Rick Steves' Protégé Has A Crucial Travel Tip For Tourists Planning To Visit A Popular Cruise Ship Port

For people taking a cruise, the sight of a port city coming into view is a delight. That signals that it's time to roam around a new place, getting a taste of the culture, food, and tourist spots for the day. However, if you're vacationing in that city, a docked cruise ship can mean massive crowds, lines for the monuments and museums you were planning on visiting, and trouble getting into any restaurants before you get hangry. An estimated 19 million Americans are expected to travel by cruise ship in 2025, according to AAA. While some popular vacation spots like Cannes in France have banned large cruise ships and excess tourists from entering the city, that's not widespread. However, travel pro Rick Steves' protégé and co-author Cameron Hewitt has a crucial tip for tourists planning on visiting a popular cruise ship destination. On Steves' website, Hewitt says, "If you're visiting a major cruise port, the number of ships in town can drastically impact your experience. So, get in the habit of checking each day's arrival schedule."

If you know when large ships are docking, you can choose other things to do instead of hanging around the port area, and take some steps to plan your schedule around them. Hewitt recommends two sites that are good resources for checking on which ships are visiting which ports: CruiseMapper.com and Cruisetimetables.com. In addition, some locations themselves may provide information. For instance, if you're trying to avoid cruise ship crowds on a Grand Cayman vacation, you can check the Grand Cayman Port Authority, which publishes a ship schedule on its own website.

Cameron Hewitt shares that smaller towns (he lists Mykonos, Flåm, and Dubrovnik) can get really crowded when the cruise ships dock on what he calls "heavy" days, saying they can bring "multiple ships and thousands, or even tens of thousands, of additional visitors." Even larger places like Civitavecchia in Italy, with almost 3.5 million cruise visitors in 2024 (per Port Mobility Civitavecchia), or Miami, with over 8 million that same year (per Miami-Dade County), can be crowded. However, Hewitt's advice can be really helpful. If you're visiting, say, France, skip Marseille, which gets lots of cruise traffic on heavy days, and hit a more inland city like Aix-en-Provence. 

If your itinerary isn't movable, Hewitt suggests making restaurant reservations early for your preferred dining spot if you see that cruise ships are going to be staying late. Alternatively, plan on eating later in the evening, after the ships have sailed. In addition, Steves himself recommends avoiding crowds by visiting sites that stay open later in the evening, like the Acropolis after 5 p.m. (Its last entry isn't until 7:30 p.m. on the weekends and 9:30 p.m. on Fridays.) Also, many monuments have timed entry, so while it may be crowded, at least your timed ticket won't leave you stranded in a long line. But if you happen to be spending your entire vacation in a port city, and you see that the weekends are going to be heavy days for cruise ships, you may want to rent a car and take a day or overnight trip while they're in port.