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Maximise your time in port: Shore Experience tips

Make exploring on your cruise as effortless as the days you spend on board, with our expert tips for maximising your time in port.

4 min 06 Jun 2025

Locally led. Tailored to you.

Exploration made easy

Pleasantly leisurely or a little more energy?

On your own or in a group?

All day or a few hours?

Hands off or on?

Sailing in the next 365 days?

Discover more

Whether wanderlust is taking you to the other side of the world or just an ocean away, flying to meet your ship means every day of your Cunard voyage is spent in the region you’ve set your sights on exploring.

You could tick a new country off your bucket list (why stop at one?) or embark on an expedition-like adventure, exploring St Lucia’s pitons in the Caribbean or Alaska’s breathtaking tidal glaciers.

Flying to your cruise makes destinations such as these easy to explore and, given you may only set foot in them once, it’s only natural to want to experience as much as possible while you can.

Locally led. Tailored to you.

It’s for this reason that we’ve created our Cunard Shore Experiences – a collection of tailored in-port activities that showcase the best of what to see and do in each destination.

These experiences, led by local guides and available to book up to 365 days before your holiday, cater to different activity levels and interests to allow you to explore at a pace and style that suits you.

What’s more, they offer you the peace of mind that, no matter what, we’ll always get you back to your ship so you can relax and fully immerse yourself in each new destination.

Exploration made easy

The first thing you’ll notice about our Shore Experiences is just how many there are to choose from. Day-long adventures and half-day tours. Group activities and independent discovery. A stroll through the main sights or a journey off the beaten track.

With such a wide breadth of ways to explore, maximising your time is easy with our Shore Experiences. To help you narrow down the array of options, we’ve outlined some of the main things to consider when planning what to see and do in the ports on your itinerary.

Follow these tips and you’re sure to make the most of the time you spend ashore on your Cunard cruise.

Pleasantly leisurely or a little more energy?

Are you someone who struggles to sit still? Or do you prefer blending active days with bouts of relaxation?

At Cunard, we understand that not everyone likes to explore in the exact the same way, which is why we offer Shore Experiences for varying activity levels and abilities. These range from panoramic coach trips that chauffeur you between the main sights to more physical pursuits, such as our Pulpit Rock Hike experience in Norway.

You’ll find the activity level for each experience listed in the description, along with an overview of what the tour entails and a suggestion of what to wear. Where possible, we also offer accessible Shore Experiences for guests who use a powered mobility device or wheelchair. These experiences often book up quickly, so we recommend logging in to your account and reserving your space as soon as you’ve booked your cruise.

On your own or in a group?

Whether you prefer to explore alone or in a group, you’ll find plenty to do on your voyage. Our Shore Experiences cater for both preferences, with options for exploring in the company of fellow Cunard guests or embarking on a solo adventure.

We also offer the best of both worlds, with experiences that combine a group activity with time for independent exploration. These excursions, such as our Split by Tuk Tuk experience, are ideal for giving you an overall flavour of the port, before freeing you up to explore by yourself.

Independent exploration is also possible via our ‘on your own’ experiences. These simply offer transport to and from your destination, with no fixed agenda to follow on arrival. If you like the flexibility to explore at your own pace, coupled with the reassurance that we’ll always get you back to your ship, these experiences are a perfect choice.

All day or a few hours?

How long you like to be off your ship will also impact how much or how little you do ashore. While some experiences, such as our Panoramic Rome tour from Civitavecchia, whisk you away all day, others only require a few hours, freeing you up to enjoy lunch or afternoon tea on board.

Opting for a shorter Shore Experience will also, in the majority of cases, leave you with time to explore the port on your own. You could, for instance, embark on an excursion to a nearby town or attraction and still discover the local area in the vicinity of your ship when you return.

The other option is to talk to our Shore Experience team about a bespoke excursion. Given enough notice, we can arrange private transportation from and to your Cunard Queen, book tickets for local attractions, and even link you up with a local guide. If exploring this way appeals, we recommend visiting the Shore Experience desk as soon as possible after boarding.

Hands off or on?

Do you strive to sample the local cuisine in each new destination? Or is ticking off the must-see sights the most important part of a port call for you? Whatever you look forward to about cruising, Shore Experiences make it easy to indulge in the style of exploring that suits you most.

All of our experiences are individually tailored to the ports on your cruise to give you a taste of life in the destination. Tours to the main sights are an option in every port, but we also offer activity-led experiences, such as mosaic making in Mykonos and traditional baking in Bergen.

These types of tour connect you with the people, places, and pastimes that are unique to each port on your cruise, giving you a chance to hone a new skill or indulge your interests in a manner that authentically aligns with the destination.

Sailing in the next 365 days?

If your Cunard cruise sails in 365 days or less, you can start to access Shore Experiences for your voyage via our online pre-cruise personaliser.

Simply log in to your Cunard account and visit the Shore Experience page to see everything that’s available. The sooner you do this, the higher the probability that you’ll secure a space on our most popular tours and excursions, many of which sell out in advance of sailing.

Shore Experiences you book before sailing are also subject to a discount compared to booking on board, so not only will you benefit from the widest choice of experiences, but you’ll also save money too – even if you booked your cruise via a travel agent. Just log in on our website or register for an account to get started.

Discover more

For more information about Shore Experiences and the types of excursions we offer at Cunard, visit our Shore Experiences page or see our booking a bespoke experience page to discover how we can help you to arrange private transfers and tailored excursions ashore.