This will be my husband's & my first European cruise. We will be departing on Jun 29 on the Emerald Princess from Venice to Barcelona. The Itinerary is:

Athens
Kusadasi
Istanbul
Mykonos
Naples
Civitavecchia (Rome)
Livorno (Florence/Pisa)
Marseille
Barcelona

We are traveling with another couple and have booked private tours in all the ports except Mykonos and Marseille.

Can anyone advise me if we can do Mykonos and Marseille on our own, or book an excursion through Princess, or arrange for tours at the port?

Did anyone ever respond. I have similar questions on the reverse itinerary at end-May

No, I have not gotten a response yet. Are you sailing on Princess?

HI,
We are going on Emerald Princess on May 12 and so far have only booked a tour for Ephesus. I think since there is not much to choose from in Mykonos we are going to wander on our own and in Marseille I think the best places to visit are Aix en Provence, Arles, or Cassis. I am thinking by then we will be tired of churches and ruins and may choose to do the tour to Cassis--a small fishing village--to enjoy the view and some vin. Marseille is a bit of a rough place( memory of some 25 years ago!) and I think there are better places to see in Provence.

Hi Jane!

Thank you so much for your response. Please be sure to follow-up after you return from your cruise. I will be very interested to find out how you enjoyed the cruise, and if you have any additional advice for our cruise the next month.

Nancy Davis

quote:

Originally posted by klfdef:
Did anyone ever respond. I have similar questions on the reverse itinerary at end-May

Yes, Jane Anchor responded today.

Hi
We will be traveling on the same June 29th cruise. Likewise, our family of four has booked private tours in all but Mykonos, Florence and Marseille.
I had a friend that just returned from this same cruise and she said Mykonos was fine to do on your own. She said it wasn't worth going to the beach ( the water was freezing - this was the first week in June) and they charge 20 euros for a beach chair.
I think we are going to do Florence by train on our own and I am leaning towards taking the train to Aix-En-Provence as well. I just can't seem to find any private tours that look reasonable in price.

Thanks for your response. It won't be long now! Our 4-some signed up for the Aix-En-Provence & Lourmarin On Your Own excursion in Marseilles, and we'll do Mykonos on our own, but stay away from the Beach.

A week from tomorrow my husband & I are renting a car & driving to the Dolomites for 3 nights before arriving in Venice for the cruise.

Happy sailing!

Sometimes I wish there would be a few others who would respond to these kind of questions. If the poster has his/her heart set on booking tours, than they can certainly book another cruise ship tour (always overpriced) or make on-line inquiries to find a local tour operator. For a few hundred Euros you will be able to get a great tour to anywhere in the region. Most cruisrs think of Marseille as a gateway to the Provence region of France, although, even Marseille has some of its own charm. But, I generally recommend that folks take advantage of the opportunity to visit Provence. If you look at a map, imagine a triange with Aix en Provence, Arles, and Avignon at the points. That is a wonderful region. It is actually quite easy to get to Aix and Arles by train (Avignon is a little further) although a car increases the opportunity to explore the countryside. When we are in this region (be it on a ship or simply when traveling in France) we like to rent a car. As to what you see, in Arles you have an attractive city with an amazing Roman Amphitheater at its heart (they still use this ancient outdoor theater for summer concerts). In Aix, you get a beautiful town with some very attractive wide tred-lined avenues with wonderful outdoor cafes. This was also a favorite home town for Cezanne and they maintain his studio as a tourist place. The reason most of the Impressionists loved Provence was because the provence is full of picturesque scenery and places. One other thing that came up a few weeks ago. While on a transatlantic cruise (Grand Princess) we were having dinner with a two other couples and the subject of the cost of tours and cruising was being discussed. I made an offhand remark that I knew how to reduce the cost of our cruise by 25%. Of course that got some interest and a fun bet of a free drink. I simply took a list of their tours and the cost, and quickly calculated how much they could save by doing the same things on their own (with trains, local buses, and rental cars) and it turned out that it would save them about 28% (I won the drink). Our European friends often remark that they do not understand why Americans and Japanese seem to be unable to do anything without a tour guide. In fact, its fun to spend a day sitting in the Piazza Navona (Rome) watching the tour groups in this very public piaza. We are often told its because of the language barrier. Well, I am an American who has traveled in more than 75 countries, and the worst language barrier problems I have is in my own country where many refuse to speak English!

