European Cruise Advisor

When you are planning a cruise vacation, part of the process is also planning out the shore excursions that you will be taking, after all sightseeing is a major part of any cruise holiday. Making the right choices with your day and overnight trips is important to consider carefully because its at this stage you may end up causing the costs of your cruise to go sky high!

Typically Shore excursions can be bought onboard ship from the tour desk that most ships will operate. The range of trips are often numerous and will range from half a day coach trips which will cost about £30 / $50 up to exciting adventure excursions that may well cost up to £200 or $300 per person.

The possibility of arranging you own shore excursions or simply plumping for the shore excursion on offer by the ship will usually depend on a few factors; perhaps you know the area, or there is something specific you want to visit. Also consider the local language, if you speak Spanish or French you might be able to communicate easily with the locals, plenty of destinations speak English also, so by finding these facts out in advance can help you make the decisions when planning the days trips.

If you a planning to arrange private tours, some independent tour operators may be cheaper, you can either contact the tour operator directly before the cruise or hire a local guide when you have arrived in the port. Sometimes it can be a good idea to group up with some other people on the ship that you might have made friends with over the past few days; this can make the overall costs of the excursions cheaper too.

If you want a personalized shore excursion, then hiring a local guide is a really great idea. You will be able to plan you own timetables; with the guides advice and you will definitely get to see more than on the standard cruise line offering. You could even grab a guidebook and go off your own if you are really adventurous, most European cities have good transport links, with the major hubs having signs and translations in popular European languages especially English.

One important point to take note of is that if you are planning a day trip that is not planned by the cruise line, that you ensure that you get back to the ship in time for its departure, if a passenger misses a ships sailing, it their own responsibility to get to the next port to catch up with the ship, this could be a costly mistake to make and is something to avoid at all costs.

Sometimes it really is easier to stick with the standard excursion offered by the ship, if you want to just have a nice day out without any worries then this can be the best choice, in the end there a advantages and disadvantages of planning your own cruise shore excursion and you will probably want to make up your own mind at which ports you want to make your own decisions or just go with the standard day out packages.

One last point, is to make sure you have contacts number with you, each port will have a contact number for the port agent that you can get from the staff on your cruise liner, that way if there are any problems that mean you get stranded you can at least keep the ship staff up to date with what’s going on, and maybe they will be able to help you out.

Going Ashore

Unless you are cruising the Atlantic or perhaps on a cruise without a destination, then your ship will of course spend time in port.

So that each cruise line can have differing and attractive itineraries to attract and encourage new passengers to travel with them, they will attempt to include a vast variety of activities ranging from surfing to day visit to the culture capital cities of the world.

Once you have arrived aboard your ship, unpacked and gotten the lay of the ship worked out, you will no doubt find that the cruise liner, as a means of transport is about as carefree and relaxing as you would have imagined. You will be travelling between destinations in luxury and even though life about a modern cruise liner is the epitome of relaxation, visiting the ports and places that the ship will be calling at is an intriguing opportunity to investigate and explore new surroundings and cultures.

Spending Time in Port

If as a cruise passenger, you are interested in spending as much time in port as you can, then making sure you select the right itinerary for you is important. This clearly involves looking at the schedules of the cruises and identifying which ports the ships will visit as well as how long the stay will be. This is especially important if you have something specific you want to see on your European cruise, for example in Rome or Venice.

With a ship arriving in port at roughly 8am in the morning, passengers will be able to leave the ship within half an hour, once the finalities of docking have been seen to, this will include something sometimes called ‘clearing’. This is the process whereby before passengers are allowed ashore, the local officials will come aboard to inspect the ships paperwork and perhaps examine some passenger’s passports to ensure everything is in order. Depending on circumstances this may be quite quick are take longer if for example passengers who have specific immigration requirements do not present themselves promptly.

Sometime cruise liners will not actually dock at certain port, perhaps the waters are too shallow or the dock too small, in this case a boat called a Tender will take passengers ashore, generally those with pre-booked shore excursions with the cruise line will get priority and everyone else will be on a first come first served basis usually using a ticketing system.

One thing to bear in mind is the most cruises will require its passengers back aboard at least half an hour before departing, so for a typical 8am until 4pm day this will give you seven hours or so to fit everything in. This is where planning comes in handy.
Some places a quite small, however places such as Venice in Italy are too large to explore in one day, so making sure you know what you want to see in advance is an advantage (this includes using a few maps to figure out how you will get to each place). Alternatively this is where a pre-planned cruise line arranged excursion has the advantages, its all done for you so you don’t need to worry about missing out.

Some ports of call will be overnight stays, in this case the ship will not arrive and leave in one day bit will dock overnight. This means that you will get the excellent opportunity to dine ashore, rather than aboard ship if you so prefer. Also it means that you can explore further inland, for example if you were docking a Spanish port such as Barcelona or Valencia.

With so many different shore excursions on offer from the cruise lines, especially for European cruise operators, shore excursions are something that should be part of any cruise vacation.

French Riviera European Cruise Excursions

If you are going to be taking a tour of France, then you will of course want to make sure you get to see all the fantastic sights that France has to offer. Shore excursions, when you are in France, are very popular and you should find that the Cruise line that you are taking your European cruise with should offer them. You should also consider using independent companies that will also arrange shore excursions which might allow you to visit some of the places you really would like to see.

Before you choose your French shore excursion from a private company, there are a couple of things you might want to consider.

Check where the tour goes

Make sure that the places that the tour will take in are areas that you really want to visit, check how long you will be visiting certain places to make sure its exactly what you want, if not, then perhaps you should choose a different shore excursion option.

Do the tours include some sort of guide.

Having a knowledgeable tour guide, perhaps on a coach tour, can make the difference on a tour. Having things explained as you pass by or pointed out with interesting facts can make the experience much more enjoyable.

Organize your times.

If you are going to use a private operator make sure you know when the departure and arrival times are so that you can be back on your Cruise ship at the correct time, missing your cruise departure time for you next destination could be a big mistake and not something you want to do.

France is a very interesting place to visit with lots of historical locations, some other things to consider when taking an excursion is whether it needs to be family orientated. If you have children with you for your family European cruise vacation it a good idea to choose excursions that are suitable for families so the kids don’t get bored.

If you are going to visit France then you must definitely visit the French Riviera, with magnificent views especially from the Moyenne Corniche its definitely a must visit. While there why not try and visit some famous placees such as the medieval village of Eze, describe as an “eagle’s nest” because of its location overlooking a high cliff. Also, whilst you are there, why not pop into the Fragonard perfume factory which has a sales outlet there.

There is so much to say about the places that you can visit on a shore excursion in France that it would be recommend to do plenty of research on the internet, why not take a look at this Wikipedia article on the French Riviera as a great starting point to find out all you need to know.