What ports in the Med...

[SteelCruisin]

We will be taking our first cruise in the Med this Spring and were wondering which of the following ports will require us to take a shuttle into town... Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Messina and Valletta.... also would a taxi be more affordable for a group of 4....thanks in advance!

[lifeasme123]

Barcelona:  Taxi

Marseille:  Docked in a commercial port.  We negotiated a taxi for 7 people when we got off the ship.

Genoa:  We walked around

Naples:  Taxi, shuttle or inexpensive train ride between port and city

Messina and Valetta:  We walked.

 

Affordable is a subjective term.  🙂

[ISLANDCRUSO]

In Barcelona there is usually a bus that will take you to the bottom of Las Ramblas near the Columbus statue from the port, not sure if you now have to pay for it. Where you get off the bus is a wooden walkway to bars and shops, directly across from the statue is Las Ramblas.

 

Not been to Marseille.

 

Genoa, the ship berths next to the city and as stated above you can walk around it plus there are various museums.

 

Naples, again you can walk to the main areas close by. There are two areas where you can go underground into the old water chambers we did the Napoli Sotterranea details are online for both plus videos on Youtube, there is Pompeii and Herculaneum details also online. We took the train to Pompeii one year.

 

Messina, the ship berths next to the Town which has a number of walkable things to see, the clock bell tower at midday is worth a watch video on Youtube or there will be trips to Taormina.

 

Valetta, you can walk from the port into the city by following the main road for maybe 600 yards, you will find a road to your left which takes you to the Barrakka Lift/Elevator which for a few Euros will take you to the lookout point gun battery where they fire one of the cannons each day at midday video on Youtube. This area overlooks the ships in port, on return to the port there are many bars opposite the ships and all have free wifi for the price of a drink or food.

Edited January 13, 2020 by ISLANDCRUSO

[HappyInVan]

8 hours ago, SteelCruisin said:

We will be taking our first cruise in the Med this Spring and were wondering which of the following ports will require us to take a shuttle into town... Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Messina and Valletta.... also would a taxi be more affordable for a group of 4....thanks in advance!

 

 

Barcelona has the public Blue Bus into the jetty area from Columbus Monument. Very convenient, but will be overwhelmed on disembarkation.  Map picture attached.

 

Marseilles has a public bus service 35T from the Cruise Terminal (very distant) to Joliette. Limited hours. It does stop at the mall  Les Terrasses du Port. Transfer there to the bus to inner harbor or onward to metro towards the city's train station.

 

 https://www.rtm.fr/horaires?lines=35T%3A Joliette - Terminal Croisières|RTM%3ALNE%3A131|009bbe|1714&destinations=RTM%3ARTE%3A9000131RTMR|Joliette|2|Joliette&stops=RTM%3APNT%3A00004290|Terminal Croisières|04290|4290&datetimehoraires=08h00&datehoraires=15%2F01%2F2020

 

Taxis are available, but will be limited when a big ship comes to port. Suggest that you also check out the Hop On Hop Off option and MSC's own shuttles.

 

https://www.hop-on-hop-off-bus.com/marseille/marseille-hop-on-hop-off-tour_26657

 

https://www.hop-on-hop-off-bus.com/barcelona/barcelona-bus-turistic-ticket_14002

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by HappyInVan

[perakcruiser]

8 hours ago, SteelCruisin said:

We will be taking our first cruise in the Med this Spring and were wondering which of the following ports will require us to take a shuttle into town... Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Messina and Valletta.... also would a taxi be more affordable for a group of 4....thanks in advance!

According to your level of fitness and lazyness everything except Marseille is walking distance.

Genoa, Messina, Valletta, Naples is more or less directly in city center. Ignore the long line at the elevator in Valletta, just a couple of stairs. Or if you don´t want to do the stairs, continue a few meters and go the normal road.

 

Marseille you need a plan, either the shuttle to city or a tour to very interesting places like Avignon, Aix ...

 

Barcelona is walkable, done it many times, 2,5 km to Drassanes Metro. Shuttle busses are available.

[MasterNotCommander]

5 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

According to your level of fitness and lazyness everything except Marseille is walking distance.

Genoa, Messina, Valletta, Naples is more or less directly in city center. Ignore the long line at the elevator in Valletta, just a couple of stairs. Or if you don´t want to do the stairs, continue a few meters and go the normal road.

 

Marseille you need a plan, either the shuttle to city or a tour to very interesting places like Avignon, Aix ...

 

Barcelona is walkable, done it many times, 2,5 km to Drassanes Metro. Shuttle busses are available.

Agreed, we've walked in Barcelona many times and it's a fantastic walk up to the Ramblas and into the city. 

[SteelCruisin]

Thanks for all the help, walking isn't a problem for us it's just when I started doing some research Marseille was the port I started with and wanted to be prepared before going forward...e.g.: whether to do ships excursions (not usually for us) or get lost in the local culture and architecture (more our speed) I am sure I will have more questions....thanks for being an awesome community!

[xcell]

Mark -- interested in the response for our upcoming Dec 2020 cruise.

[Viccarol]

The MSC Half day walking tour of Marseille was really good value - if I remember rightly the difference between the shuttle and the price of the tour each wasn’t huge - following the tour you could return to the ship on any MSC shuttle bus - leaving you free to explore on your own.

On another note don’t bother with the advertised MSC ferry shuttle in Genoa - massive waste of money - it’s a lovely walk from the port to the harbour area with the aquarium 🐠