Shore excursions

[mikemari]

:cool: I need your advice regarding tours at the following stops by WindStar from Lisbon to Rome -4/30 to 5/10.

 

Tangier, Malaga, Mallorca, Ibiza, Bonifacio (Corsica), and Portofierro (Elba).

 

Does anyone have good/bad experiences to share?

[MGC]

I'll be watching this thread. I'll be on an Oct sailing Barcelona to Lisbon and stopping at some of the same ports. I hope you post about this when you return!

[Joanandjoe]

We did B2B cruises last November from Nice to Barcelona and Barcelona to Lisbon, so we were in about half of these ports. One thing to beware of on all tours: although the buses have bathrooms, they are kept locked. That's a problem on long bus tours.

 

Tangier. Go on your own only if you are very adventurous and confident. A British couple with us hired a driver for the day and had a great time; but for us, the city was too strange for us to go on our own. We did the "White Dove of Tetouan" tour and it was wonderfully exotic. We had three guides - one at the front doing the talking, on at the back, and one top keep away beggars. Unreal! Joan bought a caftan at a store and another on the pier. A pushy vendor came right onto the bus and sold Joe a belt. The crafts and casbah were fascinating, the "Arabic WCs" primitive (2 footrests and a hole, no seat). OK for Joe, not usable by Joan.

 

Malaga. Most people on the Wind Surf took the Alhambra tour. An exhausting day, but they seemed to enjoy it. Only about 10 of us took Tapas in Malaga, and we loved it. Who wouldn't love three stops for wine or beer (hic!), plus the specialty of the house tapas (small snack). We were in Malaga overnight, so we also took a self-guided (no tour) walk through the old quarter and the cathedral. This city is under-rated: you could have a lot of fun without a tour. The big ships stop at a crummy part of town; but the Wind Surf stopped at the old port, and it was lovely. We even had a carnival set up next to the ship!

 

Mallorca. Palma was surprisingly cold in November, and it may be so in April, so dress in layers if it isn't a warm day. We took the Chopin tour, and it was terrific. Be sure to get off the bus when they offer to drop you back in town (Palma). Only minus: there was no Windstar shuttle back to the ship from Palma, so it's either a long walk or a taxi ride. Hopefully Windstar now provides a shuttle in Palma, as they did for us in Portimao, Portugal.

 

Ibiza. Your experience in Ibiza will probably be very different from ours, since we were there by day, while you'll be there from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. Enjoy the nightclubs - they were closed during our daytime visit. I don't think you need to take one of the tours, unless you want to see the salt industry at Ses Salines. It will probably be too cold for the beach, you'll be there on a Thursday so no Hippie market, and you can go to the d'Alt Villa on your own. That's what we did. A steep walk, but we managed to hit everything on the tour without needing a guide. Best parts for us were the archaeological museum and the old instruments museum inside the cathedral (next to the archaeological museum.) Now we know the difference between a viola and a viola de gamba! Don't forget to see some of the pretty modern part of the city, just for contrast.

 

Bonafacio and Elba were not on our itinerary, so we can't help you.

 

For MGC we'll add a comment on Portimao. As noted above, there's a shuttle that take you into town and to the beach. Why bother with an excursion? Anyway, by the next to last day of the cruise you'll be tired of ship excursions. If it's warm enough, spend some beach time (Visit the beach even if it's cold out - it's wide and beautiful, and unlike most other beaches in that there are weird rock formations right on the beach - an Algarve characteristic), then go into town. Go to the grocery near the dropoff point and buy some marzipan, maybe some port (or do that in Lisbon if you're not going straight home), and other goodies. Go back into town, eat an ice cream in the main square, then follow the ship's directions to the shopping area. A great way to spend the last day of your cruise!

 

Lisbon. If you can swing it, try to spend some time in this great city. Ditto Barcelona. For Barcelona, look up the architecht "gaudi" in a book or web site, and decide if you like or hate his architecture. Base your time in Barcelona on that feeling, since his buildings are all over the place. If you love Picasso or Miro, don't miss their museums.

