Ok, all you experienced travelers, what would you suggest as the need to see things in Mykonos, Rhodes (Lindos or Kameiros?), Santorini. Since the cruise line excursions seem pretty expensive, is it comparable in cost to book private tours? Any suggested names of private tours operators would be appreciated.

Also for Ephesus, the House of Mary didn't sound like it was all that much from the description. Am I missing something and it's better than described?

Thanks in advance for all advice.

KarenM

Hi.

Having been to Mykonos and Rhodes last summer, I have the following comments:

Mykonos is reasonably small and can be walked around very easily. The streets are winding with lots of cute stores. There are places to eat and drink along the way.

We went to the main city in Rhodes, not Lindos. It is a walled city. We took a tour and bailed half way through, and walked by ourselves. It's doable on one's own.

Hi Karen,

We strolled in Mykonos, as our tour of Delos, through RSSC was canceled due to rough waters.

Here is a copy of my post (under Guides) for Rhodes -

We enjoyed spending our day in Rhodes with Michael, Rhodes Private Tours. I pre-arranged this tour with his brother, Nicholas Axarlis. Michael was very personable and wanted to please and comply with any requests we had during our visit:

Rhodes Private Tours
Http://www.rhodesprivatetours.com

nick-ax@rho.forthnet.gr

We toured Ephesus with a private guide. If you want her contact information, I would be happy to provide that. We opted to pass on House of Mary. Instead, we arranged a visit to the terrace houses at Ephesus, which needs to be arranged prior to your visiting the site. Many people miss this incredible experience. Ephesus is not to be missed. It's awesome!

House of Mary is very forgettable.

Denise, thanks for all the information. I would be interested in the tour guide you had for Ephesus. I was there about 10 years ago but we didn't have a tour guide so we missed a lot of information just wandering around. I may have seen the terrace houses and didn't even know it. This will be a first for my husband, so I think a tour guide would make sense to get the most out of the experience.

Thanks for the tour guide for Rhodes. Which of the tours did you take? There are quite a few to choose from. Sometimes if you get away from the main tourist attractions you find some really great places. When I was in Mykonos years ago we rented a scooter and went all over the place. We found some great resorts and beach. No scooter for us this time though.

I found Delos interesting but really not that great. Don't think I would go there again, especially after seeing Ephesus.

McKeever, your comments confirmed what I thought, thanks.

Thanks Marcia, we may end up doing the tour ourselves like you did if we don't decide to see other parts of Rhodes. Not sure what else there is to see and if it's worth the effort and cost.

Anyone else that wants to chime in, I'm all ears.

KarenM

Hi, again, Karen,

The guide I used in Kusadasi was Emek Evin. She was outstanding and really made Ephesus come alive for us with her commentary! Ask if she will arrange a visit to the terrace houses. It is very worth your while to visit them.

Emek Evin
emekevin@hotmail.com

In Rhodes, we spent the day driving all over Rhodes, stopping in Lindos, climbed up the zillion steps of the Acropolis, and made many additional stops along the way. Michael was so congenial, informative and accommodating. I asked that he please stop at a grocery store at the conclusion of our tour, so I could pick up some things to bring home (Ouzo, honey, etc.). He did so. We even went to the deli section of the store, where he asked the person at the counter to give us samples of meats and cheeses typical for Greece. I also wanted to purchase some olive oil. He said not to. He would be able to get us this someplace else. The someplace else we stopped at was his home, where he filled two huge Coke bottles with his mother-in-law's homemade olive oil! He also gave us a bag of home-grown oregano! We were floored! He asked that I not mention this to anyone, but I do feel it gives you an idea of just how accommodating he was. I would strongly recommend his services.

We were terribly disappointed that we couldn't go to Delos during our stop in Mykonos. However, we had a nice day strolling. It's very picturesque.

Please let me know if you need anything else. Always happy to help!

Last time I was in Rhodes on a cruise, I took a private tour to Lindos, having been there on a land trip a few years before by car with friends. It is really pretty, but as cruise ships tend to change ports, it was really commercial, with lots and lots of stalls climbing up to the top. On my land trip, we enjoyed the older part first, and enjoyed the beach at the bottom in the afternoon.

I agree with Olivia about the vendor stalls as you make the climb in Lindos. It really detracted from the site. But, once you reached the top, the view was something to see.

