5 Ways to Explore Cruise Ports

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Preparing for Your Cruise Vacation

Whether this is your first cruise or you are a seasoned cruise veteran, you will want to do some pre-planning before your vacation begins.  The type of cruise (ocean, river, expedition) will factor into the amount of planning that you do as well as your overall vacation budget.

River Cruises

We'll start with the trip that requires the least amount of planning ahead of time.   River cruises usually include most of the excursions in the price of the cruise.   There might be some optional tours, which could be complementary or available for extra cost, available for each port of call.  It is advisable to review the list ahead of time and book the ones that interest you the most, if that option is available to you.

Local Guides

For the most part, you'll be docked near the center of activity in your port of call.  There may be times where you'll need to be shuttled, typically by bus, to your tour starting point.

Whether you are walking, on another vessel (like a canal boat), or a bus, you'll be accompanied by a local guide who will provide you with information about what you are seeing as well as background information including food, culture, and history.  You may have some free time to explore after the guided portion of the tour.

Your Cruise Director will explain the tour options, usually the night before arrival in port. Typically there are different difficulty levels which you'll select by picking the audio phone color of choice.

Ocean Cruises

Similar to river cruises, there will be a list of shore excursions published on the cruise line's website and brochures.   You can browse the list ahead of time and select / pay for the ones that interest you the most.   Booking shore excursions requires the least amount of planning on your part since the tours include the most popular attractions in each port of call.   Once again, you can select difficult levels by reading the descriptions and selecting accordingly.

Level of Comfort

New cruisers tend to use cruise line shore excursions because it is the simplest and there is no worry about finding your way around town or making your way back to the ship on time.  Another option is to use a tour company like Shore Excursions Group, who we work with on a regular basis, to find similar tours to those offered by the cruise line.   Those tours are usually cheaper and the groups tend to be smaller than the ones with the ship.  They will guarantee return to the ship on time or they'll get you to the next port of call at their expense.  That takes the worry out of missing the ship departure.

Private Tour Guides

Your vacation specialist can provide local guide contacts should you decide to book one or more tours with a local guide.   The internet is another source for finding local guides.  This is a great option if you are traveling with a group (even a small one).   The tour price is divided by the number of guests, and this option gives you a customized experience at a reasonable price.

On Your Own

If you are looking to blaze your own trail, you can explore completely on your own.  You will want to be sure to have the ship contact information with you and pay close attention to when you must be back on board the ship.   There usually is about a 30 minute window between the time to be back and the actual ship departure, but you don't want to cut things close and be left behind.

The least expensive option will be to head out on foot, perhaps getting some local cuisine or do some shopping (OK, that might not be cheap).  You will want to do some research before your cruise to see if there are attractions within walking distance or a short cab ride away.  For the sun worshipers, catching a taxi to a local beach is a great way to spend the day in port.   Most taxi drivers will be glad to come back to pick you up at a set time.

Another option we offer is Resort for a Day.  Instead of selecting a beach at random, you can play at some of the most magnificent resorts while your ship is in port.

Click on the Infographic above for some more details.  Browse our blog and website as well to learn more about our adventures.

 

National Plan A Cruise Month Promotions 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

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Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

5 Ways to Explore Cruise Ports

click to enlarge
download PDF

Preparing for Your Cruise Vacation

Whether this is your first cruise or you are a seasoned cruise veteran, you will want to do some pre-planning before your vacation begins.  The type of cruise (ocean, river, expedition) will factor into the amount of planning that you do as well as your overall vacation budget.

River Cruises

We'll start with the trip that requires the least amount of planning ahead of time.   River cruises usually include most of the excursions in the price of the cruise.   There might be some optional tours, which could be complementary or available for extra cost, available for each port of call.  It is advisable to review the list ahead of time and book the ones that interest you the most, if that option is available to you.

Local Guides

For the most part, you'll be docked near the center of activity in your port of call.  There may be times where you'll need to be shuttled, typically by bus, to your tour starting point.

Whether you are walking, on another vessel (like a canal boat), or a bus, you'll be accompanied by a local guide who will provide you with information about what you are seeing as well as background information including food, culture, and history.  You may have some free time to explore after the guided portion of the tour.

Your Cruise Director will explain the tour options, usually the night before arrival in port. Typically there are different difficulty levels which you'll select by picking the audio phone color of choice.

Ocean Cruises

Similar to river cruises, there will be a list of shore excursions published on the cruise line's website and brochures.   You can browse the list ahead of time and select / pay for the ones that interest you the most.   Booking shore excursions requires the least amount of planning on your part since the tours include the most popular attractions in each port of call.   Once again, you can select difficult levels by reading the descriptions and selecting accordingly.

Level of Comfort

New cruisers tend to use cruise line shore excursions because it is the simplest and there is no worry about finding your way around town or making your way back to the ship on time.  Another option is to use a tour company like Shore Excursions Group, who we work with on a regular basis, to find similar tours to those offered by the cruise line.   Those tours are usually cheaper and the groups tend to be smaller than the ones with the ship.  They will guarantee return to the ship on time or they'll get you to the next port of call at their expense.  That takes the worry out of missing the ship departure.

Private Tour Guides

Your vacation specialist can provide local guide contacts should you decide to book one or more tours with a local guide.   The internet is another source for finding local guides.  This is a great option if you are traveling with a group (even a small one).   The tour price is divided by the number of guests, and this option gives you a customized experience at a reasonable price.

On Your Own

If you are looking to blaze your own trail, you can explore completely on your own.  You will want to be sure to have the ship contact information with you and pay close attention to when you must be back on board the ship.   There usually is about a 30 minute window between the time to be back and the actual ship departure, but you don't want to cut things close and be left behind.

