Excursions on your own in the Mediterranean.

[TERRIER1]

We booked a private tour in Marseille with two other couples. It was excellent. We went to Aix and up and down the coast to Cassis and Cap Caneille and finished in Marseille. We were in port from 10:30 to 8 pm. Tour was with http://www.provence-connection-tours.com

 

We are not fans of Monte Carlo so we head out on our own. We have taken the bus and or train to places on the coast. We have been to Eze, Nice and Cap Ferrat which has wonderful gardens. You can also go the other direction to Menton.

 

Livorno is good for jumping off to other places. There is an express train to Florence. You can also take the train to Pisa and and combine the journey with Lucca. Walking around Livorno outside the port is also nice if you are not up to anything else.

 

Kotor is lovely to walk around in the Old Town. If energetic you can climb to the church and fortress. We have also taken the bus to Perast and had lunch. Last time we took a private tour with an excellent young man and went down the coast and up the mountain.

 

Dubrovnik is lovely for strolling and hiking the walls. We have also taken the ferry down to Cavtat. This works well when Dubrovnik is mobbed in the morning with cruise ships. By the time you return to the city it is quiet and strolling is easier. Cavtat is lovely.

 

Venice is definitely a DIY. If it is your first time then just see the major sites. If you have extra time, then consider buying a 24 hour vaporetto pass for the day and island hop to Murano, Burano and the Cemetery. Rick Steves has a very good chapter on which vaporetto and the path to take.

[pinotlover]

We have an October O cruise from Athens to Rome. Just completed booking all private tours. No more O tours for us! More expansive, less money, less problematic .

[Paulchili]

As always - different strokes for different folks.

We always take O Life as we think it offers value and our choice with O Life is to take the included excursions (whatever number are included). It's the only choice that makes sense for us as we don't drink and don't need any extra OBC. So we wind up with some included O excursions (which we don't mind) and then either spend some OBC for other excursions or arrange our own. The choice for non included excursions depends on what O offers, the location and availability of private tours.

[ITGuyMD]

DW and I just got back from a Mediterranean cruise on Oceania and did 3 of the same ports OP will be visiting:

 

Marseille - We did a long O excursion to Aix-En-Provence and then a quick Marseille bus tour to the Cathedral Notre Dame De La Garde. Aix-en-Provence was wonderful and well worth it, about 2 hours of walking to see the town and a few churches, time to spend in 2 beautiful open air markets (one crafts, one food), then 2 hours to lunch and shop. The bus took us next on a harrowing path through the streets of Marseille to the Cathedral which overlooks the port. Talk about some insane driving and traffic, but somehow we made it in a bus. We spent about 1.5 hours there, pretty views of the city, but the Cathedral itself was not that spectacular and did not allow photography inside from what I remember. We then had the option of spending about 30 mins (4:30pm) in the main harbor downtown, or telling our tour guide we would make our own arrangements back to the ship. We spent another hour or so shopping the street vendors, visiting the big indoor mall complex, and eating various snacks/treats. If we didn't ditch the bus and stay longer, I never would have discovered Cassis Sorbet, which is amazing! We then walked back to the old fort/embattlement area of the harbor where Oceania was running a shuttle bus (about 10 minute walk from the Ferris Wheel in the middle of the harbor) and that drove another 10 minutes or so to the ship. It was not a long 45 min ride or ugly container area as one person described.

 

Monte Carlo - Wonderful and tiny city, easily walkable. We tendered in and from where we were dropped off, we were able to walk to the Casino while stopping to snap pictures in about 20 minutes. It is uphill a good portion of the walk, but the weather in Monte Carlo is wonderful and everything is so pretty and well kept. Supercars everywhere and my wife commented that even their construction workers looked like Versace or Prada models. A cardiology center we passed looked like a 5 star hotel. There's some beautiful views overlooking gardens and we got some great pics with Riviera as well. If you want to cab it, I would cab on the way there, then walk downhill on the way back. As for the Grand Casino and Hotel/Café De Paris, I think its worth seeing just for the spectacle and again, the supercars. We had a lovely dejeuner at the Café De Paris that wasn't as expensive as one might expect. The shopping is also worthy for anyone looking into ultra luxury brands, my wife bought a Louis Vuitton Neverfull for considerably cheaper than the US even before the dubious duty-free rebate. We also stayed in port late enough (12am) that many friends we met on the ship went back into town to gamble at the Grand Casino (men need to bring a jacket if they're interested), so if you get dressed up you'll definitely want to cab it. Also, for the very adventurous and spendy, apparently there is a tour that lets you drive supercars for an hour along the Grand Prix course......