Be careful, we had a private tour guide in Istanbul, and we came away from there without a rug, but we didn't leave Ephesus without one. I am really glad, we got a beautiful silk rug, and they shipped it home for us. Wish I had kept the info. on our guide, but I do know that our tour guide in Istanbul is the one who recommened him, Have a great trip. :) :) :)

I, too, have an excellent guide for Istanbul, if you need the information.

We came home rugless!

Denise, you are a sweetheart. This is excellent, just what we are looking for in a tour. If we are ever on a cruise together, I need to buy you a drink.

I emailed Emek Evin asking for the price and procedure. Got more questions for you though. How long a tour was it, did you pay in cash, what time did the tour start?

For Rhodes, which should I contact the Rhodes private tours or the email address you listed for nick?

I think for Santorini I want to take Russ to Oia and I think it was Thira that had the awesome views of the cauldron. It was so long ago the last time I was there, hard to remember all the things I saw.

Thanks again for all the help.

KarenM

Karen,

I hope I have the opportunity to take you up on that drink! Always a pleasure to help a fellow Eastcoaster!

Our tour with Emek was a full day. She will meet you at the dock and take it from there. Just be very specific with your requests, ensuring the details of what you wish to see and a total amount of costs, including car and driver. I found that all the private guide arrangements I made within Greece and Turkey there were elements of things lost in the translation. Not deception, but miscommunications, that were easily resolved. Just have whomever you choose to guide you, spell out everything.

Nick is Michael's brother. You can email to Nick who essentially runs the company and request Michael. If Michael is available I'm sure Nick will comply.

Please tell them all that Denise sends her very best. You will find Emek and Michael to be a pleasure to spend the day with and agreeable to your requests.

Are you going to Istanbul? If so, I have another superb guide. Just let me know.

If I can find the name of the restaurant we had lunch in in Fira/Santorini, I will post it. It was great and very reasonable. Oia is beautiful!

Sandy, don't know how you managed to leave Istanbul without a rug. I can't remember how many tmes I said no. It got really annoying after awhile. I felt like Greta Garbo, "I just want to be alone".

It was so bad that by the time we got to the market where they sell all the gold jewelry, I didn't even want to go in any of the stalls/stores. There were no prices on anything and they were hanging out of the stall/store doors trying to drag you in. Eye contact was a no no. I guess now with gold for $600 oz. nothing will be that cheap.

Then there is always Tangiers. All tours there end in a rug shop!

KarenM

Karen,

I'm so happy to hear that you felt the same way as I did with the shopping. It wore me out and I became disgusted with the whole scenario. It was a real turn-off. We bought very little on our Greece/Turkey trip because shopping there was mentally exhaustive.

Denise, we don't go to Istanbul on this cruise. We end in Venice. This is a Crystal cruise that starts in Athens, ends in Venice. I've been to all these places before but Russ hasn't seen any of this.

Wow, a full day at Ephesus? That seems like a lot. I think we did it before in several hours but without any commentary, just a guide book. I remember it was quite a drive from the docks though, so that may be a chunk of it.

All for now.

KarenM

Denise,

I didn't like Istanbul much. We had a scary experience there and not sure I ever want to go back. We were taking a taxi back from the Sultan's Palace and the taxi driver took us the opposite direction. We could see the bridge we came over to get there and it was off in the distance. I thought he was kidnapping us and got really scared. We asked the taxi driver why we didn't go back over the bridge we came on and he said it was closed, but we could see cars on that bridge from the taxi. To this day I don't know what his intensions were. He probably was just jacking up the taxi fare but I have to tell you we let him know that wasn't the way to the hotel and he finally took us to an area we remembered and we just got out of the taxi and walked the rest of the way. Enough was enough at that point.

So you see, Istanbul to me wasn't worth the hassle.

I should have bought a necklace I saw in Samos that was just gorgeous at $175, 22K gold with Greeking design. I thought I'll wait till we get to Istanbul, gold is cheaper there. What an idiot .... the Turks apparently hate the Greeks and you won't find anything with Greeking design anywhere in Turkey. Can't imagine what that necklace would cost now. Oh well, need to win the lottery.

KarenM

Sorry to hear of your very frightening experience in Istanbul. I would have been terrified, as well. We arranged for a private guide in Istanbul and everything worked out beautifully. We would gladly return to Istanbul again. It was an awesome and fascinating city.

We saw more than Ephesus during our tour with Emek. We made many stops along the way. However, we spent a very considerable time in Ephesus as well as the terrace houses. I also asked Emek to take us to one place to look at rugs, as our travel companions were interested. We stopped in one place, where they prepared a lovely lunch and then they got down to business (not in an obnoxious or overbearing way). Our friends were interested; we were mildly interested. I will tell you that Emek didn't take the initiative to sell us anything. It was our request to shop for rugs. They had beautiful rugs, but none of us purchased any through Emek's source.

