Customer Reviews

Mediterranean by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Mediterranean Cruising

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There are so many guides available for Europe, but most of them do not address the cruise traveler. Anne Vipond has, finally, written a guide that is relavant to the Mediterranean cruise experience. Forget the voluminous descriptions of hotels and restaurants, for Anne concentrates on the ports of call and the activities available. Want to know where the ship docks in Naples (or any other port)? You'll find an excellent map of the port area along with attractions within walking distance of the port. The historical background sections are useful, and the book is organized in a very understandable manner. Aside from a good cruise agent, this book is a Med-bound cruise traveler's best friend! It is an excellent sequel to Anne's previous title, Alaska by Cruise Ship.

It's about time! Cruisers have waited a long time for a well-written destination guide to cruise ports in the Med! Good advice, excellent city maps (including pier locations), and descriptions of the highlight spots to see. Cruising the Med is much more complicated than Alaska or the Caribbean, so it is essential to have a good guide book, coupled with the latest updated information from your cruise agent.... Use this book in conjunction with the shore excursion guide from your cruise line. You'll save the price of this book many times over in the money you save...

I thought this new edition was very good. It has the info on shore excursions but also provides tips on getting around independently in all the ports. The excellent color photos and maps add greatly to getting a handle on the attractions and focusing on what you what to see. The background on the Mediterranean is also quite helpful. How can you go to this destination without knowing, and wanting to know, the fascinating history of this region.

This book has a nice history section and some beautiful photographs. However, it does little to help the cruise traveler to know the highlights of each port. It offers nothing as alternatives to the ships shore excursions. It does not provide best use of time or potential itineraries. It does not provide recommended tour companies, restaruants or travel options from the ship. It is a nice overview of the port and history, not all that different than what the ship provides while at sea. I wanted a book to help me maximize my time and value in each port and give me some options other than buying the ships limited shore excursions. For my purpose, this book was disappointing.

As a travel agency owner, I have been giving these series of guides to my clients for a number of years and have gotten rave reviews...this particular guide is no exception. It contains
much in the way of useful info, especially for first-time cruisers to the Med. It's packed with details of the history of the area, good photos, maps (including a great pull-out map with additional city street maps on the back), travel tips such as currency and shopping info and a pretty comprehensive index. Most travel agents give wine or flowers as gifts; these guides leave a lasting impression and folks are quite appreciative. Highly recommended, even if visiting on a land vacation!

Dennis Hubbs, Owner
D&D Travel
Bloomfield, CT

We took the "Mediterranean by cruise ship" book on our Mediterranean cruise and were reading it as we visited places. The book offers general info on the countries, some historical references and more detailed excursions on some of the most popular cruise stops. Its compact format makes it useful especially to "first-timers" in Europe.
We would like to mention, though, that we noticed some historical inaccuracies and omissions.

When we decided we were going on a Mediterranean Cruise we knew exactly what we would need - Anne Vipond's "The Complete Guide to Mediterranean Cruising." Her books are compact, but filled with information needed for a succesful cruise. The book does not go into great detail about the history of the different ports but what it does have is great information on life on a cruiseship, and what to expect at each port such as: docking information, shore excursions, safety, and maps of each port.
We used her "Cruising the Panama Canal" a couple years ago and found it indispensable.

This book is really good for giving an overview of each of the cities we are going to on our cruise and has really helpful information in the front section (especially since I've never been on a cruise) about what to expect, pack, etc. But the one thing it is lacking that would be extremely helpful is helping us decide which cities we should do shore excursions in and what we should really focus on seeing. Most cruiselines offer shore excursions, but we've had a lot of trouble deciding if we should do them or if we would be better off touring on our own. So adding a section like that would be really helpful. Also, it would be nice if maps were drawn to scale and had a scale on them since it's hard to also judge distances. So overall a pretty good book, just wish it had more practical information.

This book's title is correct; it does cover the entire Mediterrean. However, if you are looking to use this book to make plans it is rather thin. Too little information on each location and not enough detail to really help. Some good maps, but little else

We are planning a Western Med Cruise and wanted to get information on the different ports of call. The description of the book led us to believe this was the book we needed. What we received was a book that provided an extensive history lesson on the Med!

If you want to know about the different ports and what to see and what not to see find another book.