…Ybor cigar factory, and homes survive. Unfortunately, some sections of the town were bulldozed down in a misguided and failed urban renewal scheme decades ago. The city is now rebuilding and renewing Ybor City following strict design and restoration guidelines. You can also stand on the only piece of land that the Cuban government owns in the United States. It is called the Jose Marti Park. It is named after a hero of the Cuban independence strugg…
…e railway opened in 1900 and winds up through the mountains from the small town right to the summit of the pass. It is stunning. A real marvel of engineering. I went on an excursion with Holland America Line off the Nieuw Amsterdam on my 7-night Inside Passage cruise, I can highly recommend this ! I loved it. We chose to go on the “luxury” car. There is one of these on every train that runs. It means there are only 14 people and you can move aroun…
…same itinerary back-to-back during the season and they know the rivers and towns incredibly well. If you have any issues or problems, they will know how to solve those in every place you cruise to. On a river you’re always near towns and land, so you have security knowing that if you have any issues or problems you’re near to land and support if you need it. There is also no chance of getting seasick because there’s no real motion onboard. River c…
…torical and you’re going to see lots of cathedrals on walking tours of the town. Now more cruise lines are trying to diversify that, and you’ll find a lot of them will start to have a more active hiking or a bicycle tours, but you’ll find wherever you go to they are stopping at the same places and doing pretty much the same excursions. There’s no real big difference in excursions. Importantly, most cruise lines include at least one excursion in ev…
…ve in a port you can get off as soon as the ships clears and head off into town and you head back, and you do not have to worry about any of that hassle. Those are, in my view, the best things about cruising the Caribbean. What do I think are the worst things about going on a Caribbean cruise? Crowds Probably the worst thing of all of a Caribbean cruise is the crowds and how busy it is. As I mentioned, there’s lots of choice and lots of options an…
…with a starter, a main course and a dessert which was specific to the very town or place that were going through. They would bring on board entertainers from that region who would be singing or dancing. I have been on other river cruises where it has been less so because its speciality is say French cuisine, and that’s what they keep having every day. Very importantly, understand the degree of cultural immersion and what the actual enrichment prog…
…to Kotor, it’s very busy, but if you walk up the huge hill behind the old town, almost no one does that because it looks really scary and it looks really active. To be honest, it’s not actually that bad at all. If you look for more active things there will always be less people there, so go as far away as possible and be as active as possible as you can. That’s something that I do a lot, and I find it’s a really good way of avoiding crowds from c…
…eople are more likely to talk to you. So, it’s a bit like being in a small town versus a big city. I always found on smaller ships you don’t get lost in the crowd. And also, it’s really important because the excursion’s a little bit smaller. The events are a little bit smaller, and people just notice you more. They notice you are travelling by yourself, and they will start to engage with you much more. #5 Pick the right time of year Another really…
…e-Dame, the old Saigon Post Office, the Opera House and the very beautiful town hall. There’s also a stop at the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is a network of something like 200 miles of underground tunnels, where the Viet Cong waged a big part of their war against the South Vietnamese, of course, sponsored by the Americans. It’s a fascinating place. You could actually go down some of the tunnels, if you want to. The next main place, which is somewhere I h…
…s great about a river cruise is that you’ll normally visit the big, iconic towns, so again on the Danube, you’ll probably visit Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. On the Rhine, you’ll visit major cities as well, and again you’ll see some of the major sites, but also because of the nature of the river, you’ll stop at very out-of-the-way little villages, or perhaps places that were really big in mediaeval times and have a historic castle there, or so…
…anywhere but the beach. If in Croatia, in Dubrovnik, going shirtless in a town could get you into a lot of trouble. you could even get a on-the-spot fine. Really, the key rule is to keep your clothes on unless you’re on the beach. If you’re visiting religious places, that you need to have your shoulders and your upper arms covered. And you need to have long trousers on, or certainly cover your knees. The spoken word One of the most serious laws i…
