plpreston

Although we have prior European travel experience, in May 2010 my daughter(adult) and I will be taking our first cruise. We will depart Civtavecchia and travel to Naples/Capri, Rhodes, Athens, Ephesus, Alexandria, and Sicily. We would really like to keep this trip as "hassle free" as possible. Is it better to find your own shore excursions or use the Royal Caribbean excursions that are offered? The only experience we have with any tour group is Context Travel that we used in Rome (small group/excellent!). We are especially interested in the Egypt excursions. We will be docked for two days and understand that it will be about 2-1/2 hrs overland to get to Cairo. Our main focus is historical tours. We would appreciate and advice and help that anyone has to offer.

sueswny

My TA arranged a wonderful private shore excursion a few years ago in Alexandria. It was an overnight trip, and we saw far more than the ship tour--and our price was unbelievably low. It was with Champion Holidays,a company located in Cairo, and they were GREAT!!

madalinahk

While we have not done your itinerary, we have cruised quite a few times and have always found that, in the culture/art/history intensive ports, a private tour is always better. For scenic excursions like the ones in Alaska, maybe not so much. I think we may have similar tastes since I too loved Context in Rome!

Go to cruisecritic.com and check on the boards there, look under the discussion groups for each of the ports. (you have to become a member to search the boards, I think). It is a treasure trove of information - you will get names of companies, guides, approximate prices. .Have fun!

doug_stallings

You can certainly arrange tours in all these ports on your own. In Alexandria, for instance, you can get onto a modern train to Cairo, be met at the station, and take a nice tour of Cairo and the Pyramids without a ton of other people, and be put on another train the next day. There are several tour companies that can make these arrangements, including the hotel. Debbie, who runs Casual Cairo Detours, sometimes posts on our boards. If you go into the Middle East forum, someone can give you some advice on Cairo.

Of course, the easiest, albeit most expensive, option is to simply book through your ship, but then you will be on a bus with many other people. Usually for the same price two people can do a private excursion, though it can be more expensive if you really insist on a fully guided tour in each port.

plpreston

Thank you for your help and great advice. I will certainly talk to my agent about this and check on some of the other sites that are mentioned!

blairlron

plpreston - did you have any luck? I will be on the May 6th-18th ship and was searching for similar information.

I chatted with Memphis Tours and they provided me a private alternative with more flexibility $150pp cheaper than what RC is offering. Should I be concerned however that I won't have a police escort for the transfer?

abram

Due to weather, we docked in Naples rather than tendering in Amalfi, as originally planned. We had arranged for Giovanni from www.tourofitaly.com to take us on an all day tour of the Amalfi Coast, stopping in Sorrento, Ravello, and Positano.

We found Rhodes very easy to tour on our own; we did a self-guided hiistorical walking tour of the old city that I compiled from some guidebooks.

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 our hotel.

All three were great days.

blairlron

Sounds great. How did you tour in Egypt?