If your ideal holiday morning involves ignoring three alarms and negotiating with the snooze button, cruise excursions can look a bit… hostile. Coaches at 8am, “panoramic tours” before your first coffee, fellow guests who appear to have been up since dawn power-walking the promenade deck.

The good news is that, in a lot of ports, you can roll off the ship after 11 and still feel you have “done” the place properly. You just have to pick your battles.

Below are three cities that work beautifully for half days that start late and still feel like a holiday, not detention.

Palma de Mallorca: cathedral light and a long lunch

From Palma’s cruise terminal it is about 2.5 to 3 miles to the old town. You can walk it in forty-five minutes if you are feeling virtuous, but a taxi will have you at the edge of the historic centre in around ten minutes for a fairly modest fare.

Aim to arrive at Parc de la Mar just before lunch. La Seu, Palma’s Gothic cathedral, rises above the artificial lake and the old sea wall, all flying buttresses and coloured glass. The interior was partly reworked by Gaudí, and you can now visit the rooftop terraces again, which gives you a proper sense of the bay and the honeycomb of old streets behind.

Once you have done your quota of stained glass and flying buttress appreciation, drift into the old town. The lanes behind the cathedral are compact, shaded and easy to wander without a plan. Independent shops sit next to tiled cafés where the menu runs to cortados and ensaïmadas rather than “signature brunch concepts”.

Lunch is your big moment here. You can stay in the tangle of streets around Plaça de la Llotja or head over to Santa Catalina, the old fishing quarter that now leans more into tapas and wine bars than nets and diesel. Order a late lunch, stay for a second glass and remember that your fellow passengers who left at 8am are now napping.

If you really want a headline “view” to round things off, a short taxi ride up to Bellver Castle gives you a circular fortress and 360-degree views, but treat it as a bonus. A Palma port day that consists of cathedral light, a slow wander and a long lunch is already a win.

Marseille: lazy Vieux Port loop, then up to the basilica

Marseille’s main cruise berths are a long way from anywhere you might reasonably want to walk, but there is a free shuttle from the port to the edge of the city centre. From the drop-off at La Joliette it is a short tram or a twenty-minute walk to the Vieux Port.

By late morning the old harbour is properly awake: café terraces filling, fish stalls mostly packed away, ferries shuttling across the narrow basin. This is not the moment for a rushed checklist. Find a table, order coffee or an early lunch and people-watch. If you have a bouillabaisse budget, great. If not, there are plenty of simpler menus du jour that still feel satisfyingly Provençal.

From the Vieux Port, wander up into Le Panier, the old quarter. It is steep in places but compact, with street art, little squares and the odd café wedged between townhouses. You do not need a full historical treatise to enjoy it; just follow your nose and whichever alley has the nicest laundry and the best smell of lunch.

If you have a couple of hours before all-aboard, take the petit train or a taxi up to Notre-Dame de la Garde. From the basilica terrace the whole city spreads out below, framed by limestone hills and the Frioul islands. On a clear afternoon it is one of the best “I was here” views in the western Mediterranean, and it feels all the more satisfying when you have not been up since dawn to get it.

Corfu Town: fortress views and Liston coffee

Corfu’s cruise terminal sits a few kilometres from the old town. There is usually a shuttle to the port gate and then you can walk into town in about half an hour, or take a very short taxi ride if the idea of a dual carriageway in the midday sun feels optimistic.

Start late with coffee under the arcades of the Liston, the elegant nineteenth-century promenade modelled on Paris’s Rue de Rivoli. From here you can see the cricket pitch, the sea beyond and the Old Fortress waiting on its headland. It is a good place to take stock and decide how much energy you really have.

The Old Fortress is the obvious next step. A short walk brings you to the causeway and up through gateways and ramparts built by the Venetians, with layers of later history on top. The climb is not brutal, and the reward is a panorama over terracotta roofs, the new fortress and the green hills behind.

Back in town, the lanes behind the Liston offer a pleasing mix of everyday life and visitor-friendly shops. You can buy the usual fridge magnet, but you can also stumble into a quiet church or a bakery that appears to sell nothing but filo and honey. If it is warm, finish with a dip at Faliraki, the narrow swimming spot wedged between the fortress and the sea; you can be back on board within fifteen minutes if you watch the time.

How to make late port days work in general

The trick with late starts is to stop pretending you will “do everything” and decide on one anchor experience plus a generous helping of atmosphere. In Palma that might be the cathedral, in Marseille the basilica, in Corfu the fortress. Around those you weave coffee, a proper lunch and a short wander, rather than sprinting between five museums and a vineyard.

Check the last shuttle time as carefully as you check the breakfast menu, keep one eye on local opening hours, and pick ports where the good stuff is close together. You might never make the 8am coach, but you can still step back on board feeling as if you have had a real day out rather than a guilty lie-in.