 

Livorno- We also booked the Florence/Pisa excursion through O and really enjoyed it. We spent most of the day in Florence walking and sightseeing, Brunelleschi's Duomo, Santa Croce's square, Pontevecchio, then had about 1.5 hours to eat and shop. This was the only city I felt it was really crowded/claustrophobic enough that you had to worry about pickpockets. We left around 2pm, then drove to Pisa where we had an hour to take pictures of the Leaning Tower and the Square of Miracles and to do some shopping. Plenty of time, you just can't go inside the Cathedral or go to the top of the Tower.

 

Overall I was really happy with the O tours. The buses were big, clean, super AC'd (compared to the rest of Europe) and the bus drivers were REALLY professionals. The driver in Marseille for example might as well have been a stunt driver. The only downside is when folks are late, walk slowly, or just flat out ignore meeting times and hold the rest of the group up. Very inconsiderate to make so many wait, but that really only happened once, the 2nd time the guide just left them behind and they had to make their own arrangements. But the upside of the big groups is you have a chance to meet some really cool folks on your ship, which is what happened in our case where we ended up spending a lot of time chatting with some folks we met on the 2nd day.

[Paulchili]

ITGuyMD,

I suppose you can have people arrive late even on a private tour but it is indeed more likely on a large bus with more people.

I applaud the guide who left the late couple behind - I wish they would do it more often.

Just curious - how long did the guide wait before leaving them behind?

[ITGuyMD]

ITGuyMD,

I suppose you can have people arrive late even on a private tour but it is indeed more likely on a large bus with more people.

I applaud the guide who left the late couple behind - I wish they would do it more often.

Just curious - how long did the guide wait before leaving them behind?

Indeed, although I do think in a Private Tour you're generally going to be able to move faster between the different sites especially if there are some folks that tend to straggle from site to site in a big group

 

The guide in Barcelona waited about 5 minutes before he left, it sounded like he alerted Oceania in case they tried to contact the ship. In the end we did hear they made it back to the ship (on their own).

 

Also, a point I should make is that these O tours are not completely rigid, these are professional guides similar to the ones you might hire on a private tour so they will work with you, their main goal is to hit their destinations and keep their headcount from location to location, BUT if you tell them or make arrangements to deviate from the tour and meet at a set location later, they will accommodate you.

 

For example, in Barcelona, we went to Montserrat which is certainly beautiful, but we were set to spend 4.5 hours there including a 2.5 hour lunch break (also for folks who wanted to queue to see the Black Madonna). A woman and her adult daughter had already seen Montserrat and decided that instead of spending more time there, they left after about an hour to go shopping downtown. Apparently they told the guide this and he said to meet them in Columbus Circle at 4:30pm...and somewhat amazingly, we did end up linking up and picking them up on the way back to the ship.

[mexylopez]

Hi, dsmmj,

 

 

 

We'll be on the Sept. 18 cruise and are doing four days before we sail in Barcelona, just like you. (We're flying to Barcelona from Charlotte, so we may even be on the same plane!)

 

 

 

Although we've been to Europe several times, we're new to cruising and excursions. After a lot of research, we've booked private tours of the Cinque Terre (Livorno port) and Rome (Civitacchia port). We have openings for others on these tours - you'd be welcome to join us.

 

 

 

I haven't made plans for Palermo, Kotor or Dubrovnik (all of which sound doable on our own, but we'd be open to ideas/company). We're staying an extra night in Venice as well; I haven't tackled that part of the trip yet!

