This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
There’s something about fall. Summer trips are over. Kids are back to school. Sports seasons have begun, and whether you’re playing, watching, or carting kids around to practices and games, the schedule is packed full and sometimes overflowing. And you begin dreaming about that next vacation.
What kind of vacation will it be? Several of your friends have gone on cruises. Is cruising the kind of vacation for you? This article and those that follow may help you decide.
If you’re the kind of person who has lots of places on your bucket list but not a lot of vacation time, a cruise may be your kind of trip.
First, look at your bucket list. Where do you want to go? If you’re all about the beaches, you could explore several Caribbean islands on one cruise.
If you love wildlife or want to see the glaciers before they have disappeared, you may choose an Alaskan cruise.
If you’d love to see Italy and Greece in the same vacation, not only would a Mediterranean cruise be your ticket, but you may be able to throw additional locations, such as Turkey, France, or Spain, into the same trip.
Does Scandinavia interest you? How about The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, all in one fell swoop? The British Isles? New England? The Panama Canal? The sky’s the limit when it comes to itineraries, but they tend to be grouped by region.
Cruises to the Caribbean regions tend to depart from Florida, but some depart from Texas, Louisiana or Alabama. These cruises are the most popular, and usually least expensive.
- The western Caribbean usually includes a stop in Mexico, along with stops like the Bahamas, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands
- The eastern Caribbean usually includes stops in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
- The southern Caribbean usually begins in Puerto Rico and includes islands like Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, and Aruba.
Cruises and cruise tours to Alaska are also popular vacations.
- Roundtrip Alaska cruises tend to be the least expensive. They usually include glacier viewing and visits to towns in southwestern Alaska.
- Northbound and southbound cruises allow you to begin or end in Seattle or Vancouver and use the whole week to travel farther north, ending in towns closer to Denali National Park and Anchorage.
- Cruise tours are the best of both worlds. You either begin with a week-long northbound cruise through the Inside Passage seeing glaciers and more, and end with a week on trains and in lodges seeing Denali and the wildlife Alaska is known for, or you can begin with Denali, trains and lodges, and end with a cruise through the Inside Passage to Seattle or Vancouver.
Like the Caribbean, the Mediterranean Sea offers a warm climate and some beach time. Bonus: It also offers history and European culture!
- Take a western Mediterranean cruise if you want to see Italy, as well as places like Spain, Portugal, Monaco, and France.
- Take an eastern Mediterranean cruise if you want to see Italy, as well as places like Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Israel, and even Egypt.
If other parts of Europe are more your interest, there are cruises for that too:
- Try a Scandinavian cruise to see places like Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, or Denmark. Some of these cruises even include forays into Great Britain, Germany, or Russia.
- Try a British Isles cruise to see Great Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. These cruises often offer stops in The Netherlands or France as well.
Finally, if all of these destinations make you say, “Been there, done that,” then you might want to look into the less-traveled destinations.
- The beachcomber in you might choose Hawaii or Tahiti.
- The naturalist in you may want The Galapagos Islands or Australia/New Zealand.
- The engineer in you may want to check out the Panama Canal, or even the Suez Canal.
- Take a Far East cruise to see places like Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
- Take a Middle Eastern cruise or begin on Dubai to see India, Madagascar, and South Africa.
- Take a European, South American, African, Asian, or even an American river cruise.
- Finally, could also stay closer to home with a Pacific Coast cruise or one through New England/Canada.
Of course, you can see all of the places listed above without taking a cruise, but the beauty of cruising is being able to see all of them in one trip without having to pack and move several times. Going on a cruise is like staying in a luxury hotel that follows you as you travel. You might end your cruise thousands of miles from where you began, but you were never farther than a day trip from your home base.
Cruising can take you almost anywhere. But is cruising for you? Over the next few weeks, we will explore several questions about cruising to help you decide.
