Make Port Profiles Your First Stop Before Stepping Ashore
Advice On Shore Excursions & Exploring Ports of Call
It’s hard to believe, but I have traveled now for more than 30 years. For better or for worse, I’ve chosen to keep myself in motion.Nowadays, I live in Sweden as well as North Carolina, but I spend most of my time on cruise ships or in destinations that cruise ships touch.
My lifestyle has made me an expert, and now I am offering my expertise to readers through the Avid Cruiser’s Port Profiles.
Port Profiles was designed to provide you with resources that will enhance your experiences ashore. The focus is on shore excursions at both transit ports (those ports that ships visit on regular sailings) and embarkation ports (those ports from which you embark on your cruise vacations).
You’ll find that most of the information about shore excursions comes from my own personal experiences in the destinations featured. I work hard to relate the experiences so that you can make informed decisions. Be sure also to visit Avid Cruiser’s Shorex Advisor.
One of my goals with Port Profiles is to help you ”experience” destinations rather than just visit them. I want to help you extract the essence of the places you visit.
I encourage you to participate in helping Port Profiles fulfill its mission to inform and inspire others. All you have to do is join the discussion by commenting where appropriate.
Two Perfect Days
At some ports, you may spend a day or two before or after your cruise, which is why you’ll find on Port Profiles a section called Two Perfect Days.
I was inspired to develop Two Perfect Days after my work for more than a decade with Hemispheres, United Airlines’ in-flight magazine. I primarily wrote about cruising but also wrote for the magazine’s award-winning Three Perfect Days. I found the format to be perfect for travelers who sought advice and instruction on how to make the most of their time in some of the world’s greatest cities.
I hope these planning tools help you get the most of your time ashore. If there’s something that I haven’t covered, write to me to get my recommendations.
Bon Voyage, Ralph Grizzle
Avid Cruiser’s Port Profiles
Click the links below to go to ports within destinations. If there is a destination I haven’t reviewed, I’ll try to help you obtain more information if you Contact Me.
- Antarctica
- Arctic
- Asia
- Bahamas
- Bermuda
- Canada
- Caribbean
- Central America
- Central Europe
- Iceland
- Faroe Islands
- Greenland
- Mediterranean
- Mexico
- North Atlantic
- Northern Europe
- South America
- South Pacific
- Middle East
- United Kingdom
- United States
All Ports Reviews On Port Profiles
- Antarctica
- Arctic
- Asia
- Europe
- United Kingdom
- Channel Islands
- Mediterranean
- Northern Europe
- Central Europe
- North Atlantic
- South Pacific
- Americas
- Two Perfect Days
- Middle East
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Who Is The Avid Cruiser?
The Avid Cruiser is lovingly operated by Ralph Grizzle and his small team of dedicated avid cruisers. A journalism graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina) and an award-winning travel writer, Ralph has been writing to help inform and inspire travelers for nearly three decades.The past two decades of his career have been committed to cruise travel. Ralph served as editor of several cruise publications before launching himself full-time in 2004 into his site, Avid Cruiser.
He has made a lifestyle of cruising and typically spends half the year on ships, the other half in cruise destinations — or with his two children in Asheville, North Carolina (they often travel with him.)
When not at sea, Ralph lives in Helsingborg, Sweden and enjoys time cruising the rivers of Europe, which of course prompted another popular website, River Cruise Advisor.
Read more about Ralph Grizzle, arguably the most avid of cruisers, and be sure to subscribe to Ralph's twice-weekly email newsletter.
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