We are in Shanghai for two full days. we are on a cruise and would want to be met at the ship. We would like a driver and a guide to see the city in full.
S\Any suggestions for a good guide and some good sights.

What ship are you on? Only smaller ships can dock at the new pier on the Bund; the rest have to dock at the container terminal which is some distance away. Unless you know for sure where you are docking, it may be difficult to confirm transport.

IMO it is difficult to "see" Shanghai from a car. Much of the colonial bits which remain have to be walked. The Bund has to be walked. The very good museum has to be walked. You could I suppose arrange to have a driver drop you off in say one end of the French concession and then pick you up, supposing he could park somewhere in the meantime. (A mobile phone which will work in the PRC and a driver with reasonably good English would help.)

If your ship docks at the Bund, then IMO you don't need transport at all, just walk the Bund first and take it from there. With a good guidebook, like the excellent Eyewitness Guide (sorry Fodors) you will have more than enough for 2 days. This will give you lots of ideas. With the main tourist places you would be going you do not have to worry about English, you will be able to get around and find English signage, shopkeepers, menus and people on the street to assist if necessary. The subway is very easy to use. For the "must sees": see the remaining colonial areas, the Bund and spend some time in the museum. Xiantiandi, the restored shophouse area is nicely redone and has lots of restaurants and shops, a little bit ersatz China, but also the China of the future as that is what the people want, so worth a look from that point of view. Forget the food on board and have breakfast, lunch and if you can dinner at one of the fantastic restaurants. You will encounter lots of shopping in all these areas, so you don't have to look out for it especially, and with only 2 days I am not sure that I would try that hard to find any bargains, a souvenir here or there is fine. Shanghai does not have much in the way of temples or traditional life, you may see some local life when in the colonial areas.

If you are not docking near the Bund, consider spending a night in a hotel, this will save you time back and forth to the container port, which is about 45 minutes from the Bund area if I am not wrong.

Even if you dock at the container port, then breakfast or lunch someplace like the Grand Hyatt may be a good start as the views from there are amazing (smog permitting) and will give you an idea of the lay of the land so to speak. (There is also a new Hyatt on the Bund, I have not been but that may be an even better place to start.) Then you can go out on your own either a taxi to the Bund or a walk along the Bund.

I have also seen your other posts. As you may be beginning to realize, a cruise is NOT the best way to see Asia. The ports are generally too far away from the cities or other interesting sites, the cities are far too large to be "seen" in a day or two, and you won't get to experience any of the great restaurants that these wonderful cities have to offer as you have to rush back to the boat to depart. Finally, the coastline and seas of much of this area are actually not that pretty or interesting, or the parts that are you won't get close to (the small islands off the coast of Malaysia for example). You might really want to consider doing Asia on a land trip, you will actually get to see it.

Thanks Cicerone
Our cruise is already booked so we have to do the best with what we have. We really are looking forward to the trip and want to make the mos of it. If you have answers to any of my other postings and give some insight I would appreciate it.
Thanks

If you want a driver who is fluent in English, I cannot help. But if you want a lovely driver who speaks some English and is honest with a good sense of humor, I will give you the number of the man who I booked for a day trip to Xitang last April (when I spent 6 days in Shanghai). The number is in my trip report but I will dig it up for you and post it here if you would like. I will top the report now; you can find his number in the Shanghai section which comes after Seoul and Beijing..

First, get some guidebooks to each country on your itinerary, as I can't tell from your post if you have any at this point. You do not necessarily have to buy the latest edition, I would check a library copy first, and then get the latest edition just for the most accurate information. While this sight is very helpful with particulars on places you have already chosen, it is not particularly helpful, IMO, in helping narrow choices. Also, most people on this board generally are not cruisers, although there is a cruise portion you might look at an post on. You can also try crusiecritic.com, although I have to say that people there do not seem to know the cities in Asia well; they can't given the little time they spend in them. I found that site very helpful on a cruise I took to Alaska last month in terms of life on board, and excursions offered by the ships and private excursions, however, so you may find it helpful as well.

Second, realize that in many cases you are going to be very far from the city you think your ship is going to see, e.g. Seoul, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, so consider going to places OTHER than the "port" named by the cruise ship. (Are you sure the port destination is actually Seoul and not Pusan/Busan?) However, with a good guidebook to a country, you may come up with ideas for other great sightseeing ideas much closer. If you are docking in Incheon, that is at least 1.5 by car each way (there would be some bus and some subway-train options but not really much faster). IMO personally Seoul is not worth traveling 1.5 hours to see in any event (and Busan is even farther from Seoul, several hours by train so would rule out Seoul completely in that case), but there may well be countryside areas of Korea with much more traditional village sights that would very much be worth seeing. I know that Pusan does have local sights and I believe there are some in the Incheon area as well. The Lonely Planet guide for Korea may be particularly good on off the beaten path sights in places other than Seoul.

You should find out what port you are docking at for your various ports. I have already mentined Shanghai. For Saigon, if it is Vung Tau, that is 2.5 hours from the city, if it is Phu My it is 1.5 hours. Some ships dock very close to central Saigon at Nha Rong passenger terminal, however. I understand that for Hanoi, some ships dock at Hong Gai, which is 3.5 hours away. Haiphong is 2.5 hours. (I know that the Regent Mariner docks at Hong Gai.) All this could make a huge difference in whether you decide to go into Saigon or Hanoi at all, or stay the night or or use alternate transportation. For example, Vung Tau is in the Mekong Delta and does have a lot to see and do in its own right, and I know that the Regent offers a helicopter option to get to Hanoi from Hong Gai. The cruise line should be able to tell you where they expect to dock in each place on the itinerary, and the distance in miles from each major city. (They may not want to, but they should be able to do this.) Note that distance in miles won't always tell you how long the trip will take, but will at least give you an idea if you are anywhere close. The drives are not necessarily uninteresting, they usually offer a lot of local colour, but to do them round trip in one day would not necessarily be that interesting or fun, IMO.

For cities in which you have 1-2 nights and which are far from the cruise pier, as I have suggested before I would really consider staying in a hotel for that night, esp. in a great city like Shanghai and Bangkok. (In Shanghai you may indeed be docked at a pier right on the Bund, so look into this first.) In Bangkok, the port is at least 2 hours away without any traffic – for which Bangkok is justly infamous. I have never done this drive, but I have no trouble saying that the drive could easily take more than 2 hours, but even with no traffic you are talking at least 4 hours in a car every day for 2 days. You really don't need the hassle of that, IMO. Also, you would get a chance to have dinner in the great restaurants, and experience things like sunrise on the rivers and watching the lights come up over the city someplace like the fabulous Sirocco rooftop bar in Bangkok. (Yes I suppose you can do this by staying very late in town, but without a hotel room to stop off in and change, dump stuff and just relax, that's a long, long hot and humid day in Bangkok, IMO to wait for cocktails for which you won't have showered and changed...) I realize you have paid for the cruise (and probably a good bit), but it is something to consider. I know that people on this board have used priceline and obtained rooms at the Marriott Bangkok on the river, and really great hotel that is very popular with me and this board, for about US$100 or even less in some cases. You might check into that. If you don't care about price so much, there are other great hotels on the river as well like the Oriental, the Peninsula and the Shangri-La. If you have any Marriott, Hyatt or Starwood points, then look into using those as well. Your cruise ship may offer this as part of an excursion, but I am betting you can get rooms for less on your own.