If you’ve down a med cruise and Caribbean cruise, what you prefer ?

[JennyTals]

Med would be in summer Caribbean in winter

I’ve done a lot of both and slightly prefer Med in the summer as I find the excursions more interesting. I have enjoyed my Caribbean cruises, The Bahamas are also nice and the Pacific side of Mexico is a good winter cruise.

Was looking at the Virgin voyages med cruise but the excursions seen very pricey to me at least 100person and some of them say the one to cost at tropez is 200 each so 800 for family of 4
so i dont know how how much extra to factor into the costs with excursions

You don’t have to go on any excursions, I’d say it’s really common to book none or maybe just one per sailing. It’s just my preference to do about two thirds or so excursions and a third or less my own thing.

Viator and Get Your Guide sometimes offer similar excursions for less money.

Trains in France and Italy are good value so as long as you’ve don’t get too ambitious with your plans you can do a lot yourself.

ty for your input
guess I won’t know till I try one

I’ve been on a couple of Med cruises. Very enjoyable, but the excursions are crazy prices sometimes. Things like visiting the Tower of Pisa. WhatsInPort helps plan shore visits. our next cruise we are just doing one excursion and the rest our own thing.

I was shocked that the st tropez trip would be like 800 for all of us
and you only get two hours there as it’s a boat ride too

Some of the prices are crazy. Also be wary of some places who exploit animals to earn money from tourists. Monkeys for photos, swimming with pigs etc, you just don’t know so I avoid all that. It is more rife in some countries than others.

It very much depends on your likes ... I'm not one for beaches so prefer city destinations so would definitely pick a European one filled with culture. But ... If you really want a beach holiday in beautiful surroundings go Caribbean

I’ve only done one Caribbean cruise but several Med ones.

My favourite is the Caribbean one but that’s probably because it’s the first and probably only time I will ever go to the Caribbean. Flights were more expensive because it was Christmas but the actual cost of the cruise and the excursions made the cruise affordable. Ports were in the southern Caribbean. You can’t really beat planes flying just a few feet over you head at Maho beach, hurtling down a river in a rain forest on a giant rubber ring on Christmas Eve in Dominica, Christmas Day on a catamaran trip to a beach in St Lucia and swimming with turtles on Boxing Day in Barbados.

A very close 2nd would be the first ever Med cruise we went on. We went to town on booking private excursions (Rome, Florence, Naples, Pompeii) which made that cruise very special. In the scorching August heat It was worth every penny to be whisked from one sight to another in an air conditioned car. I have to say it was exhausting - Med cruises are usually very port intensive and many, Rome for example involve long drives from port. It also took a lot of planning. Definitely a cruise for the bucket list.

As pp’s have said you don’t need to go on ship’s excursions - we have always done our own thing and booked independent tours or jumped in a taxi. This can help keep the costs down. We often hire a car for ports in Spain - in Valencia and Alicante we found the best deals picking up from the train station.

I would advise careful planning of what you are going to do in each port. It’s often not as easy as getting off the ship and everything being in walking distance.

Oooh could you say which cruise line and itinerary cruise type you did as this sounds amazing x