fatu Hiva and Ua Huka as well as Hiva Oa and Nuku Hiva.

Well I'll be sure interested to hear what you do and how you like it. We'll be there in December, although not on the TP.

I'm curious about private tour guides, but also about what you can do or see on foot from the docks. Not eager to drop an arm and a leg on tours, since we're already doing that for the trip itself. Our cruise also includes Fatu Hiva and Ua Huka as well as Hiva Oa and Nuku Hiva.

Yeh, I've got that. Still musing about just booking a cab like the OP said, from the port. I'm in discussions with Gus, and with my cruiseline, not sure what to do, but I am very much looking forward to this port. LIvingston is not a must.

The ship's tour that I've been offered includes lunch at Hotel Caribe. It appears to be the only other hotel in Livingston of note. It's perhaps a bit fancier, but hard to tell, since the pricing seems fairly close.

The "hokey" part to me seems to be the dance performance and fiesta in the town--I'm thinking some of that wasn't actually on the tour. Like the Mayan performance? The ball game?

Yeh, well we'll see. I thought some of the scenes in Livingston were fairly staged looking. But then that's pretty common where the locals are dependent on tourism.

I'm looking at two tours--Gus's, and a similar one that's run from by our ship (RSSC Voyager). The latter is pricier, but has only 15 in a boat outfitted for 30. Gus said there would be a maximum of 26 in his boat. Otherwise it sounds very similar, although there's no mention of swimming. Lunch is at the Hotel Caribe.

But for the convenience of doing the ship's tour, and the small number of guests, we would pay $50 pp more. I've booked it anyways, can always cancel while we're musing about the differences.

I've already had mail back from him, thanks. My husband thinks some of it looks "hokey" (he saw the video too, frankly some of the Livingston stuff looked hokey to me too.) What can I tell him?

Wow, that's great! Really makes me want to do this. We're on a small ship (700), and there is a tour offered that very much looks like this, but of course is more expensive. I wondering if Gus has been hired to run it. In any case, I'll email him and ask for information. I guess his email address is around here somewhere.

Oh phooey, I just read that it's not open on Sunday. Back to the drawing board for me!

This sounds great. A couple of questions:

Is it easy to find a cab back to the port? Is there plenty of shade?

It sounds like the food is good, not sure about that part, I hate missing a meal on the ship. It sounds like you can just snorkel on your own from the shore--is there much of a problem with the current?

I've only been on one real snorkel "tour", and it was kind of pain. Is this a matter of just someone taking you to the "good stuff" and them letting you do what you like?

Are the glass-bottom kayaks single or double?

Thanks, this sounds like just the ticket for our trip in December.

So if there are just the two of us, do you think we can find a driver at the port who will take us a couple of interesting places, including Livingston? I'd love to hear or see some of the Garafuna (sp) music, and get a feel for what sounds like an interesting culture.

I believe there's a travel guide devoted to European cruises. I bet it would give you what you wanted. Can't remember the name or publisher, but it should be easy to find.

Yeh Marc, give! Was it the food, the service, what? Did it have anything to do with being part of a large group?

Athens: many ships will provide a shuttle into the city from the port. If not, it's a 15 minute walk or short taxi ride to the subway. This will take you right into town. The plaka, as I remember, is basically at the foot of the Acropolis, no problem there.

As for the general topic, I was adamant years ago that a cruise ship was not the right way to experience Europe. Then I did a Black Sea cruise, and did all organized tours (no choice). There, it was the right thing, a way to see parts of the world that I would probably not have ventured to (but now would go back to.) We also punctuated the cruise with pre- and post-cruise junkets on our own. (Sometimes it's comforting to have someone lead you--in Istanbul we took a tour to the Princes' Isles, and I don't think we could have navigated that on our own--having been there, we would go on our own next time.)

Now I find I'm doing another European cruise, around the Iberian peninsula. Fortunately some cruise friends have gotten together to do some private touring. In some ports, it makes sense--being taken around Bordeaux wineries, when you only have the day. In Lisbon, hoofing it around the city on our own makes sense. Again, we are doing a post-cruise, this time to northern Portugal to explore on our own, which is what we like best. But for the cruise part, the main destination is the ship, and the ability to "taste" various places, but certainly not to really experience them.

Yes, beer and wine are both included with lunch and dinner. You can usually get your steward to keep a steady supply of beer in your fridge as well. On the other hand you may well pay for a beer or two from a bar during the trip, if that's all you drink.