Suggestions For Galaxy's Med Cruise

[suthenfield]

I will be taking the July 23, 07 Mediterranean cruise on the Galaxy. I'm short on several pieces of info!

=Recommendations for the Rome-Civitavecchia transfer

=Restaurant tips on ports (Athens, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Istambul, Kusadasi)

=Best private tour guides on ports

=What wouldn't you miss if you went back?

In my experience, what I have found so far is great service from Hakan Gurger for the tours of Istambul (hakan@guidesofistanbul.com), I will post when I come back and let you know how his tours were! Another one who has given great service so far is Sorrento Limo (info@sorrentolimo.com) for the tour in Naples going to the Amalfi Coast. Also, I visited the Princess site and found some great dowloadable and printable info on most of the ports on this cruise. It's nice to know at least the basic info of the ports you will be visiting! Hope this info will be of some help for some...

[uktog]

=Recommendations for the Rome-Civitavecchia transfer [/qoute]

 

I can highly recommend Romecabs - if you google them you will find them; Stefan was excellent we used them from FCO to our hotel in rome, then from the hotel to the port and both these journeys in reverse

 

=Restaurant tips on ports (Athens, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Istambul, Kusadasi)

 

Sorry did not eat ashore except in Corinth as part of a trip with Paul see below

 

=Best private tour guides on ports

 

We used ships excursions except in Athens where we used Paul from Greek Taxi who is quite the best; for EUR 250 we had a wonderful day when we went from the port all the way to Corinth, had a brilliant meal in a Taverna there, then we came back and did the Acropolis, Changing the Guard etc in the afternoon again google greek taxi and you will get Paul, he is a real friend of Cruise Critics

 

=What wouldn't you miss if you went back?

 

Istanbul shore excursion visit to the Carpet shop and the horendous traffic jams in Istanbul

[Dick in Falls Church]

Ephesus, done with a private guide. We were there at noon. The morning tours had gone back, the afternoon tours had not arrived. 8 of us and the guide, by ourselves (except for a few seconds as a Japanese tour bus group raced by us, clicking photos like crazy.

 

I must add that it was the last cruise of the season, and we were the only ship in port!

[zelker]

We also used Paul the Taxi Driver in Athens and surrounding area - he IS the best. Four of us hired him for the entire day and he was able to accommodate everything we wanted to do with no problem. He speaks extremely good English as he lived on the East Coast for many years.

 

http://www.greecebytaxi.com/

 

Kusadasi was by far our most memorable day. We used a private guide and driver for the day. Ephesus is of course a do-not-miss! After lunch, and at our request, we went to the most charming village fin the foothills just above Kusadasi. It's called Sirince. It is all cobblestone "streets", the villagers set up tables along them and make handmade items (knit things, dried flower things, whatever). Through our guide we talked to one very old woman who fell in love with my husband and invited us to her house for tea. We then walked up to the church at the top of the village where we ran into a large group of school children who engulfed us and wanted to speak the few words of English they knew with us. We were the only people from the entire ship that were there -- and I suspect had the most memorable day of any passenger. By the way, we used Meander Travel to arrange our guide and highly recommend them as well.

 

http://www.meandertravel.com/

 

Enjoy!! You're in for the trip of a lifetime! :D

[suthenfield]

Thank you for all your tips...I'm really looking forward for this trip. I heard the temperatures are very high!! I'm kinda nervous because I'm going with my mother and my two young sons...as for myself, I don't care about the weather...too busy having a good time...

Any tips for the transfer from Rome to Civitavecchia??

[zelker]

We were there in mid-May and it was beautiful but yes, I suspect it will be hot in the Med in the middle of summer. Be sure to make everyone drink lots of fluids. I'd try to do the most "touristy" outdoor things first thing off the ship (e.g., Ephesus, the Acropolis, the Coliseum) to beat the crowds.

[pattyj 1204]

We were in the Med. in July. It was hot, be sure to drink lots of water. We bought it on the ship before the excursions. They ran out of bottle carriers after the first day, so you might want to think about buying one before leaving home. All the tours we took were from Celebrity and would use them again. The Amalphi Coast tour was awesome, The dropoffs were scary and the roads didn't look big enough for 2 lane traffic, but it was and our driver was great. Have a good time.

[2Scots]

Yes, it is very hot. We were there late July/early August several years ago on the Galaxy. We are from Houston and thought we were ready,,, Mykonos and Santorini were like pizza ovens!! As mentioned, light clothes and LOTS of water. We had a different itinerary that incluided Malta/Amalifi coast and Bareclona- it is all beautiful!!

 

Have fun!

[Dick in Falls Church]

In Naples, we hooked up with some folks from the Roll Call and used Mariano Fiorentino, at pleasantravel.com. Had 2 vans, best I recall. We had a guide who let us through Pompeii, and then we drove on down to Sorrento. Very pleasant day--had a nice meal in a local restaurant.

Cost was close to that of the ship's tours, but much more convenient and much less waiting for everyone to pile on and off buses.