The least expensive option will be to head out on foot, perhaps getting some local cuisine or do some shopping (OK, that might not be cheap).  You will want to do some research before your cruise to see if there are attractions within walking distance or a short cab ride away.  For the sun worshipers, catching a taxi to a local beach is a great way to spend the day in port.   Most taxi drivers will be glad to come back to pick you up at a set time.

Another option we offer is Resort for a Day.  Instead of selecting a beach at random, you can play at some of the most magnificent resorts while your ship is in port.

Click on the Infographic above for some more details.  Browse our blog and website as well to learn more about our adventures.

 

National Plan A Cruise Month Promotions 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

Follow Us On

        

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers

Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Budget European Travel by Cruise Ship

Budget Travel - 
What Comes to Mind

The next #WeekendWanderlust twitter chat will take place Tonight Thursday August 9th at 9 PM  Eastern time. This week’s questions are all about Europe travel.

Preparing for this week's chat, we gave that question some serious thought.  Most likely the first thing that comes to mind is backpacking across Europe, traveling by rail, and staying in hostels.  That's fine if you are in your early twenty's but after that, we doubt that would be your preferred method of travel.

Cruising Europe

We can't argue that backpacking across Europe is the epitome of budget travel, but for those that can no longer travel in that fashion, the next best thing could be seeing Europe by cruise ship.   If you are coming from the United States, the cost of air travel will be your largest component.   Since it is a fixed cost, no matter what you do upon arrival in Europe, we will not factor that into our budget assessment.

We'll use a Baltic cruise for an example on how cruising in Europe can be budget travel.  A typical Baltic itinerary will have about 7 or 8 ports of call.   If you were to visit those same ports by making your own travel arrangements, it would most likely include several flights between the various destinations, which as we've already mentioned could add significant cost to the trip.   Likewise, you would need to have lodging in each destination.

With a cruise, your lodging and transportation between countries is already included in the price.  Meals and entertainment are also included, all of which would have been extras if sight seeing on your own.

Exploring Ports

There are many ways to explore the countries that the ship visits.  There are several options which fall in the budget travel category.  We'll explore some of those which we used during a past cruise to the region.

The picture above is a "hop-on-hop-off" bus.   With this form of transportation you can typically start the tour when you get off the ship and conclude back at the ship, making a circle around the port city.  For one low price, usually around $20 USD, you have the option to get on and off the bus as many times as you like to see points of interest along the route.  This is how we toured Copenhagen for example.

In several of our ports, there were shuttles from the ship that would take us into town.  In Stockholm, we took the shuttle and then after a short walk, we were able to book a boat excursion "Under the Bridges of Stockholm".  This two hour tour was one of the highlights of the cruise.   We also used the shuttle method to go to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen for an evening at the amusement park.

In many ports of call, it was possible to simply walk to nearby attractions.  Such was the case in Bergen, Norway.   In this picture, we walked to the Fløibanen Funicular, one of Bergen's most popular attractions. Ride the tramway to the top for views of the entire area.

If you decide to have a meal while in port, for example in Bergen,  you have a full range of choices from the choices for the budget minded to expensive.   Perhaps something in the fish market would give you a taste of Bergen on the budget side.

The great thing about cruising is that it is all about choice.   The cruise lines offer excursions, which typically cost more than if you organize the same tour on your own.  The benefit to the ship's tours is that you don't have to plan anything and also, they are responsible for getting you back to the ship on time.  Which ever way you decide to go, you have already saved money by not having to pay for hotels, meals, entertainment and additional transportation during your multi-port visit.

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Taste of Vesteralen

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Just north of the Lofoten Islands and the Arctic Circle, the archipelago of Vesterålen reaches out westwards from mainland Norway and into the Atlantic Ocean. Since our ship was Hurtigruten MS Vesteralen, we had to sign up for this optional excursion.

Harstad - Trondenes Chruch 

Our tour started with a short sightseeing jaunt through the streets of Harstad before traveling by bus to the Trondenes peninsula. The first stop was at Trondenes Church, a white medieval church, one of North Norway's premier cultural heritage sites from the late Middle Ages.


Trondenes Historical Center


Set in historical surroundings on the Trondenes peninsula, just outside Harstad center, is the Trondenes Historical Center.

After visiting the interior of the Trondenes Church we walked along the pathway to the center building. The sun glistened on the water and snow making for some great photo opportunities.

Once inside the building, we visited an exciting exhibition complete with sounds, smells, and original objects from the region throughout history from the Viking and Middle Ages through today.

Hinnøya Island & Crossing Gullesfjord by Ferry

Our bus tour continued across Hinnøya Island, where we viewed beautiful fjords, steep mountains, and large fertile agricultural fields. We continued through the winding roads until coming to the ferry boarding location.

Our bus pulled onto the ferry, we unloaded, and went upstairs to a cafe where we enjoyed a hot drink and some freshly baked cakest.  It took about 30 minutes to cross the Gullesfjord by ferry, and then we drove off to continue our tour.

Sigerfjord to Sortland 

The tour then continued along the Sigerfjord to Sortland. We stopped at a scenic overlook and then proceeded through the region, where we rejoined the ship. This was a very enjoyable excursion.

For those that opt to stay onboard the ship instead of touring, the island groups of Lofoten and Vesterålen offer some of the most stunning scenery you see during the entire coastal cruise. The Lofoten region is renowned for its natural beauty with steep mountains, wild nature, and small, picturesque fishing villages. The daylight sailing route through the Lofoten Islands is a highlight for many of Hurtigruten's guests.

Additional photos can be found on our Norway Shutterfly page

Harstad
Trondenes Church
Trondenes Historical Center
Hinnøya Island
Gullesfjord by Ferry
Sigerfjord to Sortland





Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

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Where have you explored? 

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