Shore excursions

[Boris78]

I'm sailing Norwegian Jade in March - April. Checking the NCL prices for the shore excursions I find them very expencive. I wonder how difficult it is to get from the port to let say.. Rome and then take a "hop on hop off" city bus tour.

[SLMS]

I'm sailing Norwegian Jade in March - April. Checking the NCL prices for the shore excursions I find them very expencive. I wonder how difficult it is to get from the port to let say.. Rome and then take a "hop on hop off" city bus tour.

 

You can walk to the train station from the port "gate" (you take a free shuttle bus from the ship to the "gate") and buy a Roundtrip ticket to Rome that includes use of the Metro & buses in Rome. The train from the port uses the tracks at the far end and the hop-on, hop-off buses can be found at the front end of the station. This link will give you the details on how to use the train.

http://www.europeportreviews.com/Rome2.htm. DH and I had been to Rome before, so I just used a walking tour downloaded from Frommers.com and we walked around on our own. Just be sure to check the train schedule catch a train back that is early enough for you to walk back from the station to the gate and catch the shuttle bus to your ship in time to meet your "all aboard." In the other ports that we visited in October 07 (on the Gem), we used NCL excursions. I checked prices online and for two people, NCL was cheaper than the other companies (NCL had contracts that pre-dated the dollar dropping). We also wanted to do some of the more different excursions (Santiago de Compostela from Vigo, Evora from Lisbon and Eze Village from Nice) as we had been in some of these places before and we wanted a different experience. You can find my review of our trip at this link:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=34115 Enjoy your trip.

[Boris78]

Thank you. The information you provided is very helpful.

I wonder if I can apply the same approach in other cities: Naples, Venice,

Athens..... ?

[CC Help Michell]

Thank you. The information you provided is very helpful.

I wonder if I can apply the same approach in other cities: Naples, Venice,

Athens..... ?

 

If you haven't found it yet, check out the Ports of Call board here at Cruise Critic for Europe (divided into three geographic regions) -- http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

 

You will find tons of "been there, done that" information and recommendations for private tours, etc. Not to mention finding hours of fun reading and research! :)