How to Book the Best Shore Excursions at the Lowest Price

Mar 08, 2023

What's an Excursion?

Your ship has just docked to an exotic cruise port somewhere across the ocean. Now what do you do? Many cruisers choose to go on an excursion. A shore excursion is a guided tour or other activity designed for cruise passengers who have a limited amount of time to spend at each port on their itinerary.

Hiking up a mountain to view a waterfall, a snorkel adventure, a day at the beach, a cooking class, a rum tasting tour of a distillery, sightseeing bus tour, or a guided tour of a town or historic site are all examples of shore excursions. In general, shore excursions highlight the top sights or local culture of the place you're visiting. In some cases, an excursion will take you to locations close to your ship; in others, it can involve a day journey to a nearby city.

Your cruise line might provide shore excursions that are planned in conjunction with a partner company and offered to passengers. These can also be purchased from independent tour providers or other tour vendors.

Shop Around

Shopping for deals is a straightforward way to save money on cruise shore excursions—but only when done correctly. The majority of shore excursions cost each individual between $50 and $200. Others are considerably more expensive. Let's say a family of four spends $125 each on an excursion, that adds up to an additional $500 in expenses just for excursions at one port! The good news is that it is possible to save up to 50% on your shore excursions if you do your research and compare options from different sources.

Cruise Line Excursions

Many people purchase excursions directly through the cruise line (which can be purchased pre-cruise or on the ship) which has its advantages. It's easy to book through the cruise line and you can use On-Board Credits, if you have some, to offset the cost. There is a Shore Excursion Desk onboard where you can ask questions and they usually have a wide selection of tours. If your group is delayed getting back, the ship will wait for you. Booking through the cruise line has its disadvantages too. It's usually more expensive, since the prices are marked up by the cruise line, and the tours are often overcrowded and in large groups. Also, many of the excursions sell out early and are unavailable once you board the ship which takes away your chance of using your onboard credits to purchase them.

Independent Excursion Specialist

Another popular way to book shore excursions is to use an independent company that specializes in the field like Shore Excursions Group. Some of the advantages they offer are lower prices than the cruise lines while at the same time offering higher quality excursions. The tours are smaller and more personalized and have a money back guarantee as well as the lowest price guarantee. Support is 24/7 via a toll free number and they have a return to ship guarantee that is better than the cruise line. Although they claim that they never had a customer miss their ship, if you were to miss the ship due to a late arrival of one of their tours, they will arrange and pay for accommodations, meals, transportation to the next port of call and pay each customer $1000 for their inconvenience!

Private Tour Operators

An additional, but more risky, way of booking excursions is to negotiate with private tour operators at the cruise port. Tour operators will crowd the ports waiting for passengers to disembark the ships and will very often offer great deals in order to fill up their vans or buses before they head out on the tour. You may be able to get 50% off the normal cost of the tour since they need to fill up the spots quickly. Unfortunately, you will not have had a chance to check the reputation of this tour guide and they probably won't have any of the guarantees offered by the cruise line or independent company the excursions that were booked with in advance. Also, it is not certain that the tour you were looking forward to going on will be available at the port.

Self Guided

Lastly, you always have the option to explore the port on your own. There are usually a lot of local shops and restaurants at or near the cruise port that you can walk to and check out. With a little research ahead of time, you can locate some sights of interest near the port, grab a taxi ride and explore on your own.

Whatever you decide to do, it is always interesting to explore the ports of call on your cruise to get a little taste of the local cuisine, and experience the culture and the history of a new and exciting place.