Hank

Hank, thank you for your response. You seem very well informed. Are you in the travel industry?

Can you tell me how long it would take to travel by train to Aix and Arles by train, and where the train is located in relation to the port? Or perhaps I'll look into renting a car in Marseilles and finding out if my Garmin Nuvi is up to the challenge.

In the travel industry? No way. We are simply folks who love to travel and manage to do this for about 6 months a year. We have met many travel industry folks over the years, and most have "impressed" me with their lack of personal travel experience. Getting back to Marseille, it can be hard to find the train travel schedules because France's railroad (SNCF) has a confusing web site and not all their routes are listed in major web sites such as RailEurope. The train system that runs out of Marseille into Provence is generally part of their regional rail system called the TER. The trains leave from the St Charles train station which is the main station in central Marseille. I am not sure where your ship will dock, but you probably would have to take a shuttle into town (they would drop you in the old port area) from where you can walk the few blocks to the train station (just ask anyone to point you in the direction of the Gare St Charles). There are usually about 2 trains per hour to Aix and the one-way journey takes 30 - 40 min (depending on the train). From Marseille to Arles takes about an hour and there is usually 1 or two trains per hour. Unfortunately, the train connections between Aix and Arles are not convenient (no direct service) which rules out doing both places on trains. Its one of the reasons that we prefer to have a rental car when in many European ports (including Marseille). There might be some kind of bus service between Aix and Arles, but we have very little knowledge of the French public bus lines. Its about an hour drive between those cities. With a car, there are many nice routes that can take you to places like Aix, Arles, Avignon, Les Baux, and St Remy. These are all great places to visit to get a good feel for the region.

Funny that you mention Garmin Nuvis. We have one (Model 670) which came with the North American and European Maps. We have used it extensively in Western Europe, and it works well except sometimes it does not always give you the perfect route. If your model does not have the European maps (most don't) you probably know you can buy the CD from Garmin and load it into your unit although you might have to add a memory chip. Since the major European rental car companies rent the units for about $15 a day, you can do the math and see if it makes sense.

Hank

Hank,

We have the Garmin Nuvi 370, which also has the European maps preloaded. I believe it is the same as your 670 except that the screen is smaller and the price is also. I also bought the language guide, but from what I can see I don't think it's going to be of much help. We only speak English (despite living in Miami, FL) and hope that we'll encounter bilingual people in our travels.

Per your warning, we won't attempt the trains in Marseilles, but may consider renting a car. Or we may stick with the over-priced tour we've signed on to with Princess.

Thank you again for the very helpful information.

NPD, I hope I wasn't mis-interpreted (and I speak English . The trains in Marseille are fine if you just want to go to Aix en Provence or Arles (not both). Where the trains come up short is if you want to see more than Marseille + one other place. As to language, many French speak and understand some English, and in the south of France they are generally pretty friendly. But, there are a couple of customs that help. Always greet the French in their own language (BonJour). Whenever you enter a shop or a restaurnat always start out with a quiet Bonjour with a smile. We also like to ask if they speak English in French. "Parlez vous anglais?" The French really appreciate that you will try a few words. The road signs are pretty easy, For some reason they use the word "Stop" on their stop signs. All speeds are in kilometers, and we usually change our Nuvi over to kilometers to get in the right frame of mind. We really did debate the 370 vs the 670, but in the end opted for the larger screen. The software is the same so you will have a lot of fun using the thing. One problem is that the POIs are all listed in the countries own language. It took me a long time to figure out what the Leaning Tower of Pisa was in Italian

Hank