excursions on istanbul to greece cruise
 

please advise us any suggestions of privatly done excursions we can arrange for 4 adults to do on istanbul to athens windstar cruise in first week of september?

What are your ports?

our ports are Istanbul/Turkey - 5:00 PM
August 24 Sunday At Sea - -
August 25 Monday Kusadasi/Turkey 8:00 AM 10:00 PM
August 26 Tuesday Rhodes/Greece 1:00 PM 11:00 PM
August 27 Wednesday Bodrum/Turkey 8:00

AM 7:00 PM


any help is appreciated
August 28 Thursday Santorini/Greece 8:00 AM 11:00 PM
August 29 Friday Mykonos/Greece 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
August 30 Saturday Athens/Greece

We found Rhodes, Mykonos, and Santorini very easy to do on our own. I found self-guided walking tours in a book--probably Fodors, Frommers, or Rick Steves, as I usually read all three.

Athens was our disembarkation port; we hired Spiros from www.athenstaxi.net to pick us up at the ship, take us on a half day tour of Athens, and drop us at the hotel. Then we walked around the PLaka in the evening.

We used private guides in Istanbul, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Rhodes, and Santorini. Also used a taxi driver for Athens that took us all over and we even went to the Cape. Just so you know, you have to be a licensed tour guide to call yourself a tour guide in Athens. We picked Paul for Athens because he was honest up front and told us he wasn't licensed. Some don't. Worked great with a tour book. Paul is at [email protected]. We went all over Rhodes to include Lindos, all over Santorini (both towns and the beach). Ephesus is not to be missed. If you want more details, email me and I'll send you my trip report (in Word) and other guide names. Well worth doing private tours for the 4 of you!

Which cruise line did you use, and were you satisfied? Thanks!

Can you tell us how much the tour of Athens would cost (in dollars) for the two of us with the taxi service?? Also, a tour of Santorini? Thanks

We were on Oceania, which is our favorite line.

It cost 125 Euro to have Spiros pick us up at the ship, take us on a narrated 5 hour tour of Athens, and drop us at our hotel. Because he also wasn't a licensed guide, he couldn't escort us around the Acropolis, but gave us information as we were driving there, and an illustrated guide book to help us do a self-guided tour.