NCteacherlovescruising

I think we’ve decided to fly to Bordeaux from Barcelona after our cruise in June. Yes, I’m planning several months out! @marazul Suggested the following over in the the Spain forum. If all you want is Bordeaux, the minimum would be one full day for Bordeaux and a wine tour to the wineries in the Médoc area (yes, that includes Margaux). You need a second day for a tour to St Emilion which is a fabulous medieval town with a long wine tradition. It is surrounded by wonderful wineries (Pomerol for one). That also gives you three nights in Bordeaux to try fabulous restaurants and drink wonderful wines. It is best to fly to Paris from Barcelona. Then high-speed TGV train to Bordeaux or fly if you want to go there first. It would be a shame not to see the Loire Valley castles which are half way between Bordeaux and Paris. That's why I suggested driving from one to the other. You can take the train from Paris to Bordeaux ( two hours direct on a TGV train). Rent a car at the Bordeaux train station and drive towards Angers or Tours to start your tour of the Loire Valley. Return the car at the Chartres train staion. Train to Paris is one hour. Or train to airport if you do this at the end of your trip. There are hundreds of hotels in Paris. Look at a map and find hotels between Notre Dame and the Eiffel tower on either side of the river. Come back here for comments before you book. BTW- don't miss going to Versailles when you are in Paris. Easily accessible by train or taxi. ————————————————————————— At the moment we’re thinking of 3 nights in Bordeaux followed by 2 nights in Paris. I know you suggested flying to Paris first but we can get a direct flight to Charlotte from Paris so we’d like to end there. I'm thinking one day touring Bordeaux, including a visit to the wine museum, one day with a tour of the Margaux area (most likely with a driver since we’ll be drinking wine) and perhaps one day in St Emilion. I have found some B&B’s that are inexpensive and look nice in Bordeaux. We’re undecided if we would want to rent a car to drive to Paris to see the castles along the way or just take the train so we can get there quickly to have more time to see Paris. It may come down to the castles or Versailles. If you had to choose between the two, which would you do and why? With such a tight schedule in Paris, what should we prioritize? Obviously we wouldn’t go to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower and I really want to do a dinner cruise along the Seine River. I know you said not to do the dinner cruise but it looks amazing! We aren’t into art, but I can’t imagine a trip to Paris without going to the Louvre. I’d also like to see Notre Dame. I don’t know that we have time for all this in just two days though. (As we recall we fit a ton into Rome because we went all day every day! ) Finding a place to stay here has been more challenging but I will continue searching. It’s expensive, hence why only two days and not 3. We’re trying to keep this vacay on the cheaper side after the amazing vacation we just had that hit the bank account hard! We're open to any and all suggestions, especially as we’re in the first stage of planning. Looks like tickets will open for return flights home in about 9 days. Once we book those we could start booking accommodations.

I think we’re going to do Bordeaux and Paris so I’ll move over there.

We stayed at the Athen’s Gate Hotel and loved it. Half of their restaurant overlooks the Acropolis and is very conveniently located near that, shopping and restaurants. We enjoyed eating our free breakfast buffet while looking at the acropolis. I’ve included a picture of the view from their restaurant and delicious meals we had for dinner there.

I understand and felt the same way. once you get there I’m sure you’ll feel much better about everything. We took a taxi to the Vatican since it was a long walk, early in the morning and fearing we could possibly get lost along the way and don’t want to be late. The taxi ride was inexpensive. Our hotel was beside the Pantheon and on the other side of it was a taxi stand so finding a taxi was super easy.

I doubt we would have time for both if we try to squeeze in Paris. If this is the direction dh chooses. I’m not a foodie, far from it! I’m on the picky side. Dh is a foodie. We both appreciate fine wines though Dh hasn’t given me a time frame, budget or even told me where he wants to go post cruise. I know it won’t be near the extent of what we just returned from! We’ve discussed the options and I’ve kind of ran with France. However, with our time constraints before the cruise due to my new job, we may decide to just stay in Spain post cruise too since we won’t even have time to explore Barcelona prior. If I’d have had this job before booking the cruise I would have booked it a bit later. But the good news is the new job will help pay for this since this school district pays better. He says he’ll look at our options this weekend so fingers crossed he does. I was thinking maybe 2-3 days in Bordeaux and 1-2 in Paris. It looks like we can do multi-city tickets with 1 stop to Barcelona and non-stop home from Paris, which would be nice. But Madrid also offers direct flights. I should know more in a couple of days.

