Cruising the Mediterranean: A Guide to the Ports of Call, 2nd Edition (Hunter Travel Guides)

353 Pages·2006·2.74 MB·English

by  Larry H. Ludmer

Cruising the
Mediterranean
AGuide to the Ports of Call
2nd Edition
HUNTER
HUNTER PUBLISHING, INC,
130 Campus Drive, Edison, NJ 08818
% 732-225-1900; % 800-255-0343; Fax [phone]
www.hunterpublishing.com
4176 Saint-Denis
Montréal, Québec, Canada
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Oxford, OX44 9EJ England
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ISBN 1-58843-586-5
© 2006 Hunter Publishing, Inc.
This and other Hunter travel guides are also
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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wise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This guide focuses on recreational activities. As all such activities con-
tain elements of risk, the publisher, author, affiliated individuals and
companies disclaim responsibility for any injury, harm, or illness that
may occur to anyone through, or by use of, the information in this
book. Every effort was made to insure the accuracy of information in
this book, but the publisher and author do not assume, and hereby
disclaim, liability for any loss or damage caused by errors, omissions,
misleading information or potential travel problems caused by this
guide, even if such errors or omissions result from negligence, acci-
dent or any other cause.
Cover photo: Madeira, Portugal © Alamy
Interior images courtesy of HAL
Maps by Kim André © 2006 Hunter Publishing, Inc.
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Acknowledgments
The seemingly simple task of compiling the facts about cruise lines,
their ships, and destinations for presentation to the reader has
become more and more difficult because of the sheer volume of
choices. Any travel writer who wants to do the best for his readers
must seek out the assistance of others to help amass this informa-
tion. Ship facts and information on which ships have been assigned
to cruising Mediterranean routes were provided by the media rela-
tions staff of the cruise lines. It is important to note, however, that
their role in providing information and/or services to me in no way
affects what I have to say about a particular cruise line or ship. Hav-
ing said that I am still especially grateful to and would like to
acknowledge the special help and consideration that has been pro-
vided to me by Karen Tetherow and Susanne Ferrull of Princess
Cruises; Michelle McCarthy of Holland America; Jaye Hilton of Royal
Caribbean; Elizabeth Jakeway of Celebrity Cruises; Heather Krasnow
of Norwegian Cruise Line; Irene Lui of Carnival Cruises, Cheryl Fenske
of DMOA Public Relations for MSC Cruises; and Darren Osta of Costa
Cruises. All opinions expressed here are based on information gath-
ered from a variety of objective sources and, most importantly, by
firsthand experience.
Contents
THE WORLD OF MEDITERRANEAN CRUISING
Cruise Popularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Survey of the Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Way to See the Mediterranean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CRUISE LINES & THEIR SHIPS
Types of Cruises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Cruise Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Ship-by-Ship & Line-By-Line Evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Setting Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Selecting Your Dream Cruise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Evaluation of Ship Itineraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Onboard Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Options in Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Accommodations on Land. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Climate & When to Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Dining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
Disabled Travelers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Dress (On & Off Ship). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Driving/Rental Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Electrical Appliances & Other Technical Tidbits . . . . . . . . . 95
Financial Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Formalities, Documents & Paperwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Home-to-Ship Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Health & Safety Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Payments, Cancellations & Refunds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Recreation in Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Staying in Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Time Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Traveling with Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Zo, It’s Your First Time Cruising... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
PORTS OF CALL & CRUISE SIGHTSEEING
Gateways to the Cruise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Onboard Sightseeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Which Ports Are Included? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Tourism Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
vi l Contents
National Tourism Offices in the US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
How I Present Port Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
The Major Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Ajaccio (Corsica), France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Alexandria, Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Alicante/Cartagena, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Antalya, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Athens/Piraeus, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Barcelona, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Bodrum, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Cádiz/Seville, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Cagliari (Sardinia), Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Cannes, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Casablanca, Morocco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Catania/Syracuse (Sicily), Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Corfu (Ionian Islands), Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Dubrovnik, Croatia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Genoa, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Gibraltar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Heraklion (Crete), Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Hvar/Korkula, Croatia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Istanbul, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Katákalon, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Kusadasi/Ephesus, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
La Goulette/Tunis, Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Lisbon, Portugal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Livorno/Pisa/Florence, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Malaga, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Marseille, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Messina/Taormina (Sicily), Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Monte Carlo, Monaco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Mykonos/Delos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Naples/Capri, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Návplion, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Nessebur, Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Nice/Villefranche, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Odesa, Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Palermo (Sicily), Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands), Spain . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Portimão/Praia da Rocha, Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Portoferraio (Elba Island), Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Portofino, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Rhodes, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Rome/Civitavecchia, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
