Celebrity Xcel - Western Mediterranean Cruise

Where this cruise calls, day by day

8 ports and 3 sea days over 10 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Barcelona

   SpainDepart

   The busiest cruise port in Europe, and for many Western Mediterranean itineraries the place the whole trip starts or ends. Barcelona is a full-scale city rather than a port town: Gaudi's unfinished basilica, a dense medieval quarter, and a working waterfront all within a few metro stops. Ships berth on a long industrial mole well outside the centre, so the day begins with a bus ride rather than a gangway stroll.

   • Sagrada Familia - book a timed entry well ahead; walk-ups are usually turned away
   • Park Guell and the Gaudi mosaics on Carmel hill
   • The Gothic Quarter and Barcelona Cathedral, on foot from Placa de Catalunya
   • La Boqueria market and a walk down La Rambla to the Columbus monument

   Getting ashore

   All cruise ships now use the Moll d'Adossat terminals roughly 3 km from the old city; the paid blue Portbus shuttle runs to the foot of La Rambla, and walking out is not practical.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug is hot, crowded and expensive)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Villefranche (Nice)

   FrancePort

   Villefranche-sur-Mer sits in a deep sheltered bay just east of Nice, and it exists on cruise itineraries mainly as the anchorage for the Cote d'Azur. The village itself is a steep stack of ochre houses with a 14th-century covered lane, the Rue Obscure, but nearly everyone leaves. Nice, Monaco and Eze are all short hops along the coast, and the local train from the station above the harbour makes doing it independently realistic.

   • Nice's Promenade des Anglais, Cours Saleya market and Vieux Nice
   • Monaco and Monte-Carlo, about 30 minutes by train
   • The hilltop village of Eze and its exotic garden
   • The Chagall and Matisse museums in the Cimiez district of Nice

   Getting ashore

   This is a tender port - ships anchor in the bay and tenders land at the quay in the village, with the railway station a steep 10-minute climb away.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug is heavily crowded along the coast)

4. Day 4

   La Spezia

   ItalyPort

   La Spezia is a naval town at the head of a deep gulf, and ships call because the Cinque Terre villages start about fifteen minutes up the coastal railway. The town is workmanlike - a good market street, a naval museum - so the day belongs to the train. Trail passes and village crowding are both genuine constraints in high summer.

   • Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso on the Cinque Terre Express train
   • Portovenere and the island of Palmaria, reached by boat across the gulf
   • The Museo Tecnico Navale beside the naval arsenal
   • The Via del Prione market street and the covered market at Piazza Cavour

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at Molo Garibaldi with a shuttle into town; La Spezia Centrale station is where you pick up the Cinque Terre trains.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep (Jul-Aug the villages are genuinely overloaded)

5. Day 5

   Portofino

   ItalyPort

   Portofino is one deep-green cove with about 400 residents and a row of ochre houses around a piazzetta, and it is tiny - a large ship's worth of passengers noticeably fills it. An hour covers the harbour front. The rest of a good day here is spent climbing to Castello Brown or taking a boat further round the headland, away from the crowd you arrived with.

   • Castello Brown, above the harbour, for the view straight down into the cove
   • The walk out to the Punta Portofino lighthouse
   • The abbey of San Fruttuoso, reachable only by boat or on foot
   • Santa Margherita Ligure, a bigger and less precious town ten minutes away

   Getting ashore

   There is no cruise berth - ships anchor off and tender passengers into the harbour, landing at the piazzetta itself.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep (Jul-Aug the cove is saturated)

6. Day 6

   Rome (Civitavecchia)

   ItalyPort

   Civitavecchia is a working port town on the Tyrrhenian coast, and it is not Rome - the city is about 80km southeast, roughly 80 minutes each way. Budget for that honestly: a Rome day is some four hours of transit bracketing whatever you actually see. The port has Fort Michelangelo on the quay and good fish-market lunches, a real option if you have done Rome before.

   • St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, with a timed entry booked well ahead
   • The Colosseum and the Roman Forum, a short walk apart on the Termini side
   • The Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain on a walking loop of the centro storico
   • Fort Michelangelo and the Terme Taurine Roman baths, for a day that stays in Civitavecchia

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock in Civitavecchia and a free shuttle runs to the port gate at Largo della Pace, from where it is a short walk to the station and a 70-80 minute train into Rome.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug hot, and the Rome queues are brutal)

7. Day 7

   Naples

   ItalyPort

   Naples is one of the few big Italian calls where the ship parks in the middle of the city - the Stazione Marittima sits at Molo Angioino with Castel Nuovo directly across the road. That makes it a rare port you can genuinely walk out of, though most passengers spend the day at Pompeii or on Capri instead. The city is loud, sooty and unpolished.

   • Pompeii or Herculaneum, both on the Circumvesuviana line from Garibaldi station
   • The Museo Archeologico Nazionale, which holds the mosaics and bronzes lifted out of Pompeii
   • Spaccanapoli and the Cappella Sansevero, home of the Veiled Christ
   • A hydrofoil to Capri from Molo Beverello, a few minutes' walk from the ship

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth at the Stazione Marittima on Molo Angioino in the city centre, a ten-minute walk from Piazza del Plebiscito with the hydrofoil pier next door.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug hot and crowded, and Pompeii has almost no shade)

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9

   Messina

   ItalyPort

   Messina faces Calabria across the strait and was flattened by an earthquake in 1908, so the city is mostly rebuilt and low-slung rather than historic. Ships dock right on the seafront, but the call is really a doorway: Taormina is under an hour south and Etna a little further. If you stay put, the set-piece is the cathedral's astronomical clock.

   • The Duomo's astronomical clock, the largest of its kind, which performs at noon
   • Taormina and its Greek theatre, about 50 minutes down the coast
   • Etna's lower craters and lava fields, by jeep or the Rifugio Sapienza cable car
   • The Museo Regionale, which holds two Caravaggios

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock on the Messina waterfront a few minutes from Piazza Duomo, and coaches for Taormina and Etna load at the pier.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Etna can be cold and cloud-capped while the coast is warm)

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    Barcelona

    SpainArrive

    The busiest cruise port in Europe, and for many Western Mediterranean itineraries the place the whole trip starts or ends. Barcelona is a full-scale city rather than a port town: Gaudi's unfinished basilica, a dense medieval quarter, and a working waterfront all within a few metro stops. Ships berth on a long industrial mole well outside the centre, so the day begins with a bus ride rather than a gangway stroll.

    • Sagrada Familia - book a timed entry well ahead; walk-ups are usually turned away
    • Park Guell and the Gaudi mosaics on Carmel hill
    • The Gothic Quarter and Barcelona Cathedral, on foot from Placa de Catalunya
    • La Boqueria market and a walk down La Rambla to the Columbus monument

    Getting ashore

    All cruise ships now use the Moll d'Adossat terminals roughly 3 km from the old city; the paid blue Portbus shuttle runs to the foot of La Rambla, and walking out is not practical.

    Best months

    Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug is hot, crowded and expensive)