We had a private transport (shared with someone from our cruise) from the ship to Venice. They arranged for it and walked us to the water taxi. When we went from our hotel to the airport, our hotel arranged it for us.

Thanks for sharing!

The bag wasn't lost until our trip home. I panicked because it was all my stuff plus a leather bag I bought for my granddaughter. Trust me, on the way there, I had my meds, make-up, best clothes and shoes on my person! I really think we could do all carry-on. We sent a full bag for laundry on the ship and I got two blow-outs which eliminated the need to bring hair products, except dry shampoo. Of course, I packed nearly an entire bag full of new purchases on the way home. We had placed a large backpack (the type that has wheels, but we had removed them) inside our large checked suitcase on the way there, which we utilized on the way home. The biggest issue with our checked luggage was it made us miss our connecting flight from Chicago O'Hare to Clt. Our flight from Venice was delayed a couple hours and we barely missed the flight. We would have made it if we hadn't had to wait so long at baggage claim to get our checked luggage and then re-check it. Why did we even have to do that with connecting flights?? Because of that we ended up spending the night at the airport and didn't get to leave until 1:00 the next afternoon. Not fun!

Thanks for all these suggestions! I had heard of the palace but didn’t realize there were all these castles between Bordeaux and Paris. I watched a video on them last night. It looks like a cool thing to do, but would also take an entire day. I am still waiting on dh to look over things and let me know where he wants to go post cruise and how many days we can stay. He’s been super busy this week after being off work for nearly a month. I’m much more interested in Bordeaux than Paris but it seems silly not to at least go for a day if we’re that close. Honestly, after looking at things to do there, a dinner cruise along the Seine River looks like something I’d enjoy the most. It ends at the Eiffel Tower while it’s lit up. Going back to Italy and seeing Florence and the Tuscany countryside are still high on my list. However, dh has said he’d prefer seeing something new. We didn’t see Florence or Pisa this time, and we only had a day trip to Tuscany, so I would consider it new. I’d even love to visit Puglia, Lake Como and Milan! I just loved Italy and want to return! I will let him make the final decision though since the last trip was the top of my bucket list. There’s still a possibility of Madrid or Lisbon too. Madrid would make the most sense financially, since it’s cheaper for us to fly into and has direct flights. We wouldn’t need to worry about purchasing extra flights either since we could easily get between there and Barcelona by train. Plus, as you mentioned, I already have info on visiting there from what I learned last summer. With that said, Lisbon would be at the bottom of my list, but I’m sure we’d like any of these places. Looks like flights will start opening in a couple weeks which may also impact our decision. Speaking of flights, I way overpacked this summer. Lol We came home with two checked bags and each of us with a personal item and a carry on. Next summer we hope to not check anything. With our missed connection in Chicago coming home (due to our first flight being delayed), they lost one of our bags. Thank God they found it and delivered it about 48 hours later but it did cause some anxiety. Besides, all I ended up wearing was dresses and skirts and I bought several during the trip.

Yes

Thanks! My pictures were taken with my iPhone.

