19th Century Scottish sculptor John Steell's statue of poet Robert Burns in downtown Dunedin turns out to be the meeting place for more than one tour, but you manage to hook up with the right guide, who immediately begins sharing local color about this charming village that could be in many parts of the United Kingdom.
As your bus winds slowly uphill, you enter a bucolic world of rolling farm fields and pastureland, with yellow Gorse flowers spreading wildly across what seem to be less-domesticated stretches.
You obviously must be in Ireland or Scotland.
Only you're not.
You're in New Zealand, driving to the Royal Albatross Colony, where you'll learn about amazing birds whose massive wingspans catch wind currents to fly around the world. You'll later visit a penguin sanctuary, home to adorable flightless creatures whose own unique adaptations allow them to fly underwater through ice-cold oceans.
You can be forgiven for having misread the landscape.
The city's name, in fact, is an adaptation of the Gaelic name for Edinburgh, Dùn Èideann.
Everything you need to know to make the most of this Scottish outpost in the Southern Hemisphere will be explained to you by a knowledgeable guide who knows exactly where to go and why.
The answer depends as much on you as on the itinerary or individual ports.
An excursion like the one summarized above certainly gives the traveler a great breadth of experiences over the course of a single day, but I dare say that someone who managed to make it to the same quaint village for a lengthy stroll through its quaint streets, punctuated by tipping a pint or munching on fish and chips in a pub, could certainly enjoy a wonderful day as well.
In fact, I know many people for whom the cruise ship itself is the primary destination, and if they get off the ship at all, it is just to visit a nearby internet cafe or souvenir shop.
They love the meals, entertainment and camaraderie found on board as well as the beautiful views across the water. This is particularly true for repeat cruises in the Caribbean or Pacific.
However, if you've traveled half way around the world, you would probably want to include at least one or two in depth excursions that give you greater insights into the region.
After all, you must have taken that long flight for some reason.
There could be one specific highlight that makes the entire trip worthwhile.
My brother-in-law Brooks wanted to visit the Hermitage in St. Petersburg to see one special painting, something that would have been nearly impossible a few years ago, so he and my sister joined us on a memorable
Scandinavia/Russia cruise. It would have been crazy for him to stay on board when the long awaited opportunity to visit what is truly one of the world's finest museums arrived.
At the other extreme, some people want excursions in every port, and if you're among them, excursions definitely do make the cruise.
An all-inclusive or more inclusive vacation like a
river cruise or the Viking Ocean Cruise might be more cost effective than a mainstream cruise for you, particularly if you always choose mini-suites or suites for accommodations.
Bridging the gap between extremes, Oceania Cruises' OLife Program may include free excursions for up to five ports, while mainstream cruise lines may feature on board credits specifically designated toward shore excursions.
Most of us will choose ship sponsored excursions for a couple of key ports on the itinerary, often those which would be perceived as difficult or dangerous to approach on our own, such as
Istanbul or Israel, and then explore easier destinations on our own.
It's also possible to use third-party excursion companies, though you should exercise due diligence in researching independent vendors, as tours with similar names aren't necessarily the same. Cruise Planners has partnered with
Shore Trips to give you a safe alternative to ship sponsored excursions, including multi-port packages for potential savings.
Shore Trips has proven itself particularly adept at providing private van excursions for small groups prepared to pay a premium for a more custom-tailored experience ashore.
Surprisingly frequently, however, it will be some smaller port which perhaps you had never considered visiting and simply wandered toward without expectations that turns out to be a highlight of your trip. Allow some time for serendipity during your voyage.
Whatever you do, mix it up. Make each port memorable in its own right rather than repeating the same type of excursion to the same types of places and activities in every port.
In the final analysis, cruise lines do not haphazardly throw together itineraries. Like carefully curated pieces of art from a larger collection in the Hermitage, the ports have been selected to weave a story about the region, adding significant strands in each port and also during onboard presentations.
If we pay attention, we fully experience a region and gain enlightenment as well as entertainment on these epic sojourns.
We return home with newly stretched minds. As the great travel writer Mark Twain wrote,
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
All of the photos in this post, by the way, are from New Zealand .
But a list of 8 is not nearly enough, so I thought I'd add 8 more, also accessible on Princess:
14. Stepping behind the Iron Curtain to visit St. Petersburg, Russia, a region I never imagined would be open to American tourism in my lifetime.
