Do tourism consultants ever take a holiday and simply not consider each destination and product they come across from a professional point of view? I suspect not! Here are some reflections from an Eastern Mediterranean cruise taken in July.
Rome – a first visit and quite challenging in temperature’s of over 40 degrees! Train fares from Civitavecchia to Rome are very cheap. The Metro system is less useful as there are only two lines. The queue or line to get into the Vatican Museum stretched two blocks at 9am. The trick is to book your tickets on-line in advance and you walk past them all and join the very short queue at prebooked tours entrance. http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html
On-line booking in advance is becoming essential at many European attractions. The Vatican Museum receives 4m visits per annum as does the Coliseum. A way to legally avoid the line there is to go to the Palatine Hill entrance a short distance away and the tickets there have joint access to it and the Coliseum. No line at all and then walk past the 2-3 hour queue and go into the prebooked entrance. Learn all this by studying guide books or websites such as http://www.cruisecritic.com owned by Trip Advisor.
Using the many firsthand accounts on Cruise Critic ‘boards’ you can find the answer to questions which first time and seasoned visitors ask about many destinations. How do I buy a ‘jeton’ to board a tram in Istanbul? Is it sensible to take the train from Naples to Pompeii and then go on to Sorrento? How do you avoid Turkish carpet sellers’ hard sell in Istanbul or Kusadasi? Should I ride the donkeys in Santorini or take the cable-car instead?
So what did impress the well travelled tourism consultant? Well perhaps the most astonishing ‘discovery’ was that of the island of Delos – a World Heritage Site. Reached only by ferry from Mykonos this island has been uninhabited since it was sacked by the Romans in 88 BC. The island was reputedly the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis and as the central island in the Cyclades became the centre of the Delian League. Nobody could be buried there or born there because of its sacred status. This makes current day archaeology totally focused on buildings and architecture. To us Delos had a Wow Factor! For a first timer it is essential to book a tour.
Negative impressions were best gained in Athens where the public sector workers at historic sites were on a half day’s strike about their pension cuts and the centre of the city seems to have been graffitied everywhere during the recent disturbances.
The Eastern Med is a fascinating place and possibly best avoided in the heat of July! What do you do however when your wife is a teacher??!!
