ICELAND ITINERARY

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ICELAND ITINERARY

Sharing my London/Iceland trip with you

Tom

August 13, 2023

Guest contributors: Acescruising

Good day!

I wanted to take a minute and share my trip with you so I can show you how I normally do my travels. Every trip is different, However, I thought this would give a good idea of how I try to see the most during every trip.

Today, I will be going over my trip starting in London/Southhamton and going to Iceland. You can review the itinerary here: Celebrity Cruise to ICELAND

I chose to fly from MCO, not really ideal for me, but the flight times and prices were too good to pass. I will fly on Aug 26 overnight, landing on 8/27 at 9am. My goal is to be at my Hotel near tower of London by noon, however, that is all up to customs.

On the 27th, I left my afternoon free. I am going to try and do a 5pm bike ride around the Thames, however, this may get cancelled if my foot does not improve. If it does get cancelled, I will find a nice pub or something to familiarize myself with London a bit.

The morning of the 28th I have a full day tour. Leaving from London, I will have a stop at Winsor and then Buckingham palace. I wasnt sure what I wanted to see or do this day, so I chose these. I will let you know later what I thought of the locations and the tour. I left this evening open.

On the 29th, I have a train leaving to Southhampton at 11am, so, I booked a tower of london tour at 8am. That tour is roughly two hours. After that tour, I will immediately go to the train station and take the tour hour journey to the ship. The train will be around 1h:25 in length and then finding a cab to the ship should only take roughly 20 minutes. I should be on the ship by 1.

The next two days are at sea where I will do some RR and try and catch up on work.

On Sept 1 I have an excursion with Celebrity taking me out to the VOK baths, a hot spring. I look foreward to this. Quick tip, book early to get the shore excursions you want. This had one spot left and I booked a year in advance.

On sept 2 - Horse and dairy farm on a cruise line excursion.

On sept 3, we arrive in Reykjavik around 11am. I have filled this day as much as I possibly good. I haver a golden circle tour at noon that is around 7 hours and then at 10p I have a Northern lights Yacht tour for about 2 hours. We are overnight here, so the next AM I have a city tour at 8am and we leave around noon. I booked these through Viator.

Sept 4 - City of Reykjavik with Celebrity excursions

Sept 5 at sea

Sept 6 - Belfast - Giants causeway tour with Shore excursions group.

Sept 7 sea

Sept 8 - St. Peters port - German Occupation history tour (this may get changed to a Castle visit)

Sept 9, return early. Train or bus to gatwick. Flying out at 2:30p

I will be working and available during this time so do not hesitate to reach out! I will do my best to help you and get you booked!

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Acescruising

In July of 2024 I did a 7 night tour with Backroads adventure travel. Here is a review and breakdown of that adventure!

Here are some pictures from the trip: Backroads 2024

For those of you not familiar, Backroads tours is a luxury adventure travel company that offers worldwide biking, hiking, adventure tours that incorporate top notch hotels and river cruises. In this instance, we were on AMA Waterways, the AMASonata.

To begin this trip, I took a private tour from Berlin with a stop in Dresden on the way to Prague. This took around 4.5 hours. You could also take the train or fly.

Once in Prague I checked into my hotel, Hotel Klarav a great hotel near Prague Castle. I always recommend this hotel first to people staying in Prague.

I stayed three nights in Prague, it ended up being one of my favorite cities in the world. Absolutely fantastic. While in Prague, I did a city tour on bike that included the Charles Bridge, Old town square with Tyn and St. Nicholas Churches. after riding around and seeing the sights, I met up with some of the other Backroads people to enjoy a local restaurant. The next day, a group of us did a walking tour that included Prague Castle! Ask me about Prague! Its full of adventure.

The first day of the Backroads trip departed the hotel first thing in the Morning. The bus ride was about 90 minutes, we arrived at Tittling, Germany around noon. Backroads had a beautiful lunch set up for us while they discussed safety and biking. After 26 miles of biking, we reached the ship in Vilshofen!

This was primarily a backroads biking adventure, so, you pay for that experience. You can do as much or as little as you want however, and take advantage of the river cruise experience as well.

I biked every single day besides one, we went to the castle in Cesky Krumlov instead. Cesky is a really cool place with a lot of history dating back to 30000 BC!

The most interesting ride was probably between Weirkirchen and Melk, the guide warned us the hill was steep, he wasnt lying! About 30 minutes riding up hill. Once to the top, amazing views of the valley and a great downhill to Melk.

Here was the entire itinerary of the river cruise.

Vilshofen

Passau

Linz (Salzberg)

Weissenkirchen (Austria)

Vienna

Bratislava (one of my favorite cities!)

Budapest

The rest of the trip was bike rides, world war two sites and history with a lot of Daube river valley in between.

Look for an acescruising.com hosted trip with backroads in 2026!

Would you ever do a biking vacation?

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Tom@Acescruising

May 11, 2025

A journey through Greece to Turkey

May 2025 trip itinerary

Acescruising

On May 19, I will start to make my way to Greece from Florida. Many have been asking me about my day to day, so, Here is a nice layout.

The trip will be a working vacation as I am hosting an Explora Journeys cruise for Signature travel network.

Flying from Orlando saved me about $1000 on the flight, so, I will take Amtrak from Jacksonville (about $40) to the train station near MCO. Ill stay at an airport hotel and just relax before my flight on the 20th.

I have a dual layover flight on Condor air (german operated airplane) with stops in Toronto and Frankfurt before arrival in Athens on the 21st at around 3pm.

