How to Save Money on Sight Seeing

You need to be wealthy to take cruises, don’t you?

There is a mistaken belief that all people who cruise are well off.  This is so not true so we want to show you how to save money on sight seeing.  Most run of the mill, hard working suburbanites make a lot of sacrifices and follow a strict budget to enable them to have the funds for a luxury cruise and sight seeing.  We are no exception. We saved hard for our once in a lifetime cruise on the Royal Princess and our first time in Europe.  Trying to keep within our budget and avoid missing out on the opportunity to sail the Mediterranean on a brand new ship, we found it more cost effective to book the last voyage of the inaugural season.  We researched the best prices and booked our flights and sourced a good deal for travel insurance.

As soon as we were confirmed to cruise the wonderful ports of the Europe’s Grand Mediterranean we began looking at ship excursions. We wanted to see it all, we wanted our daydreams to become a reality. But we had to find a way to save money on sight seeing.

What price do you pay to make your dreams come true?

Can you imagine the torment when we totalled the sight seeing excursions up and they amounted to $2,350 for us to see the places on our wish list?  Overwhelmed, as much as $2,350 would blow the budget, we knew we would feel let down if we couldn’t factor excursions too all these sights into our plan.

Could I go to Rome without seeing Trevi Fountain and St Peter’s Basilica or Florence without seeing the statue of David and Leaning Tower of Pisa or even Naples without seeing the ruins of Pompeii and the famous Amalfi coast?   No. I could not imagine getting to Mykonos and not walking through the maze of alleys to see the white churches and windmills. Or how could I consider going to Istanbul and not experiencing the Blue Mosque or the aroma of the spices at the Grand Bazaar. How could I make a trip to Athens complete without a selfie at the Acropolis, seeing the changing of the guards and finishing a meal at Plaka with some Ouzo.  Could we go to these cities and not see the main attractions we’d waited a lifetime to see?  No.

We just had to find a way to see these breathtaking places. I had to find out how to save money on sight seeing.

Looking for alternatives, but at what cost?

Now time to research some alternatives sight seeing tours that won’t hurt the hip pocket and weigh up the option of independent shore excursions.

A high percentage of passengers use excursions run by the cruise ship for ease, security and confidence. It is very handy when the cruise lines have done all the groundwork, you just book and go. The options are pay in advance before the cruise or book onboard up to 24 hours before the ships reaches port. You have no concerns if there is a delay returning to the ship due to traffic delays, no stressing that the tour bus may break down and the possibility of the ship leaving port without you.

We know the biggest advantage booking excursions through the cruise line is they will hold the ship and not leave port without a passenger if they book through the cruiseline.  Being our first time to Europe with the language barriers and possible safety factor we were concerned to go it alone.  The cruise line gives confidence too, using only use first class operators to host tours to their passengers.

We agreed convenience was not a factor and we had confidence we could trust reviews to select a reliable operator. But we kept coming back to the same concern. Even though Independent tours are more cost effective, should we allow the desire for some change in our purse to jeopardise our safety?

Finally an option, but does it tick all the boxes?

Never being one to shy from doing a bit of research, I rummaged around everywhere online. I checked out sight seeing reviews and compared prices from one site to another. After many hours of internet research each evening and a few sleepless nights, finally my Google search came up trumps and revealed to me a shore excursion company that appeared to tick all the boxes.  I selected our ship and the date we would sail and our ship’s itinerary appeared with several options for each port.  Then in bold print I read the comfort factor that is a selling point for a lot of cruisers.

“We GUARANTEE to get you back to your ship in time”
“All excursions and activities are fully insured”
“FULL REFUND if the ship does not port at the destination”
“Tour guides who speak YOUR language”
“Convenient collection points; full details provided at time of booking”

Spanish Steps, Rome

Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery of St John, the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa at Piazza dei Miracoli

Pompeii and its ruins

It looked good on the surface, but where is the fine print?

We’ve all heard the saying, if it looks too good to be true it usually is, but hopefully this was the exception to the rule. I read further, not only could we book separate excursion options for each port, but they also offered the choice of a package. The sight seeing package was for 7 ports, seeing the sights we wanted to see at each port. I couldn’t resist, I quickly hit ‘add to basket’ and went to the checkout and paid.

But just what was the outlay for my hasty purchase?

Mykonos – Combined sight seeing tour and walking tour, guided tour to Ano Mera and Panagia Tourliana Monastery with stop at Kalafati beach. Walking tour in Mykonos town through Little Venice, the Windmills, Cathedral of Paraportiani and other chapels and traditional houses.

Civitiavecchia (Rome) – Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Vatican City, St Peters Square

Livorno (Pisa and Florence) – Pisa for Miracle Square, Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Baptistery and Cathedral. Through Tuscan countryside to Florence, Arno River, Fiale del Colli, Piazzale Michelangelo, the Piazza Santa Croce, Santa Croce Church, Piazza del Duomo and Giotto’s Bell Tower, Piazza del a Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza del a Republica, Ponte Vecchio, Brunelleschi Dome and Bell Tower, Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore

Naples (Pompeii, Sorrento & Positano) – Pompeii guided tour, view of Vesuvius, Sorrento, see Limoncello made, Positano

Kusadasi – House of Mary, Temple & Ancient Ephesus, Baths of Scholastica, Temple of Hadrian, Biblical and Grand Theatre, Tour of Temple of Artemis.

Istanbul – Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Hippodrome Square and Grand Bazaar.

Piraeus (Athens) – Panathenian Stadium, Guided tour of Acropolis, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Porches of Maidens, Temple of Athena Nike, Constitution Square, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier & Changing of the Guards, Plaka, Adrian’s Arch, Catholic Cathedral, Academy University, National Library, Omonia Square.

The tours included entrance tickets, pickup and drop off at the ship and an English speaking tour guide who accompanied us from collection to return at port.

So what was the reward for the hours of internet research?

All this for only AU$430 per person.  Can you believe it? Ker Ching! AU$430 each.  We saved a whopping AU$1490 and were rewarded with value for money and great peace of mind.

When it came time to end our cruise we reflected we’d had an amazing time. We were very happy with the money we paid to experience places we never thought could become a reality for us. Even more we were extremely pleased with the amount of money we had saved. Such an amazing reward for a little time spent searching the internet.

There was a silver lining behind a small grey cloud 

The one disappointing part was due to strong winds the Captain announced we couldn’t port in Kusadasi.  This meant we missed exploring the ancient ruins of Ephesus, but financially this was not a problem. Remember I mentioned earlier about a guarantee of refund if the ship does not port? True to their word we were automatically refunded AU$55 per person.

Who was this wonderful tour company I hear you ask?  They were Cruising Excursions!  We booked through them on another occasion in New Zealand for an exceptional shore excursion in Tauranga and have recommended them to friends for sight seeing excursions on a SE Asia cruise.  I would continue to use Cruising Excursions without hesitation any time I felt I couldn’t organise my own way around within the timeframes of the itinerary.

You can see it is possible, I have just shown how to save money and see the sights.

Have you made a significant saving on sight seeing?  Do you have other suggestions on how to save money on sight seeing? Where was your trip of a lifetime?

*All opinions and photos are our own and we were not financially compensated for this post. However, Cruising Excursions have since shared our story and photos in their Newsletter which was circulated to over 25k readers.

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