All in Cruise Planning

Eight Hours Ashore in Le Havre, France - Cruise Port Profile

Eight Hours Ashore in Le Havre, France - Cruise Port Profile

Cathy Rogers
Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Port Profile, portExploring, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Europe, Mini Cruise

Popular Cruise Port Le Havre is in the Département Seine Maritime part of the Normandy region, situated on the north coast of France. Cruise Ships dock within walking distance of Le Havre town centre which is probably the ‘marmite’ of cruise destinations - with as many people loving it as hating it! It is in Normandy - a region famous for its food, in particular apples. sea-food and dairy products. One of Frances most important deep water ports, Le Havre is situated at the mouth of the Seine river which links Paris to the sea. The reconstruction of the town by August Perret after the catastrophic damage of WW2 is now viewed by many as an outstanding example of urban planning - leading to its position as a UNESCO Heritage Site.

Eight Hours Ashore in Le Havre, France - Cruise Port Profile

Eight Hours Ashore in Le Havre, France - Cruise Port Profile

Cathy Rogers
Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Port Profile, portExploring, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Europe, Mini Cruise

Popular Cruise Port Le Havre is in the Département Seine Maritime part of the Normandy region, situated on the north coast of France. Cruise Ships dock within walking distance of Le Havre town centre which is probably the ‘marmite’ of cruise destinations - with as many people loving it as hating it! It is in Normandy - a region famous for its food, in particular apples. sea-food and dairy products. One of Frances most important deep water ports, Le Havre is situated at the mouth of the Seine river which links Paris to the sea. The reconstruction of the town by August Perret after the catastrophic damage of WW2 is now viewed by many as an outstanding example of urban planning - leading to its position as a UNESCO Heritage Site.

5 Hours Ashore in Athens, Greece

5 Hours Ashore in Athens, Greece

Cathy Rogers
Celebrity Cruises, Cruise Basics, Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Europe, portExploring, Port Profile

Arriving early on a clear, crisp, sunny November morning, we decided to take the chance to visit Lycabettus Hill - the tallest of the seven hills in Athens - standing about 300 metres above sea level - somewhere we had seen (you can’t really miss it from almost anywhere in Athens) but had never actually visited.

Eight Hours Ashore in Nice, France - Cruise Port Profile

Eight Hours Ashore in Nice, France - Cruise Port Profile

Cathy Rogers
Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Europe, Mediterranean Cruising, Port Profile

The iconic image of Nice, Cote d’Azur is its wide sweeping bay and beach, overlooked by large imposing hotels. Although some smaller ships dock nearby at the Vielle Port de Nice, most cruise ships will dock further along the coast in the next bay, Villefranche-sur-Mer, where passengers come ashore by tender. From there cruise excursions are all about popping you onto a bus and driving you out of town to visit Monaco, Cannes, Grasse or up to the mountain villages but to be honest you really could spend a lovely day here without heading far from the ship at all - there are so many things to see and do in the area that you will probably want to come back on another cruise or even four! Read on to find out more…

Eight Hours in Sitka, Alaska - Cruise Port Profile

Eight Hours in Sitka, Alaska - Cruise Port Profile

Cathy Rogers
Alaska Cruising, Conscious Cruising, Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Environment, Holland America Line, Responsible cruising

Sitka, on the Pacific Coast of Barenof Island in Alaska, is one of the more unusual ports to see featured on an Alaskan itinerary. Originally built by Russian traders in the early 1800’s it has a very different feel to the wild west, gold rush mining towns that form most of the other ports of call in the area and is definitely worth a visit if you get the chance!

Eight Hours Ashore in Kerala…

Eight Hours Ashore in Kerala…

Cathy Rogers
Affiliate Link, Celebrity Cruises, Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Cruise Planning, Far East Cruising, portExploring

Back at the start of the year - when the world looked very, very different and we had no idea how lucky we were - we took cruise on a Dubai - Singapore route onboard Celebrity Constellation. As we were travelling to some completely unfamiliar countries and ports we decided to change our usual DIY approach to going ashore for a couple of ports partly also because we had some very short days in port. A recommendation in talkExplore Facebook group led us to take a look at the excursions from the Viator Company.

Six Lessons Learnt on my Worst Ever Shore Excursion...

Six Lessons Learnt on my Worst Ever Shore Excursion...

Cathy Rogers
Cruise Destination, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Cruise Excursion, portExploring, Far East Cruising, Princess Cruise

I wanted to share my thoughts on our ‘worst ever’ port excursion as we learnt some important lessons from it, both about the questions you should ask when booking a shore excursion and also about what we took ashore with us that day. We were visiting Laem Chabang in Thailand on a Princess Cruise, which is what we call a ‘FOR’ port - a large industrial port ‘FOR’ Bangkok which is actually 125km away…

Venice - birthplace of portExplore...

Venice - birthplace of portExplore...

Cathy Rogers
Cruise Destination, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Europe, First Cruise, Princess Cruise, New to Cruising

On Valentines day I was thinking about the title of ‘Most Romantic City in the World’ in relation to cruise destinations and for me the most romantic destination for cruisers it just HAS to be Venice! I know the title is meant for Paris, but much as I like Le Havre it doesn’t seem a very Romantic cruise destination!! So I’m voting for Venice (for as long as they’ll have us!) and it was while I was looking for some pictures from my various visits that I thought that I should tell you the story of how PortExplore was born in Venice…

Saga schedule June 27th return to UK cruising

Saga schedule June 27th return to UK cruising

Cathy Rogers
Cruise News, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Cruise Basics, Covid 19, Saga Cruises, UK Cruising

Saga’s 2021 season is scheduled to begin on 27th June when Spirit of Discovery will set off from Tilbury a six day trip Scottish Highlands and Islands Cruise visiting the Shetland Islands and Scotland ports.


All guests will be UK passport holders, in the over 50 age group and must have completed a full vaccination cycle. Pre-departure testing will take place in the London Cruise terminal before boarding, and include a full medical screening.


Five FREE ways to spend a day in Dover, England

Five FREE ways to spend a day in Dover, England

Cathy Rogers
Cruise Destination, Cruise Excursion, Cruise Planning, Cruise Port, Europe, portExploring, UK Cruising, Saga Cruises

DOVER... The majority of visitors to Dover arrive through the frankly uninspiring Ferry Port on the Eastern side of Dover Harbour, drive off the ferry and get out of Dover as fast as they can Others arrive at the Western Docks by cruise ship and are herded onto a coach trip to see the sights of London!  So while most of these arriving passengers will have spotted the famous white cliffs from the sea and some may even have noticed the famous Dover Castle perched high above the port they are missing out on some real hidden gems. There is a lot more to Britains oldest port than white cliffs so make time on your visit for a little portExplore.…

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