I decided it was best to get a private car from ATH to the city center, the ride is about 45 minutes or so. That cost around $85. You can also take a regular taxi for around $70 or the train starts at $15.

From the 21st to the 24th I will stay at a hotel in Athens called The Stanley, which I have booked for guests in the past with good review and feedback. I will have a full review of the hotel upon my return.

I decided to book a night tour dining and walking tour, which should be a great way to refresh my my memory of Athens, as I have not been since 2017.

Lets rundown a quick day by day pre cruise schedule:

May 21 - Transport to Hotel, Evening food tour.

May 22 - City bike ride in the early afternoon and a food and wine tour at 5:30p.

May 23 - Yacht Tour. This is a 10 hour yachting tour with lunch and drinks with stops at Agstri and Moni (swimming and relaxing)

May 24 - Boarding day. In the morning I will do a walking tour with the Acropolis and museums. Around 3pm, I will board the ship and prepare for my welcome party that evening abord the beautiful Explora I.

This cruise is a seven night Greek Isles cruise that will end in Turkey. Below will be a quick overview.

May 25 - mykonos. In the Day I will do a Catamaran with Project Expedition excursion providers. That evening, I will visit a Greek farm.

May 26 - Patmos. Im doing an excursion with Explora called "The Spirit of Patmos" (Cave of St. John, Monastery and a Greek show.

May 27 - Volos. Hiking and photography with Explora.

May 28 - Thessaloniki - Tombs and Relic tour with Explora

May 29 - Kavala- Historical tour with Explora

May 30 - Much needed at Sea rest day.

May 31 - Disembark in Istanbul.

Istantbul -

May 31- June 3. - Check into the Ritus hotel in central Istanbul.

May 31 - I have a full day. after dropping my bags off, I will do a tour with Viator that will include lunch and a ferry ride to the asian side of the country. That evening, I have a small group walking tour with Viator that includes rooftop dining and views.

June 1 - Im doing a full day tour of all the main sights in Istanbul (Blue Mosque ect) that will last around 8 hours with viator. After that, I am visiting a Turkish traditional spa with Viator.

June 2 - Bosphorus Yacht Cruise with Asian Side that I booked with Shore excursions Group and then a traditional dinner show that I booked with Viator.

on June 3, I fly back to Jacksonville and 7am.

Feel free to post or ask any questions!

acescruising.com

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Tom@Acescruising

April 28, 2025

Europe Travels 2024

Touring Europe

Acescruising

Europe Travel 2024

The Norwegian Fjords trip came to an end and I disembarked the ship in Rotterdam. I decided to take a taxi to my hotel in Amsterdam. The Grand, which is a luxury historical property near the "red light" district. Let me take you through the next few days as I make my way to Prague.

Day one in Amsterdam

After dropping my bags off at the hotel, I used the spa facilities for a bit, using the early afternoon to catch up on some rest and relaxation. The Sofitel Grand was an amazing hotel, I highly recommend it.

After getting rested and cleaned up, I walked around the city a bit and just enjoyed the sights and sounds of Amsterdam. The Leidseplein had plenty of music, food & bars and sights to fill the day.

The following day I did a bike ride around the city with VIator. We had about 8 people in our group and explored the city sights via bike. We rode through the Vondelpark and some of the "hidden" neighborhoods of Amsterdam. I enjoyed seeing the city. Of course you will see the Vangogh museum and the Anne Frank house. In the evening, I had a private walking tour though the red light district with an expat from Iowa. He had been living in Amsterdam since college and had good knowledge of the area. After a short walk around the red light district with some historical points, We ended up just grabbing a few beers and talking about Amsterdam and how things around the city function. The city of canals did not disappoint.

The next day, I hopped on a train to Brussels.

In Brussels, I stayed at HOTEL DES GALERIES

A nice, but quaint hotel in the city center. I dropped my bags and then went and found my tour. This was an all day walking tour that included; chocolate, whisky and waffles. The Belgium trifecta! I wasn't really a believer until the tour where I tasted some of the best chocolate I have ever had. It was very smooth and flavorful. The beer and whisky really have an interesting history, brewed and distilled by monks, the story is really interesting. The tour was kinda long, but it covered a lot of the area and culture of Brussels.

The next day I just used as a relaxing day and walked around and enjoyed the sights. I had to leave early the next day on a flight to Berlin.

I arrived in Berlin and stayed at a Max Browne for two nights. I happened to stay in a quiet area away from the hustle and bustle, but it worked out.

My first tour was a 3 hour bike ride around Berlin, checking out the major sights; The Berlin Wall, Check point Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, TV tower and the Holocaust memorial. It was a nice ride and gave a good quick glimpse around Berlin. After the tour, I decided to join up with some other people on the bike ride and do a pub crawl. It was a bit too full, but it was pretty fun.

On my final day in Berlin, I decided to go to the UEFA Soccer match at the OlympiaStadion between Italy and the Netherlands. Quite the match which the Netherlands won 2-0. My short time in Berlin was coming to an end. I had to get up early the next morning to catch my car to Prague.

As I left Berlin, I kinda felt like I had missed out on some of the sights, and sounds, but it was nice to see Berlin. My ride picked me up from the hotel and we had about a 4 hour ride to Prague. We stopped in Dresden, which was leveled during world war two. A lot of the grounds had been rebuilt, and it was interesting to see some of the world war two history. I also stopped at Moritzburg Castle, lots of horses and locals bustling about.

Early that evening, I reached Prague, which I will discuss in the final part of this series as it connects to my river cruise and bike riding tour through the Danube river valley. Stay tuned!

Pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/raffles/albums/72177720324454980

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