half cruise half land trip

Old Apr 27th, 2011, 02:19 PM
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half cruise half land trip

My husband are in the early stages of planning our first trip to Europe. We have always wanted to do a Mediteranean cruise. So we were thinking that we would have half of our trip be the cruise and the other half on land traveling on our own. We are planning to be in Europe for 14-17 days.

So if the cruise is one week, that leaves about a little over a week to hit a few spots. The spots that we are interested in are Rome, Venice, London, and somewhere in Germany. Does anyone have sugguestions on a good Germany destination? We are interested in castles and history. I have a feeling that we won't have enough time for 4 cities in just over a week. If we really had to cut a city, it would probably be London.

Is this a good idea to do half land half cruise? or should we just spend all of our time on land. We figured by doing the cruise we could see a few more countries. It leaves rome, and hits Athens, Turkey, Crete, and Sicily, and returns to Rome.

Our initial thought was 2-3 days in Rome before the cruise, a couple days in Venice, and the rest split between London and Germany. Is this too much? Any sugguestions and ideas are welcome!!
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 03:09 PM
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Most of our trips are half and half. In our opinion it is the only way to go. However, we are generally taking more time. The last trip was 33 days. We flew into Amsterdam, a week later boarded a 17 day cruise out of Rotterdam that end in Athens, fly to Rome and home from Rome. Another trip was a 10 days RT out of Rome. We flew to Rome a week early, ten day cruise, and then a week through Florence, Milan, and home from Zurich. Another trip was into Paris, departed from Nice, docked in LeHavre and came home from London. Germany is a little hard to hit because it doesn't have coast line. A week may be a little short so maybe 10 or 12 days work better. Do an open jaw ticket. Do a few days around the beginning point and a few days around the end point. So you need to find the cruise you like first.
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 03:13 PM
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With only an extra week for lnd, do or maybe two cities in the same general area, like Rome and Florence. Why don't yo skip the cruise idea and see more of Europe by land, actually be in the places overnight.
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 03:30 PM
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Thanks for your suggestions!! We are still open to other options. We are planning on April 2012. So we still have a lot of time to make final decisions.

I feel like we actually visit more places by doing the cruise, so that is why we decided on the cruise portion. We are just having a hard time settling on the other week. There is so much to see in the rest of Europe, that I feel like we will be missing something if we don't go to more places. Also I don't want to spend all our time on land in one country. but with our budget and time constraints we may be limitted to Italy. (which definately is not a bad thing!)

10 days in Italy, maybe Rome, Venice, Cinque Terre? And then the Cruise out of Rome, visiting Athens, Crete, Turkey, and Sicily. Are we missing out on other things by doing the cruise? I feel a little overwhelmed!
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 07:50 PM
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Personally we are big fans of cruising. We have done seven European cruises so we have beat up nearly every port. It is a very economical way to see a lot of Europe quickly. The drawback is that it is most sea ports but that is where many of the great cities are. And, ya, it is a quick hit. But we treat it more like a smorgasbord -- an opportunity for a quick sample. It is not the same as spending a couple of nights but you can get a feel for the place. Do your homework prior to each port, plan your own sightseeing, and avoid the ship excursions. They are over priced and geared to those too lazy to do their own planning. For your fist trip, it is a great way to go. Hit the cruise ship sites and find a cruise you like and then plan the rest of your trip. We like Holland Am as a good value between the very low end and high end ships.
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 07:52 PM
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PS -- April is not the best time to be in the Med. and you may not find a lot of good cruise options.
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 08:04 PM
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On the contrary, I think that while some ship-sponsored excursions are expensive, they are not necessarily filled with people who are "too lazy" to plan things "on their own." Many folks find an excursion the most efficient use of their LIMITED time in a port and often excursions allow you to at least view a few highlights in an efficient manner.

I think that you are pushing it a bit to include London AT ALL. You do not say what MED itinerary you are most interested in and knowing that would help.

