Excursions- Splendour of The Seas Sailing 26th 2011 fm Venice

[dragonflylt]

To all of you experts in cruising... Please help! I am taking my first cruise in 8 days...I only have 3 more days to choose the shore excursions and my head is spinning. I am traveling with a friend thus doing things on my own might be ok... but not sure which of these locations are conducive to do things on our own vs. exursions. Our ojective is to visit the "must-sees" but keeping a budget is critical. Are there any Must Do excursion that it will be impossible to do on our own? I welcome any suggestions! Really appreciate it...The ports of call are: Venice, Kotor (Montenegro), Athens, Ephesus, Bodrum, Santorini, Mykonos, Split Croatia, Venice.

[Madzulu]

We have just returned from doing the same itinerary. It was an amazing cruise and the ports are fantastic. I plan on doing a more detailed review later but hopefully my observations may help you in deciding.

 

Kotor - very easy to do on your own. We tendered and the drop off area is less than 5 minutes walk into the old city. The highlight is the sail into Kotor it is beautiful so make sure you are out on deck early to get the best vantage points.

 

Athens - very easy to do on your own either by hiring a taxi or taking the metro from Pirreus

[Madzulu]

Ephesus - taxi's readily available. I'm not personally religious but the House of Virgin Mary was very special and easy to combine with Ephesus

 

Bodrum - Our highlight - blue voyage. Tried booking private excursion but timings didn't work out so did ship excursion - highly recommended if you like swimming and beach time.

 

Santorini - unless you plan on traveling further afield the cable car brings you into the capital city directly. Queues for the cable car very long so allow plenty of time for return.

 

Mykanos - ideal for wandering around on your own. We took a ship excursion to Elia Beach - Very windy so not ideal as a beach day. Others used local bus or rented scooters and had a great time. I'd wait until the day to check weather before deciding if you want to venture further afield.

 

Split - wonderful old town, palace a must see. Not necessary for excursion as about 15 minute walk from the dock.

 

If you have any specific questions I'll try to help where I can.

[tahqa]

I would recommend doing Santorini on your own. Take the cable car or donkeys up to Fira and wander around to the back of the town to the taxi stand. From there take a taxi to Oia (was $25 euro one way last November). You can easily spend a couple of hours exploring Oia on foot. We had a wonderful lunch in a rooftop cafe that overlooked the bay. When you're done take a taxi (or bus) back to Fira and ride the donkeys back down.