Our family is looking forward to our first cruise with Regent in the Med this summer. On past family cruises with Silversea we have had the ship's shore excursion desk arrange private tours for us. There has never been a charge for making the arrangements. It seems, from Regent's website that there is a $100 per port charge for making private shore excursion arrangements. Is that correct?

That is how I am reading it as well. For custom excursions/tours seperate from those typically offered. Anyone have any recent experience with this service?

Here\'s a link to the Regent web page on this topic.

I wasn't aware of that charge - but why not just make your own plans. There is a company? "Travel with Friends" that has contacts all over the world and will coordinate it all. The contact is through California so you can contact them by Email or phone. They have scheduledour portstops in the Med for our May 19th cruise with the exception of Epesus which I went with Emek Evyn who was so highlily recommended on this site. You can go with the drive/ guide ortwo persons. Good Luck and the private tour is the way to go in my book. Bon Voyage, Jan

I wasn't aware of that charge - but why not just make your own plans. There is a company? "Travel with Friends" that has contacts all over the world and will coordinate it all. The contact is through California so you can contact them by Email or phone. They have scheduled our port stops in the Med for our May 19th cruise with the exception of Ephesus which I went with Emek Evyn who was so highly recommended on this site. You can go with the drive/ guide or two persons. Good Luck and the private tour is the way to go in my book. Bon Voyage, Jan

If you tell us what ports you would like drivers in we can give you lots of great people.

Sassycruiseher, if you make private shore excursions with the concierge service before you leave on the cruise, there is a $100 charge per port. You can, however, make private shore arrangements with the tour office when you are on the ship without a charge.
I have found that at times it is better to do it with the tour office on the ship instead of with a pivate tour company just incase for some reason a port is canceled. Also if you do it with the tour office they are responsible if your tour is delayed because of traffic or some other unforseen reason.

Thanks for the information. I've had really bad luck making independent tour arrangements. A couple of times they simply didn't show up and another they were over an hour late. As a result DH is highly skeptical about doing things on our own.