Private tours vs. Oceania excursions

[lidge]

First time going on Oceania to Mediterranean. (Barcelona to Athens). Interested in views on finding private tours (not through Oceania) or using their programs. Any thoughts?

[Mura]

There are plenty of threads on this subject if you do a search. Many of us prefer private tours which tend to be with smaller groups for a lesser fee. O's tours are on the expensive side. (Many would say vastly overpriced.)

 

People who want the safety of a ship's tour obviously will opt for that.

 

DH and I tend to do some of each. I prefer private tours but we've generally had good experiences with O's tours (other than the cost).

 

Mura

[lidge]

That's what we are considering as well. Good to know Oceania's tours are decent. Do you suggest any specific private tour companies?

[Mura]

Many of us probably will have recommendations for you but we'd need to know your itinerary.

[RJB]

Been a while since we were on an Oceania tour. All have been private.. Much better as they are in very small groups and cost a lot less money. That said, when we went on their tours they were pretty good. For next summer we will again be back on some O tours since they will be included. Will write a review of them when we get back. :):)

[buggins0402]

You can also join your cruise's roll call and see if anyone has set up a private tour that you can join. The tours set up by roll call members tend to be smaller groups. Look for the link on the Oceania page for the roll call forums.

 

To screen potential tours another great CC resource is the Ports of Call boards. Here is the link to the European Ports of Call:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

 

A wonderful book that might assist you in determining what you want to do in each port is Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports. He does a great job outlining the options in many of the ports frequented by the cruise ships.

[TERRIER1]

Tripadvisor also has reviews of excursions and tour guides. You can also post on the specific port on Cruise Critic and ask for suggestions.

[bitob]

Also look on previous roll calls for the same itinerary

[lidge]

Here are the ports I'm interested in taking a private tour: Marseille, Sicily (incl. Mt. Etna) and Florence/Pisa. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've started looking on group tours as well as private tours. Very excited to have found this site as there are many great details.

[kreastman]

For Florence, highly recommend Guido Bandinelli of Guido's Tours http://http://www.guidos-tours.com/contacts.html We spent several days touring Florence and Tuscany with Guido and couldn't have been happier. Highly rated on TripAdvisor, also.

[kazu]

Here are the ports I'm interested in taking a private tour: Marseille, Sicily (incl. Mt. Etna) and Florence/Pisa. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've started looking on group tours as well as private tours. Very excited to have found this site as there are many great details.

 

 

For Forence we used Rome in Limo - a huge thread on them on the ports boards.

 

For Marseilles, we used Marseille Greeters. You will find them on trip advisor. Volunteers, free other than a Donation + tip if you are so inclined. We had a fabulous day savouring the flavour of Marseille.

Edited January 30, 2016 by kazu

[TERRIER1]

Here are the ports I'm interested in taking a private tour: Marseille, Sicily (incl. Mt. Etna) and Florence/Pisa. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've started looking on group tours as well as private tours. Very excited to have found this site as there are many great details.

 

 

I just booked Provence Connections for Marseilles for our cruise in April. They have private as well a some group tours if you can't get your own group together. We took the train to Pisa and then onto Lucca when docked in Livorno.

[excited cruise traveler]

We have taken both options, but one word of caution: We stay away from all-day excursions just in case something goes wrong and you do not get back in time f. the sailing. Shorter tours are o.k. We have seen the ship sail w/o guests, they can only wait so long.

[Pet Nit Noy]

For Forence we used Rome in Limo - a huge thread on them on the ports boards.

 

To the OP,

 

You'll need to figure out what you want in the way of a tour. Do you primarily want transportation? want transportation with a bit of local color and some information delivered en route to a site? want both transportation and thorough information at the site itself?

 

The answer to these questions will determine what to look for in a tour company. In Italy, guides are licensed as drivers OR as tour guides, but not both. Here's the language from Rome in Limo's own web site, specifically from their shore excursion page for the port of Livorno: " RomeInLimo offers the flexibility to mix and match tours, allowing you to choose the best options to suit your needs. Whether you are only interested in our luxury vehicles, tour guides, or both, we are happy to oblige."

[arima22]

The ports section of Cruise Critic was mentioned above- It is "Ports of Call" and here is the section for Europe ports: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

 

Trip Advisor is also very good- look up the port or city and look for listing of tour operators under "things to do."

[riandei]

Here are the ports I'm interested in taking a private tour: Marseille, Sicily (incl. Mt. Etna) and Florence/Pisa. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've started looking on group tours as well as private tours. Very excited to have found this site as there are many great details.

 

We are on the same sailing and are looking for some private tours as well

 

are you on the roll call ???

[lidge]

we have posted 2 semi private tours on the roll call with the April 25th date (I don't know why this particular cruise ended up with a bunch of incorrect debarkation dates but that's the correct one for this sailing). So far we are 4 guests for the Taormina/Mt. Etna tour (Sicily) and 2 for Pisa/Florence. You can find these tours through http://isdsharingtours.com. Hope one or both work for you.

[LHT28]

we have posted 2 semi private tours on the roll call with the April 25th date (I don't know why this particular cruise ended up with a bunch of incorrect debarkation dates but that's the correct one for this sailing).

 

 

You need to post tour sharing requests in your Roll Call

If you are on the Apr 25 Riviera sailing here is the roll call (not sure)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2188090

or

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2308045

 

do not start another roll call

Maybe you are confused because there could be a Grand voyage that starts

earlier & combines the 2 cruises

then to complicate matters the itineraries were changed to avoid Turkey

Edited February 23, 2016 by LHT28

[riandei]

we have posted 2 semi private tours on the roll call with the April 25th date (I don't know why this particular cruise ended up with a bunch of incorrect debarkation dates but that's the correct one for this sailing). So far we are 4 guests for the Taormina/Mt. Etna tour (Sicily) and 2 for Pisa/Florence. You can find these tours through http://isdsharingtours.com. Hope one or both work for you.

 

thank you

 

 

I think we will be joining your taormina group ...not sure what we will do in Florence ...we were in Pisa 2 years ago

[lidge]

Yes, I've posted Group Toran tours on both the April 22 and April 25 roll calls but with all the different roll calls, I thought I'd mention it here. It's too bad there's so much confusion about the sailing date. Not going to Turkey doesn't affect the April 25 sailing date so not sure what's happened that there are so many. But nice to know there are a bunch of tours and guests ready to enjoy this fabulous itinerary. We're both getting very excited.