bolt. Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 Our summer vacation to celebrate a graduation (for one of us) and a milestone anniversary (for two of us) is going to be epic! It's a cruise, so the itinerary is set, but (of course) I need to plan things out to get the most out of each stop. I'm a planner! If you've been to Amsterdam, Norway, Iceland, or Scotland -- I crave your advice and first-hand info about the best things to see and do. There are so many choices! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 (edited) I'm in Scotland. What do you like to do? Will you be driving or taking trains or buses? Does the ship dock in Edinburgh? Edited March 13, 2023 by Laura Corin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolt. Posted March 13, 2023 Author Share Posted March 13, 2023 (edited) 45 minutes ago, Laura Corin said: I'm in Scotland. What do you like to do? Will you be driving or taking trains or buses? Does the ship dock in Edinburgh? We have three stops in Scotland: (1) Lerwick, Shetland Islands; (2) Invergordon (with access by bus (?) to Inverness and Loch Ness); and (3) South Queensferry (with access by bus (?) to Edinburgh). It's my understanding that some of those ports are not exactly close to the cities and sights they are intended to access -- but that this is common for cruising, and bussing and/or trains are very much able to take the capacity and make the connections. What are your thoughts? Edited to add things we like to do: We tend towards history, art, and scenery. We like castles, museums, 'old town' parts of historic cities, ruins, archeology, and living history demonstrations. We also like short/easy hikes, especially with cliffs, waterfalls, lakes etc. Edited March 13, 2023 by bolt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 (edited) We have been to Iceland. Due to having a lot of knitters in the family, I spent a long time and a lot of money at The Hand lifting Association of Iceland. Hallgram???? spelling, church/cathedral, The National Museum of Iceland, the art museum, and the Saga Museum, as well as a golden circle tour outside the the city into the National Park which took us to a number of historical sites and Gullfoss Falls. Mark and Peter went on a cave tour - totally awesome but not good for my bad ankle so I stayed behind and devoured a book store bringing home many volumes in Icelandic including the Harry Potter series because at the time Peter was studying Icelandic and Danish. (He conversed quite well, and for walking, navigated us all over the city without error in Icelandic so I just have to insert a mamma brag here. 😁) We also went whale watching. We did not see any whales because the weather was VERY choppy, and we left the next day so we couldn't take them up on the offer to go out again at no cost the following afternoon. We absolutely loved it, and it is on our bucket list to go again. Mark wants to not be based in Reykjavik next time, and instead stay in one of the larger fishing villages with a rented car so we can see much more of the countryside and coastline, go puffin watching. I would be fine with that now that we have done the basics in Reykjavik. Peter wishes we had had time to go into the Phallic museum! He wanted to buy a back scratcher to take to college with him. 😂😂😂 E.T.A. All of our connections for tours were in Reykjavik, and everything ran on time and was super easy. So I can't speak to what it will be like for you in other places. But here is what I do know. The Icelandic people are some seriously happy, friendly, helpful people. They appreciate the money spent in their country by tourists because things got rough after the bank collapse in the early 2000's, and the spike in tourism has helped them a bunch. So my guess is that anything run through the cruise line will be very well coordinated by the Icelanders who work for them at the ports. I think if you sign up for a tour or excursion, they will make it simple for you to meet the taxi/bus and get to and from on time. Trains, if memory serves, are not a thing in Iceland. Buses very much are. Edited March 13, 2023 by Faith-manor More info 1 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 Pic of our trip. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 Amsterdam is one of my happy places. How much time? (and I'll come back) Scotland is one of my mother's happy places. If there's a train connection, even to an itty bitty town with an incomprehensible jumble of oddly placed consonants, the connections will work fine and somebody will be kind enough to help you figure out what to do upon arrival. I only ever once went only to Oslo, on the overnight ferry from Copenhagan, and I was, erm, maybe 22 at the time. My pretty-vague memory was that it was adorable, very friendly, very walkable (but, again, maybe 22) but very hilly. I long to drive the Iceland circle but have never been. