Booking HAL EXC tours vs winging it until you book at your port

Good afternoon: I will be traveling solo this summer on the Zuiderdam July 31 - Copenhagen-Copenhagen cruise. I have only been on two cruises before; both with organized tour groups and planned excursions. I was interested in the way people book their shore excursions. Do you mostly rely on HAL excursions; and if so do you book ahead or when you embark? What are the advantages or disadvantages of both? If you book tours with local operators I guess the question would be the same - book ahead or when you arrive at the port? Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice for this relatively novice cruiser.

Good afternoon: I will be traveling solo this summer on the Zuiderdam July 31 - Copenhagen-Copenhagen cruise. I have only been on two cruises before; both with organized tour groups and planned excursions. I was interested in the way people book their shore excursions. Do you mostly rely on HAL excursions; and if so do you book ahead or when you embark? What are the advantages or disadvantages of both? If you book tours with local operators I guess the question would be the same - book ahead or when you arrive at the port? Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice for this relatively novice cruiser.

I preface my response by stating that I have no cruising experience in Europe, only the U.S. west coast, Alaska, the Caribbean, Panama Canal, the South Pacific and Australia.

I usually do a mix of independent and cruise ship tours. If there is something I really, really want to do, I book ahead as far as possible. That applies to independent as well as ship's excursions. Sometimes port excursions are only available through the cruise line, particularly in small ports where there isn't much competition, and the cruise lines contract with the local vendors, essentially rendering independent slots unavailable during the time your ship is in port. Sometimes the ship's excursions may say "sold out" or "wait listed" prior to boarding, but then once on board I have discovered the excursions department has managed to arrange for additional tours with a vendor, and an excursion I thought was not available is now available.

Some ports have tours available on shore when you disembark. I'm thinking of the Caribbean, although my experience there as a cruise ship passenger is limited. But in most cases, I would say plan ahead, especially in ports that cater to lots of tourists. If you join a roll call for your cruise, you may find that some of your fellow passengers are looking for additional people to join them on a private excursion to help defray costs. I have participated that way before on some of my cruises, and I've been able to partake of some very good shore excursions, which was especially helpful when I was travelling solo myself.

I'm sorry I can't speak directly to your Copenhagen-Copenhagen itinerary. Have fun with your planning!

Assuming you are stopping in St Petersburg. You can't leave the ship there without a Visa, either by booking a ship's excursion, a private excursion or getting your own visa, which is expensive and time consuming.

Some research on the Northern Europe board would reveal several ports are very easily done on your own, either by walking or taking public transit. So there may not be a need to book any tour at all. Just takes some research.

Beyond that, for tours, we tend to do about 1/3 ship's, 2/3's private. Just showing up on the dock and hoping to get something is a little hit and miss in Europe. It is not like the Caribbean, where there will be dozens of people pitching their tours.

Then there is booking private with people through your Roll Call, which if I were a single, I would give serious thought to.

Thanks for the good advice. My leg of this cruise does not include St. Petersburg. We are Copenhagen-Ivergordon-Edinburgh-Iceland-Faroe Isl. - Shetland Isl - Copenhagen. I will definitely take a look at the roll call; especially for a couple of these ports. I have been to Edinburgh before and will be just as happy to explore it again on my own.

Thanks for the good advice. My leg of this cruise does not include St. Petersburg. We are Copenhagen-Ivergordon-Edinburgh-Iceland-Faroe Isl. - Shetland Isl - Copenhagen. I will definitely take a look at the roll call; especially for a couple of these ports. I have been to Edinburgh before and will be just as happy to explore it again on my own.

Definitely check out your roll call :). Not only may you find people talking about private tours and setting groups up, etc. But you will have a chance to "connect" and get to know some of the people on your cruise.

There are a number of very good private tour operators In Europe.

And, if you pefer a bus type tour with the ship, that can be done as well. But, in my experience good guides and good tours can sell out so we book early.

If possible, we like to rent a car and do our own thing. I usually have to do a fair amount of research prior to the cruise. Car rental reservations, places we would like to see, etc. The advantage, for us, is if we stop at a place we really like we can stay a lot longer than if we our on a tour. Not to mention all the places we’ve seen that we didn’t plan on seeing. That has been a real treat! The downside is if we have a problem and miss the ship it’s on us. This hasn’t happened yet, not even close.

