thomson celebration

[vimto]

Hi my husband, our 19 year old daughter and myself are going on the Thomson celebration on 20.08.12 on the Aegean adventure, could anyone give me any tips on what trips to go for, especially in Istanbul, we like to see a bit of history but cannot do a full day of it, and we are unsure of what are the best places of interest to go for. Also any tips on the other ports of call would be very useful we are stopping at Izmir, Mykonos, and Rhodes town. We have cruised on the Island Escape twice before cruising around the med and really enjoyed this as we like an informal ship, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Jenny

[weejenny]

You will find Istanbul easy as you can get a tram about 50-100 yards or so up the road to take you into the centre. Some people walked it but I think it best to save legs for sight seeing.

Very easy city to do on your own with the benefit of being able to return to the ship at 'your' leisure.

[Sailaway487]

Hi my husband, our 19 year old daughter and myself are going on the Thomson celebration on 20.08.12 on the Aegean adventure, could anyone give me any tips on what trips to go for, especially in Istanbul, we like to see a bit of history but cannot do a full day of it, and we are unsure of what are the best places of interest to go for. Also any tips on the other ports of call would be very useful we are stopping at Izmir, Mykonos, and Rhodes town. We have cruised on the Island Escape twice before cruising around the med and really enjoyed this as we like an informal ship, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Jenny

 

For Istanbul, I'd recommend the trip that goes to Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque & Grand Bazaar. These are some of the main highlights of the city, and the good thing about doing it on a trip is that you have slightly easier access in getting into Blue Mosque as you're in a group. Although it is possible to do all of these places by yourselves as they are not too far from where the ship is docked, although you will need to get a taxi or a tram to get there.

 

The main highlight from Izmir is Ephesus. If you've never been here before I'd definitely recommend it. Everyone that goes is always impressed at how much of the ancient city is preserved.

 

If you don't fancy going anywhere in Rhodes Town then the town itself is very nice and is very close to the ship. You can literally just walk off the ship and across the road and you're in the old town. There's plenty of shops, bars and cafes. If you want to go on a trip, Lindos & the Acropolis is a good one to go on.

 

Not done Mykonos myself, but from reading others reports I have read that the tender boats drop you off very near to the main centre of Mykonos Town, so it would be easy to simply get off the ship and have a wonder round.

 

Nearly all of the trips are half day ones. If you haven't already, have a look at this part of the Thomson website. Just click on your ports of call and it's got a list of all the excursions at each one, plus the possibility of booking soon:

 

http://cruiseexcursions.thomson.co.uk/BrowseByCruiseArea.aspx?cruiseAreaId=5

[kruzseeka]

All good advice already - as far as Mykonos goes - there's either a shuttle if you berth close to the centre - or if tendered, you are dropped right in the harbour. In either event, there is absolutely no need to go on a trip - Mykonos is an absolute gem - one of our favoutrite destinations. It's a maze of lovely cobbled streets and just perfect for wandering around and stopping for a drink. i'm sure you'll love it.

 

It's a really interesting and varied itinerary; Istanbul a fantasic city, Ephesus the 'must see' in this area for ancient sites, Rhodes great amosphere to just explore. Izmir is interesting but a bit different - doesn't fit into the same category as Istanbul for historical attractions or spectacle or pretty and characterful like the other destinations. You can walk along the waterfront and there is an up-market bazaar as well as a very cheap local one and some nice open squares and cafes so it's fine for a few hours.

 

And welcome to the forum Jenny. :)

[gunn3rs3]

All good advice already - as far as Mykonos goes - there's either a shuttle if you berth close to the centre - or if tendered, you are dropped right in the harbour. In either event, there is absolutely no need to go on a trip - Mykonos is an absolute gem - one of our favoutrite destinations. It's a maze of lovely cobbled streets and just perfect for wandering around and stopping for a drink. i'm sure you'll love it.

 

It's a really interesting and varied itinerary; Istanbul a fantasic city, Ephesus the 'must see' in this area for ancient sites, Rhodes great amosphere to just explore. Izmir is interesting but a bit different - doesn't fit into the same category as Istanbul for historical attractions or spectacle or pretty and characterful like the other destinations. You can walk along the waterfront and there is an up-market bazaar as well as a very cheap local one and some nice open squares and cafes so it's fine for a few hours.

 

And welcome to the forum Jenny. :)

 

Hi,re Mykonos,just beware the traffic in those very narrow lanes and streets,some of them there are no pavements to get out of the way,apart from that its a lovely place to visit.

[kruzseeka]

Hi,re Mykonos,just beware the traffic in those very narrow lanes and streets,some of them there are no pavements to get out of the way,apart from that its a lovely place to visit.

 

 

Yes - and watch out too if there is torrential rain - the streets act like huge gutters and the water just cascades through! :eek: We took a photo of a family of fellow Thomson passengers who'd been into a local shop and bought some bright green bin bags which they were all wearing over their heads with little holes torn out to see through! It gave us all a great laugh but we still loved the atmosphere in Mykonos even in the pouring rain although of course it does look so much better in the sun! it took us two days to dry our shoes out though!

 

Looking at thes pictures - how could you not love this place? (Opening the doors here for someone to say they hate it! :p )

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mykonos+pictures&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=MTt&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=16M3T_O6EKml0QXq64WxAg&ved=0CEMQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=610

 

The 2nd picture in this set shows you the Harbour - the tender drops you just to the right of this view. You can see how close it is to the iconic windmills and the centre of town - little Venice is the waterfront to the right of the picture below the windmills.

 

I should have said that if the ship berths that is round the bay to the left of the harbour area (you can see the ship from the town) it is advisable to get the shuttle (although I think it's payable) because there is no pavement and not so good for pedestrians. It's not too far to walk - perhaps a mile or so but although we are quite prepared to walk quite a lot we were glad we took the shuttle when we docked at Mykonos. Best is if you tender though (irritations about tendering to one side) as it drops you bang in the middle of where you need to be.

 

Finding these has made me very nostalgic and thinking how much I'd like to go back! Enjoy! :)

[vimto]

Hi

 

thank you so much for your reply, very helpful

[Gelbel]

I always wanted to go to Istanbul and we managed to get there on a cruise on the day of our 20th wedding anniversary. I fell in love with the place. :)

 

The great thing about Istanbul is that the 'Big 3' are next door to each other and you can do it on your own. We only had about 7 hours in port on that visit so we only had time to take in a few places.

 

Get a cab (but you may have to ask several drivers as they'll want to take you on a grand tour rather than a short hop) or take the tram up and I'd recommend the Blue Mosque (even though we only saw the outside although we waited for friends to go inside) and the Hagia Sofia - which we found stunning. Between the two we grabbed a beer at one of the cafes on the square near these venues.

 

We skipped the Topaki Palace as it's so large and spread out - there's lots of parts to it. If I remember rightly you can pay for each part or for various combinations. So this is on the agenda when we go back on the Aegean Adventure we start on 3 September.

 

We then walked back downhill to the port - down through the streets (we felt safe) and over the bridge full of restaurants watching the local life (again stopping for a beer - it was baking even in October). But this time we'll get a cab to the Grand Bazaar - again we missed it before.

 

In September we plan to take the motorboat cruise tour on the 2nd day - to see Istanbul from another view.

 

For the rest of the itinerary we will do our own thing - I'd like to go to Ephesus. but I think it's quite a way from Izmir and I don't fancy being stuck on a coach for a long time.

 

I recommend the Berlitz guide to cruise ports of call. It gives you an idea of how to get about and what to see at each venue. But you can't go far wrong with just wandering where your nose and feet take you if nothing in particular takes your fancy.