TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums Afloat Greek Isle cruise - help

We are doing a Princess Greek Isle cruise in August in lieu of our annual St. Martin vacation. Neither on of us has ever done anything like this and need some help. We are planning to do a few excursions, but really like doing things on our own. So we are curious about car rentals, taxis, buses and non-Princess sponsored tours. We are also interested is c/o beaches. This is our itinerary:

Venice, Italy
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Corfu, Greece
Olympia, Greece
Athens, Greece
Mykonos, Greece
Kusadasi, Turkey
Santorini, Greece
Naples, Italy
Rome, Italy

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

We did that cruise on Princess almost 4 years ago; our itinerary included Rhodes in addition to your list. We had a fabulous time, but I will say, be prepared to see lots and lots of ancient ruins.

In terms of excursions, have you checked out www.cruisecritic.com ? That website is a terrific resource for sharing info with others on the same cruise.

We did a few ship excursions and were on our own in some ports.
Venice: Princess had a water taxi for a small extra charge, providing regular service between the ship and Piazza San Marco.
Dubrovnik: we took a taxi to the old town, then were on our own for walking the wall and touring.
Corfu: ship "excursion" - we chose a simple bus ride to the top of the hill by the old Venetian fort, and had an appointed time to be back for the return bus ride. Lots of nice outdoor cafes in a huge park, and we took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the old town.
Katakalon (for Olympia): ship excursion to the ruins of the original Olympics, quite a few miles from port.
Athens - on our own; did the Rick Steves walking tour (self guided). You can take a taxi or ride the subway to central (old) Athens.
Rhodes - on our own, walked the old town wall, and covered all of the old part of Rhodes. Easy walking distance from port.
Kusadasi: ship excursion to Ephesus in the a.m., on our own in the p.m.
Mykonos: didn't do a thing!
Santorini: on our own. There was 1.5 hour wait for the funicular from port to town. It's possible to walk (very steep) or ride a donkey up/down.
Naples: Hop On Hop Off bus tours of Naples in the a.m.; ship excursion to Herculaneum p.m.
Rome: we had spent 3 nights in Rome pre-cruise, so just went to the airport from the ship.

Truly a wonderful trip - can't recommend it highly enough!

Thank you so much. That helps out tremendously. Rhodes was supposed to be on our itinerary but was canceled. Then we were supposed to spend 2 days in Santorini, but now we are at sea for 2 days. We were also thinking about renting a car and spending time at the beach on Corfu and Mykonos. Any thoughts about that? I think we will get tired of looking at ruins everyday.

I didn't see any beaches anywhere handy on Corfu, so can't comment; maybe with a rental car you could drive to some other part of the island. Mykonos has lots of beaches so I think you could either walk or take a taxi, probably don't need a rental car. Taxi cabs will be abundant at every port of call except Santorini. Take a look at the "Ports of Call" section of the message board on Cruise Critic to see what others say about their experience, too.

For Mykonos you can rent anything from a scooter to an ATV to a car, depending on what you want to pay. The beaches can easily be reached riding any one of these things.

I would recommend Paradise Beach or Super Paradise Beach for the day. Both are lots of either fun or just relaxing, whatever you prefer.

As Aquamarine said, definitely see Ephesus when you stop at Kusadasi! It will be the best ruins you will ever see and then you can skip most of the ruins in Greece. The house where the Virgin Mary lived is near there too.

Be prepared for the heat in August! We are in the Greek islands now and it has been over 100 degrees some days in July.

Enjoy your cruise!