What to Take on a Shore Excursion: The Day Bag Checklist

The best port days are the ones where nothing in your bag matters, because nothing went wrong. The bag earns its keep on the other days: the shower that arrives over Kotor, the taxi driver who takes cash only, the museum queue that turns out to be an hour long in full sun.

This is the checklist seasoned cruisers pack the night before a port day, plus the things worth leaving in the cabin safe. It works whether you are on a ship excursion or making your own way, and takes about ten minutes to assemble.

The Non-Negotiables

Four things come off the ship with you every single time, and the day only really goes wrong if one of them is missing.

1. Your ship card. It is your identity at the gangway, your key back into the cabin and your payment method on board. No card, no ship. Some cruisers keep it in a lanyard, some in a zipped pocket; the only rule is that it never travels loose in a hand.
2. Photo identification. Most ports let you ashore with the ship card alone, but a driving licence or a photocopy of your passport photo page covers you if anything official comes up. Check whether your specific port requires the passport itself before you leave it in the safe.
3. The all aboard time, written down. Note it as you leave, on ship time rather than local time, and set a phone alarm for an hour before. The gangway board is the authority, and our guide to cruise port return times explains what happens if you cut it fine.
4. The port agent’s number. The daily programme prints the local agent’s name and phone number for every call. Photograph that page. It is who you ring if you are delayed, unwell or separated from your group ashore, and almost nobody carries it.

Sun, Rain and Layers

Port weather is rarely the weather you left the ship in, and Mediterranean sun on a stone quay is fiercer than the same sun on a deck lounger.

1. Sun cream, applied and packed. Put it on before you leave and carry a small tube for the top-up. Reapplying at two o’clock in a shadeless square is the difference between a good evening and an uncomfortable one.
2. A hat and sunglasses. Shade is scarce in ancient towns built for donkeys rather than tourists, and a foldable hat costs nothing to carry.
3. One packable layer. A light waterproof or fleece that squashes into the bag covers the fjord morning, the air-conditioned museum and the surprise shower. Our cold-weather day pack list goes further for northern itineraries.
4. Shoes chosen for the ground, not the outfit. Cobbles, gangplanks, wet tender steps and hill towns all punish thin soles. Whatever you wear, it should already be broken in.

Money and Technology

Card acceptance ashore is better than it used to be, but the gaps are exactly where you need it most.

1. Small local cash. Taxis, public toilets, market stalls, tender-side kiosks and small cafes are still cash businesses in plenty of ports. Take a modest amount in small notes and coins rather than a wallet full.
2. One card, not all of them. Carry a single card for the day and leave the rest in the safe. If a machine offers to charge you in pounds, choose the local currency; the terminal’s exchange rate is never the better one.
3. A charged phone and a power bank. Maps, tickets, translation and the agent’s number all live on the phone, and a day of photographs drains a battery fast. A small power bank is one of the most-used items in any day bag.
4. An offline map and screenshots. Save the port map before you leave the ship’s wifi, drop a pin on the berth, and screenshot any tickets. Roaming charges outside the EU can be brutal, and signal in a walled old town often is too.

Comfort and Small Mercies

This is the part of the bag nobody thinks about until the moment they need it.

1. A refillable water bottle. Fill it at a buffet station before you go. Bottled water is a paid item at the gangway on most lines, and prices at the pier gate are always the highest in town.
2. Snacks for the gap. A cereal bar or a piece of fruit from breakfast bridges the long afternoon between an early tour and a late lunch, particularly with children.
3. Basic medicines. Painkillers, plasters, antihistamines, any prescription doses due during the day, plus travel sickness tablets if the tender crossing looks lively.
4. Hand sanitiser and tissues. Public toilets ashore are not the ship’s bathrooms, and many charge a small coin. Both items weigh nothing and get used every time.
5. A zipped bag, worn in front in crowds. Popular cruise ports attract pickpockets precisely because they know when ships are in. A bag that closes properly, worn across the body, ends the problem.

What to Leave on the Ship

What stays behind matters as much as what comes with you.

• Your passport, usually. Most ports accept the ship card, and a lost passport ashore is a genuinely serious problem. Check the requirement for each port; where the passport must travel, carry it in an inside zipped pocket.
• Jewellery and valuables. The safe exists for exactly this. Nothing on a beach day needs a good watch.
• The rest of your cards and cash. One card and modest local money limits any bad day to an inconvenience.
• Drones. Banned from use on board across the industry and restricted in many ports, so they rarely earn their space ashore either.
• Anything you would hate to lose. Tenders, coaches, cable cars and busy markets are all places where bags get put down for a moment.

Packing by Port Type

The core bag stays the same; a few ports ask for one extra thing.

1. Tender ports. Keep the bag small and both hands free for stepping on and off a moving boat, and take the tender ticket if your ship issues them. Check whether your port tenders on our tender or dock checker before you sail.
2. Beach days. Swimwear worn under clothes, a quick-dry towel if the ship does not lend beach towels, and a plastic bag for the wet items on the way back.
3. Churches and religious sites. Shoulders and knees covered is the standard requirement in Mediterranean cathedrals and Orthodox monasteries. A light scarf in the bag solves it without a wardrobe change.
4. Long coach excursions. Motion sickness tablets, a layer for aggressive air conditioning, and enough water for a journey with fewer stops than you expect.

Frequently Asked Questions