We are on the August 9th cruise to France, Spain and Portugal. I believe others on this board will also be on that cruise. I was looking for advice about touring Sevilla and Cadiz. Regency seems to have an eight hour excursion to Sevilla with some independent time, but we would still be tied to the excursion's bus schedule, and we would have no time to see Cadiz at all. I know one day is not enough time to see both cities, but we might like a little time in each. Does anyone have any thoughts about renting a car and driving ourselves. We did this off of a Radisson cruise in Italy last year and are doing so in Bordeaux on th8is cruise. However, at one of the ports in Italy last year we had trouble getting to the rental car location. The company did not deliver to the dock and no taxi driver would take us because of traffic. Does anyone know what the port situation is like in Cadiz? We are also considering hiring a private guide. If a guide is the way to go, does anyone have recommendations.

I would definitely do the 8 hour Seville tour. You won't regret it. There really isn't that much to see in Cadiz. Lynn and I enjoyed Seville more than Granada, if that's any indication.

I echo Doug's recommendation. The whole day tour is the way to go. However, I do enjoy Granada more than Seville.

Thanks for the advice Marc & Doug. We are trying to do as much on our own w/o using the ship's excursions, but it sounds like using the ship's excursion in Seville is worth it.

We are renting a car in St. Malo to drive to Mt. St. Michel. We haven't decided on Bordeaux yet. We're waiting to hear reports from the LCT group on WAVE.

And we're anxiously awaiting the experience to report in! Only one week until we leave!

We were in Cadiz last September did not find it to be a very exciting city. The ship is docked very close to the city center so you just get off and walk. I think a tour away from the city would be preferable.

Cheers, Pam

Thanks for the advice everyone. John, I guess you will be on our cruise. Are you the one from Giathersburg. We are from Vienna. We were going to take the cruise excursion to Mt. St. Michelle. Why did you decide to rent a car? On the other hand, we are very into wine, and my husband is figuring out which chateaux he wants to visit in Bordeaux, so we are renting a car. Unfortunatley, we will be there on Saturday, so many places are closed. However, I know he has scouted out a few that will be open.

We decided to rent a car in St. Malo to give us some flexibility on our time. Apparently the Avis office is near the pier so it should be easy to rent.

There are 4 of us from Gaithersburg going. We love wine also. We've been saving the labels off some bottles of Bordeaux. We'll do some research and see if we can visit any of the ones we like.

We'll have to have a DC area cocktail party on board!

There are plenty of taxis at the port when ships come in. If you decide to do this would suggest getting one early. They seat 4 plus the driver so you can share one if you need to.
They display their tours and prices on a board so everything is very clear. We were there a couple years ago and don't recall price offhand.
You can do a 4 hour tour ( they don't inc. the driving time there and back in the 4 hours of city tour time to Seville) and then come back and do Cadiz. They charge about 30 Euro for a city tour of Cadiz..but you can easily do on your own. Cadiz is a wonderful little town with FABULOUS shopping ( think anything leather-esp.SHOES!!)..It is about a 10 minute walk from the dock so you don't really even need a taxi although I did coming back from all those stores :D
P.S. Our driver was a young guy who spoke excellent English..if you get out there early ask which is Fernando.
Even hired him for the next day ( as our ship vernighted in Cadiz)so was able to have him pick us up to take us to all the great stores.
If you find him mention Imelda one and two sent you.