Shore excursions, too buy or not too buy?

So you have booked your cruise, now you have to decide what to do when you are on port, whether it’s snorkelling through coral reefs, exploring ancient Roman ruins, hiking on glaciers, shopping at local outdoor markets or whiling away the day with a coffee or rum punch!-

These trips and activities are as much a part of the cruise experience as enjoying the onboard facilities of the ship, indeed, for me half of the fun of taking a cruise is exploring exciting new places.

All the cruise lines offer a variety of port based trips, be it snorkelling in St Lucia, visiting penguin colonies in the Falklands or glacier hiking in Norway. These can be booked either before you go or whilst on ship, but don’t forget some of the trips do become very popular and sell out.








But is the organised tour the best option?

Well the benefits of booking a ships tour; you can skip the hassle of arranging your own onshore activities; you'll know the tour provider is licensed and reputable, and the ship won't depart until all of its tour buses have returned.

If you are going to Russia, St Petersburg being the one that comes to mind, there is a need for a visa which means in reality you have to do an organised ships tour based on costs and difficulty in arranging a Visa. Always check the need for Visa’s prior to travelling to make sure you do have the right documentation.

Other than the above, or if it a special trip which you can’t get anywhere else then you have to think about the costs and the hassle that you may have to go through on being taken to shops etc that in reality you don’t want to go to.

In most ports you can do your own thing; find a taxi driver to take you to that secluded beach or to the historic building, walk into the port to see the town or shops (if that floats your boat), or get a local train to the main town (Civitavecchia to Rome) to name just a few. Doing this you can organise your own day and not have to follow the masses, but beware don’t miss the boat – the costs to catch up in a different port and even a different country maybe very high!

So what do I do?

To be honest a bit of both, I look at the itinerary and the cruise lines tours list, work out which of their trips would interest me, and then see what’s easy to do myself and then work out those trips I have to do with the cruise line.

But always watch the costs, the cruise lines are not charities and do charge what some may think is a high price for the trips that they put on.