Shore excursions
 

We are doing a mediterranean cruise with HAL later this year and it seems that most ports have hop on hop off busses available which seems to be a great way to see an area in a snort amoint of time but some have said you should only organise shore excursions through the cruise line. Has anyone used the hop on hop of services and have any feedback on them, thanks

Personally, I can't stand HOHO busses. They are like a drive by movie. Sometimes they are stuck in traffic. Big waste of time and money. You don't actually see anything or have any local experience. IMHO, it is better to walk if you can or take a taxi if you need to. Choose two or three places or things you want to see and do that.

We have not used any of the cruise ship's excursions either, always done things on our own, or joined a group of other cruisers. However, in some places, depending on what they offer, it might be reasonable to take one, and if their excursion runs late, the ship usually waits.

Many excursions are super easy to do on your own.

List your ports here and get advice from other cruisers on possible excursions.

Join cruisecritic and the rollcall for your cruise. You can find out what other cruisers are doing and perhaps groups to join for DIY excursions.

Suggest you buy or borrow a copy of Rick Steves' guide to Mediterranean cruises which will tell you which ports work for DIY and how to do it. Or you can sign up for the roll call for your cruise on cruisecritic and see what others are doing. The ship excursions are one of the several ways the cruise lines gouge you to make up for cheap fares. I think Fodors also has a cruise guide book but I don't know how good it is on DIY.

https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/...n-cruise-ports

Hi Kate,

You might wish to join cruisecritic.com

((I))

Happy to help if you provide the names of the ports. We've done a mix of all, walked, taxi, private tours, ship's tours, etc.

We have done several HOHO buses before but only once while in port. The rest were done during land vacations and then they were actually ok for us. The one time we used one in port was a nice, sunny Sunday in Oslo so the traffic was not an issue then.

Actually many experienced cruisers never use ships tours as they are big and very expensive. We did use a ships tour in SPB but that was because that way we got around the Russian visa hassle.

In most case private sellers are at the docks and you will find them less many and you can tailor the tour to your needs. We usually just get a cab and go, very easy and we've never had a problem doing it this way with 15 cruises under our belts. Just be sure you have enough time to get back to the ship on time.

If you list your ports that would help.

Check out: www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com - It is what we are using in Greece this year. 20-yr-old company, well reviewed and very well priced. The cruiselines' excursions are very pricey. Another one we're using on land is another gem, Tours by Locals, also well recommended to us by seasoned travellers. By the way, our travel agent linked our cruise directly to the tours offered through Shore Excursions Group so we are proceeding with them from the ship, and uisng Tours by Locals in an around Athens.