greek isles private tours

[pennstateray]

in nov we will make stops at the following; dubrovnik, croatia, the following greek ports corfu, katalolon, athens, mykonos, rhodes, santorini, ephesus, turkey and naples. wow i am tired already. does anyone have any private guides that you would recommend in any of these ports? if not a guide what activies? are driver/guides waiting to be hired at the docks? thanks in advance.

ray

[suzski]

great question....we'll be stopping at several of those ports next summer and I was wondering the same thing.

[JimS2008]

in nov we will make stops at the following; dubrovnik, croatia, the following greek ports corfu, katalolon, athens, mykonos, rhodes, santorini, ephesus, turkey and naples. wow i am tired already. does anyone have any private guides that you would recommend in any of these ports? if not a guide what activies? are driver/guides waiting to be hired at the docks? thanks in advance.

ray

 

 

We did the Western Med on the Noordam last year - and have booked the Eastern Med - (same stops you listed basically above) for this year. Last year we used PortPromotions for all our private tours - and they were great. We will probably use them again this year.

 

Hope this helps.

[itsjb1]

We used Nikos of Santoriniprivatetours for our day in Santorini in 2007. Had a great day and would not hesitate to recommend him.

[pennstateray]

for the info

[texancruzer]

in nov we will make stops at the following; dubrovnik, croatia, the following greek ports corfu, katalolon, athens, mykonos, rhodes, santorini, ephesus, turkey and naples. wow i am tired already. does anyone have any private guides that you would recommend in any of these ports? if not a guide what activies? are driver/guides waiting to be hired at the docks? thanks in advance.

ray

 

We did Dubrovnik on our own using a shuttle provided by RCL. Round trip per person was $ 8.00 U.S. and dropped us off right by the Pile Gate. We walked the wall, had lunch and explored some more. Very interesting place. Very easy to just wander on your own.....at your own pace.

 

Corfu we did a ships tour and visited a monastary, enjoyed a very scenic drive and a wonderful lunch in a charming seaside village. The owner of the restaurant did a Greek dance for us picking up chairs etc. with his teeth :eek: We then went back to Old Corfu Town and had time to explore on our own. Very nice day.

 

Only other port on your list we visited was Naples. We used APTours for our day here. Pompeii for 2-1/2 hr tour in the morning (they arranged a private guide for us) then to Ravello, Amalfi, Positano and ending in Sorrento where we took the ferry back to Naples - docking right next to our ship. THE BEST DAY OF THE TRIP !!!!! We shared this tour with 3 other couples from our cruise - prearranging it all on our roll call. Made it very cost effective.

 

Hope this helps

[Longtime Cruiser]

We are on the Princess Ruby in June with exactly the same ports. I would appreciate any suggestions and recommendations for drivers and/or guides.

 

We have been to Naples many times, last year we took the ferry to Capri on our own.

 

Any suggestions for trips outside of Naples?

 

Thank you,

Steven

[CrucianGal]

We used Nur and Ekol for Ephesus. We had a fabulous tour. We arrived before the large tour buses so we were ahead of the mass groups of people. Also I highly recommend the Terrace Houses if you enjoy history. They had some of the best tile mosaics and frescoes we have ever seen. It was amazing. The web site is www.ekoltravel.com

 

 

We used George in Katakolon www.taxikatakolon.gr

He was very professional, and we enjoyed his personal touches. Make sure if you book him that you verify he will be your driver. Our friends on the same cruise as us booked with him, but had one of his associates who was very quiet.

 

It is really best to book these tours well in advance. We booked 3-4 months as the best guides book up fast.

 

Corfu we did the Achillian Palace tour which was lovely. It was offered from the ship. We had the driver drop us off in Corfu town and had a delicious lunch ar Restaurant Rex. We then explored Corfu on our own and walked back to the ship.

 

Santorini we explored on our own. The scenery is amazing. We window shopped in Thira and then took a thrill ride (taxi) to Oia. We then stumbled on to the public bus while waiting for a taxi back to Thira. The public buses are fantastic and very inexpensive.

 

Dubrovnik, we took the shuttle to the walled city. Walked the wall, which was amazing. We had lunch at restaurant Proto. Unbelievable seafood, but expensive. We almost fainted when the waiter brought our check at the end of the meal. (At first we thought it was in Euros, it was 4 digits, but it was in Kuna, so not quite as bad:))

 

Have a great time. I wish we had another Med. Cruise to plan. Thanks for letting me relive a bit of our cruise from last May. Make sure you get really comfortable walking shoes. We walked so much since our itinerary was so port intensive, but we ate a lot also and didn't gain :)

 

Regards from sunny St. Croix,

Ellen

[suzski]

Thanks to everyone for your tips for guides!

 

We've never booked a cruise this far out and I am chomping at the bit to get on the ship! Guess I'll just have a lot more time to plan and do research.

[pennstateray]

i hav a lot to check out.

ray