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black sea cruise

j!m

By j!m,
in Other Mediterranean and Black Sea Ports

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Misty1937

Misty1937

Posted
Posted
we are looking for suggestions of "not to be missed" and/or tour companies

in the following ports

nessebur

constanta

odessa

sevastopol

sinop

trabzon

sochi

yalta

 

thanks in advance for suggestions

Hi J!M

 

I can help with Yalta & Odessa but we did not visit the other ports.

 

Yalta I cannot speak highly enough of Sergey, he is an absolute wealth of knowledge. He took us to so many interesting places and even has a special pass to one of the Palaces. He was waiting as promised when we came off the ship and nothing was too much trouble for him.

Odessa we had another wonderful tour with Lena. While you can do Odessa on your own we thought the E123 for 3 hours for 4-8 persons well worth the money as we had all the sites explained to us and were taken to places we would not have found by just walking.

 

I am not sure if I am allowed to give email addresses on here so please feel free to contact me direct on judithklein12@hotmail.com and I will provide you with any further info.

 

Cheers, Misty

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Host Karen

Host Karen

Posted
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I am not sure if I am allowed to give email addresses on here so please feel free to contact me direct on judithklein12@hotmail.com and I will provide you with any further info.

 

Cheers, Misty

 

If a member specifically asks for recommendations, as the OP did, you are free to post contact information here. In fact, we prefer it so that other members may benefit from your experience. If you communicate offline, everyone else misses out.

 

Thanks!

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

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Misty1937

Misty1937

Posted
Posted
If a member specifically asks for recommendations, as the OP did, you are free to post contact information here. In fact, we prefer it so that other members may benefit from your experience. If you communicate offline, everyone else misses out.

 

Thanks!

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

Thank you Karen, since I inadvertantly posted once and had it removed I have been ultra careful not to overstep the line again.

 

I will do a post with the information now.

 

Cheers, Misty

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Misty1937

Misty1937

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We used Sergey in Yalta, we were so impressed with his knowledge and the fact he took us to the Palaces in a different order to the other tours so we were not confronted with large crowds. His price was very reasonable and a fraction of the ships tour. He has a web site http://sergoyalta.at.ua and his email address is *****

 

In Odessa we used lena@empire-tour.net and she was very reasonably priced and excellent too.

 

I hope this is a help to other CC members, I know we were very grateful to find these contacts.

 

Cheers, Misty

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paiagirl

paiagirl

Posted
Posted
we are looking for suggestions of "not to be missed" and/or tour companies

in the following ports

nessebur

constanta

odessa

sevastopol

sinop

trabzon

sochi

yalta

 

thanks in advance for suggestions

 

We were not in Nessebur, but in Varna in Oct. We had Patrick Peneff. patrick@guide-bg.com, www.bulgariaprivateguide.com from an article in a travel magazine and the latest issue of this magazine also has an article about him from a cruiser that he met at Nessebur. He usually does land tours, so we were fortunate to have him available that day to take 4 of us on a tour. It would be wise to book him way ahead of time.

 

Like the above poster, we also used Sergie on Oct. 4 of last month. I got Sergie's name from an article also from the same travel magazine. Our tour was to be 4 to 5 hours but ended with 6 hours. We wanted only about 10 but ended up with 35 cruisers so had 2-18 passsenger vehicles and each went its own way, so it wouldn't be so crowded were we visited, except for the Yusupov Palace.

 

Many of the cruisers went to Bucharest, Romania with NCL. We went into Constanta with a shuttle.

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kruzseeka

kruzseeka

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Can't help with all your ports of call - but can share our experiences of some.

 

Sochi: the Russian Authorities refused landing claiming the sea conditions weren't suitable for tendering. I don't think we were the only ship to have been in this situation but happily, it meant we had a whole day in Yalta instead of a half-day visit. Of course you will either need to make independent arrangements with a tour ooperator or go on a ship's trip here because of visa issues.

 

We thought Yalta was charming - a pretty bay surrounded by mountains and much more geared up to tourists than many of the other places we visited in the Black Sea. The Livadia Palace and (views of) the Swallow's Nest seem to be the main attractions - and are not far away but I'm not sure there is much availability of taxis to hire at the quay-side. One young lady was wandering around offering her boyfriend's services as a taxi driver to take us to these sites. The price she was quoting was more than the ship's trip and I'm not sure that included entry to the Palace - and probably no guided tour! If you want to go the route of an independent trip here I would suggest taking up some of the recommmendations of private operators and not leave it until you get there. The Livadia Palace was very interesting and it was quite a strange feeling to realise you were standing in the very place that Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt had effectively shaped post-war Europe and the rather chilling implications that had for many countries and their citizens in Europe. But don't expect it to be in the mould of Catherine Palace/Peterhof in St Petersburg. It's not ornate nor does it have so many impressive treasures so if you were visiting thinking it was like other of the Czar's palaces, you could be disappointed.

