Vineyard View

Thank you for further information. I honestly do not see us taking a 2 hr bus ride each way. We chanced it on our trip last month and it reminded us of why we won’t/don’t do that with ship excursions. I know we would love to experience these further destinations for their uniqueness and charm, but maybe not on this trip. I am really glad that I asked on this board. You all really did help me determine what will likely be best for us. I will, however, check further into the private guide before finalizing this decision. thanks to lol of you.

I have found that same tour guide on a ship excursion more than once. We just travelled last month. Took an 8 hour tour. He didn’t stop talking for 7 hours - only because in the two cities we visited he ‘allowed’ us 30 min in each to explore on our own. I was ready to pull my hair out. And he was one of those who didn’t want anyone to wander off on their own. On the next excursion we asked what time to meet back. The guide didn’t really want to let us do that, but I needed to sit for a while. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time on our own. When we met back up, several people told us we were the smart ones. Conversely, we’ve had fantastic private guides in multiple countries. You can always tell them that you would like x amount of time on your own. They won’t mind if the location is appropriate (probably not Kusadasi) and you are up front on that. So one never knows. It can be the luck of the draw. For us, we take our chances as much as possible with DIY and private tours. To cruisemom’s point. We booked a private for Kusadasi including the houses. It was an incredible day. have fun!

We sail at 5:00 that day and it’s the last day so that’s probably not a great combo but it was a good idea!

Thank you very much. We enjoy museums so this sounds interesting. And yes, that one in Athens is wonderful. And you are spot on with it being of interest as well with cruisemom!

Thank you for taking the time to do this for me marazul. I really appreciate this. It looks like the itinerary is slightly different on this B2B we have booked. I wish after this post that we also had Gytheo on our route to see Mystras. We will go into Athens early as we always do before embarking, but in looking that drive would be an awful long day trip to do from there. We have several repeat ports (Athens, Katakolon, Dubrovnik, Kotor and, Vodice, Venice, Nafplion) - all but two (Vodice/Katakolon) we look forward to seeing again. Monemvasia, Brindisi, Zadar, Corfu, Sami in Greece are all new. I guess my main goal here is to figure out if the new ports support repeating the others. So I appreciate all this information.

DH and I were just discussing this week how fortunate we are with all the wineries in our backyard, and that there are still so many we have not been to. Terrible problem to have. That said, we do enjoy tasting wine in regions we travel - and probably because of where we live, maybe not so much so with 45 other people on a bus on a tour. I think we have a couple of options here that I will explore further. I need to do some more homework. Right now I am at that ‘making sure this is the right itinerary for next year’ phase in the planning process. It’s booked, but there is another that I am viewing as well. Thank you again.

Are you able to use flight ease to book economy and then use miles to upgrade?

Interesting. I would never have thought of that. Although, often when I am googling a location old TripAdvisor posts populate, so I guess it make sense. Thank you for this. I still wish we could just look under our accounts though! As well as the ports of call for private guide reviews and suggestions. It was really helpful. ‘Thanks for the info about Zada. As you know it is another port I am researching!

Thank you. Sounds like from my research as well, that it is Olympia….or Olympia for the most part. I appreciate your feedback and time. April will likely be a bit chilly for swimming.

I agree with Princeton. You really do need to factor in all costs. Once we did, and we figured out the huge difference in quality on most all levels, we never looked back. We sailed multiple lines in the past that were great at the time, until we found newer ones that were more inclusive and a better fit. We just completed a Seabourn cruise and have taken multiple on Viking. Viking has really jumped in price recently but depending on what is important to you, look at these lines for what is included, figure out how much you might spend in what is included additionally per day and it may help you. I noticed an Oceania itinerary next Spring that seems to check a lot of your boxes. If you can do 14 days there is one called Barcelona to Rome on Marina in May. Good luck

