Tours In Sydney

[pdoeringer]

We will be in Sydney on a NCL cruise in September. The ship will be there from 11:30 to 8 PM. I have several questions:

1. When we depart from the ship will there be cabs, buses, limos etc to do tours? If so are they cheaper and better then what the ship charges?

2. If we rent a car the car rental places seem to close at 5 PM and that to me is risky to get back in time. I would like to go to Baddeck and surrounding areas.

3. NCL offers two tours that interest me: The first is "Baddeck & Alexander Grahem Bell Museum" and the other one is "Heart of the Island." Has anyone taken these tours and what is your opinion?

 

I would rent a car but feel with getting off the ship at noon it is calling it close by the time I rent the car it will be atleast 1PM.

 

Thanks in advance

[ilovhywd]

I would be very interested to read some replies to your post. Maybe when some folks get home from May, June, and July trips, we can get some good information! Our cruise visits Sydney in late August.

 

We are so used to being approached by drivers offering private tours in Europe and in the Caribbean, so it's hard to imagine that there would NOT be taxis and cars waiting.

 

The problem is, if we can't find a taxi, it is now too late to sign up for one of the ship's excursions. That's why SOMEONE has to tell us if there are drivers waiting!!

[NancyIL]

Your time in port is better than ours on RCI. We're in Sydney from 1:00-6:00, so for that reason we booked "The Heart of the Island" excursion through our ship.

[c breeze]

We will be in Sydney on a NCL cruise in September. The ship will be there from 11:30 to 8 PM. I have several questions:

1. When we depart from the ship will there be cabs, buses, limos etc to do tours? If so are they cheaper and better then what the ship charges?

2. If we rent a car the car rental places seem to close at 5 PM and that to me is risky to get back in time. I would like to go to Baddeck and surrounding areas.

3. NCL offers two tours that interest me: The first is "Baddeck & Alexander Grahem Bell Museum" and the other one is "Heart of the Island." Has anyone taken these tours and what is your opinion?

 

I would rent a car but feel with getting off the ship at noon it is calling it close by the time I rent the car it will be atleast 1PM.

 

Thanks in advance

 

We were on the "Heart of the Island" tour last year. The scenery was beaurtiful! There is a fair amount of walking at the village, which is a historical site with many small buildings from differnt time periods.

 

What is the sailing date for your cruise? We are on the Jewel Sept 28 this year, returning to many of the same ports we visited last year on the Dawn.

[pdoeringer]

Thanks for the info. I have booked with the ship the heart of the island tour. QUESTION: Do we dock or tender in Sydney?

 

Thanks

[ilovhywd]

The trouble with arranging in advance for a car and driver is that you lose the deposit you have paid if the ship cannot visit the port because of bad weather or a deviation in the itinerary. (This happens more often than you would think!)

 

Although cape.breton.island's suggestions are well taken, many of us cannot take the chance to lose a substantial payment, so we will hope to find a taxi upon arrival at the port. We will try to be among the first passengers off the ship!

[njmelis24]

We're stopping in Sydney in October and opted to rent a car for the day. I was surprised at how cheap the car was (even with only the first 200km free). We ordered tourism maps and books from novascotia.com which included different scenic drives to take depending on where you were on the island. Someone else on CC recommended this, although I cannot remember who, and it was a wonderful idea. Even if we miss the port I am not going to be upset over losing $40 paid for a rental car.

[Two if by Sea]

One reason we opted for a local driver is that I've tried driving on Cape Breton before. Not that it's terrible, by any means, but it definitely takes longer to get places than I was expecting coming from a land of superhighways, and the correct route is not always obvious. I'm sure you'll do fine, but I wanted to get the most touring time out of our short stay.