The cruise ship leaves the port at the 5pm, and the horizon – the sea, the sky, and the line that separates them – is the view from every cabin, every deck, and every dining room on the ship. The cruise is the only holiday where the hotel moves: you go to the sleep in the Barcelona and you wake in the Marseille, and the breakfast – the buffet, the omelette station, the fresh fruit, and the view of the port of the Marseille – is the most efficient of any holiday. The cruise is the love-it-or-hate-it of the travel: the enthusiasts (the legion, the growing – the 30 million cruise passengers in the 2025, the 50% increase on the 2015, and the largest ships – the Royal Caribbean “Icon of the Seas,” the 7,600 passengers, the 2,850 crew, the largest cruise ship in the world) and the detractors (the environmental impact, the crowds, the buffets, the norovirus – the arguments are the real, and the cruise is not for everyone). For the many, however, the cruise is the essential holiday. Here are the top four reasons.

1. Multiple Destinations, One Unpacking

The essential cruise advantage: the 7-night Mediterranean cruise from the Barcelona to the Rome visits the 5–6 ports – the Palma de Mallorca, the Marseille, the Genoa, the Naples, the Livorno (for the Florence and the Pisa), and the Civitavecchia (for the Rome) – and the suitcase is unpacked once. The packing, the unpacking, the repacking, and the hauling of the luggage through the train stations and the hotel lobbies – the most exhausting part of the multi-stop trip – is eliminated. The cruise is the sampler (the taste of the city at the each port, the 8 hours of the exploration, and the return to the ship for the dinner and the sleep), and the cruise is the efficient way to see the coast of Europe: the Norwegian fjords, the Greek islands, the Croatian coast – the destinations that are the connected by the sea and the impractical by the land. The essential caveat: the sampler is the cursory – the 8 hours in the Rome is the Colosseum, the Vatican, and the pizza, and the deeper exploration must wait for the separate trip. The cruise is the introduction, not the immersion. More travel tips →

2. The Value – The All-Inclusive Ship

The cruise fare includes the cabin, the meals (the main dining room, the buffet, and the casual venues – the food is the 24-hour, the quality is the variable, and the best cruises – the luxury lines, the premium lines – serve the food that is the restaurant-quality), the entertainment (the West-End-style shows, the live musicians, the comedians, the cinema, the nightclub – the cruise entertainment is the extensive, the professional, and the most impressive feature of the modern cruise), and the transport between the ports. The essential value: the 7-night Mediterranean cruise from the £600 per person (the basic cabin, the inside – the no window, the cheap, and the perfectly comfortable) is the £85 per night for the accommodation, the food, the entertainment, and the transport. The hotel of the equivalent quality in the Rome, the meals, and the transport between the cities would cost the £200+ per night. The cruise is the best value in European travel for the budget-conscious, and the extras – the drinks (the drinks packages – the £30–60 per day for the unlimited, the essential value for the drinker), the speciality restaurants (the £20–50 per head for the steakhouse, the Italian, the sushi), and the excursions (the £50–150 per port) – are the budget that must be forecast

3. The Ease – The Floating Resort

The cruise is the holiday that requires the least effort: the airport transfer, the check-in, the luggage delivered to the cabin, the meals served, the entertainment provided, and the ports reached. The cruise is the essential holiday for the multi-generational family (the grandparents, the parents, and the children – the ship provides the activities for the every age, the kids’ clubs, the teens’ clubs, the adults-only pools, and the family dining that solves the problem of the 12 different preferences), the older traveller (the walkability of the ship, the lifts, the assistance, and the safety of the enclosed environment), and the solo traveller (the cruise lines are increasingly catering to the solos: the single cabins, the no-single-supplement offers, and the hosted solo-traveller events). The essential caveat: the sea days (the days with no port – the 1–2 days on the typical 7-night cruise) are the days of the pool, the book, and the buffet, and the traveller who needs the constant destination may find the sea day the long

4. The Variety – River Cruise, Expedition, and Mega-Ship

The cruise is the not-monolithic: the river cruise (the Viking, the Avalon, the Uniworld – the 190-passenger ships, the window-facing cabins, the docking in the heart of the cities – the Amsterdam, the Cologne, the Vienna, the Budapest – and the essential cruise for the traveller who dislikes the crowds), the expedition cruise (the Hurtigruten, the Lindblad – the Antarctica, the Galápagos, the Arctic – the smallest ships, the Zodiac landings, and the best way to see the most remote places on the Earth), and the mega-ship (the Royal Caribbean, the Carnival, the MSC – the 5,000+ passengers, the water parks, the zip lines, the ice-skating rinks, the roller coasters, and the essential cruise for the families). The choice of the cruise is the choice of the experience