<p>H, D (age 20) and I will be taking a Mediterranean cruise in June, and I would welcome advice from those of you who have been to the ports we will be visiting, about things that you especially enjoyed. Our ports are:</p>
<p>Barcelona, Spain
Villefranche (Monte Carlo, Cannes, Nice), France
La Spezia (Florence, Pisa), Italy
Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Piraeus (Athens), Greece
Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
Mykonos, Greece
Valletta, Malta </p>
<p>We have been to Rome and Florence, but that was about 7 years ago, so D might want to see the same things again (we saw the major tourist sites then - Vatican, Colosseum, Pantheon, Duomo, Uffizi - and I would not mind seeing any of them again, but I am also game for less popular sites).</p>
<p>We are going on a similar cruise, with port stops of Civitavecchia, Kusadasi and Piraeus. Apparently you must see the Parthenon in Athens, and in Kusadasi, you MUST see Ephesus, the Terrace Houses, and recommended the house of the Virgin Mary. Here is the very, very best advice I can give you for all of these ports, as recommended by Colorado Mom.</p>
<p>Go to cruisecritic.com website. Go to Community, Roll Call, and get on the thread for your specific cruise. There you will find people on your cruise who are organizing port excursions on their own, and you can join any of those that look good. The cruise line excursions are usually a lot more expensive and you see less. You can join a group and hang out with them, at a far cheaper price, and more flexibility with less people. Usually they rent a large van or small bus for however many people are going. People will also talk about each port stop and what you cannot miss, many have been to those ports before. There is so much knowledge on there. And nice to kind of “know” people before you already show up! Plus, you can look at prior years threads to get great info.</p>
<p>^^By the way, I’m not quoting that exactly from colorado mom, she told me how to get to the Roll Call, which is very useful, and probably the best information I could get about cruise excursions. The rest is my opinion.</p>
<p>Only been to Barcelona: sagrada familia (but you might not want to wait in line for hours to go in, just the outside is amazing), park guelle (made of mosaics, it’s an amazing sight), and the magic fountain (night “fountain shows”) were all fantastic. If you have time, there are also many museums, including a Picasso museum. Oh, and if you like soccer, FC Barcelona (for a game if the schedule lines up or even just to see the stadium) is cool as well. </p>
<p>I would research every city and find a few aces to want to go to. But don’t just take suggestions, find things that specifically interact you. That’s what’s going to make the trip memorable.</p>
<p>Last year we were on a Mediterranean cruise. In Ephesus we took a private tour with privatetoursinturkey dot com with Yelda Celik. That was one of our best days. Terrace Houses are a must. Truely incredible. I always plan on private tours. There is great info on Cruisecritic. Have a great time!</p>
<p>I wasn’t on a cruise but I loved the gothic quarter of Barcelona which includes the church in Plaza de Sant Felip Neri. It’s a place that gave me goosebumps.</p>
<p>So excited to relive our Med cruise through you! We sailed a similar itinerary though went to Mykonos and Santorini and did not do Malta. Lots of thoughts and resources to share. Will check back later. Def vote for private tours. Cruise Critic is the best resource community to use.</p>
<p>I am slowly getting into the cruisecritic thing. We definitely want to stay away from the huge ship tours as much as possible. Trying to get an idea about what we want to do before contacting private tour people. </p>
<p>I also just bought the Rick Steves book about Med cruise ports. </p>
<p>So far it seems that Kusadasi will be easy: Ephesus, the Terrace Houses, and the house of the Virgin Mary.</p>
<p>One specific question I have so far is about Athens - of course we want to see the highlights of Athens, but should we also try to get to Corinth as well? It would be a long day, but perhaps the history would make it worthwhile.</p>
<p>Amesie, if by some random chance you are going to be in Rome on June 3rd, you can join us for the best tour of your life. I did it with the same guide on a Rick Steves trip, she is in his Rome videos, and she is the best tour guide imaginable. She brings tears to your eyes, and I can’t believe I was lucky enough to book her!</p>
<p>Ephesus is STUNNING -the library is absolutely incredible and beautiful - see if you can get to the Temple of Artemis nearby…there’s not much there now (less than at many ancient sites), but it was an Ancient Wonder and it’s worth checking off the list.</p>
<p>In Athens, I think the Acropolis is the best place to spend at least an afternoon, and then wandering in the streets nearby.</p>
<p>In Barcelona, the medieval area off the Ramblas is absolutely wonderful. Parc Guell also seems very nice. The lines to tour Sagrada Familiar are very, very long…when my hopon hopoff bus arrived there, I decided that I could do something better than stand in line for 2.5 hours.</p>
<p>I was in Barcelona 5 years ago for a conference. There is SOOOO much to do there. The architecture, the Olympic sites, the food… I think you could spend a week and not see everything. If you get to Sangrada Familia early in the day the lines won’t be too long.</p>
<p>The hop-on/hop-off bus tour was one of the best I’ve taken in the world. Little to no downtime. The (taped) narrator had something interesting to say most of the trip.</p>
<p>Bumping this thread. Would like to hear from OP about their June cruise. I am in the very beginning stages of finding a Mediterranean cruise for next July/early August and would like to benefit from the experience of others. Have just decided to part with the money as we are not getting any younger—it’s time to tick something off the bucket list! I don’t like the idea of being uber extravagant, but want to see all I can/get the most bang for my buck!</p>
<p>Do you have a favorite cruise line? Are there any ‘musts’ to include in the itinerary? Would love to hear about your experiences! Hoping others will share…</p>
<p>Mum and I did a tour that was Lucca in the morning and Pisa in the afternoon. Probably my favorite tour of our cruise. I had never heard of Lucca and thought it was lovely. I expected to be underwhelmed by Pisa and was quite stunned by it.</p>
<p>rutgers - We loved Norwegian EPIC, 7 day Western Med cruise. Freestyle dining fit our preferences, especially with busy days of shore excursions.</p>
<p>Great timing… we are booked on an 11-day Western Mediterranean cruise departing 6/20 from Civitavecchia (Rome) with stops in Naples, Palermo, Tunesia, Florence, Marseille/Monte Carlo, and Barcelona. We are on the Noordam (HAL). There are other ports of call, but can not recall them at the moment.</p>
<p>As busdriver11 suggested, I am using the Cruise Critic “Roll Call” to meet fellow passengers and line up excursions with them. I also plan to read Rick Steves as Amesie suggested. We definitely want to do an excursion to Pompeii and are looking for other interesting excursions as well.</p>
<p>The tours arranged privately thru “Roll Call” are typically much less than arranged by the cruises. They are definitely worth investigation. Some of our Nowegian shore excursions were $200+ per person per day, including the bus, tour tickets, terrific lunch stops, tourguides etc. </p>
<p>The pricely NCL did have the advantage of not worrying about whether the ship would wait if late. This was a crucial factor for our return to Naples from Pompei/Sorrento shore excursion. The road back gets VERY crowded, so we were several hours late. (Hint - stop at the rest room before getting on the bus. I was so glad I had done so).</p>