We’ve have taken public transportation in foreign countries, that’s been real interesting too. I do like winging it. Other people I’ve traveled with, not so much sometimes.[emoji6] Makes for interesting dinner conversations.

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I've been cruising solo for a lot of years now, and I have learned that going solo is a lot different from going with a spouse or friends, as I have done both.

Since bad things can happen to good people, I like to be on a tour where someone will notice if I am missing, or having a medical emergency---and get help. That means I generally take HAL tours when I am alone.

When I do book HAL tours I book in advance, as much as possible. Once I make my decisions, I'm done with that and don't revisit unless the tour is canceled. I do check with the Shore Excursion Office upon embarkation just to be sure the tour is suitable for me.

When I'm with friends there are times we take a private tour, and go off together. But I'm still not alone, which is security I want. We are in general agreement as to what we want to do, amount of time we want to be gone, and are cooperative about making adjustments to the plans, when warranted.

Those tours are always planned in advance. Only once did we pick up something on the pier---in Gibraltar.

I suggest you consider your own needs, and see what will best meet them. In Europe there won't be much available at the pier. In Shetland Islands and Faroes there isn't much, other than walking around, that you can do without a HAL tour. They just don't have the infrastructure for that.

I try to avoid booking the Holland tours as much as possible. That doesn't mean I never take their tours, it means that I look at other options first. I did the 55 day Grand Med in 2016 and booked zero Holland tours. Instead, I was able to join several private tours through the roll call, share taxi tours with other passengers, or go exploring on my own. In some parts of the world, like South America or Africa, I take the Holland tours for security. The cost savings are obviously an important factor in arranging your own touring, but there is also the benefit of traveling in a smaller group with faster loading and unloading of the tour vehicle.

Thanks for the good advice. My leg of this cruise does not include St. Petersburg. We are Copenhagen-Ivergordon-Edinburgh-Iceland-Faroe Isl. - Shetland Isl - Copenhagen. I will definitely take a look at the roll call; especially for a couple of these ports. I have been to Edinburgh before and will be just as happy to explore it again on my own.

Online research and our own experience:

-Invergordon - you may want a tour here - it is a remote port.

-Shetland- you can do on your own

-Edinburgh - you can do on your own - learn how to get to the city train station into the city itself from the ship's remote docking pier - it is uphill from the tender pier, Scottish trains from the central station can take you to other interesting areas outside of Edinburgh in a short time

-Copenhagen - has special busses from the dock into a main public transit transfer station on cruise ship days - dock is far out of town

-Faroe island - sorry, have not gotten there but it looks pretty much like the Shetlands - lots of sheep farms and very small towns

-If Iceland means Reyjavik, then you can also walk into town and explore on your own, but you miss a lot of the interesting countryside not going on a more comprehensive tour,

We only ever do HAL excursions. I like the ease of having all the research, work, and contact with operators done for me. And especially the security of knowing that if something goes wrong, it's up to HAL and the tour company to make sure we get back to the ship, including any transportation or overnight accomodation. Others here will disagree, but it's my money and my choice; others are happy to do what makes the most sense to them.

That said, if there is not a shore excursion posted online that appeals to me, I will wait until we get on board, as sometimes there are other options available once on board. But if there is no excursion that appeals to me, I'll explore what's within walking distance from the port, making sure I'm back on board at least an hour before all-aboard time (I am very nervous about missing the ship and I really like to watch them bring the tenders home or the port-side activity at sail-away). If there is nothing really within walking distance or no shuttles offered, I'll just spend the day on the ship. There is usually something going on on the port worth watching (painting, loading supplies, inspections, etc.) and the ship is usually quiet during the day, so it's easy to find places to sit and relax with my iPod and a book.

We seldom to never take any HAL excursion except in the very rare case where the excursion does something we want to do and cannot possibly do any other way. Otherwise, our norm is to simply do our own thing using public transit, rental car, taxis, and our legs. If we feel the need for a tour we will look online for a decent small group private tour (often arranged with others on the CC Roll Call board for our cruise). With Northern Europe itineraries everything we do is pretty much DIY except if in St Petersburg where we book private tours with either TJ Tours or Alla.