If you are in Italy and want to do something in SOUTHERN Germany, such as Bavaria, that would easily be reached by rail from northern Italy. (Where does your proposed cruise end up?) Castles? then by all means the area around Munich might be a good place as the four Ludwig castles are very easily reached from there.
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Old Apr 27th, 2011, 09:22 PM
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Two of our trips have been "half and half" and we really enjoyed them both. We did not try to see so much on land, though- allowing the departure and arrival ports to shape the land portion.

The first was a cruise (7 day) from Rome to Nice. This was before I was aware of the "open jaw" option. We flew into Rome, after the week cruise took the train from Nice to Cinque Terre, spending three days there, then three days in Lucca, and home from Rome. This was a fantastic trip. A couple years ago we cruised from Rome to Barcelona, with a week prior in Rome, and 4 days in Barcelona before flying home from BCN.

If Venice and Rome are two of your interests, there are plenty of cruises from Rome to Venice with fantastic itineraries. I would spend a leisurely few days before and after in just those cities. We enjoyed the small-ship cruise as I believe it allows arrival at smaller ports.

Okay, now I'm ready to go again! Enjoy.
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Old Apr 28th, 2011, 04:48 AM
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>

You need to decide if you want to visit a lot of places or really see things in the places you do visit. I'm not a fan of cruising as I would hate to visit a major city for only a few hours. I would be thinking of all the things I didn't get to see.

You won't "see" Turkey but probably only Ephesus which is nothing like Istanbul or Cappadoccia. On Sicily you'll only see the port you stop at or something near the port (same with Crete). I'm about to embark on my Sicily trip and only have 12 days there and I'm already regretting everything I won't have time to see.

Think about the reasons why you want to go to a lot of countries in a very short time and then decide if hopping around a lot is for you. My opinion is that the more places you go for a short time the less you see.
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Old Apr 28th, 2011, 06:50 AM
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My family(husband, 15 year old son and myself) has been on almost 10 cruises and we have also done three weeks in Italy via land only. It is hard to do Italy via cruise since Florence and Rome are an hour inland. Also there is so much to see that you will do yourself a disservice not staying longer. If you are going to Italy for the first time I suggest you fly into Venice stay for two or three nights, train to Florence and stay 3 nights, train to Rome and stay 3 nights. You then can fly out of Rome to almost any city in Europe for a low price. My real advice is take the whole time in Italy and go top bottom (Venice, Florence, Rome and Taormina, Sicily). I guarantee you that you won't be disappointed!
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Old Apr 29th, 2011, 06:48 AM
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You can stop at many places on a cruise, but you can't really experience much during most of the stops. Unless, that is, you just enjoy briefly seeing a sight and checking it off your list--and there is nothing wrong with that if it is what you enjoy.

Just realize that you won't be doing much of anything in-depth due to time constrants, necessity to get back to the ship at a certain time, etc.

You will also be eating what the shipline wants you to eat--you will have fewer opportunities to experience local restaurants and foods. But some people don't care about that, and that is also fine for them.

If your thought is actually to visit as many places as possible, you might do better by air and train--both are faster than a ship.

As you can tell, I don't like cruising, but that is just because of what I like to do on a trip--and sitting on a boat and doing boat activities with a few hours in a port city now and then isn't one of the things that I like to do. Other people love to cruise on their time and money. There is no right way or wrong way, but I did want to point out some things for you to think about.
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Old May 2nd, 2011, 07:40 AM
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I am always a little amused with "experts" who have no experience with the subject but are quick to tell you why you should not do something. Just to cover a few if not a lot of misconceptions.

-----you can't really experience much during most of the stops.---- If I have eight to ten hours in a city what difference does it make if I start my day from a ship rather than a hotel room? Where you sleep makes little difference on what you can experience. Granted, I cannot get a three day experience out of one but for that day it is as good as any other experience. And not much different from those who use the train for one and two day quick hits.

-----will also be eating what the shipline wants you to eat-----

What !! ?? I have always been able to choose what I want to eat. Often we will lunch at one the better restaurants in the port city. Never felt restricted in what we could eat. And if the ship is not leaving till late that night or the next day will have dinner in the city.