I did purchase a necklace in Mykonos, which I love. But, the hassle and deceit in pricing made it a real chore. When we got home, I had the necklace appraised by my jeweler and he said we paid a very fair price, which was a relief.

If you are interested in a walking tour in Venice, I have a suggestion - Walks Inside Venice. We took several walking tours with them and loved it.

www.walksinsidevenice.com

If you wish to go with them, request Roberta. She was charming and excellent.

We won't have much time in Venice, as we arrive at 3:00 p.m. and have a 10:30 a.m. flight back to Philadelphia the next day. If the ship arrives on schedule at 3:00, by the time the ship gets cleared for passengers to leave the ship, it doesn't leave much time for any tour. The excursions Crystal is offering for that short period of time are really expensive for what they are. We will probably just jump on a Vaporetto and see the sights from the boat, stopping in St. Marks Square for an evening drink and take in whatever concert is going on that evening.

http://www.crystalcruises.com/cruise_excursion.aspx?CID=6212

I tried to arrange one night in Venice but U.S. Airways wanted an extra $150/pp added to the airfare to stay one extra day. Since we are doing pre-cruise in Munich for 5 days the expense is getting out of control, so we decided to just do whatever we could in Venice and fly home with the better airfare. If what Russ sees of Venice tweaks his curosity further, we can always do it another time indepth. Having been there a couple time before myself, once you see the main sights it's time to get out of town. Cities make me nuts anyway, hate the crowds. I love Paris but after a day or two I can't wait to get out into the countryside. I will bookmark the Walks Inside Venice should we do it another time. Thanks again.

The $175 necklace from Samos seemed pretty high priced to me, this was in 1991, even for 22K gold. In retrospect though, wish I had bit the bullet and bought it.

Again, Happy Birthday Denise, hope you have a fun day.

Oops, I forgot one thing. what is the best way to transfer from the ship to the airport in Venice. Crystal is offering a transfer at $68/pp. I can't imagine it cost that much. Can you just grab a taxi at the pier for less than that? How much time should we allow besides the 2 hours at the airport for all that security stuff? I misspoke on the departure time, it's 11:40 a.m., not 10:30.

Thanks again.

KarenM

Karen, we took a water taxi from our hotel in Venice (near St. Mark's Square) to the airport. It cost 75 Euro (about $90) plus another 30 Euro to get from the taxi stop to where you check your bags--that's about $145 altogether. Don't know what a land taxi would cost--but I think $68/pp probably isn't too bad. I think there's a bus to the airport that leaves from the central train station -- that would be much less expensive, but a lot less convenient. The central station isn't far from the pier, but you'd need to take a taxi or water taxi there if you have many bags to haul around.

Karen
Used both of Denise's guides in Rhodes & Ephesus last October. You will be very pleased. The day we were on Rhodes it was a national holiday & the last week of the season so wasn't crowded at all. Michael's brother did our Rhodes tour & he was also wonderful & knowledgeable. And the place he takes you for lunch - the view is fantastic. The next day in Ephesus was a national holiday for the Turks. It seemed so weird to hit both stops on holidays, but it didn't take anything away from the tour. I agree that the House of Mary can be bypassed. We also had lunch at the rug place Denise mentioned. No one in our group purchased & there was no hard sell. And the lunch was served in a private room and was good.
You can't go wrong with either of these guides in my opinion. Both are very nice, friendly, excellent English & very informative.

Karen,

We dearly love Venice, so I can't be objective about you wanting to get into and out of that city as quickly as you can. We will be visiting Paris next month and can hardly wait. This is our first visit.

I don't think your ship's transfer sounds unreasonable and would probably opt for that since you are on a fairly limited travel schedule.
However, if you can arrange to have another couple share a water taxi with you, you could cut your expenses considerably. Would be worth looking into.

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

When we were in Venice in November, the Water Taxi to the Airport was very expensive - about $100 Euro PP from our hotel, and with the luggage, I wouldn't even WANT to try an alternative way - especially during the "Aqua Alta"! My friends schlepped their bags to the Vaporetto in the high water and were so sorry they tried for the cheaper way.