This is still a consideration. However, I just accepted a job in another district and the last day of school is June 10. The district I have worked for for many years ends on the 6th so the 13th was perfect timing. Now it’s tight. Our cruise is on the 13th. If we fly to Madrid it won’t leave us much time in Barcelona. It would be a great option if we just do Madrid and Barcelona, which may be what we end up doing. I’m not sure about driving in France. Wouldn’t it be easy to get lost? We are considering flying to either Bordeaux or Paris after the cruise and maybe taking the train to the other. I’ve spent a couple hours looking at hotels in Paris which was quite confusing. I have never researched Paris before so I’ve no idea what area we’d want to stay in. Dh says we need to be economical next year since we had a major splurge this summer. But it was totally worth it!! But as for being economical, it doesn’t look like we can get anything nice near major sites in Paris without spending several hundred per night. (We typically like to max out around $350) I found a nice B&B in Bordeaux that was very reasonable. Maybe a couple nights each place. In Bordeaux I’d love to visit the wine museum and maybe hit a couple of the beautiful vineyards. We are into nice wines and really enjoy a good Bordeaux from the Margaux region. I’ve got a couple in mind. Not sure about Paris. Obviously would want to see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, maybe go down the Seine River. It has never been on my bucket list but now it’s starting to seem appealing, especially if we go to Bordeaux since they are so close. Would two days there be enough? This was dh’s idea and is on the bottom of my list but if it’s where he wants to go I’m ok with it.

It would be easy too. If flights are cheaper there we may go there a day, then take a train to Barcelona and maybe somewhere else post cruise. We’re so early in the planning stages.

We have a round trip Barcelona cruise booked for June. We plan to spend some time in Barcelona (assuming tourist are more welcome by then) but are undecided where to spend a few days post cruise. We are open to traveling by train or plane. Our immediate thoughts are Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, the Bordeaux region, or back to Italy to see Florence and Tuscany. We had one day trip to Tuscany this year, which I absolutely loved, but never made it to Florence. I think dh is leaning away from Italy since we just went to Rome, Amalfi Coast and Venice and he’d like to see something else. Btw, I loved all those places.

It seemed like most of them had nearly the same menus. At least the parts I was looking at.

Yes, it’s round trip from Barcelona. We’re thinking of flying out on the 10th which would get us there early on the 11th and the cruise is on the 13th. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have to embark early so we would have the 11-13th to explore. We have talked about Madrid or Lisbon. Just haven’t made any decisions yet. We’ve only been back a couple days and have been super busy. Rome is totally walkable! You mentioned concern with the amount of walking. You could always just do a leisurely walk. I didn’t notice the hop on hop off bus but wasn’t looking for it either. As I mentioned, we enjoy walking and sight seeing along the way. The only time we took a taxi while we were there was to the Vatican and that was because it was early and we wanted to make sure we got there on time. We walked back. You definitely need to see Rome! We loved our tours there! It’s much cheaper to book your own than through the cruise line but I’m sure you know this. We wanted specific restaurants so we made reservations. We also just walked into some and had good food. They also have sandwiches but usually that involves getting one to go and after walking so much we were always ready to take a load off. In Mykonos we just took a bus to Tropicana beach. We rented two sun beds for 70 euro and a 20 euro minimum which made for a cheap day. But others just put a towel down which is free. Athens we had tours with Georges taxi. They were fantastic! Maybe you could find someone on your roll call to share one with you. In Santorini we booked a private excursion, but again that would be expensive for one unless you could find someone to share with you. It was stunning!! We didn’t go to any of the other ports. Our cruise was from Athens to Venice.

We have a cruise booked out of Barcelona next June. Barcelona, Marseille, Portofino, Naples (we’re going to Capri), Sicily, and Malta. We plan to go a couple days early to explore Barcelona. We haven’t decided what we’re doing at the end. It won’t be to the extent we did this year. Most likely 2-3 days on each end. I’d love to go back to a charming village in Tuscany and spend a day in Florence but I think dh has something else in mind. He has mentioned perhaps Portugal. This year he catered to me so I told him he could pick what we do after the cruise next year.

Pizza was everywhere! Lots of seafood too. You wouldn’t have to do near as much walking as we did. You could always take a taxi to the sites and then just walk once you get there. We enjoyed walking all over the place and do a lot of walking at home as well. I’d be happy to share what we did at some of our ports if you have any questions. This thread was just about our pre-cruise days on land, but we were also in Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Zakynthos, Corfu, Kotor, Dubrovnik, Split, Ravena and then 2.5 days in Venice. We loved Venice! 💕 I’m sure you will have a wonderful time!

