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Ancient Seaports Attract Small Ship Adventurers.
By Bobbie Green
The Ancient seaports of Europe have lured visitors for thousands of years, explorers, merchant traders, attacking armies, and tourist.
Today's tourist can still journey to historical places where past events can come alive and one can experience an almost reverent feeling when walking in the footsteps, through passage ways and gardens of those infamous people and societies that have gone on before us.
Elegant Cruises is one such small cruise line that makes these occasions possible, using two small ships with varying itineraries. Their latest addition is the M.S. Andrea, a former Hurtigruten delivering mail along the coast of Norway. A small swift ice class ship, she was refurbished and now bills herself as a deluxe, intimate cruise ship carrying up to 105 guests.
We boarded the Ms. Andrea, as she is affectionately called, from the ancient seaport in Civitavecchia Italy and sailed to Istanbul Turkey. While climbing aboard using the narrow stair case and making what seemed like too many turns in the hallway to get to my cabin, I began to wonder if I really wanted to spend the next 10 days aboard.
Our cabin was quite nice, larger than I imagined and thoughtfully laid out. The bathroom was wonderful, the largest I have ever encountered on a ship. Huge shower, sink with cabinets even a magnifying make-up mirror, certainly nothing to dislike here. The beds were a little creaky, but each had a reading light. The rooms are not luxurious to look at, but they are accommodating and clean. Each cabin has a different configuration and size so one must be careful when booking to look for the category and size you will be happy with. The most important room on any ship is the dinning room and it is beautiful. More important the staff is also beautiful, very friendly and entertaining. The presentation of the food was excellent.
We were offered tours in every port as usual for most cruise ships. I found most of the tours were not worth taking for many reasons. First, we are in small villages and museums are pretty much self explanatory.
The local tour guides in these quaint towns, charming as they are, are not professional enough to give the amount of information one normally expects. Of course there were exceptions to this as I note later on, On a favorable note most ancient seaports then and now can only take the smaller ships, so the large ships are not in port with 2500 people disembarking the same time you are. The towns are no longer "tourist" towns. However if you are the type of person who likes to see the off beat and un-hurried life in the villages, the do it yourself explorer this is the place for you. The ships staff is most helpful to the people who do not take the standard tours. They always provide local information. How far into town, walking directions, local bus availability, taxi information and sights you might want to see, the local weather forecast and notable local foods. All of us guests found this information most useful as all ships do not provide for the self explorer in this helpful manner. Being small we could dock in most ports, if a tender is needed zodiacs are used, getting off the ship is very informal and no waiting in lines. Along this route we found the tour to Ephesus a definite not to be missed, one needs the explanations of your guide to appreciate what you are seeing and not miss the magnificent brilliance of this ancient Greek city founded in the 11th century BC. The tour to Troy was another moment in time the true travel adventurer would not want to miss, again the tour guide is a must.
Our cruise director seemed to be everywhere, in the dinning room, on the dock, by the ships map explaining where we were, and always informed and ready to answer questions. This too was a pleasant change from other ships.
To the rear of the ship are 2 lovely teak wood decks, lunch is always offered outside and in the dinning room. Eating lunch informally on the deck is very yacht like, sitting inside the small harbors or docked along side the local fishing boats and maybe a yacht or two. One may also go ashore and eat at a local restaurant usually lined along the waterfront. Our chef would go ashore every morning we docked and as the fishing boats returned, buy the local sea food for the dinner that night.
The ship has a small lift for those not wishing or able to do the stairs. 25% of the passengers aboard were repeat guest, they like the informality of the ship, although the ship still has the obligatory dress (jacket for men) captain's dinner. We often wonder why it has to be a dressy affair. Why don't they eliminate the dress and truly go informal. Many evenings the captain is seen in the lounge enjoying time with the guest and singing duets with the ships entertainer Darko, who plays a variety of music none of which was too loud and offensive to ears, in fact you could still carry on a conversation with the people seated near you.
Our ten day odyssey took us from Civitavecchia, to Capri, Palermo and Riposto Italy, Kefalonia and Gythion Greece and Bodrum, Kusadasi and Canakkale Turkey disembarking in Istanbul. This itinerary gave us an education and a chance to see matchless sites including 3 of the original 8 wonders of the world while sailing in the beautiful clear blue waters of Ulysses' Kingdom according to Homer. Elegant Cruise Tours also has an itinerary doing Venice and the Dalmatian coastline they will be promoting in 2008. A few of my fellow passengers have been on that one and were raving about how nice it was.
You might find this small informal, get to meet all your fellow passengers, while traveling in a relaxed atmosphere with simple yacht like elegance may be just the ship for you, if you have been there done that on other ships or you are the grab your guide book and go type traveler. We found the ancient seaport itinerary most fascinating even in the ports we had visited before because we could now do them on our own and see what we missed the first time around.
