What to see in ....?

[AimlessWanderer]

Barcelona
Monte Carlo (Monaco)
Rome
Palma (Mallorca)
Gibraltar
Lisbon
Vigo (Spain)

Need your collective wisdom here please guys. I've booked a cruise for next year, which for me will be a holiday of a lifetime that I wouldn't normally be able to afford, and I'll be taking in some places I don't know a whole lot about. Bearing in mind shore time will be maybe 7 hours (maybe 5 usable hours discounting travelling etc), I want to use that time as wisely as possible.

What would you say are the must see/do things in (any or all of) the places listed above. I'd rather not pay for the organised tours from the ship, as this will involve a lot of stuff I might not be interested in and you lose the sense of adventure (not to mention it will be cheaper if I do it myself).

So, for those that have been (or live there), what would I be a fool to miss, or if not but you had the chance to go, what would you most want to see or do? Remember I have a very limited time in each place ....

[AimlessWanderer]

To start us off, in Gibraltar I want to take the cable car to the top of the rock and check out the nature reserve up there. Not sure how much of the day that will eat up and what esle it would be sensible to try and fit in ...

[enki_ck]

To start us off, in Gibraltar I want to take the cable car to the top of the rock and check out the nature reserve up there. Not sure how much of the day that will eat up and what esle it would be sensible to try and fit in ...

microbe might help you with that. He's been living there for years now.

[AimlessWanderer]

Excellent 

[Aloha]

Good for you 50ft.  What an awesome way to treat yourself. 

[bmot]

I have a friend from Vigo, I'll go ask her

[AimlessWanderer]

Good for you 50ft.  What an awesome way to treat yourself.

Thanks mate  This will be my first proper holiday in 15 years. I figure I'm about due 

I have a friend from Vigo, I'll go ask her

Superb!  Cheers Tom 

[enki_ck]

I have a friend from Vigo, I'll go ask her

Is she cute?

[dks]

For Lisbon the city Centre, the castle on the hill in the centre, definitely the Aquarium, the Jesus statue and the bridge leading to it. The port is huge too. Try their cheeses, use Metro.

Avoid the food in the touristy areas. 

Wednesday is usually ladies night (ask a taxi driver..), when the women get free drinks/entrance in clubs, so you get lots of them going out and partying (lots of university girls etc.), if you are interested in that sort of thing. 

  Check the sticky in the general thread, regarding shopping in various countries, where there is a link to the knife shopping thread in Lisbon too (lots of non-locking knives).

[ColoSwiss]

I didn't care for Rome itself, dirty, crowded, and with insane drivers. However there are a number of first-rate sites in the city.

1 - The ancient center, consisting of the Forum, Palatine Hill, Capitoline Hill, and Colosseum.

2 - The Pantheon (best preserved ancient building in Rome, and spectacular)

3 - The Borghese Museum (an outstanding art museum. I prefer it to the Vatican Museum, and the lines are shorter.)

4 - St Peter's (largest church in the world, and worth the lines)


The ancient center could fill up a day; if you have time you might add the Pantheon. Alternately you might do St. Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo (originally Hadrian's Tomb, and then a medieval fortress)


I'm partial to the Eyewitness Travel Guides from DK. Check your library.

A warning - Watch out for Pickpockets.

Looks like a great trip! Have fun! 

[firiki]

Gibraltar: Be careful with the monkeys, they can be possessive...

Rome: Fontana di Trevi is a well known site.

Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia.

I'd fancy me a cruise like that at some point. Too bad you only get a few hours to visit.

[Reinier]

I have a friend from Vigo, I'll go ask her

Is she cute?

Are we talking about this Vigo?



Oh wait.

[AimlessWanderer]

Cheers fellers  I'll check those out 

dks, I'm not in Lisbon on Wendsday night (or any night), so won't be able to sample those delights. That Oceanario looks impressive though, so I'll certainly bookmark that one 

Karl, We'll be docking at Civitavecchia, which seems a fair way out. I'll look into feasability of doing this one by train etc, but so far it's looking a bit awkward time wise. Rome might be the one stop where I end up taking an organised tour for this reason (safely getting back to the ship in time), but I'll take notes of your comments and compare them to what's offered by the tour operators. There might be a choice of tours available 

firiki, The short time to visit each place is certainly going to be a shame. I'd heard about the monkeys behaviour already. It'll be interested to see them, but I'll not be harassing them like most tourist do  Rome might be a set tour as mentioned above, but La Sagrada Familia is noted 

Reinier ...  Are you suggesting the Marshmellow Man might be there? 

[dks]

In addition, based on the experience of some relatives in a similar cruise last month, I would suggest that you find something to do on board (go with pleasant company, smoke, gamble, swim, read, drink etc..) as there is a huge amount of time spent on the actual boat travelling between places (it costs to dock..).

[AimlessWanderer]

Yeah, there's six "at sea" days on this cruise. Thankfully it's a big ship with a fair bit to do (shows, bars, pools, casino, gallery, cinema, cybercafe, ...) but I'll take a book or two with me too  No costs to dock on this cruise other than organised tours (if you so choose) from what I can understand.

Sounds like I can load up the fridge in my cabin with a couple of bottles of my own wine too (although there is a stupidly high corkage charge in the various restaraunts), so I'm no totally dependent on paying their prices for every drink. I think they also get the solo travellers together at some point early on, so there's chance to see if you want to spend any time with them or avoid them  I think they group the solo travellers together for dining too, although there are options for eating elsewhere on board if you don't take a shine to them, or just fancy a change

[bmot]

I have a friend from Vigo, I'll go ask her

Is she cute?

She is, actually 

And taken 

[AimlessWanderer]

I have a friend from Vigo, I'll go ask her

Is she cute?

She is, actually 

And taken 

Any news, Tom?

I'm hoping to tick off quite a few items from life's wish list with this holiday ...

Go on a cruise (pretty obvious that one  )
Visit Gibraltar (or more specifically the top of the rock)
Take a trip in a helicopter (from Monte Carlo over the French riviera)
See dolphins in the wild (at Gibraltar hopefully)
See the Colosseum
See Sagrada Familia
Go round the Monaco F1 course (albeit on foot  )
Maybe one or two others too, but I'll have to see how events unfold

[ColoSwiss]

Looks like you have some pretty good ideas about what to see. My main advise would be - stay flexible. Maintenance, strikes, weather, etc. can cause changes.

Most of all - Have Fun! 

[AimlessWanderer]

Thanks mate 

[AimlessWanderer]

Finished booking all my "organised" shore excursions today. I kind of just took the easy option with jumping on some of the organised tours, but at least that way the ship waits if there's a delay, rather than just sailing off into the sunset without me.

Barcelonca - Gaudi tour taking in Park Guell and inside Sagrada Familia
Monte Carlo - helicopter flight over the riviera
Rome - quick photo stop at the Colloseum, a coach tour of other key sites, and then off to the Vatican museum, Sistene Chapel, St Peters Basillica...
Palma - nothing booked, just a casual day
Gibraltar - cable car, apes, St Michaels Cave, war tunnels
Lisbon - Oceanarium and guided coach tour of the city
Vigo - another easy day, probably just sat with a drink or seven, watching the world go by

Ordered myself one of those Real Deal tarp hats too. My usual hat (Barmah Sundowner Roo) isn't too good when the breeze picks up. I got away with it on my boat, but I don't think they'd let me turn a cruise ship around so I can fish my hat out of the drink  so figured I'd try something a little sturdier

[ColoSwiss]

Sounds like a great trip! Have fun!   

[AimlessWanderer]

Thanks Karl