MDabney Posted February 26, 2022 Report Share Posted February 26, 2022 Any pre-cruise Athens Hotel recommendations (currently looking at Radisson Blu, Hyatt, Hilton or IHG properties.) Also the same hotel info for post-cruise Barcelona plus transportation options from Port of Tarragona to Barcelona post-cruise. Finally, any must dos and/or excursions in Athens, Santorini, Katakolon, Catania, Salerno, Ajaccio, Villefranche-Sur, Sete and Barcelona. Thanks for any and all suggestions, we can't wait for this trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbrinkm Posted March 1, 2022 Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 I can only talk about Greece (Athens & Santorini). In Athens, we used Athens Insiders and they were amazing. You can use them for the ubiquitous Parthenon/Acropolis tours if you've never done that before, or they offer custom tours, or other "off the beaten path" tours. We especially loved the treasure hunt, but did it with kids (although all the adults in the group enjoyed it as well). Santorini - if you are able to withstand a rigorous climb, we really loved taking a tour of the volcano (but we had a big group and did a private ship tour, so can't recommend any specific commercial tour). Other than that, Santorini is beautiful to just walk around in Oia, looking at the architecture. But you must do it well before sunset because the streets are utterly packed with people trying to get that "perfect" photograph. Like every walkway with any kind of view is wall to wall people. We were trying to get back to our hotel after dinner and got separated from my parents. We couldn't get through certain places at all, and I was terrified we were going to lose the kids. My husband, who is Greek-American and spent every summer in Greece growing up, said that Santorini "doesn't feel like Greece". People can be a bit rude, it is very expensive, there are rules about luggage, etc. If you have a chance to do anything else in Greece before your cruise, I highly, highly recommend trying to get up to Meteora to see the amazing monasteries. As far as your other questions, you might have more luck parsing them out into each individual port. I realize that it is much easier to put them all in one post, but you might not catch the attention of someone who knows about Ajaccio, for example. MDabney 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDabney Posted March 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 Thanks so much for the recommendations and suggestions JB, all are much appreciated. Take care and stay safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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