Elegant Cruises
The Ancient seaports of Europe have lured visitors for thousands of years, explorers, merchant traders, attacking armies, and tourist.
Today's tourist can still journey to historical places where past events can come alive and one can experience an almost reverent feeling when walking in the footsteps, through passage ways and gardens of those infamous people and societies that have gone on before us.
Elegant Cruises is one such small cruise line that makes these occasions possible, using two small ships with varying itineraries. Their latest addition is the M.S. Andrea, a former Hurtigruten delivering mail along the coast of Norway. A small swift ice class ship, she was refurbished and now bills herself as a deluxe, intimate cruise ship carrying up to 105 guests.We boarded the Ms. Andrea, as she is affectionately called, from the ancient seaport in Civitavecchia Italy and sailed to Istanbul Turkey. While climbing aboard using the narrow stair case and making what seemed like too many turns in the hallway to get to my cabin, I began to wonder if I really wanted to spend the next 10 days aboard.
Our cabin was quite nice, larger than I imagined and thoughtfully laid out. The bathroom was wonderful, the largest I have ever encountered on a ship. Huge shower, sink with cabinets even a magnifying make-up mirror, certainly nothing to dislike here. The beds were a little creaky, but each had a reading light. The rooms are not luxurious to look at, but they are accommodating and clean. Each cabin has a different configuration and size so one must be careful when booking to look for the category and size you will be happy with. The most important room on any ship is the dinning room and it is beautiful. More important the staff is also beautiful, very friendly and entertaining. The presentation of the food was excellent.We were offered tours in every port as usual for most cruise ships. I found most of the tours were not worth taking for many reasons. First, we are in small villages and museums are pretty much self explanatory.
The local tour guides in these quaint towns, charming as they are, are not professional enough to give the amount of information one normally expects. Of course there were exceptions to this as I note later on, On a favorable note most ancient seaports then and now can only take the smaller ships, so the large ships are not in port with 2500 people disembarking the same time you are. The towns are no longer "tourist" towns. However if you are the type of person who likes to see the off beat and un-hurried life in the villages, the do it yourself explorer this is the place for you. The ships staff is most helpful to the people who do not take the standard tours. They always provide local information. How far into town, walking directions, local bus availability, taxi information and sights you might want to see, the local weather forecast and notable local foods. All of us guests found this information most useful as all ships do not provide for the self explorer in this helpful manner. Being small we could dock in most ports, if a tender is needed zodiacs are used, getting off the ship is very informal and no waiting in lines. Along this route we found the tour to Ephesus a definite not to be missed, one needs the explanations of your guide to appreciate what you are seeing and not miss the magnificent brilliance of this ancient Greek city founded in the 11th century BC. The tour to Troy was another moment in time the true travel adventurer would not want to miss, again the tour guide is a must.Our cruise director seemed to be everywhere, in the dinning room, on the dock, by the ships map explaining where we were, and always informed and ready to answer questions. This too was a pleasant change from other ships.
To the rear of the ship are 2 lovely teak wood decks, lunch is always offered outside and in the dinning room. Eating lunch informally on the deck is very yacht like, sitting inside the small harbors or docked along side the local fishing boats and maybe a yacht or two. One may also go ashore and eat at a local restaurant usually lined along the waterfront. Our chef would go ashore every morning we docked and as the fishing boats returned, buy the local sea food for the dinner that night.
The ship has a small lift for those not wishing or able to do the stairs. 25% of the passengers aboard were repeat guest, they like the informality of the ship, although the ship still has the obligatory dress (jacket for men) captain's dinner. We often wonder why it has to be a dressy affair. Why don't they eliminate the dress and truly go informal. Many evenings the captain is seen in the lounge enjoying time with the guest and singing duets with the ships entertainer Darko, who plays a variety of music none of which was too loud and offensive to ears, in fact you could still carry on a conversation with the people seated near you.
Our ten day odyssey took us from Civitavecchia, to Capri, Palermo and Riposto Italy, Kefalonia and Gythion Greece and Bodrum, Kusadasi and Canakkale Turkey disembarking in Istanbul. This itinerary gave us an education and a chance to see matchless sites including 3 of the original 8 wonders of the world while sailing in the beautiful clear blue waters of Ulysses' Kingdom according to Homer. Elegant Cruise Tours also has an itinerary doing Venice and the Dalmatian coastline they will be promoting in 2008. A few of my fellow passengers have been on that one and were raving about how nice it was.You might find this small informal, get to meet all your fellow passengers, while traveling in a relaxed atmosphere with simple yacht like elegance may be just the ship for you, if you have been there done that on other ships or you are the grab your guide book and go type traveler. We found the ancient seaport itinerary most fascinating even in the ports we had visited before because we could now do them on our own and see what we missed the first time around.
Elegant Cruises