Why don't we like cruise line excursions? Because you are usually packed into a large tour bus with 60 other cruisers and led around like cattle. You get a rest stop when they say, you eat when and where they say, you have to listen to what they say, etc. And at most stops you will likely cool your heels as there is always 1 or 2 who move at their own pace and totally ignore the schedule. We simply prefer to do what we want, when we want, as long as we want, with who we want! When we want a long lunch at a pub in Edinburgh I do not want to be concerned about being back on the bus at a specific time. And we certainly do not want to be stuck in some banquet room having a pre-set lunch with 60+ others.

Hank

Thank you ellieanne, we agree with you, we too like the peace of mind with Hal tours. We have taken quite few tours with and have enjoyed them. Sometimes the vehicles or guides have not been the greatest, but the experience has usually been good and enjoyable.

Thank you ellieanne, we agree with you, we too like the peace of mind with Hal tours. We have taken quite few tours with and have enjoyed them. Sometimes the vehicles or guides have not been the greatest, but the experience has usually been good and enjoyable.

In all my cruises, I have really only had one very bad HAL excursion and that was down to the tour guide. It was a walk through a nature park and the tour guide was a competitive walker and ran the tour as if everyone else was as well -- over uneven terrain on a drippy grey day. My father realized early on it was not going to be a good tour for him, so he stayed at the bench near the entrance to the park. But another older gentleman on the tour preserved and when he tripped over a root the tour guide did nothing! The rest of us had to race to catch up with her and make her tend to the gentleman.

When we complained to the Shore Excursions desk, we got a 50% refund on out tickets and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. I do not know what the gentleman who fell got, but I know he was complaining about the tour guide.

I know many posters here prefer to arrange independent tours and that's great, but some can get quite vocal about it and belittle others who choose to take advantage of the cruise ship's offerings. It's great that there are so many options for everyone, can't we just allow others to make their own choices?

Just wanted to give my perspective as another solo (female) traveler -- I like to see ports independently rather than on ship tours, but you can't always count on having tour agents waiting at the ports in Europe. I find it's better to plan ahead and figure out exactly what I'm going to do.

My first choice is generally to use public transportation and get around on my own wherever possible. If that's not an option, I'll research private tour options. My last and least favorite option is to take a ship tour.

In the countries you're visiting almost everyone speaks very good English, making it a lot easier to get around on your own. Also, the ports themselves are pretty safe; not a lot of crime against tourists.

If you do decide you'd rather do one of the ship's tour in a particular port, I'd advise booking the tour sooner rather than later -- sometimes it is easy for the ship to simply add more buses to accommodate volume, but sometimes popular tours with limited capacity do get sold out.

Our decision as to whether to do a ship's tour or a private tour depends on distance. In Cartegena, Columbia the city was very close to the port. We did a wonderful private tour there that was arranged on our roll call. On the other hand, with Rome being very far from the port, we did a ship's tour. Sure enough, we were late getting back but we never worried because we did the tour thru the ship.

We usually find that private tour companies do almost identical tours to what the ship is offering but usually at a cheaper price. So for us, we let distance be the decider.

Helen

Thanks so much for all your wonderful suggestions. So far, it looks like I will be doing a mixture of tours - Edinburgh (where I have been before I will on my own) and my own for my second day in Reykjavik. I want to take a local walking tour and also explore museums, stores, etc independently. I have booked a couple of HAL tours also where it seemed nothing appealing was available locally. Also a few local companies in a couple of the ports. I am stumped for Invergordon (Inverness). Not many local companies running their tours that day for cruise passengers for some reason. I am thinking they could be booked up by other groups since it is the beginning of the Fringe Festival I have been to that region before and many of the HAL tours include places I have already seen. I think I will post on the HAL roll call for any suggestions. Thanks again for your input.

Oops - re: my previous post. The Fringe Festival is in Edinburgh not Inverness! Inverness companies may be busy but that is probably not the reason - Ha!