The location was perfect! Our room was a good size and clean, service was great. The room itself was very dated and the shower was tiny. So small I didn’t even attempt to shave my legs. The included breakfast was pretty standard and they even had Prosecco and juice sitting out to make mimosas. It had A/C, and while I was comfortable, my husband said he was too hot to sleep well. There was a place to dock a water taxi right out front which was super convenient.

I had to get photos of our boat tour from my husband because I left my phone in the hotel.

When we arrived in at our hotel, the Royal Continental, in Naples our room wasn’t ready. We wanted to go to the museum to see the Pompeii artifacts. They told us it was about a 20 minute walk and gave us directions. It seemed easy enough so we checked in our luggage and headed off. For some reason our cell service wasn’t working so we couldn’t use maps, as we’d been doing previously. Long story short, we got lost, ended up on a bad area, and I was a bit worried about our safety. After about 90 minutes we gave up and headed back. That was as the beginning of a not so great day. When we finally found a taxi we hoped in and had him take us to the hotel. Although the lobby was beautiful and the online photos were quite nice as well, our room was tiny and musty with no view. We were in a completely different section of the hotel. Our shower had mold. I could go on about other bad experiences there but let’s just leave it with I don’t ever want to return to Naples. Thankfully it was only one day, which we ended up spending the majority of on our bed (since there were no chairs in there) reading. Thankfully we had an early flight to Athens the next morning.

Our first full day in Amalfi we had a small group boat tour. There were 10 of us. We had such a blast and the views were out of this world. It’s hard to pick a favorite day out of our entire vacation, but this and our day in Tuscany are definitely at the top! We just happened to be staying right in front of the pier where this tour started. It was an 8 hour excursion but the time flew by. He took us all along the Amalfi Coast, explaining which village we were looking at and telling us about the village. He would either completely stop or slow way down so we could get lots of pics. We had a couple swim stops, and an incredible lunch at a restaurant overlooking Positano. This was one of my favorite meals on this trip. I had linguini with lobster. Delicious!! And we had an hour in Positano which I used for shopping. I bought my favorite clothing purchase here, a linen skirt with matching crop top that was exactly what I had in mind before we even left home. I think it’s absolutely beautiful, although a bit of a splurge. When we returned I found a salon and scheduled a blow out for the next morning. Walked up and down the street again looking at the same shops, eating dinner, holding the same bag again I spotted the previous day, dh still shaking his head no. Sat down for a pastry and cappuccino at a bakery then returned to our room to read then sleep. Our 2nd full day in Amalfi. We went to the beach early and then I went to the salon for my blowout. He only charged me 30 euro! I figured in a touristy area like this it would have been triple! Dh said he was going to walk around while I got my hair done. He arrived just as the gentleman finished my hair. My sweetheart had went back to that purse shop to buy the purse I kept looking at.💗 Next we took a taxi to Ravello. Oh my what a beautiful, charming, quiet village! I feel in love with it. I found myself doing that quite frequently on this trip! I’m not sure if we got ripped off or not. I’m thinking he charged us around 210 euro, dh think it was 150, so I’m not sure. I just remember thinking it was high. He said taxis aren’t really a thing in Ravello so we needed to pre-arrange our ride back, which we did. I have to admit I was a bit nervous paying upfront but he sent a driver for us at the agreed upon location and time outside the ceramic factory. They had some beautiful pieces. We bought a small vase. They wrapped it quite well and it survived the trip. It is a lovely souvenir I will see daily. We also bought a Christmas ornament and trivet. After this we worked our way up to the Villa Cimbrome gardens. Absolutely breathtaking views! I’d love to stay here on our return but I assume it’s extremely expensive. They were setting up for a wedding and couldn’t help but wonder how much that would cost. I can’t imagine a more exquisite place to get married. On our way back down, we stopped at a wine shop just before the glass factory. We were offered free wine samples and then purchased a bottle to drink while we awaited our taxi. After we enjoyed some of the wine we had him cork and bag it so we could finish it on our balcony. Our hotel restaurant let us borrow wine glasses, which we returned once we finished. We don’t eat at the restaurant there. It was another Michelin star restaurant, but after looking at the set menu I knew I wouldn’t like it. The next morning we slept in a little then went to the Amalfi Cathedral. It wasn’t as impressive as the basilicas we’d seen previously, but still quite lovely. Once again we had a Joe Bananas private transfer this time to Naples.

