A private shore excursion is a tour booked independently of your cruise line, exclusively for your group. Your group travels with a licensed local guide in a private vehicle - no other passengers from your ship, no strangers, no set departure times from a bus. Ship-sponsored tours assemble large groups of 30-50 passengers on coaches with fixed itineraries and minimal flexibility. Private Shore Trips tours accommodate 2 to 16 passengers exclusively for your group. The cost per person is typically comparable to a ship tour for groups of 4 or more.

Private Shore Trips specializes in private, fully exclusive tours - your group only, in a private vehicle, with a licensed guide. Shore Excursions Group and ShoreTrips are booking platforms that aggregate tours from multiple third-party operators, which may include both private and shared-group tours depending on the product. Private Shore Trips has operated since 2007 with a curated network of licensed guides across 30 European countries. Every booking includes our back-to-ship guarantee - if we cause you to miss your ship's departure, we cover transportation to your next port of call. That guarantee is backed by us directly, not a third-party platform.

Our back-to-ship guarantee means that if an unforeseen delay caused by Private Shore Trips prevents you from returning to your cruise ship before it departs, we will arrange and pay for your transportation to your ship's next port of call. The guarantee applies to all tours at every port we cover. Your tour must be scheduled to return to the pier 1.5 hours before your ship departs. This guarantee has been in place since we began operations in 2007 and is one of the primary reasons our customers choose us over ship-sponsored tours and other private operators.

You can reserve any tour on our site with a $50 deposit - the balance is due closer to your sail date. Simply select your port, choose your tour, and complete the reservation. We confirm your booking by email within 24 hours. If you have specific requests - a custom itinerary, a larger group, a combination of tours across multiple ports - contact us directly and we will build a quote. Travel agents receive commission on all bookings - see our travel agent program.

Private Shore Trips covers cruise ports across 30 European countries, plus selected ports in Turkey, Israel, and Asia. Our coverage spans the Mediterranean (Italy, Greece, Croatia, Spain, France, Montenegro, Malta, Cyprus), Northern Europe (England, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium), Scandinavia and the Baltic (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany), Iceland and the Atlantic islands, and Central Europe city tours (Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Salzburg, Munich, Berlin). Browse all ports by region above or use the port directory to find your specific cruise port.