Treasures of the Mediterranean Blog
I'm on the Treasures of the Mediterranean tour/cruise now and will be describing what we're doing in our blog. The blog will be over several webpages. Here's the first one https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2026-2Mediterranean-01.htm
I hope it's of value to anyone who is thinking about taking this tour.
3
Comments
Thanks for posting, Mike. Great pics and commentary. I (and another forum member) will be doing a Sicily/Malta trip in the Fall with another tour company.
Always enjoy your blogs, Mike! THANKS....................
Our trip continues. In this installment we do some final touring of Malta, then visit several sites in Sicily, including Mt, Etna, and finally visit Sardinia.
You can see this installment at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2026-2Mediterranean-02.htm
From here we will visit Corsica, Elba, Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. But that's for a future installment (or two).
Mike, your link will no longer work for me. The message from Tauck states it is not an official Tauck site, has anyone else had this issue?
When I click on the link in my message, I get a note that I'm being sent to a non-Tauck site. I click on that button and it takes me there. The button says "Continue to external site".
I'm happy to know you're interested in the trip. I hope you enjoy reading about it.
We were on this wonderful trip a few years ago. We stayed in Nice 5 days before and then took the train to Marseille where Tauck picked us up.
Mike, when I click to go to the external site as I usually do, that no longer works for me.
I took an extensive land tour of Sicily and Malta a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I would love to go again but I don’t need to take the Tauck tour.
Ah! I had to turn off my VPN to get to your blog, never had that happen before.
Enjoyed your photos and brings back memories. I think we had cabin 615 on one of our Ponant ship tours.
Sounds like too much time on the ship than site seeing which I generally find on the Ponant itineraries. Except the Arabian cruise which was a brand new cruise and the TD’s said it was too ambitious, I noted the next year it was a day shorter with less excursions. Of course that year the war started and the tour was nixed. If it ever comes back, I highly recommend an Arabian cruise which includes the Straits of Hormuz.
Here's the last installment of our blog of this trip. I hope our blog is useful to anyone planning to go on this cruise.
https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2026-2Mediterranean-03.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here's the starting point of the blog - https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2026-2Mediterranean-01.htm It's three webpages and there's a link at the bottom of the first two pages to take you to the next page.
Thank you Mike for the wonderful informative summaries you provide and for taking the time to share. This brought back such good memories.
@Augrl - Thank you for your kind words. I do the blog sort of as a scrapbook so we can remember what we did on our trips. I'm happy to share it so that people who might consider the tour can see what it's like.
Or even for people who have already taken the tour to maybe better remember what they did on the tour.
So fortunate to have opened your post on the Tauck Forum, Mike. I will be cruising on the Dumont d'Urville in July. The tour will circumnavigate Corsica. I cruised the Windward Islands on the Ponant sister ship Le Bouganville, in February & March. I enjoyed reading your blog and seeing the photos, especially those of Corsica. I have traveled with Tauck 5 times and have had great experiences. My Ponant cruises are through Smithsonian Journeys tours. Your blog has given me reason to consider Malta as a possible destination to experience. I appreciate your tip to begin north and end south in Malta. Thank you for taking the time to create the blog to share. I am curious to know if, at the end of the cruise portion, did you disembark in Nice by tender at Villefranche-sur-Mer or at a pier at Port of Nice, also called Port Lympia. My Ponant guest services advisor will let me know specifics in a few weeks about our embarkation in Nice to the ship... as it may be at the terminal/pier at the Port of Nice, but could possibly be a couple miles east by tender at Villefranche.
Thanks for your kind comments, Patrice. I went back to my pictures on my iPhone because it gives the location where the picture was taken. We came in at the Port of Nice and the ship docked there. If you're familiar with the port, we docked right in front of the building in the picture.
It's not too far from Villefranche-sur-Mer but certainly not walking distance.
We didn't get to see Nice, which is a shame. I've traveled there on business and it's a nice city. I did enjoy seeing Malta and would recommend a private day tour of the island. Tauck took us around but we saw a lot more on the private tour.
[And just in case you're interested in other locations, take a look at our main travel page - www.mikeandjudytravel.com - which points to a description of each of our trips.]
Good to know Mike. I will be a solo traveler, exploring Nice for 2 days prior to the tour. To tender on/off the ship for excursions is expected, but as I'm sure other readers on this forum would agree... I would not look forward to embarkation or disembarkation via tender in Villefranche to begin or end the tour. Crossing my fingers the ship will be docked (as it is today June 3rd) at the pier in Nice for my July cruise embarkation. Thank you for sharing the link to your travel page.