Western Med Ports - Ideas?

[Inde2008]

I have some useful information and some blanks. All help much appreciated.

Vigo - not a lot there, we'll be heading to the beach.

Lisbon - a beautiful and fantastic city. It's a half hour walk to the city centre. Come off the ship, walk up to the road, turn right and walk along for about 1km I guess. On the left you will see a huge square. Walk across that and up a sort of Ramblas to one of the main squares. That's the centre. From there, get a taxi up to the Castle, and m,aybe then bak to the ship. Cheap and easy.

Seville - via the port of Cadiz. I've google mapped Cadiz and it looks lovely, and all within walking distance of the ship. Seville is supposed to be fantastic, but is it worth the trip?

Cagliari - I need to research this one properly, but it doesn't look far to the beaches though. Ideas anyone?

Rome - we stayed on ship last time. The trips were expensive, but people seemed to be taking the train to Rome and back, but I'm really not sure how much you actually would see in a day.

Livorno - the port for Pisa, and my wife wants to get there. Any ideas anyone?

Cannes - there are open top buses that go from the port. We intend to hop on one and do a tour, and then decide where to go and what to do.

Gibraltar - two basic options. First, walk into town, shop and maybe get the cable car. Secondly, for the less energetic, share a minibus with some new friends are take a tour or the mountain, the apes (bril!) and back to the ship.

[marci22]

We had a driver in Rome and saw a lot, but we had to move at a brisk pace. The next time, I would probably do the ship's on your own tour or consider taking the train. I would plan on seeing one thing that I really wanted to see, and the rest of the time I would spend just strolling around and maybe eat somewhere. You don't have to do everything in one day.

 

Have you checked the Ports of Call boards? There is a ton of information over there.

[Cymro1953]

We did Pisa with a ship's tour with Island Cruises last year. We had a lovely time as it was combined with a trip to visit Puccini's house and a cruise on the lake then on to Pisa. We got to meet his granddaughter

Once you've done the square with Baptistry, Church and tower nip around the corner if you want coffe as it will be cheaper.

You need pre booked tickets to go up the tower so you'd need to stay in the area to do that.

[Jescer]

We did one of the ship's tours to Rome and thought it was perfect. It included bus transportation to and from Rome (about 1.5 hours each way) and a half day tour which included St. Peter's Basilica, the Coliseum and a beautiful church called St. Peters in Chains. We also had about 3 hours of time on our own. We took a taxi from St. Peters to the Spanish steps and then wound our way back to the Vatican on foot. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and had lunch in Piazza Navona on our way back. I think for only being in the city for about 6 hours we saw a lot.

[Inde2008]

allreally helpful

i'll have a look at the ports of call place, wasnt awater of it thanks

[anchorage1977]

Seville - via the port of Cadiz. I've google mapped Cadiz and it looks lovely, and all within walking distance of the ship. Seville is supposed to be fantastic, but is it worth the trip?

]

 

IMO, I would use your time to explore Cadiz due to the long transit time to Seville. If there were two days, I'd say do Seville but with the limited time you have, you won't get as much out of Seville as you'd hoped... plus you'll miss the charming city of Cadiz.

 

Our Cadiz trip last spring was amazing. The whole city is very walkable, the various squares are wonderful for tapas and drinks in the sun and the beaches are quite nice. There are gardens filled with fresh citrus and flowers, forts to walk through and of course... a cathedral. This is one of the nicest small Spanish ports I've been to.

 

I blogged about this stop recently with photos etc. Feel free to check it out at:

 

http://happyalaskan.blogspot.com/2009/02/cadiz-spain-worth-week.html

 

Happy Travels!

[aussiecruzer]

We explored Rome easily taking the train. We got off the train at San Pietro and saw St Peters Square, the Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and the Colosseum and Roman Forum. I researched well and we took a couple of quick and cheap cab rides within Rome (5 E) to help get from place to place. I found this website very useful in planning the day.

 

http://www.europeportreviews.com/Rome2.htm

[debs2028]

we are also doing Italian med on indie...some helpful ideas here

When are you travelling

debs:)