Shore Excursion Companies

[amisup]

Our TA recommended shoretrips but when I looked through the  forums, many recommended to avoid using middle man like shoretrips or viator and to book directly with the tour provider. My problem is where do I find these tour providers. I looked on the forum if anyone had compiled a list but couldnt find any. 

Any help is appreciated!

 

[mapleleaves]

If you read past Trip Reports ( listed at the top of the page), you'll find many first-hand recommendations for vendors. 

Also, look in each town's Visitor Guide for a complete listing by activity.  The Guide's are in the town web site:

 

 

 

 

 

[Ashland]

Did you check out your roll call? Also you'll get some excellent recommendations if you post your ports here.

[amisup]

58 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

If you read past Trip Reports ( listed at the top of the page), you'll find many first-hand recommendations for vendors. 

Also, look in each town's Visitor Guide for a complete listing by activity.  The Guide's are in the town web site:

 

 

 

thank you that was really helpful

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

Or just look down the board a bit. Every port is covered in very extensive detail, and private vendors are very commonly mentioned and recommended. All you have to do us look.

[mapleleaves]

and keep in mind that people have different needs/ priorities when it comes to choosing activities/vendors.

ie if they have young kids they need to find out if there is an age/size requirement, OR if they're really into photography they might want a vendor who caters to that skill,  OR if they're prone to motion sickness maybe a small boat for whale watching isn't a good idea because it won't be as stable. 

[amisup]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

Did you check out your roll call? Also you'll get some excellent recommendations if you post your ports here.

yes I checked the roll call. No discussions there.

 

My ports are

- Vancouver

- Ketchikan

-Juneau

- Skagway

- Seward

[CruiserBruce]

Vancouver is not in Alaska, and is covered on the Canada (Pacific) board, and the West Coast Departures board. Otherwise,  your ports are covered in great detail here.

[Budget Queen]

YOU need to figure out what tours,  you want to do,,  THEN find a vendor.   I suggest you read all the ship tour descriptions and narrow down your interests.   Look further at the ones you are most interested in,  then finalize your list.     There can be some ports you want to do 2 tours-    so,  careful planning is essential.   Also with a single tour-  know how you want to time your port day.  

[randr5153]

Take a look at tripadvisor site for each stop. Good place to start a search for shore trip providers

[martincath]

Agree with basically everything above. I'll also add that Shoretrips, Viator etc. rarely bother with much actual *work* in the reselling of other tours. They might recode a tour with their own in-house tour code, but they don't seem to bother retyping the descriptions - just a straight copy & paste from the actual tour provider web page/documentation. So if you find a tour on a reseller site that you like the sound of, literally just copying a sentence or two and pasting it into a Google search usually brings up the original tour - I've never had a problem figuring out who is being re-sold (and if Viator etc. show availability on your date, that also means the cruise line does not have an exclusive booking with whomever is the provider).