The 13 Best Palace Shore Excursions Worldwide

1.Bangkok Shore Excursion: Private Grand Palace and Buddhist Temples Tour

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 18 reviews · from $254Our pick

Review of Bangkok’s private Grand Palace and temple shore tour, with transport, lunch, guide quality, costs, temple tips, and port timing.

“Well organised tour that covered most of the key sites we wanted to visit. Long trip from port to Bangkok but the outstanding experience was well worth the journey. Standard of guide and driver made the visit go very smoothly.”

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2.Private Shore Excursion: Sintra and Pena Palace from Lisbon Port

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 16 reviews · 6 to 8 hours (approx.) · from $150

Review of a private Sintra and Pena Palace shore tour from Lisbon, with palaces, coastal views, lunch, costs, tips, and practical advice.

“It was and excellent experience, Sintra is really beautiful and you definitely need a guide because there are a lot of important details, and you need an expert. Gabriela was a great guide, intelligent, interesting and funny. We enjoyed our visit and learned history, geography, music, food... all. We really recommend this tour.”

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3.Laem Chabang Port Shore Excursion : Grand Palace, WatPho, WatArun

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 8 reviews · from $319

Review of a private Bangkok shore trip from Laem Chabang, covering Wat Pho, Wat Arun, the Grand Palace, transport, price, and practical tips.

“Everything went as planned. Good driver and your guide.. now I don’t want finish this whole review bc I’m being forced to write more than I want. Too bad for this review! Now I will go back and change my star rating.”

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4.Small Group Istanbul Full-Day Shore Excursion: Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome and Grand Bazaar

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 7 reviews · 8 hours (approx.) · from $248

See Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Hippodrome, and Grand Bazaar on an 8-hour small-group shore tour.

“Well worth the money and time. The places included in the tour were stunning. We wish we had more time to check out Istanbul. Great city. Our guide was very knowledgeable and showed pride in sharing the highlights of his city.”

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5.Shore Excursion Laem Chabang Port : Grand Palace & Famous Temples

★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · 6 reviews · from $297

Review of a private Bangkok shore excursion from Laem Chabang, covering the Grand Palace, famous temples, river crossing, transport, timing, and value.

“Very friendly and flexible. Terrific driver and good guide. Long ride from Laem Chebang to Bangkok, but driver was sensitive to passenger comfort. A/C worked great. Not a lot of time in Bangkok, but that was due to long drive and early ship departure. Driver and guide made the most of it.”

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6.Shore Excursion, from cruise ship to Sintra, Pena Palace, Cascais

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 6 reviews · 6 hours (approx.) · from $141

Review of a Lisbon shore excursion to Pena Palace, Sintra, and Cascais, with small-group transport, guide, timing, costs, and practical tips.

“Highly recommend to our tour guide David, always shows up on time and be very nice all day. Kindly answer all the questions and introduce the city with knowledge. We take a 30-40 minutes ride to Sintra first and then visit this beautiful town, and then heading to a village with great view, David took us to visit Cabo de Roca and then back to Casias for lunch. We get back on the cruise port on time and the whole journey was amazing.”

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7.Lisbon Small Group Shore Excursion: Pena Palace, Sintra, Cascais

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 5 reviews · 6 hours (approx.) · from $115Best value

Review of Lisbon’s six-hour small-group trip to Pena Palace, Sintra, and Cascais, with cruise pickup, park access, transport, and practical tips.

“This excursion was truly outstanding. Even though we didn't have time to go inside the Pena Palace, even the outside is something to be seen. We had perfect weather, and our guide was fantastic. He even brought us treats - a typical local pastry that was delicious. We had some time to browse on our own in Sintra prior to going to the Palace. Then we went to Cascais, which was a lovely seaside town.”

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8.Malta Shore Excursion: Private Tour of Historic Palaces and Noble Homes

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 5 reviews · 4 hours (approx.) · from $315

Review of Malta’s private palace tour, with Casa Rocca Piccola, Palazzo Parisio, Grand Harbour views, guide tips, price, and logistics.

“Tour guide was great and very personal (shared lots of stories about his family). Tour a bit boring though.”

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9.Private Shore Excursion: Corfu Town and Achillion Palace Tour

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 4 reviews · 4 hours (approx.)

Review of Corfu’s private four-hour shore tour, with Achilleion Palace, Mouse Island views, Old Town walks, and port pickup.

“We loved this excursion!! It was our favorite one we did on our entire 14 day trip! corfu was incredibly beautiful but what really made it special was our tour guide Nikos! He was full of information about Corfu! He took us down to the water and arranged a small boat ride for us to be able to see the coast and to enter some caves. It was stunning. We did have to pay $25 more each couple but it was well worth it!!. Nikos joined us on the boat when we invited him and that was very helpful for translating purposes! He then took us into town and had…”

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10.Private shore excursion to the Alhambra Palace from Almeria

★★★★★★★★★★5.0 · 3 reviews · from $669

Review of a private Almeria to Alhambra shore excursion with transport, skip-the-line tickets, a private guide, and Granada free time.

“The Alhambra was an amazing place! Absolutely a high point on our trip to Spain. Our driver met us on the pier where our cruise arrived in Almeria. He took us to our guide where we spent more than 3 hours at The Alhambra. Mirian was so knowledgeable and helpful with recommendations in Granada as well. We thoroughly enjoyed the day!”

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11.Shore Excursion Laem Chabang Port : Grand Palace & Famous Temples

★★★★★★★★★★3.5 · 3 reviews · from $281

Review of a private Bangkok shore excursion from Laem Chabang, covering the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, temples, canals, and practical tips.

“It would appear that two companies were involved in this tour. The driver company did what was expected, when it was expected. However, the tour side was chaotic and had overstretched themselves with no tour guide or tickets at the first Read more”

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12.Corfu Shore Excursion: Private Island Tour Including Achillion Palace

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 3 reviews · 5 hours (approx.) · from $782

Review a private Corfu shore tour with Achilleion Palace, Paleokastritsa Monastery, Mouse Island, port pickup, and flexible sightseeing.

“Superb time and learned much from Gordana through her gentle way to convey the amazing volume of knowledge she possesses. She really added value to our visit to Corfu.”

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13.Half-Day Private Tour: Istanbul Shore Excursion With Topkapi Palace

★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · 2 reviews · from $215

Review of Istanbul’s private shore tour with Topkapi Palace, Little Hagia Sophia, port pickup, skip-the-line access, and practical tips.

“The palace is amazing our local tour company was poor. The guide was very nice and new facts but spent a lot of time on her phone. We noticed other guides shared many more things even while waiting in lines. I would not recommend you use this company.”

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