European Cruise Excursions
 

Can anyone give some tips on hiring tour guides or self tours for Florence/Pisa, Venice, Naples, and Monte Carlo?

We booked drive Amalfi for our tour in Naples on August 26. Their email address is [email protected].

Hope this helps. All the other ports you listed we are doing ourselves.

We just returned from a Med cruise and did it all ourselves. Most of it went very smooth, there were a few glitches which I hope you won't repeat. Florence really is easy. Take a cab to the Livorno train station and you are in Florence within 1 and a half hours. Get your tickets to see David and then spend the rest of your day seeing the Doumo, the Santa Croce Cathedral, the mercado, whatever interests you. The main thing about DIY is you have to have done your homework, which means, have a map and know what you want to see before you get there. Monte Carlo is easier then Florence because the distance is really close. This you can also do your self. The casino is in one part, then you take a bus to the Palace and you can spend the rest of your time wandering the town and window shopping or buying! We did Naples on our own and I think that was a mistake. First off at Pompeii the guides there wanted $80.00 whether there were 2 people or 25. We didn't have 25 people so we rented audio guides. I don't think they are as good as a live person that you can question. We took the train from there to Sorrento which was very easy and had a great afternoon, and then we took a hydrofoil back to the ship from Sorrento. The people from the ship who took the ships excursion or hoired private drivers to drive the Amalfi coast loved it. So my moral is, most of the places you can do on your own, but some, you really need to pay a guide or a driver to get the maximum out of it.

A Second vote for DriveAmalfi at [email protected] for cruise tours Naples.

You have received good advice already, all that you need really. Do it on your own. We did all those ports as well as Malta and it was our 1st cruise as well. Once we disembarked we saw many cabs and private tour operators just waiting for customers. Do a bit of research to see what inrerests you, get a cab, cut a price and be off. No problems and its alot cheaper than the ships excursions.