Thread: Creating a custom guidebook for cruise ports

When I saw a feature on Frommers.com to create a book based on where I am going and the kinds of information I want in it for a price, I thought that would be awesome because it is impossible to find a single book with all of my ports at the library or a store. It looked like a great idea for cruisers, who usually go to more than one country and always go to multiple states or provinces.

Unfortunately, when I tried it, I discovered it only works for people who are just going to one city and staying there. I must pick a city on a short list. That means I can make one book for Los Angeles and one for Vancouver, but I can't put both in the same book. So, since I am traveling to three states and a province (7 cities total), I was wondering if any other website does let cruisers make one book for all ports.

I just copy and paste info into a word doc for each port. If there are possible places we want to stop at, their addresses, plus phone numbers of a few cab companies just in case we need it. Not a book on each, but a couple of sheets of paper. Also, if I have a light guide book, definitely a map or two of the port. Other than that, we might not stick with our game plan if we happen onto something interesting. For example, we ran into a tour being led by a US ranger while in Skagway. We follow her and her group back to their starting point, which was the original home of the founder of the town turned into a museum. If we had stuck with a ironclad plan, we would have missed an interesting and vital part of this little town.

On our last cruise, we ended up back on the waterfront and since we had time left, we walked up and down. We found a cute little candy shop that sold many different flavors of taffy and we also stopped at a farmers market (didn't buy anything but chatted with the various vendors). The candy shop was better than the one that's listed in the tourbooks, which is a candy factory, but was pretty expensive, and specialized in macadamia nuts which I don't eat.

Before we leave, I type up an itinerary with the ship's contact numbers and my cell and we give these to a couple of neighbors, my sister and my brother-in-law. And hope we don't hear from any of them. I print out the port sheets and I keep in a folder that I take. The day before each port, I took out the sheet(s) for the port, my maps, a light book and place in my purse. That night, those items come out and go in the drawer to be replaced with the next port's guides.

What was funny, was the day before our first port, I was reading the brochure I had gotten for that port (I had each port mail me one). Somebody asked if I bought it from the onboard store. They were disappointed when I said I brought it with me.

Chick, I think you misunderstood my post. I was thinking if I could put together information about all seven ports without including a lot of places I either can't go to on a cruise or have no interest in, such as Hollywood and Crater Lake. I don't need a book about a whole state when I am only going to be in one small town for nine hours. I don't need a book about all of Southern California when I only need information about Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. All I need is one long chapter about each city on my itinerary to help me decide what there is time for, what looks like a must-see and what should be listed as "time permitting."

If you are looking for an already published book that is just about one city, there are tons about LA. There probably aren't too many about a smaller city such as Santa Barbara. But if you check out websites for specific cities, you can find a lot of info. But why worry about missing one particular building or site? I prefer to go through the various books I do find at the library (or even going to say, Barnes and Noble). I'll even go to the Auto Club, since I'm a member, and get their tour book for that area. Those I don't mind taking out the pages relevant to where I'm going if it covers a whole region or state if I'm just going to one city. But if I can, I'll actually take along the whole guidebook as we might deviate from the original plans. For example, we stayed in Seattle, post-Alaskan cruise. Since we had rented a car, one day, my hubby decided he wanted to see Olympia, the capital city. So it was good that I had maps and guide books for Washington State and not just Seattle.

To me, it's better to have too much info than not enough. Even if all we're going to do is stay by the beach.

You may find that your best source for the information you are looking is to just do a google search on each city and just find the top few must see things, and just copy the important stuff into one page and print it out, along with a map of the local area.

This is what I am planning to do for my upcoming TA cruise. I found one or two books that include about half the ports on the intineary, however nothing that covers everything. So just going to spend about 3 or 4 hours and make a summary page for each port so i know what I am working with more in advance then the night before we arrive to the port.

Joel, whcih ports are you going to?

Quite a few, quick summary hopefully it is enough.

Horta, Ponta Delgada, Lisbon, Portimao, Cadiz, Malaga, Barcelona, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Catania, Nafplion, Katakolan, Corfu, Dubrovnik, and Venice.

Quite a cruise, although it would have ramped the price up, I still kind of wish I had added the 12 days after on to this as well, which went down towards turkey, oh well.

Ah, the southern route. Our TA was the northern route which suited us fine but we do want to go to the Med eventually. Lucky you to be able to even consider adding the 12 additional days. My wife would kill me for even suggesting that much time off of work.

It was not so much the time off work that stopped me, as I will still be in Europe for 2 weeks after this TA, however it was more the price. Being a solo traveller, the TA was affordable for 29 days, however adding the extra 12 days would have almost double the total price from $5800 (AU) to almost $11000 (AU) Was just not a practical option.

I an see your point!