any suggestion on ports without shore excursion on our Oceania Trans Atlantic cruise.

Tangier and Hamilton, what to/not to do, what to see etc,
thankyou very much,

Sam.

Sam
you should register with cruisecritic.com if you haven't already. Once registered you can go to the roll call boards for your specific cruise and exchange ideas there. Here is the thread but you may not be able to get to it until you register as roll call is for members only. Doesn't cost anything and is an invaluable source of info.http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=420

I am sure you will find out everything you want to as well as meet up with fellow passengers. Enjoy your cruise!

In Tangiers, we negotiated with a guide when we got off the ship to take us to the Musee des Arts Marocains et des Antiquities in the kasbah and on a walking tour. I especially enjoyed our visit to a spice shop, the pressure to buy a rug not as much.

We were on the Regatta about 3 weeks ago. One of the ports was Tangier. My husband contacted this guide [email protected] He was very reasonable and we were very pleased with the tour. We had a driver and a guide and an a/c van for the two of us. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

In Tangier, I should warn you that your guide will take you to a rather large shop in the suk which has jewerly and other items on the first floor and rugs on the second. I selected several things I was interested in and asked the price. They told me to put them in a basket and they would talk about price later. I'm a bargainer but I never settled on the price they wanted. We told them we weren't interested in rugs nor seeing how they were made. He also took us into a spice shop which we told him we weren't interested in. I really liked a bracelet I saw in the first shop and asked the guide if there wasn't another shop. He then took me to a smaller shop where we were able to negotiate a price. Obviously, the guides are paid a percentage. We saw several groups from the ship's tours in the first 2 shops. Be prepared to be hounded by people on the streets wanting you to buy their wars.

Meant by their wares. Not wars!

I'll get it right yet. Buy their wares. My fingers are going too fast!

traveller69, I have not registered, will certainly do that, tks

Abram and Katie2, thanks for the tips at Tangiers, does sound like one big market, looking forward to that, can we just walk into town and just walk around on our own?

Tks,

Sam.

Sam--It would be a very long walk if you didn't have a guide with a car. Plus we would not have felt comfortable without one--especially walking through the Kasbah and the suk. People of all ages would hound you to buy their wares. Most of the time, the guide would tell them to go away. Plus he would warn us when we were in an area known for pickpockets.

The guide we used charged $35 per person for a 5 hr. tour. Well worth it! He also spoke excellent English.

Katie2,

will contact tour guide you had,
thank you very much for your help.

Sam.

I agree about the distance and the benefit of a guide to ward off the very aggressive vendors.

As I recall, in 2005, we paid about $60 for 5-6 hours. There were four of us, so it was very inexpensive pp.

Thanks, guys.

It is indeed worth it, even shore excursion with O is only $59.00

Just rather do our own thing.

Sam.