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolt. Posted March 13, 2023 Author Share Posted March 13, 2023 3 minutes ago, Pam in CT said: Amsterdam is one of my happy places. How much time? (and I'll come back) We have four days in Amsterdam at the start of the trip. I'm thinking 3 days in the city and one somewhere in the surrounding area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 14 minutes ago, bolt. said: We have four days in Amsterdam at the start of the trip. I'm thinking 3 days in the city and one somewhere in the surrounding area. We spent a couple of days in Amsterdam and then moved to Delft. The trains between cities were very straightforward to use. I love visiting art museums, so we did the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. We really like the "City Walks" that Rick Steve's puts together in his tour books, so we did those when they were available. We stopped and walked through Haarlem on the way from Amsterdam to Delft. From Delft I took the dc to The Maurits Haus in the Hague and a different day we went to Leyden and walked through the town there. Oh, and we did the walking tour in Delft also. It want all art, this was also my family's introduction to Flying Tiger stores - like a European 5 Below. 😄 If architecture had trumped art there would also have been quite a bit to see! I can't help on your other stops - yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Tiggywinkle Again Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 I need you to post an inordinate and ridiculous amount of photos so I can live vicariously through you. 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, bolt. said: We have three stops in Scotland: (1) Lerwick, Shetland Islands; (2) Invergordon (with access by bus (?) to Inverness and Loch Ness); and (3) South Queensferry (with access by bus (?) to Edinburgh). It's my understanding that some of those ports are not exactly close to the cities and sights they are intended to access -- but that this is common for cruising, and bussing and/or trains are very much able to take the capacity and make the connections. What are your thoughts? Edited to add things we like to do: We tend towards history, art, and scenery. We like castles, museums, 'old town' parts of historic cities, ruins, archeology, and living history demonstrations. We also like short/easy hikes, especially with cliffs, waterfalls, lakes etc. I don't know about the other two ports, but South Queensferry is very close to Edinburgh. People also often come off ships in South Queensferry and take a trip to St Andrews, which is a walkable medieval town and university about an hour away by coach. Edited March 13, 2023 by Laura Corin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 5 hours ago, bolt. said: We have three stops in Scotland: (1) Lerwick, Shetland Islands; (2) Invergordon (with access by bus (?) to Inverness and Loch Ness); and (3) South Queensferry (with access by bus (?) to Edinburgh). It's my understanding that some of those ports are not exactly close to the cities and sights they are intended to access -- but that this is common for cruising, and bussing and/or trains are very much able to take the capacity and make the connections. What are your thoughts? Edited to add things we like to do: We tend towards history, art, and scenery. We like castles, museums, 'old town' parts of historic cities, ruins, archeology, and living history demonstrations. We also like short/easy hikes, especially with cliffs, waterfalls, lakes etc. Elgin Cathedral is an hours drive from Inverness - if you love ruined cathedrals. We also really enjoyed visiting Leaky’s used bookstore in Inverness - could have spent the better part of a day browsing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine State Sue Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 We visited Iceland for a week last October. We both thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The goal was to see the Northern Lights. We saw so much more. Here is what we did: Blue Lagoon - loved it Golden Circle Tour - loved it South Coast Tour - loved it Northern Lights Tour (we had better experiences on the 2 day tour and just in Reykjavik ) 2 day Northern Lights and Ice Cave Tour with Glacier Hiking and Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon - loved it and saw the best NL in the SE part of the country Snaefellsness peninsula tour (pass on this one) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine State Sue Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 5 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said: I need you to post an inordinate and ridiculous amount of photos so I can live vicariously through you. How many can I post? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 And Norway. You can’t go wrong in Norway! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 Amsterdam was mad busy when we were there the spring before Covid. One day in the crowds was enough for us; Rotterdam, The Hague, Haarlem, Leiden, Utrecht are all just as interesting and gorgeous and have far fewer people. Train service is easy and convenient. We’ve only spent a couple days in Iceland. Reykjavik is easy to see in an afternoon, and was full of young Instagrammers lol. I wouldn’t really recommend the Golden Circle, tbh I was pretty underwhelmed (don’t get me wrong, it’s very pretty, but to me it felt like Wyoming lol) and even in October it was very, very crowded. Like walls of people everywhere, not my thing. I did think the concept of walking in the fissure between the continents (in the national park) was pretty neat. Based on the crowds I’d suggest going a bit further out of the city, perhaps along the southern coast. Renting a car at the airport is very easy and driving is simple; we were extremely glad to not be on a bus with the hoards of other tourists. There are a bazillion tour buses available though, if that fits your trip better. We actually didn’t find Iceland to be as expensive as everyone warns about. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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