excursion advice for Greece isle cruise

[stereosb]

Hi, my 3 friends and I are going on the Grand Princess Greek Isle tour in October. I was wondering if anyone had advice on what excursions are a must. We are on a tight budget, so we can't fork over hundreds for each stop. If anyone has advice on cheaper independent tours, that would be most helpful.

 

Olympia

Athens

Rhodes

Santorini

Kusadasi (Turkey)

Split (Croatia)

Naples

Mykonos

Venice

[CoralReef]

Virtually every stop can be done cheaper and better on your own... if (big IF) you are willing to do some research and take local transportation. The more I travel, the more I object to ship's tours that herd you into buses, make you stand in line for restrooms, keep you on a timetable, and force you to tour carpet/cameo/ceramics shops that give kickbacks to the cruiselines.

 

Start by checking out guidebooks at your local library. For each port, decide what you're most interested in seeing. For your itinerary, the Insight Guide Greeks Isles would be a good start-- if not available at your library, ask about free Interlibrary Loan.

 

Then look on this board and in the guidebooks for local transportation, admission costs, walking tours, etc. for the sights you want to see. Tripadvisor.com is also a good resource, as is virtualtourist.com. Touring on your own is almost always cheaper than paid tours, but more importantly, you'll have a better experience and see more of the local sights.