Samba Serenade Feb 2011 - Insignia Port questions

[ldtc2]

Hi,

We are taking the Insignia in Feb 2011 from Buenos Aires to Rio – I will post this on roll call.

In all the years of cruising – we have found that there is always a guy outside the ship to take you where you want to go – at a semi – prefixed price . Does anyone happen to know if this is true of this cruise?

Need to know if you can walk from the docks in these places or do you need transportation to get to the downtown or areas of interest.

Your help would be greatly appreciated -

Montevideo –

Rio Grande, Brazil

Punte Del Este?

Porto Bella

San Paulo – ( Santos)-

Parati

Ilha Grande

Buzios

Many thanks in advance.

LDTC2

[MightyQuinn]

Need to know if you can walk from the docks in these places or do you need transportation to get to the downtown or areas of interest. Your help would be greatly appreciated

Our SA cruise went to different ports than yours so I can only help on Montevideo. Downtown is a long walk or a short taxi ride away. There were taxis available outside the cruise pier, some were pre-hired for standard 2-3 hr city tours while others were available for hourly hire. There were also "free" shuttles to downtown, sponsored by local leather shops. Mercado Puerto, the large public market, is walkable from where the ship docks.

 

Check out the South America forum for info on the other ports. If you do a search there, you should have many hits. And there are SA resident experts over there who are quite helpful.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=76

[dwelsh]

We did the cruise a couple of years back and can give these guidelines of a few ports>

 

In Montevideo we took picked up a tour on the dockside for a small group of CCr's. It was a Sunday so there was not much action in the city but the sights of this 18th century colonial capital were quite interesting.

 

Punta del Este is a very nice and modern city. We just did a little leather shopping and then went to a very modern artist's "castle" a little way from the city. That was a great experience, Carlos Villana was the artists name. A very worthwhile trip if you are into modern art.

 

We did not go to Sao Paulo from Santos. Again picked up a taxi at dockside and enjoyed visiting the old city, coffee exchange, a very nice botanic garden and aquarium.

 

In Buzios, the ship anchored and we took a walk around the small city and enjoyed its market place and then a taxi ride around the island to look at the fabulous homes and wonderful seascapes.

 

On board the Insignia were representatives of a couple of jewelery companies and they offered tours in Rio if you visited their showrooms. They have a exquisite collection of precious stones which are worth seeing. They did not try and pressure us into buying but we were sorely tempted!!! Their city tours were very nice in a/c limos!!

 

Isla Grande was IMHO a waste of time. It is in the middle of nowhere!! A group of local kids came to the dockside and provided us with music and dancing in their colorful local costumes. Why the cruise stops there is a mystery to us.

 

Have a great trip.

[ldtc2]

Thanks much

[geologygeek]

We did this itinerary in December 2009 - we visited some different ports. Here are my tips for you;

 

Montevideo – yep easy walk to Mercado del Puerto (a must for lunch and medio y medio - a bit of an acquired taste), the free shuttle to Casa de Mario (the leather shop) is still a few blocks walk to the city centre (you might feel unsafe if you are there on the weekend/not used to South America).

 

Rio Grande, Brazil - new port this year - I think it doesn't get a good rap - see people's reviews/posts about Insignia's cruises this year.

 

Punte Del Este - fantastic - we walked into La Mano en la Arena (Hand in the Sand) sculpture in about 30 minutes - nice bar to have a drink at just there overlooking the beach. Then across the road you can get a bus for a few pesos to the turn-off for Casapueblo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casapueblo) - very cool and a nice spot for lunch in the bottom of the hotel. Probably a 20-30 minute walk from the bus stop past some very fancy houses with nice views (very safe).

 

Porto Bella - again new port.

 

San Paulo – ( Santos)- hummmmm what can I saw about Santos? We didn't go to Sao Paolo from there - rumour had it that the tour spent most of the time in traffic, then the schedule was altered because the majority of people wanted to shop :rolleyes:. We banded together with some people and for 20 US we had a four hour tour - we went to the fish market, had a stroll on the beach, went to the aquarium (free for oldies!) and the coffee museum (that expresso was super strong). Not the most organised port, especially if there are two 3000+ pax Costa ships alongside with you trying to disembark.

 

Parati - it was raining so we caught the bus to the cachaca distillery outside of town (20 minutes or so), then had a look over the road at the toboggan waterfall/slide (but left it to the locals!). Other than that did our own walking tour of the town and drank coffee/ate ice cream. There could be some nice beach trips from here if the weather was nice.

 

Ilha Grande - we walked from town (Vila de Abraao) for about three hours to Praia Lopes Mendes (beautiful beach). We caught a boat back because the path was pretty slippery and there wasn't much wildlife. Don't listen to the people that knock this port! You could organise a boat tour right at the tender jetty.

 

Buzios - missed out on Buzios, still annoyed about this.

 

I suggest you go into a book shop and have a quick read about the ports in the Lonely Planet/Rough Guide/Fodors and see what tickles your fancy. Good luck and enjoy - make sure in Rio you have a few capirinhas/capiroskas at the huts next to Copacabana - great place to watch people play footvolley (some awesome moves).

[RetiredFL]

See my review in a previous thread on Samba Serenade a week or so ago.