----to visit as many places as possible, you might do better by air and train--both are faster than a ship.----

Ya, and spend hours on checkin, security, rentals, traveling, finding new hotel, train station, looking out the window -- I guess it is matter of how you define speed. That is a lot of wasted, non productive time

We tend to think of cruising as a night train with a great bed and you can actually get a good night sleep. It is not the same as parking in a location for week and doing some day trips, which we do, but it an economical way to see a lot of Europe very efficiently. We often recommend a cruise for first time travels because it is an easy intro to Europe and not have to worry about hotels and trains. In the early days we often did a little scouting of the city as the train terminal, some hotels in the area, and make some notes so that when we return we would have a better feel for everything. It worked well. A cruise is what you make of it and it is different for different people. I think you plan and idea is an excellent approach.
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Old May 3rd, 2011, 01:02 PM
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fmpden- thank you for your detailed response. It gives us a lot to think about.

Thank you to everyone who gave their advice. I think we have decided to do a cruise, following one week of traveling on land.
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Old May 3rd, 2011, 04:24 PM
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We are avid cruisers and are doing our first Med cruise in a week. We decided to pick a cruise that visited cities I was only moderately interested in visiting....places I don't want to spend a week at, but still want to see.

We depart from Rome and decided to spend 10 days pre-cruise in Rome. I could have added Venice, but I wanted to really enjoy Rome to its fullest.

My husband hates traveling but loves cruising...so half & half is a great compromise. If this works out, we'll definitely make this our normal summer Europe trip (maybe do a Baltic cruise next time).

I recommend checking out cruisecritic for great information.
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Old May 4th, 2011, 07:47 AM
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I have done three Med cruises, two river cruises and 25 land trips to Europe.

I quite enjoyed my two small ship cruises - one on Regent to Turkey and the Greek Isles (250 people) and one on Star Clipper (100 people) between Nice and Italy. My least favorite was the big ship cruise from Genoa to Barcelona.

The two river cruises were also interesting and we much prefer the less regimented and smaller ship experience, with overnights in port and extended port times, as well as parking in or very close to the center, making it easier to explore.

But our very favorite way to experience Europe, especially the Med, is to choose 3-4 base locations and plan day trips around those. We like the train system in Europe and enjoy using public transport when possible. We do not consider the time "non productive" - but we do find that being stuck on a ship in the evenings and experiencing the same cruise ship food and entertainment that we can get in the Caribbean is a real waste of our time in Europe.

We go to the Med to enjoy the food and wine as well as the history and culture. What we most enjoy are the relaxed mornings and evenings in the places we visit, made more enjoyable after the day trippers leave.

We are not interested in cruise ship banquet type food and much prefer enjoying the local cuisines of the countries we visit. We also do not care about cruise ship entertainment, finding our pleasure in enjoying evening strolls in the places we visit, visiting small wine bars and experiencing the unexpected, which happens often when one actually stays in a city rather than making a quick pass through to see the highlights.

When in a place for several days, one can adapt their schedule on the fly and change plans due to weather, a local fiesta, or simply because we spoke to someone we met who suggested a place to visit that we had never before considered - this has happened to us at train stations, cafes, etc. while traveling. With a cruise, one loses the flexibility of making choices spontaneously as the itinerary is fixed.

There are fans of both types of travel as we are all different. For us, based on our travel preferences and priorities, a land trip is the best of all options.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2012, 03:16 PM
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Hey there just wondering if you ended up doing a cruise/land combo in europe?
Curious what u recommend. We have been to europe travelled around by car train and plane. So this time we wanna do part cruise. Mediterranian preferabily. Let me know how your experience was. Thanks
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Old Mar 8th, 2013, 08:06 PM
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We are thinking about coming in to Europe through Paris and staying there for a few days and then flying to Athens for a 6 day Greek isles cruise (How is Princess for a young couple?). Then after our plan is to tour Italy for 6 days.
This trip is a total of 14/15 days...is this realistic?
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