St-Tropez, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Contents l vii
Salerno/Sorrento & The Amalfi Coast, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Santorini, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Sète, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Sevastopol/Yalta, Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Valencia, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Valletta, Malta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Venice, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Vigo, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Less Visited Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Agadir, Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Aghios Nikolaos (Crete), Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Alanya, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Alghero (Sardinia), Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Almeria, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Amorgos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Ancona, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Bari, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .296
Beirut, Lebanon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Benghazi, Libya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Bonifacio/Bastia/Porto-Vecchio (Corsica), France. . . . . . . . . 298
Calvi (Corsica), France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Çanakkale (Troy), Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Cap Creus (Cabo de Creus), Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Cassis/Sanary-Sur Mer, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Cephalonia, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Ceuta (North African enclave), Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Constanta, Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Dikili, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Ermoupolis, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Fethiye, Turkey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Gabes, Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Gaeta/Ponza, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Gallipoli, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Güllük, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Gythion, Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Hydra, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Hyères/La Lavandrou, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Ibiza (Balearic Islands), Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Ischia, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Itea, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Kalamata, Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Kéa, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Khíos, Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Kos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Kotori, Montenegro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
viii l Contents
Limassol/Lanarca/Lefkosia, Cyprus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Máhon (Balearic Islands), Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Marbella, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Marmaris, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Melilla (North African enclave), Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Mitilíni, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Monemvasia, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Motril, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Oporto, Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Palamos, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Paros, Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Patmos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Portovenere, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Port Said, Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Port Vendres, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Propriano (Corsica), France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Rab, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Rabat, Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Samos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Savona, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Serifos, Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Sifnos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Skiathos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Sochi, Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Split, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Tangier, Morocco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Tarragona, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Tartous, Syria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Thessaloniki, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Toulon, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Tripoli, Libya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Varna, Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Volos, Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Zadar, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Zakinthos, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
ADDENDUM
National Tourist Offices in the US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Cruise Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332
Car Rental Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
International Ferry Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Major Hotel Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
INDEX 337
Contents l ix
MAPS
Ports of Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8/9
Lisbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
The French Riviera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Monte Carlo (Monaco) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Gulf of Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Rome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .260
Sicily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
Venice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
Greece & the Greek Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Athens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Istanbul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
Preface
There are two reasons why this was a good time to introduce a new
edition of Cruising the Mediterranean. To begin with, the constantly
evolving cruise industry means new ships with an ever-increasing
array of new amenities, new ports of call and new itineraries. In the
case of the Mediterranean market, the changes are even more pro-
nounced than in other popular cruising areas. That’s because when
the first edition was released, it was soon followed by significant
events of a geopolitical nature. First came the intifada. It didn’t take
long for most cruise lines to start eliminating Middle Eastern ports
from their itineraries and those that didn’t (at least among lines
catering to American visitors) followed suit after the terrible events
of 9/11. Although travel to Europe by Americans has rebounded
nicely, the cruise lines have shown a great hesitancy to return to the
Middle East.
The other reason for a new edition is that, as I write new cruise
guides or revised guides for other cruising markets, I am always tin-
kering with format, style and content changes. I like to think that
each edition becomes better for you, the reader and user. This edi-
tion reflects many of those changes and I hope that you find them
useful.