Greek Island Cruising
If you're wanting to see a some of Europe, but only have a short time, a cruise is the PERFECT option! Myself and hubby travelled from Venice to Montenegro, 3 Greek Isles and Croatia in October on board the Norwegian Star. We started in Venice and had 1 night here before boarding our ship. This cruise was 7 nights long with only 1 day at sea. We had 5 stops, 4 countries, but only unpacked once and didn't need to worry about where we would stay or eat, as this was all taken care of onboard our ship.
Although we had both been to Venice before, sailing out along the Grand Canal was absolutely breathtaking. Our first stop was Kotor, Montenegro. This was beautiful and definitely a highlight of our trip. We decided to go on a tour organized by the cruise ship. This was a 23km bike tour around the bay. This was lovely and at the end we stopped at the old town and looked around here before going back on board for a well-deserved tasty dinner.
Next day and next stop was Corfu. We decided to do our own thing here. We took a local bus around the island to Kanoni and visited the old town. Next day was Santorini, which was as beautiful as I had expected. We had 8 hours here which enabled us to do a LOT of walking! We past many towns and donkeys along the way. We caught the cable up the mountain and walked back down to the ship. The next day was Mykonos and this was probably the worst day of weather we encountered our entire trip. A little windy and only around 21c. Again, we walked around the old town and did our own thing.
The following day was a day at sea. There are many activities on board, including a gym, shows, movies, bingo and other trivia competitions. Of course, you can just eat the entire day too with an endless supply of very yummy food! Our last day was spent in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This was another highlight, we wished we had longer here. We caught the cable car up to the top of the mountain and explored the museum up here, which is hidden away. We then headed back down and walked the walls of the old town. This is definitely a place to return to and spend more time exploring Croatia. The following day we were back in Venice and flew home to Australia.
October is at the end of the summer season which means less people and reduced prices on many things. Our weather was perfect, with an average temperature of 25c, a great time to travel to Southern Europe.