[mikemari]

MGC and Joanandjoe, Thanx for the input. I'll post comments when we return in May. Sounds like Tangier will be very different. We plan to fly into Lisbon on 4/29 so we'll have a day there for catching up on sleep and sightseeing per your advice. We'll have about half a day on the 30th before we need to get our things to the ship for boarding. We also plan a couple of days in Rome after we disembark on 5/10 to do more sightseeing assuming all the crowds there now have gone home.

[MGC]

Mikemari - just wondering how you made out with shore excursions. Please post! Thanks!

[mikemari]

We returned from Rome 5/12. The Windstar cruise from Lisbon ended there 5/10.

We left Lisbon a day late since the ship was late in completing its maintenance, blamed on the contractor. Windstar put us all up at the Marriott, fed us very well, and then bussed back to the dock on 5/1. We signed up for private auto tour of Lisbon that was really good. Windstar refunded 10% of our cruise fare since we were unable to take the time to see Tangier.

Instead we sailed to Malaga. We took the Tapas tour there which took us up to the Moorish fortress overlooking the city. We then were driven into the city for a walking tour of three cafes where we enjoyed a sampling of different foods and wines. Very pleasant and nourishing!

We then sailed for a day to Ibiza. We didn't take an organized tour but walked around in the town exploring (unintentionally) the gay and lesbian district and then thru the narrow car-less streets for window shopping and a soda. Many stores were closed for siesta from about 1:00 to 4:30 pm. This was true all over the trip. Some shops stayed open though as did the cafes. The streets were all cobblestone and will play havoc with feet after awhile. I wasn't very impressed with Ibeza but might have liked it more on a tour.

 

We then sailed into Palma de Mallorca. That was impressive. The town is quite upscale. We joined another couple from the ship to share a taxi tour for 90 euros. That took us up to the fortress on the heights, then the Peublo Espanol which shouldn't be missed. It is an enclosed Spanish town with a great variety of architecture and scenes. We then drove thru some extremely narrow streets to the humungous cathedral. Our friends went in but we stayed outside to look around and rest. I understand that the cathedral in sides are quite impressive. I enjoyed Palma but beware, taxis that you'd like to take from the pier to the town don't want to run shuttle services. They really want to take tours.

 

Another sea day, this time in strong winds and rolling seas. It was eerie looking out our portholes and seeing the ocean washing over them. It was like looking into a clothes washer running out our window.

 

The winds were so strong that our ship couldn't moor in Bonifacio, Corsica. Instead we sailed to PortoVecchio, about 15 miles away up the east coast. We took a very nice bus tour up into the mountains. The tour lasted 5 hours, went up very narrow, mountainous roads and down the other side. Cafes were closed for siesta but if we bought something to drink, we could use the restroom. The bus had one but it was broken. Corsica still seems like it is still waging a guerilla war on the Germans as in WW2. Our guide was French (as is Corsica) but was very informative. We enjoyed the tour. Others went by bus to Bonafacio for shopping/sightseeing.

 

Finally we sailed to Elba. I needed to find an ATM machine since nobody accepts dollar denominated travelers checks or dollars. I found one ok. My wife went window shopping. We didn't take the tour which was heavily oriented to Napolian.

 

As we sailed from Elba, I got some nice photos of it. We landed in Civitaveccia the following morning and after a very efficient offloading got the privilege of paying 160 euros for a cab ride to the Holiday Inn Parco de Medici.

Everything in Rome is crowded, noisy, and expensive. Cars and motorbikes are everywhere. Schoolkids on tour were always underfoot. We took a tour but didn't see the Sistine Chapel which closed at 4pm. The city and its airport are ZOOS!

 

I took some 67 pictures which I'll send to anyone who asks and has the time to download 6600 kbs. Contact me by e-mail. mikemari@msn.com.

 

:)