NOTE: CruiseMates has decided to let posts about independent tour providers stay up on a trial basis since more people are looking for independent tour guides these days.
Ideally, we are mostly looking for independent recommendations from people who have used the services of a tour provider.
If you own a tour service, we ask you not to POST original "new topic" posts about your service, but if someone asks a question such as this one, you can REPLY to it.
ALL TOUR COMPANIES OWNERS REPLYING TO POSTS SHOULD LIST THE NUMBER IF YEARS THEY HAVE BEEN IN BUSINESS AND ANY OFFICIAL LICENSES OR CERTIFICATIONS THEY HAVE TO CONDUCT A TOUR BUSINESS.
We will continue this policy for as long as we feel it is working. If the systems becomes abused by tour providers, if we get spammed, if we see what appear to fake recommendations (we can tell) or if we see it getting too many negative posts between tour operators we will discontinue these posts.
But for now, tour operators, you have a chance to reply to people looking for tours so please use our system wisely and do not abuse it, and you have a good thing going for you.
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I am the editor, but I also speculate, ask questions and play devil's advocate. I reserve the right to change my mind.
Paul, based on Kuki's latest Blog I am having a difficult time signing up for ship tours for the Baltic. Kuki confirmed what I always suspected was going on, paying more and getting less. Happy to hear there will be more private tour info on Cruisemates. Thanks, Mike
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Travel Mike's Future cruises: Mariner Galveston 2-26-12,Magic Galveston 3-4-12 NCL Pride of America Hawaii6-2-12 HAL Statendam 9-9-12 Vancouver
We are sailing on Apr 29th on the Emerald and would like to travel too Normandy from the port of LeHarve. Does anyone know of a private guide or any other suggestion.
Paul, based on Kuki's latest Blog I am having a difficult time signing up for ship tours for the Baltic. Kuki confirmed what I always suspected was going on, paying more and getting less. Happy to hear there will be more private tour info on Cruisemates. Thanks, Mike
We did a Baltic cruise a few years ago and toured St. Petersburg with Red October. Our guide was excellent with impeccable English. The driver was very professional. They picked us up just outside our ship and tailored the two day tour to our needs. We did not pay until the end of the 2nd day and the price was quite fair. Their website is www.redoctober.us.
In Copenhagen, we took a wonderful bike tour that gave us excellent information on that city. Unfortunately I lost the name of the company, but I am sure you can find something online.
Hi Paul... I just joined Cruise Mates today and was totally shocked (in a GOOD way) while reading that it was ok for me to talk about myself as a tour provider/professional.
My partner and I live in Germany and just completed a Baltic cruise. We had a great time, but were SHOCKED at how expensive (and short) some of the tours on offer from the cruise line were in Warnemünde. Since we can fly to Berlin in 45 minutes, we weren't interested in taking a 3 hour train ride there, tour 6 hours, and another 3 hours back so we started looking for alternatives. There weren't any really. The cruise line offered crazily priced tours and there was nothing really on offer for English speakers... so we turned our stop into a discovery excursion. We LOVED the area... found out there was a lot to see and discover so when our ship got back we drove ourselves back up and spend a few weeks putting some nice tours together to offer to English speakers... hence Friends of Dave Tours was born.
Imagine my surprise when reading your FAQs and Policies that we are able to tell that story or answer questions for people looking for nice port experiences. We certainly promise to be good board members and appreciate your decision... I bet your readers will, too!
Kudos!!!!
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Dave (71 cruises)
Visitor to Over 900 Cities in 50 Countries
Touring and Traveling is my passion!
Paul, based on Kuki's latest Blog I am having a difficult time signing up for ship tours for the Baltic. Kuki confirmed what I always suspected was going on, paying more and getting less. Happy to hear there will be more private tour info on Cruisemates. Thanks, Mike
If you need help for Germany let us know. In St. Petersburg we used Alla Tours and found them to offer an excellent product for a very fair price... http://www.alla-tour.com/
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Dave (71 cruises)
Visitor to Over 900 Cities in 50 Countries
Touring and Traveling is my passion!
In Dec. 2008, we used a fantastic tour operator www. sorrentosilverstar.com -Luisa.
She tailored the excursion to our requests. We were off of Celebrity in Naples, we went to the cameo factory, Pompeii, Sorrento-lunch and shopping, Positano, and the furniture factory. She stopped many places for pictures. Luisa and the driver-Max-were wonderful. We paid 1/3 of what the ship excursion was and saw more. We paid for the excursion with Luisa at the end.
During a Baltic cruise last July my wife and I had a local tour company in St. Petersburg take us on guided tours each day. They were fantastic and we did not need a Visa, they also had all museums admission tickets arranged in advance . The company was Palladium Travel; their web site is www.palladium.spb.ru It turned out to be a great experience. Our guide met us at the ship side each day and was very knowledgeable and spoke great English.
