Leslie

We will be taking Royal Carribean's Splendour of the Sea out of Barcelona in June. We have been on cruises before and want to have some control of our excursions on shore. (not always with the massive cruise ship groups) Are there guides that meet the ships in port that could spend the day with you and take you where you would like? We will be in Pisa/Livorno, Rome, Naples, Nice.

dena

Hi Leslie,<BR>I did this cruise about 4 years ago. It was a great trip. If you are the adventurous type, you can do all of the excursions on your own. We never went with the ship. On the web, you can find train info and schedules and coordinate your train travel upon arrival in Livorno to Florence. Also the same goes for Cittavecchia to Rome. My husband did all the research for the train on the web, so I don't know the sites myself, but I'm sure it's not too hard to find. In Naples, we hired a driver at the port and he drove the Amalfi coast. One piece of advice for the train, since you are not going with the ship's tour, you want to be sure to be back in time before the ships leave. We always took the next to last train before our scheduled departure, just in case we missed it, or for some reason it was cancelled, we still had another train we could catch and be back in time. Train travel in Italy can sometimes be tricky as they strike pretty much when they want, so do be aware. But we always got back in time and had no trouble at all. I think it is much nicer than being herded like cattle and you can do what suits you. Just be sure to read a lot first so you have your itinerary down and can make the most of you time in each city. Have a wonderful trip and feel free to ask any more questions.

MC

Hi Dena<BR><BR>Did you find the car rental on your own or did you go through your travel agent.

dena

Hi MC<BR>We did not rent a car on that trip. When we arrived in port in Naples, my husband found a driver at the dock that could accomodate us. If I remember correctly, there were several drivers waiting around, so I suppose this is commonplace. It was a wonderful experience, seeing the Amalfi coast this way. We would never attempt to drive the Amalfi coast by ourselves the first time. My husband is the adventurous type, but even that was too much! Plus you have to concentrate so much that you miss the scenery. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. As I mentioned before, in the other ports, we took trains into the cities.

mark

How does the cost of a driver for the day compare with taking the train to Pompeii and then Sorrento? (for 4 people)? Can you do Pompeii,Sorrento and Capri in a day? If not, whcih would you omit?

dena

Sorry Mark, I don't recall the cost of the driver, so I really can't answer that question. But I do recall that our driver took us to Pompeii first, stayed a bit there, then drove the Amalfi coast, stopped in Sorento for lunch. We would have then taken the ferry to Capri, we actually waited for it, but the weather turned very bad and so we didn't go. We went back to the ship via ferry from Sorrento. We would have taken the ferry from Capri back to the ship had we gone. Hope this bit of info helps!