 

If you like to do your own thing - there is a cable car which is great fun (provided you aren't too worried about Health & Safety - it's a bit scary getting on although I think they will stop it if you insist or look helpless! ;) ) and a fabulous little cafe in a courtyard with fountain at the top. The coffees here were very reasonable about 1.50E and there is a great viewing platform to get super views of your ship and the bay. From the harbour you can also get boat trips to the Swallow's Nest - get off then catch the next one back. It obviously drops you at the bottom of the cliff and there is a lot of height to gain (via steps) to get up to the Swallow's Nest. You can't tour the bulding - apparently it's only 5 rooms and it's a restaurant now, but you can walk around the terrace.

 

You can only use local currency so need to exchange money at one of the fairly common money exchange bureaus. The exchange rate was good - the same is true of Sevastopol so save any you have left until you've been to both.

 

Sevastopol is lovely. Easy to do yourself - a clean city with an enormous number of monuments - mainly to commemorate/celebrate their military heroes/past. The 'must see' here is the Panorama - if you're fairly happy to walk this can be done independently - absolutely no need to buy an expensive excursion. We spent about three times as long in there (it is absolutely fascinating and a work of art in more senses than one!) as any of the organised trips as we found there was so much to take in. We also heard several guides' commentaries picking out more information/detail each time which was an added bonus! The cathedral is also worth a visit.

 

Trabzon we had intended to just explore and soak in the culture of the town but found it rather (very) disappointing. They really aren't geared to tourists at all, the route into town is very uphill and not very appealing to say the least. We quickly reviewed our options on arriving in the centre, hurried back to the ship and enquired if there were any spare places left on the tour to the Sumela Monastery. We were lucky as there were and it was a really interesting trip - a lovely ride into the mountains and a really fascinating building. However, this can only be visited on foot by climbing a LOT of steps and negotiating some roughish ground (exposed tree roots) so really should only be attempted by those who are reasonably fit and good on their feet. a young couple on our ship had gone to the ?monastery by taxi - it had cost them more than we paid and we visited the Museum in Trabzon before going to the Monastery. They also had no guide so no benefit of explanations of what they were seeing.

 

It is an area with so much complex history to try to understand :confused: (ours included Istanbul too). We found it very interesting and a fascinating trip. I hope you enjoy your cruise to this part of the world and find some of our experiences helpful.

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kruzseeka

kruzseeka

Posted
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I trust that in each case when you eavesdropped you took a moment to thank the guide and give them a small tip ...

 

But of course! :) Although I struggled with German! However, in such a confined space, it was difficult to ignore what they were saying anyway! ;) My main point was though that there was so much to take in , several groups had come and gone before we felt we'd absorbed enough of the overwhelming atmosphere and scale of the dreadful events. I would have been frustrated to have had to rush. Quite chilling really - so many casualties. It was very moving - and sad.

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kruzseeka

kruzseeka

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Kruzseeka, When you say you can do Sevastapol on your own did you find many people who speak English there? How about in Yalta? Thanks

 

No, we didn't find English spoken much in Sevastopol - one local stopped to chat and obviously wanted to make contact and tell us something of her city - but we didn't understand a word! She was clearly very welcoming though. At the money exchange - they seemd to understand enough to get some currency but as we've found in other Eastern Bloc countries, the 'closed' nature of the previous decades have generated a rather brusque, unsmiling attitude with some (e.g. the attendants in the palaces, museums etc.!) However, we didn't find it a problem. Provided you have a map it was easy to find the Panorama and cathedral and we didn't find it at all threatening. I believe it's possible to catch the tram up to the Panorama but I did hear someone saying what a crush it was on board. (It's a bit uphill to get there, but not too strenuous and takes about 30 minutes.) Do buy your currency before you leave the port area though as I'm not sure there were money exchanges near to the Panorama (could have been, but I don't recall any) but best be on the safe side and make sure you've got some as they won't accept other currencies for entry (or for the rest rooms!!! :o)

 

Yalta seemed much more tourist orientated perhaps because it was the holiday playground of the elite in Russia and therefore used to visitors - Sevastopol being a key naval and submarine base was a restricted area and politically sensitive so probably didn't encourage or even allow freedom of travel around there. In Yalta, there is a lovely promenade area, cafes and tourist flavour to the place, English was a little more common here, but don't expect the majority of the locals to speak English although we did order coffees (waitress there had good English), buy some currency, cable car tickets and ask about the boat service to the Swallow's Nest without any difficulty. We loved Yalta and it did seem more cosmopolitan - and looked rather like the French Riviera.

 

Enjoy your visit, it's a fascinating area. :)

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