We spent a week on the Amalfi coast years back and explored all that we could, loving every moment. We used the Sita public busses and it worked well and the ferry worked well for Capri. We stayed in a quaint spot near Amalfi/Ravello. We absolutely loved those two places. Also thought Positano was incredible. Quite a walk down and back up, so be prepared for that if you choose to. Sorento does not have that ‘charm’, nor really on the Amalfi coast. Pompeii truly deserves a good amount of time in itself so please consider that in your plans. We have taken the ferry to Capri a couple times while on Naples port stops, but that is because we have seen the other locals and the current crowds. While I agree that Pompeii first is the best bet, it may not be logistically. You do not say how long you are in port? If you do not have a late day, all three would possibly be really rushed when you factor in traffic and driving.

Good morning edinburgher! Yes, we do have similar travel tastes in ports. I just looked at excursion options. No Matera offered. I did a quick Google search and yes, it looks very interesting. And that you did a tour, and actually stuck with it says a lot. So far Lecce, Truli houses, Ostuni, and Aberobello are the only offered. I will keep this in mind if it appears, but I doubt that it will. As always, I appreciate your insights and experience. Thank you.

Beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing. I appreciate all the help you are taking the time to provide me! ‘Good trivia about Zara!

Julie, thank you for these pictures and stories. It truly looks terrific. We love places like this. That is truly a ways up to get to the Church. What a find once you got there though! And cute pup as well!!

Just looked. Nothing before 2/21 ‘Wow. What a shame to loose everyone’s experiences and contacts for guides. That is a real shame. I think CC should have put something out there ahead of time so that people could capture some of that prior to doing this.

Boy. Now I am confused! Thank you both again. I will research all this further. I am just in initial research phase to really be sure this is the right itinerary for us. This is all so helpful

So after reading what you both have shared, I am pretty excited about this port! Thank you both very much!

Thank you! I was wondering if it was just me, but I sure couldn’t find it. Darn. I would sure like to read that. Is it listed under your personal CC account still, or all is wiped out. I haven’t looked at whether my posts pre Covid were wiped. That is strange because there is a lot of valuable information in them - including tour guides - which I found difficult to locate on our just completed Seabourn trip. It used to be fairly easy to find reviews of independent guides. Thank you very much for this information.

Thank you cruisemom42. I always appreciate your insight, knowledge, and feedback. I will look closer at this and see what comes up.

We are on Seabourn with a visiting day of 4/27 Paula

We will be visiting Katakolon for the second time, and while it’s been a number of years, we visited the beautiful ancient site of the Olympics when we were there. I am looking for ideas on a different way to spend that day. If anyone has some experiences they thought were a good way to spend a day I would appreciate knowing any suggestions. Thank you

Awesome information. Again. We will be there late April so heat shouldn’t be a problem, but I suppose rain could. I will look at the walking tour. Thank you. I am over on Seabourn looking for all your recommendations from your trip and so far have not been able to locate. Could you guide me to the approx date where I can find this?

I will do that. We truly enjoy using private guides. Thanks again marazul. I sincerely appreciate it.

So would you say then that Zadar itself is not worth a day of exploring? Some ports do indeed seem to require you to venture off. We are visiting Zadar next year as well.

We are taking Seabourn! Thank you very much for this advice. This is great to know. We truly do not like excursions and so I hesitate on booking any. We booked two on our just completed Seabourn trip and it really confirmed for us we they are not a good fit (one from Vis to Hvar was horrible). So to understand better, we would need to take a bus rather than walk to Monemvasia? I am not sure about even doing a walking tour but if you think it was well worth it I would consider rethinking that. Did it leave you with enough time? I do not want to do the whole walk with a large group, have lunch with them, then have 30-60 min to explore on your own type of thing that always seems to happen. I really appreciate your feedback. I wonder if you were on a similar itinerary to the one we just booked. Our only hesitation to this one is it seems that several of the “new for us” ports are indeed a distance from the true calling of the port stop, and therefore require excursions to enjoy that stop.