 

 

 

Feel free to email me at michelle.lecompte321@gmail.com to discuss the possibilities.

 

 

 

Hi! I'm on a different cruise a few days after you and looking at Cinque Terra out of Livorno, are you doing a ship tour or private? If private who did you go with?

 

 

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[LondonTowner]

Oh my, you have so many questions and so many answers. Marsielle is a container ugly port. Marsielle itself is dangerous. Do something with a tour. We went to Provence which is so nice. It takes a whole day to do something there.

 

You must break it down by port. I agree with a lot of the above posters, read Rick Steeves. Then you will know.

 

In Europe some are good and some are bad. If you need to go a long way from the ship, use the ships tours. In some places the traffic is bad and you don't want to miss the ship.

You must have gone to a different Marseille than us. We spent three days in Marseille at the end of March and thoroughly enjoyed it. How you can say the Old Port is an ugly container port, are you sure you were in the correct place, because the one we were in had a large marina with expensive leisure craft. The port is lined by lots of excellent restaurants.

 

What was dangerous? We found everybody very helpful, but if you read the one that gets it so wrong, i.e. Rick Steve's, you are going to have incorrect information.

 

From the Old Port we took a boat to Ile Frioul and had a delicious lunch beside the sea. The return boat ride cost €11. Marseille has an excellent museum and various interesting landmarks which are easy to get to by local bus.

 

It doesn't particularly need an excursion as it is very easy to get around. There is a HOHO bus and Ditto Train. We also found it fairly cheap for the south of France.

[ORV]

You must have gone to a different Marseille than us. We spent three days in Marseille at the end of March and thoroughly enjoyed it. How you can say the Old Port is an ugly container port, are you sure you were in the correct place, because the one we were in had a large marina with expensive leisure craft. The port is lined by lots of excellent restaurants.

 

What was dangerous? We found everybody very helpful, but if you read the one that gets it so wrong, i.e. Rick Steve's, you are going to have incorrect information.

 

From the Old Port we took a boat to Ile Frioul and had a delicious lunch beside the sea. The return boat ride cost €11. Marseille has an excellent museum and various interesting landmarks which are easy to get to by local bus.

 

It doesn't particularly need an excursion as it is very easy to get around. There is a HOHO bus and Ditto Train. We also found it fairly cheap for the south of France.

 

 

Obviously there are multiple cruise ship ports in Marseille. At least two of the three times I've been there we've been in the container port.

[LondonTowner]

But the main area is Vieux Port which is very attractive.

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

are you sure you were in the correct place, because the one we were in had a large marina with expensive leisure craft.

 

 

Obviously there are multiple cruise ship ports in Marseille. At least two of the three times I've been there we've been in the container port.

 

I'm guessing you were docked in Toulon where the larger cruise ships dock. I docked there as well.... about 30-40min to "downtown" Marseille. A visit to Notre Dame and then a couple of hours walking around the main bay (Vieux-Port de Marseille) makes for a gorgeous day.

Edited July 26, 2017 by Hoopster95

[Paulchili]

I'm guessing you were docked in Toulon where the larger cruise ships dock. I docked there as well.... about 30-40min to "downtown" Marseille. A visit to Notre Dame and then a couple of hours walking around the main bay (Vieux-Port de Marseille) makes for a gorgeous day.

 

I don't know about Toulon. Marseille itself has an industrial/container port for larger ships that is away from the "downtown" area or the Old Port.

We are cruising on Marina next year with a scheduled port of Toulon and it is not listed as Marseille (Toulon) like it is the custom for some other similar situations in their itineraries - Rome (Civitavecchia) & Athens (Piraeus).

[ORV]

I'm guessing you were docked in Toulon where the larger cruise ships dock. I docked there as well.... about 30-40min to "downtown" Marseille. A visit to Notre Dame and then a couple of hours walking around the main bay (Vieux-Port de Marseille) makes for a gorgeous day.

 

Nope, not Toulon, been there on another cruise. See what Paul said.