Summit Excursions

[Cruisergang]

can anyone give us information about excursions or private tours for the following ports:

Nice, Athens, Santorini, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Dubrovnik.

We are leaving 6/27 and would like to do some things on our own and take a few excursions. Would like to know which of the ones offered by Celebrity are good but are really interested in some private tours and how to find the good ones and how easy it is to get transportation to some of the areas on our own. If private tours, were they booked before the cruise or at the port. Thanks so much for help info.

[eandj]

Many cruisers use Romeinlimo.com to book private tours. You can go to the roll call board and find some cruisemates and join a tour.

 

Also for sure, do a FORUM SEARCH here for each port of call. Looks like you need to work fast. :eek: You don't have much time to research. you might end up just signing up for cruseship excursions or may be try to meet with someone on the ship that will add you to their tour, if room. You need to READ READ and READ some more. Trains, metro,buses....eek.

[kaerofan]

I did almost this same itinerary last fall on the Summit. I travelled by myself and it was my first trip to the Med. The ship offered a shuttle to Dubrovnik and it was easy to do on your own. I walked the wall and then did a short guided walking tour to get some of the history. The guides were all hanging around the entrance of the visitors center/money exchange, you just paid them and followed along - it was not prearranged, I can't remember the cost but it was very reasonable.

I also did Venice on my own - LOVED this city, just wandered around for hours and then found a couple of ladies and we shared a gondola ride.

In Naples, I walked off the ship and purchased tickets to the hydrofoil and then went to Capri for a few hours and then took the hydrofoil to Sorrento for a couple of hours. Very nice day, very easy - the people are very helpful if you are unsure.

I did a ship's tour in Florence which I enjoyed called " A Taste of Florence" it was guided for around the first 2 hours and then you had the rest of the day to explore, shop on your own.

In Athens I also did "A Taste of Athens" which was a nice combo of guided and free time at the plaka.

We had two days in Rome so on the first day I did a private tour with a group I met on my roll call (we did Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, etc.) Then on the 2nd day I took the train into Rome and toured the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St.Peters,etc. ( I had made a reservation online beforehand, which was great because I didn't have to wait in the huge line.)

We did Turkey instead of Santorini.

I actually had booked a number of ship's tours but ended up cancelling a lot as I realized how much cheaper and how easy it was to do on your own.

Good luck and have fun!

[candykrazee]

can anyone give us information about excursions or private tours for the following ports:

Nice, Athens, Santorini, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Dubrovnik.

We are leaving 6/27 and would like to do some things on our own and take a few excursions. Would like to know which of the ones offered by Celebrity are good but are really interested in some private tours and how to find the good ones and how easy it is to get transportation to some of the areas on our own. If private tours, were they booked before the cruise or at the port. Thanks so much for help info.

i did athens, rome, naples, and santorini recenlty on the solstice.

 

athens: i booked the athens and cape sounion tour. There are lots of companies online for this same tour much cheaper, but they ended too late so i had to book it with the cruiseline. If you don't care to see cape souion and just want to see athens (which includes the acropolis) you can easily take the train from the port and do it yourself.

 

naples: I booked the mt. versuvious and pompeii tour, it was great except that it was foggy so we couldn't see the nice view from the mountain. I found some tours online but they were the same price as the ship's

 

rome:easy DIY for coloseum and forums: you can take the train from civitavecchia to rome for 4.5 euros. There are free shuttles that take from the ship to the port entrance and its a 5 mintue walk to the train station, trains leave every 30 minutes. Once you reach termini central station in rome transfer onto the B line and get off at colosseo, across the street from the collesseum. from there you can see the colosseum and roman forums. (11 euros for both)

 

Santorini: Very easy DIY. Just get a map the bus stop in fira. We took the bus from fira to OIA (1.4 euros) and explored until lunchtime, had lunch, then took the bus back fira, and took another bus to kamari to spend the afternoon on the black sand beach (also it was more rocky than sandy).

 

hope this helps

[Cruisergang]

thank you all who responded to my prior thread

now another questions as to which private excursion---

 

Pompei - Sorrento - Positano

or

Pompei -Positano - Amalfi - Ravello

 

we are consider a one of two tours with Sorrento Silverstar and don't know which one to choose. anyone have any suggestions on which one they think might be better? we will be traveling with husband and 3 teenagers. wondering if the one with four stops will be that much more driving and less stopping. Has anyone done any of these and if so can you tell me a little bit about each? and some highlights of each? Thanks so much! We are leaving this Friday, June 26th!