Which ports can I explore on my own?

[kj_connections]

I'm visiting Thira, Mykonos, Piraeus and Corfu on the Costa Victoria in November and I'm travelling on a budget so I'm hoping to see as much as I can without having to book an excursion.

 

Which of the ports can I simply get off the ship and walk around and see things?

 

Any ports you highly recommend booking an excursion?

 

Thanks

[cruisemom42]

Well, if you are pretty comfortable with doing things on your own, you can do all of the ports listed above on your own.

 

In Mykonos, if your ship docks you can either walk to town or take a short shuttle ride. Once you reach town it's easy to walk around and explore on your own. If your ship tenders, it's even easier because the tender drops you off right in the middle of town.

 

In Santorini (Thira), your ship will tender passengers to shore. You will then either have to walk, ride a donkey, or take the funicular to the top of the cliff to reach the town of Thira. You can just walk around Thira or (highly recommended) you can take a taxi or bus to Oia, which supposedly is one of the most beautiful towns in the Greek isles. Just leave yourself enough time to get back and down to your ship; the funicular can have quite a long line if there are several ships in port.

 

In Corfu, you can take a taxi or shuttle into town easily. Or you can catch a taxi to one of the nice beaches on the island.

 

Athens (Piraeus) -- if you want to do it yourself here you will need to do a little research, but it's pretty easy. Athens has a good metro system that will take you from the ship to the Acropolis, where there are a number of sights to see. You can then walk to the Plaka (shopping area with lots of restaurants, etc) or you can do more things in Athens like the Archeological museum. Take the green line metro back to Piraeus at the end of the day to catch your ship. (There's a bit of a walk to get to/from the metro in Piraeus and your ship, so again, leave enough time.

 

There you go. You can fill in the details by reading/searching other posts on this board. :)

[Hlitner]

The answer to the OP is that you can do any European port on your own. We have been telling folks that for years and giving them lots of help. But, one important key is that the travelers needs to do some homework. We always encourage cruisers to spend some time at a large local bookstore (such as Borders) browsing through several different tour books such as Rick Steves or Frommers. Its also a good idea to look at all the various excursions offered by your cruise line (you can find this info on the cruise line web sites) so you have a good idea of the possibilities. Than, once you have an idea what you want to do and see, post your questions on Cruise Critic where several folks (including moi) will try to answer your questions and tell you exactly how you can accomplish your goals on your own. We have been traveling, independently, for over 40 years and have probably saved over $100,000 by not generally booking excursions. I suspect we have also seen a lot more of Europe (and Asia) than folks who rely on tours. For some folks, tours are a good idea and tours make a lot of sense for doing certain things that cannot reasonbly be done independently. But for others who enjoy controlling their own port days and seeing what they want, when they want, with who they want, it is hard to beat doing your own thing. Regarding the specific ports cited by the OP, they are all quite easy to do on your own, and at substantial cost savings.

 

Hank

[evgal/nj]

in corfu last yr we rented a car i think it was around $40, we drove around the island really enjoyed it, this was the 1st time we rented a car in a foreign country, dh doesn't think its a good idea, even he loved it, it was our favorite port!!!! i know its a little scary diy, but once you do it you'll feel a lot more confident! i agree with the other posters, read about the ports, search these boards & the wonderful trip reviews, & ask questions. everyone on the boards is very generous with tips & info. for example, we took the public bus,wheelchair & all in the rome port civi...... i can't say it or spell it lol, some one on the board gave step by step directions to the bus station, buying the tickets & what to look for when we reached our destination!!!! i printed it, took it with us & boy it came in handy when dh said are you sure you know where we're going! lol, & had we wanted to take the train someone posted pictures of how to find the train station, talk about travel for dummies, sign me up,lol. hope this helped.

i love these boards.

karen

[cruiser620]

I also rented a car in Corfu, and really enjoyed my time there. I love the freedom of going wherever I want when I want. There were car rentals available when you walked through the port building, but if you need an automatic you have to reserve it in advance because most cars are manuals.

[nparmelee]

We've done all 4 on our own. If we ever get back to Corfu, instead of renting a car and going to Achilion and Paleokstra, we'd probably just take a cab into the old town area and just explore there. From Thira we went to Oia and down to Ammoudi for lunch, had a great time. Our ship tendered us to Delos before we got to Mykonos, so we just wandered the town and had a nice lunch watching the windmills and then tried to get lost in the town again and explored the shops. For Piraeus, we shared a cab to the Acropolis with another couple and after exploring a few hours, we wandered down towards the Platka area, found a nice lunch, did some shopping and took the metro back to Piraeus.