Is it possible to book tours privately on day of arrival in port

[nakink]

we are cruising the Mediteranean in June. if we leave tour bookings until we arrive in each port, is it possible to book independent tours on day of arrival? Looking for tours of Corfu,  Amalfi coast from Naples and Cinque Terre from Livorno and possibly Taormina from Messina.

any advice warmly appreciated. Nicola

 

[GeezerCouple]

23 minutes ago, nakink said:

we are cruising the Mediteranean in June. if we leave tour bookings until we arrive in each port, is it possible to book independent tours on day of arrival? Looking for tours of Corfu,  Amalfi coast from Naples and Cinque Terre from Livorno and possibly Taormina from Messina.

any advice warmly appreciated. Nicola

 

 

I would strongly recommend that you try to line up private tour guides well in advance.

In smaller ports, there might not be all that many good private tours, and even in ports where there are, they may be already booked.

 

Also, when we plan private excursions (which are almost entirely what we do, on cruise or land trips), we have a chance to email and discuss what will be included.  We might prefer more time at A and less at B, or maybe try to include some time at C.  And we also ask the guide, after we've communicated some of our interests, if there is anything else they have in mind that we might not yet know about or be thinking about that they might recommend including.

 

We've had good luck just using Google, and then reading reviews.  We always get in touch with the actual guide, and not some agency (with one exception that also turned out very well).  If a guide isn't interested in communicating, then it's probably not going to be the kind of guide who cares about what *we* would enjoy, learn, etc., but more "this is what I do..."  

 

For example, we've chartered large catamarans well in advance, and then, through the Roll Call for the cruise, we've had a few others join us.  That brings the cost down, and there is *plenty* of room for "more than two". 🙂 

And that is the kind of activity where there's unlikely to be any disagreement about "oh, could we spend more time here, or someone needing to rest [that would be me, by the way 😉 ].

 

Asking on the Ports of Call sections is also a way to get the name of good guides and excursions.  One of our best guides/excursions was from a description someone gave in their cruise report.

 

Enjoy!

 

GC

[CruiserBruce]

At the dock tour purchasing is rare in Euope. No way I would plan on it.

[mom says]

Agree with Cruiser Bruce. Do your research in advance and pre book any private tours before embarking.Depending on what you want to do, many things can be done as independant DIYs.  Have you looked at the Rick Steves Mediterranean  Cruise guidebook?

[VMax1700]

You may find taxis at the port, but very unusual to find availability of tours at the port.  All the good ones will be pre booked!   A taxi driver may take you on tour, but his command of the english language may be significantly less than you anticipate.  Also tour guides in most European countries are licenced and are a different profession to drivers.  

[marazul]

16 hours ago, nakink said:

we are cruising the Mediteranean in June. if we leave tour bookings until we arrive in each port, is it possible to book independent tours on day of arrival?

 

The answer is NO.  You have a better chance of winning the lottery than to book a good tour on arrival. 

[edinburgher]

As Vmax1700 has mentioned, there may or may not be taxis at some of your ports, but it would be rare to find private tours.

 

Drawbacks to taxis from the port(tours in particular)  include of course, that you would be at the mercy of the taxi driver especially if you do not speak the same language.  And without a common language you would get minimal ifo about where you were and what you were  seeing.

 

Private tours should always be arranged ahead of time, but taxi tours can also be arranged ahead of time and better than taking pot luck at the port on the day.  And you may find that by the time you leave the ship, if there had only been a very small number of taxis, that they had all left with other fares.

 

We had an excellent taxi tour on our second or third visit to Corfu uand had arranged it before leaving home. Corfut is a scenic island and worth exploring.  A simple internet search along the lines of "taxi tours Corfu" would be a good starting point.

 

We actually had 3 shared taxi tours that day, as others from the RC wanted to join in.  We drove in convoy with the same route and stopping places and  left and returned to the port at the same time.

 

Do look on your RC to see what others have arranged.

[GreenFamily]

Why would you need a tour to look at scenery? Go to your roll call and join another couple, or group for private transfers to these locations.

[mskaufman]

I would not bet my vacation on picking up a tour on the dock.  There are places where this is possible (like Gibraltar) but I agree with most of the other posters that you should have your plans made in advance.