Karen-
If you have the opportunity to tour the "terrace houses" at Ephesus through the cruise line do it! This tour ( on Radisson) was limited in number, but fabulous. It was amazing to see what the people were doing inside their homes at that time period. I also agree about using your cruise line in Venice to get to the airport. From our hotel (Danielli) it was more than that for transportation. Have a great time.
Robyn

Hi Karen,

I found the information on the restaurant we lunched at in Santorini/Fira. We were browsing in a store and I asked the owner where she would go if she were having lunch. She highly recommended this restaurant to us -

Naoussa Restaurant

Great food, reasonably priced.

Karen -- We also used Denise's recommended guides last year -- Emek Evin for Ephesus and Nicholas (his brother wasn't available that day) on Rhodes. Marvelous guides both. They made the days both fun and informative. I second Denise's and Betty's good comments above about them.

We were in Ephesus last October, and the terrace houses were closed for restoration work at that time. Emek will be able to tell you whether they are open for viewing this year. I hope so!

Karen:

We took this Crystal cruise last year and used their airport transfer service at the end. Although it sounds expensive, it is a reasonable value compared with the alternatives. Venice is a very expensive city. In addition, you can rely on Crystal to ease your luggage handling(they'll load it on and off the airport bus that picks you up in front of the ship) and they will make sure that you get to the airport in ample time.

Planning to spend three days in Mykonos and three days in Santorini next March following a Crystal cruise. Does anyone have any hotel and/or guide recommendations?

Jim

Karen:

The evening chamber music concert Crystal held at Ephesus last year was superb. I hope they offer it again as a shore excursion for you.

Jim

The concert in Ephesus is available for our cruise. I am just wondering how they handled it...what time you left the ship (did you miss dinner?), how long did it last?

Jim5, thanks for the info on the transfers to the airport. I guess we might as well let them handle it. We will be sick of luggage by that time after dragging it from Philadelpha to Munich to Athens, then Venice to Phila.

Denise, I emailed Emek last weekend and still no response. I guess I will try again and if she doesn't respond, I'll have to figure something else out.

KarenM

Karen,

Emek is one very busy guide. Give her some time and be persistent. She's worth the wait and will respond eventually to your emails. You may want to put in your subject line "Referred by Denise." (I get nothing in return for referrals. She just knows I send many interested people her way).

Karen:

My recollection is that the concert followed an early dinner on the ship. Before the concert, waiters served drinks and snacks were available on tables set up near the seating area. After the concert, waiters served champagne. The concert took place shortly after sunset with a beautiful area of the ruins illuminated in the background.

The excursion is moderately expensive but worth it if you enjoy classical chamber music in an exquisite setting.

Jim

Karen:

Last year we had a full day in Venice before returning to the Serenity in the evening, and leaving the ship early the following morning for the airport. Crystal offered free round-trip transportation from the pier via water taxi to Venice that left every thirty minutes and dropped you off near St. Mark's Square. The morning approach and docking of the ship in Venice offered many great photo opportunities.

We did not sign up for any shore excursions because we find Venice an easy city to tour on your own.

Jim

Jim, here's a website I bookmarked from a friend that lives in Greece and goes there for vacations:

http://www.mykonosgrand.gr/location.htm

Trip Advisor has good reviews on this hotel. Hope this helps.

KarenM

Karen,

I have used Crystal's transfers several time and have not been dissapointed.

Nancy

PS. My friends, Dustin and Alicia are on your cruise. I think you know that from the CC thread. They are such a nice and fun couple to spend time with. Hope you get to meet them.

Nancy, Dustin and Alicia are our sponsors for this cruise. We will be meeting them on the 2nd night with a group including Jim Brochu. Looking forward to a new experience. Right now going nuts making lists of things to bring. Hope I don't forget anything.

KarenM

Karen 1029: Oh you are sooo lucky!!! Are Dustin and Alicia TA's????

Joanna, Dustin and Alicia are passengers. Crystal has an incentive program called "Share The Experience". I was their sponsor on our Alaskan cruise last SEptember and we have become great friends. The cruise was for their honeymoon! BAsically the program is suppose to entice past customer to bring new customers on a crystal cruise, typically friends and family. The previous cruiser get a shipboard credit as well as the new cruiser.

Karen, you will have a great time. I understand that Jim Brochu is a wonderful speaker.

Nancy

Cool...sounds like you can sponser a complete stranger.

Thanks NANCY!!! Lucky all of you !!!!

Marcie, you're suppose to sponsor a friend or family but that isn't the way it worked for us. WE all hooked up on the CC board and it worked out great. Of course this has worked for lots of friends and family as well.

Nancy