Well, if we add our experience pretty much all the most popular independent tour operators in St Pete will have been mentioned. We loved our custom tour with Denrus DenRus Baltic Shore Excursions.
I am looking at three independent tours on our Nieuw Amsterdam cruises back to back 23 May and 2 June 2011 Kusadasi - using Hello Ephesus on a tailored tour that covers all main spots including Terrace Houses and Sirince Village.
In Naples I plan to use silverstar sorrento for a Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano tour - Luisa has been very helpful. At present there is just my wife and I so it is a bit expensive and I have looked for tripmates on this site since Septemeber but it seems it is a bit early for people to be planning shore excursions yet. ( I actually downloaded our shore excursion ebrochure from HAL yesterday). Luisa has advised that we can book for our own and if we meet others to go or getresponses fromothers we can add and change arrangements Livorno - I want to do a private tour to Cinque Terra but again because there is only two of us, we are looking at about 400+ euros. I have researched a number of websites and emailed. One I am still waiting on is Viator.com - they seem reasonable but visit only three of the five villages. Do you need to see them all? Some operators visit four, others all five but it is a question of cost and benefits
Any suggestions of good tour operators for Cinque Terra?
All companies have their own testimonials but it is nice to see them on an independent forum.
Thanks - I have been getting good advice on other threads I have posted.
I hope I can jag some interest in joining our tours from other cruisers. I'm sure more would make them more enjoyable and lower the cost for all.
I am looking at three independent tours on our Nieuw Amsterdam cruises back to back 23 May and 2 June 2011 Kusadasi - using Hello Ephesus on a tailored tour that covers all main spots including Terrace Houses and Sirince Village.
In Naples I plan to use silverstar sorrento for a Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano tour - Luisa has been very helpful. At present there is just my wife and I so it is a bit expensive and I have looked for tripmates on this site since Septemeber but it seems it is a bit early for people to be planning shore excursions yet. ( I actually downloaded our shore excursion ebrochure from HAL yesterday). Luisa has advised that we can book for our own and if we meet others to go or getresponses fromothers we can add and change arrangements Livorno - I want to do a private tour to Cinque Terra but again because there is only two of us, we are looking at about 400+ euros. I have researched a number of websites and emailed. One I am still waiting on is Viator.com - they seem reasonable but visit only three of the five villages. Do you need to see them all? Some operators visit four, others all five but it is a question of cost and benefits
Any suggestions of good tour operators for Cinque Terra?
All companies have their own testimonials but it is nice to see them on an independent forum.
Thanks - I have been getting good advice on other threads I have posted.
I hope I can jag some interest in joining our tours from other cruisers. I'm sure more would make them more enjoyable and lower the cost for all.
Regards
My family (group of 14) used Discovery Guided Tours last year for Florence and Rome and I believe they have an excursion for Cinque Terra. This is their link Limousine Service Rome Italy Shore Excursions Rome Sightseeing Tours Rome Airport Transfers , Fiumicino airport, civitavecchia to Rome tours Shore Excursions
They were really impressed with their service and highly recommended them. I'm doing HAL Mediterranean Romance on 21st September and booked Rome and Pisa/Florence with them, we are a group of 8. Something that I like a lot and probably you will too, they have live support (chat) they answered all my questions and gave me peace of mind, you need to be aware of time zones though. If you use the chat, ask for Pamela - she is fantastic! Hope this help you.
NOTE: CruiseMates has decided to let posts about independent tour providers stay up on a trial basis since more people are looking for independent tour guides these days.
Ideally, we are mostly looking for independent recommendations from people who have used the services of a tour provider.
If you own a tour service, we ask you not to POST original "new topic" posts about your service, but if someone asks a question such as this one, you can REPLY to it.
ALL TOUR COMPANIES OWNERS REPLYING TO POSTS SHOULD LIST THE NUMBER IF YEARS THEY HAVE BEEN IN BUSINESS AND ANY OFFICIAL LICENSES OR CERTIFICATIONS THEY HAVE TO CONDUCT A TOUR BUSINESS.
We will continue this policy for as long as we feel it is working. If the systems becomes abused by tour providers, if we get spammed, if we see what appear to fake recommendations (we can tell) or if we see it getting too many negative posts between tour operators we will discontinue these posts.
But for now, tour operators, you have a chance to reply to people looking for tours so please use our system wisely and do not abuse it, and you have a good thing going for you.
Costa Concordia (Barcelona) January 9 2012. My husband and I are cruising our first Med cruise after numerous North American / Caribbean cruises. I am a little nervous of the January European weather as well as the excursions. I would love to meet English speaking people who would be interested in joining us on private excursions?
Look forward to meeting up with fellow English speaking cruisers.
INDEPENDENT TOUR PROVIDERS
DenRus
Independent tours - Italy/Turkey
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