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These excursions can be pretty different — here are a few tips

I had to use AI to generate this image of a motorcoach parked next to a cruise ship, because surprisingly, I didn’t take any pictures of the actual buses from my excursions in Europe. Given how much time I was going to be spending on them, you’d think I would have, though!

I wrote previously about my decision to take ship-sponsored excursions in most of my European ports. This is pretty much a complete 180 from my usual MO, where I like to visit local beach clubs, patronize local tour vendors like the Cozumel Bar Hop, or just wander around.

Excursions are a great way to see the area outside of your port city when you’re on a cruise in Europe. Sometimes, people use them to visit nearby cities; for instance, the port in Civitavecchia is popular since it’s the closest one to the city of Rome. I chose to use my excursions to visit smaller cities outside of the port rather than these larger ones.

What that resulted in, however, was a lot of travel time. I mean, a lot. For one excursion in particular, we were on the bus for nearly half of the 4.5 hour excursion time.

I think my dissatisfaction with the amount of bus time was one part expectations and one part (lack of) preparation. I definitely wouldn’t have minded the longer bus ride if I’d brought a pair of AirPods to listen to music, or my Kindle to read a book on the 1-hr long stints on the bus.

These European excursions have long running times. Mine were in the 4.5 to 5 hour range, but some of them are up to 8 or 9 hours, depending on your port schedule. It’s important to bring a phone charger and some snacks in your bag if you’re going to have a long day off the ship.

One unfortunate side effect of the time spent on the bus is that we didn’t always have much time to spend in the towns we visited. It all felt a bit rushed; there wasn’t much time to sit down for much more than a quick coffee. That’s one reason why it’s important to be prepared with a few Euros in case you need to visit a public bathroom. This lovely town square in Portovenere had one, but you needed to pay 1 euro to use it.

One final thing I’d add is that it’s important to bring sunscreen for your European cruise, just like your Caribbean ones! I had forgotten to pack some, so I picked up a bottle in Barcelona and used it liberally. If you’re going to be on a long excursion — especially one that’s outside, like my trip to Pompeii — it’s important to bring that along so you can reapply.

Here’s a list of things you want to make sure you bring with you for your European shore excursion:

• AirPods
• Kindle
• Phone charger
• Snacks
• Euros (to use a public bathroom)
• Sunscreen
• Your patience