Experienced European Cruisers - NEED YOUR HELP!

[ja940]

We are booked on the 6/27/06 Golden Princess Rome to Southampton. This will be our 3rd time in Europe. 2004 Star Princess Barcelona to Venice and 2005 Constellation Baltic. We do not like to take ship excursions, prefer private car or train and do it on our own.

 

Can you experienced cruisers tell us the best way to see:

Cannes

Gibraltar

Casablanca

Cadiz (Seville)

Lisbon

Vigo

Le Harve

Rotterdam

Zeebrugge

 

Thanks!

[Kindlychap]

Zeebrugge is a dump.

 

But Brugge/Bruges is lovely. Get a cab or tram over there and then you'll be fine on foot.

 

Chocolate museum is good. Chocolate shops are very good.

 

Lovely food and beer.

 

Indeed - a lovely small city.

[Ine]

In Rotterdam consider to go to Delft, nice small old city with of course "Delft Blue", see:http://www.royaldelft.com/index.cfm?

 

Or if you want to see windmills: Tour to Kinderdijk.

More info about Rotterdam:

http://www.vvv.rotterdam.nl/uk/

[Andee]

Gibraltar:

I had read on the Gibraltar tourism website about the standard 90 minute tour, and a longer (3-4 hour) tour than included everything we wanted to see. When we got off the ship, we talked to several cab drivers until we found one who was willing to do the complete tour. There were four of us, and he found four more interested in the same thing so he could fill his van.

 

Casablanca:

When we got off the ship, we negotiated with a cab driver to take us to the Hassan II Mosque (we took the guided tour), the Museum of Morroccan Judiasm, a city driving tour, and the Medina. He suggested that we not pay him until he returned us to the ship, so we never worried that he wouldn't be waiting for us at each stop.

 

Cadiz (Seville)

We had two days in Cadiz. On the first day, we took a train (40 minutes or so) to Jerez, went to the Royal Equestrian Horse School to visit the museum and see a performance of the horse ballet (that's what they call it, but it's not a Swan Lake type show), toured and sampled at some sherry bodegas, did a self-guided walking tour, went to the coach museum, saw the Cathedral, and the Alcazar. There were some small museums we had wanted to see (bullfighting and flamenco, I think), but they were closed.

On our second day in Cadiz, we did a self-guided walking tour that included the camera obscura, Cathedral, City Museum.

 

Lisbon:

We spent two days in Lisbon post cruise and did a lot--but three days would have been better. One day we started in Belem, saw the monastery and the Monument to the Discoveries and ate the famous pastries. We also took a guided tour of the Castello San Jorge, went to the Cathedral, the Museum of Decorative Arts, tasted at the Port Institute, visited several other churches and museums.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Haven't been to Cadiz or Seville, but others elsewhere suggested that if you aren't up to the trek to Seville, that Cadiz is very nice and approachable on your own.

 

With Vigo, the question is, is there a trip to Santiago de Compostela. I'm doing an excursion there in June. We don't have the choice to wander around Vigo, our ship moves between Vigo and Coruna in a single day, while pax are off on the excursion. I believe it's possible to train it from Vigo to Santiago, I explored this, but decided it wasn't worth the risk with two separate ports involved.

 

We're also doing Lisbon on our own, but we only have an evening and a morning, so have not explored train or car transportation. I believe there's good public transit in Lisbon however.

[Bobblsc]

Gibraltar: Last fall we found several vans for hire just outside the dock area fence.

 

Casablanca: We were disappointed with the city. We were with 7 other CC's on a privately booked tour. I would think part of the time outside Casablanca would help.

 

Cadiz: If you want to stay in Cadiz, there is a good hop on, hop off bus tour. You will find the buses right outside the gate, across the street. One stop is at a large department store with a great wine selection. For the best prices, avoid the premium wine store. Go to the large wine area.

 

Lisbon: Once you get to the central city, there are interesting walking streets.

 

Vigo: It's all uphill from the dock We just walked slowly, had coffee and slowly came back to the ship. There are many interesting buildings. This is the port that the submarine in "Das Boot" stopped at for provisioning.

 

Le Harve: The central city is quite a distance from the docks. We only walked around a bit, bought wine and beer at a department store, and went back to the ship.

 

Brugge: There is a very nice small boat tour on the canals. I believe it takes about an hour.

 

Bob :cool:

[mountainhouse]

Strange, I've never seen a thread with the subject: Totally inexperienced cruise - NEED YOUR HELP! :D