Royal Caribbean : St Tropez

Whilst I was on my Royal Caribbean cruise, I experienced two trips, and these are just some of the photographs I took whilst I was on my first trip to Saint Tropez.  In fact this just takes you up to lunchtime, I will cover the afternoon in another post, another day.  I really wanted to include the shore excursions, as I think they are an incredibly important factor to cruising.

Building on from my last post about cruising for the first time the paramount  factor that makes cruising so very different to any other holiday, is the ability to unpack, just once, and then in luxury and whilst having great fun, explore the world.  

The Museum of St Tropez

So what could you expect to happen:

Again, extremely well organised, you meet at an area within the ship and are escorted to the buses where your tour guide awaits.  I’m not sure if it is always the case, but we also had a representative from the ship on both of my shore excursions too.

There are two main types of tour available, one where you are shown the sites, by extremely knowledgeable guides, or you are dropped off in an area, and picked up at a certain time and place, and the rest is free time for you to discover.  You can of course discover the area completely on your own if you wish.

You are given small radios placed around your neck, with a headphone (just for one ear) and very clear instructions of times and places to meet up, if you become detached from the group, and telephone numbers just in case there are any complications.

End of the season repairs

Going in October, proved perfect, as it was still warm, but not very many tourists around at all!

I think if I hadn’t had the guide Caroline (who co-incidentally I fell in love with, she was amazing) with me, I really wouldn’t have discovered the ‘real’ St Tropez, away from the party town of the rich and famous, and would have come away disappointed.  Yes, it has amazing million pound yachts, and is the place to spot the rich and famous.  It is however also a beautiful village full of history.

I think the trip which lasted all day, and included a tour guide all day, transport, lunch and wine in St Tropez, was around $250 per person, not included in the price of your cruise.  You can choose trips that are family friendly, and if you have any problems walking longer distances, there are also excursion to suit you too.  Each trip has information before you book that lets you know how long it takes, the amount of walking you need to do, and if food is included. 

This is one of the spots, not usually seen whilst at St Tropez, and it was a breathtaking view of the coast line, where you can see Monacco in the distance.

Our guide informed us that the apartments here, in the area, sell for over one million dollars, and a full house eight!  

Saint Tropez Church

Throughout the day we were given a small amount of free time so we discover the shopping area on our own. Some beautiful places to buy things, including antiques, and art.

I did manage to fit in a short visit to Laduree, which smelt and looked devine. I bought some crystallized violet sweets for Miss N.

The assistant wasn’t very happy with me when I took this shot. Finally lunch, at Auberge Des Maures where we were wined and dined in beautiful surroundings and drank the favourite wine of Brigitte Bardot, I can confirm it was delicious! Auberge Des Maures, really has a long history in St Tropez, it opened in 1931, and can count  Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Brigitte Bardot and Pablo Picasso as its patrons. I loved the relish that they served with the meals, a kind of mix of a marmalade or chutney of vegetables, including aubergines, onions and peppers.  It was a relaxed place to eat, but you could really sense the history. I would definitely recommend eating

if you are ever in the area.   Well I hope that gives you a flavour of a shore excursion typical for Royal Caribbean.  I think the main feeling I went away with was I was experiencing this with an incredible knowledgeable person, who was happy to share so much information and history about the area.  The passion that she has really shone through, and was yet again an illustration of the great service I received on and off ship.  It also (if you wanted it to) gave you the perfect opportunity to meet other nationalities on the same ship and I felt as a lone traveller extremely safe.

So that was St Tropez, have you ever been? Would you recommend anywhere else in this area to visit?

My Royal Caribbean Cruise was a press trip, I did not receive any financial reward for writing this post.