The next morning we had a private transfer to Amalfi with Joe Bananas. The driver came inside our hotel, where we had just checked out and escorted us and our 5 bags of luggage (yes, 5 bags, which I will discuss at a later time) to a Mercedes parked out front. Later in the day this wouldn’t have been possible, but it was only 8:15 so it wasn’t full of tourist yet. We had prearranged with them a private tour of Pompeii on our way. Again, I was surprised at how much we enjoyed this tour. Our guide was terrific and I had such a mix of emotions. Of course, terribly sad knowing what had happened to all those people there, but amazed with their ingenuity, the incredible artwork, and envisioning how beautiful it would have been back then. But it was hot! I was so thankful we booked it early in the morning. After our tour, our driver took us to a restaurant shortly outside of Pompeii. Here we had one of the best pizzas of our trip. I love meat on pizza, and spicy foods, so every time we had pizza I ordered Diablo. We’ve already said we plan to find an Italian Grocery store here to buy the ingredients to make our own. Our good friends, who joined us once we get to Athens, have a real pizza oven, that was shipped from Italy, in their backyard. We’ve already told them we’ll buy the ingredients and Bill can cook them for us. (They kept ordering it too, after we told them about it) Then we were on our way to the Hotel Residence in Amalfi. It was a small, but nice hotel. I was shocked at the size of our room. Even by US standards it was large. And we had an ocean view. The included breakfast was great. They had the typical pasties, yogurt and cereal out but also a menu where you could order eggs, pancakes, etc. There were 3 options. Their pancakes with the blueberry compote was my favorite breakfast of the entire trip! I’m still craving it! They also had the best cappuccinos we had. It was a sweet bonus sitting on their restaurants terrace with the sea view while dining. The first day we just went to the beach for a while and then walked around the shops. I spotted a purse I wanted, but dh had already bought me one in Rome so he didn’t think I need another. Our timing was excellent because they had some special celebration going on. Dh got more pictures of it than I did but it was fun to watch and the night ended with a spectacular fireworks display we could watch right from our balcony. IMG_3932.mov

Honestly, I had the time of my life! It completely surpassed my expectations and felt like I was living in a dream! Yes, Marissa took us through the short cut. I didn't realize all tour guides weren’t allowed to do so. Perhaps it is because she also works as a tour guide for the Vatican. I believe she said she does tours for them twice a week. She had one in the afternoon the day she took us so she brought her lunch and was just going to stay there until it was time. She was very passionate about the history and artifacts. She was super annoyed when she saw a “crazy family” placing their toddler on displays that were roped off to take photos. At first she said, it isn’t my job, but eventually she approached one of the employees (I forget what she called them, I know it wasn’t security) and told them what they were doing and he went over and spoke with the family. She was an excellent guide, with a degree in archeology, and was obvious she loves her city and its rich history-good and bad. They did have other food, but we usually got pasta or pizza. We saw several sandwich shops but you usually had to stand and we were always ready to sit down and rest with a large glass of ice water. We were putting in around 18,000 steps a day, sometimes over 20,000. Most places offered appetizers, pasta dishes, meat/fish, and desserts. Everyone said how small there portions were there, but we found them quite large. I rarely could finish an order of pasta and several times I was asked if something was wrong. Nope, I was just full. Of course, we had gelato everyday which probably contributed to that. lol I’m not familiar with that hotel, but I see @euro cruiser responded to you.

I may be in the minority, but I didn’t like the vaporetto. We only used it to get back and forth to Murano. It was crowded and people were so pushy to get on. We were in the middle of the line, more like mob, to get on, yet were one of the last ones on because everyone was pushing to get around us. They weren’t even going to let my husband on but did since I already was. We used a private taxi to get to our hotel and from our hotel to the airport. We also took a gondola ride. The rest of the time we walked everywhere, but we stayed at the Hotel Rialto, which is centrally located and we enjoy walking.