Why Cruise Travel is the Best Holiday

Date: 2018-05-19

How We Travelled Before Discovering Cruising

There are many ways to holiday. The most common: fly or drive to a destination, stay in hotels, see the sights. You can choose to base yourself in one place for the week, or keep moving from city to city.

A single-base holiday is restful — you don't drag luggage around and you come home without the accumulated exhaustion of constant transit. A travelling holiday lets you see more places and meet more people, but by the end you're often more tired than when you started. Driving in unfamiliar countries (especially navigating Europe's right-hand traffic from a left-hand-drive British car), deciphering menus in languages you don't speak, the constant low-level logistics — it adds up.

Our wish list for a holiday was simple:

1. No cooking, cleaning or laundry
2. No driving
3. Time to read
4. Good food
5. Good coffee
6. Minimal luggage handling
7. See several different places
8. Beautiful scenery

The first time we boarded a cruise ship, we realised all eight were covered.

Getting to the Ship

Fly to the departure port. Come out of arrivals and the cruise company's staff are waiting with signs. A bus takes you (and your luggage) to the terminal. Staff unload everything. You walk to the check-in counter, register your name and passport photo, receive your cruise card, and board.

The ship is typically accessible from noon. Have lunch on board, go to your cabin, and your luggage is already waiting outside the door. Unpack once — and stay unpacked for the whole trip. The floating hotel moves overnight and deposits you somewhere new every morning.

Life on Board

Food: Something is available to eat from 6am until around 2am. The buffet restaurant handles all meals and snacks; the Main Dining Room offers full table service at mealtimes; the pool deck has pizza, burgers and lighter food throughout the day. Everything except premium restaurants and alcohol is included in the fare.

Activities: Every hour of every day has something available — shore excursion briefings, cooking demonstrations by the ship's chefs, stretch and yoga classes, craft workshops, wine and cocktail tastings, lectures by guest speakers. Attend whatever appeals; ignore the rest.

Cabin service: Cleaned twice daily — mid-morning and during dinner. Beds turned down at night. On Holland America Line, the turndown service includes tomorrow's ship newspaper, a piece of chocolate, and the famous towel art (animals folded from your bath towels).

Internet: Available on board but expensive. We typically check email once a day and otherwise stay offline for the duration — one of the genuine pleasures of being at sea.

Shore Excursions

When the ship docks — usually for 7–8 hours — you can explore independently or join an organised tour. Our advice: don't be greedy. Choose one or two priorities and see them well, rather than rushing through a long list and arriving back exhausted.

Many major cities have hop-on/hop-off sightseeing buses with audio guides; these are often the best option for getting your bearings quickly. Always confirm the ship's departure time before going ashore and aim to be back at least an hour early. The ship will not wait — and catching up with it in the next port is entirely your problem.

Who Is Cruising For?

Everyone, frankly. Families with young children (MSC and Costa include children under 17 free when sharing a cabin; dedicated kids' clubs mean parents can enjoy time apart). Couples. Larger groups travelling together. Grandparents and grandchildren sharing dinner each evening while spending their days differently. People with reduced mobility — cruise ships are well-equipped for wheelchairs and accessible travel.

The combination of variety (different destinations each day), simplicity (unpack once), quality (restaurant meals and activities included) and recovery (genuine rest between excursions) is hard to replicate with any other type of holiday.

For anyone who hasn't tried it: the next holiday might be the one to change that.

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