Has anybody ever done a cruise in the Med? My wife has expressed interest in it for next summer recently.

Any recommendations?

My wife and I did one years ago with Royal Caribbean. We loved it. Left out of Barcelona for a 7-day cruise. Ports were Marseille, France, Monaco/Cannes, France, Florence, Italy, Naples, Italy, and Rome. Great ports and sights. Only downside is that for the most part you have to bus to most places. Took over an hour to get to Florence and Rome just FYI. Also not a huge Naples fan but we did an excursion to Pompeii and Sorrento which were great.

I haven't, but my parents have done two with Holland-American. When they could still travel, they used Holland-American exclusively.

Are you thinking Western Mediterranean (Spain, France,Italy) or Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey, Croatia)?
Some itineraries will even include a little of both, mainly Italy and Greece.

I recently have had clients on Explora Journeys and they were wonderful. I also like Celebrity cruises for these itineraries as well. Will all depend on your budget and must see ports.

Feel free to reach out if you want more information or help with planning!

wangus12 said:

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Has anybody ever done a cruise in the Med? My wife has expressed interest in it for next summer recently.

Any recommendations?

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My parents just did a long one in the Eastern Med.

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/mediterranean-cruises

I would recommend one that hits Greek Islands, Italy, Dalmatian Coast, Cyprus, Haifa

I've had clients book both Viking & Holland American for these cruises, honestly both are amazing, and offer their own benefits.

Can hit a lot of the same spots but Viking will be more immersive, intimate (and pricier) than HAL. HAL offers some shorter itineraries and has the option for add ons rather than paying for everything.

How long are you hoping to sail for? Do you want to stay overnight in the cities themselves? Do you want to see N. Africa Med or stay within Europe?

Happy to answer any questions!

A Mediterranean cruise is a great way to see Europe. You'll find Western Med itineraries (Spain, France, Italy) and Eastern Med itineraries (Greece, Croatia, Turkey), each offering a very different experience.
For cruise lines, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian are popular choices, while Azamara and Oceania provide a more boutique, immersive feel.
European travel is one of my specialties I'd be happy to help match you with the right itinerary and cruise line for next summer. My contact info is in my bio.

I would think your first step would be to identify what potential countries she is wanting to see. As the others have advised, there are numerous cruise lines and all aren't created equally. One might have a great itinerary, but be a very European focused cruise line, which may not jive with what you're used to on a cruise.

I've had clients do several this year. The one coming up next month is a Celebrity Greek Isles cruise. The one after is a Texager doing a Norwegian Cruise that does the Greek Isles but starts in Turkey.

As mentioned above, a lot of these ports are not near the towns, so you are spending more time trying to get to the city center, depending on what you're trying to do. That can eat up a lot of your day.

We did last year …Rome to Athens on Princess. New ship and had fun. Book private excursions to avoid the cruise ship crowd

Mainly looking at Western Med, but aren't opposed to doing one that treks across the whole thing. We've been to Greece and Italy multiple times though.

My main question was simply the experience of using cruise ships to get around the Med vs just traveling on our own as well as how good the usual port stops were.

If you can find an itinerary/provider that is going to take you to the cities that you want to hit (and give you enough quality time in said cities) it's a solid option for getting around. You don't have to mess with packing and unpacking, trains, airport security, or driving in a foreign country.

The smaller ships tend to port closer to the city center which will provide easier (and faster) access to the places where you want to spend your time

wangus12 said:

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Mainly looking at Western Med, but aren't opposed to doing one that treks across the whole thing. We've been to Greece and Italy multiple times though.

My main question was simply the experience of using cruise ships to get around the Med vs just traveling on our own as well as how good the usual port stops were.

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Again, I do think it depends on the cruise ports. Rome's cruise port is an hour from the city. As are a lot of other ones. So it just depends on how much of the city you're trying to see with the limited time that you're in port.

I have had the pleasure of working with Brooke on several itineraries and I can promise you she knows her stuff on all destinations. Whether you want to talk Europe or Hawaii or cruises or Disney (or others), I promise she will have excellent recommendations after listening to how you want to travel. Clock over to her social media and see all of the boots on the ground trips she documents.

She is incredibly responsive which is a rarity and I can somewhat see how it could be seen as potentially automated but I can promise you she is just an attentive business person who is awesome at her job.

We leave next week for our second Med cruise on Celebrity Ascent. This trip we are leaving out of Rome & visiting Crete, Ephesus, Istanbul, Mykonos, Santorini and Naples. We absolutely love getting to visit each port area and then getting back on a ship with amazing service & amenities. We are visiting Florence for a few days before the cruise as well. I highly recommend working with a travel agent who can help put together an amazing itinerary for you based on your budget & destinations!!

We did one on the Celebrity Ascent this summer, I think it's a great way to see multiple coastal locations and figure out where you might want to come back to later and spend more time. I highlight coastal because you aren't going to have time to get too far inland and then back during an excursion.

I think the previously mentioned benefit of being in the same room and not having to pack and unpack in order to see multiple cities (as well as letting someone else drive while you drink) is the biggest benefit. Including the flight over we spent 5 nights in different places before getting to the ship, so it was such a relief to be in the same place for the next week. Retreat class on the Ascent was pretty sweet, basically a country club at sea. Definitely plan to do it again.

And i'll 2nd to skip the excursions through the ship and plan your own.

Did one for 5 year anniversary back in 2004. Still probably one of the best vacations we ever took. I think we did 9 days Barcelona to Venice on Princess.

There's no better way in my opinion to get a taste of Europe.

Did the Rome cruise on Princess last year and will do Barcelona next month on the inaugural cruise on Sun Princess. Private tours are not that expensive if there are at least 4 people and get to see some amazing countryside.

We did Norwegian Epic a few years ago out of Barcelona. Stops were Cannes, 2 days in Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples, Sardinia (removed from itinerary), Mallorca, and Ibiza.

It was a lot. Felt like we were constantly running every single day for an excursion. The Livorno and Civitavecchia ports are not "cruise" ports, but commercial ports, so you have to take a bus from your dock into the port town, where you would then catch another bus to Florence, Pisa, or Rome.

The bus ride to Florence was about 1.5 hours, Pisa, about 45 minutes, and Rome, about 1.5 hours, if I remember correctly. Probably the best stop was Livorno because we overnighted in port, giving us two days there. Pisa was great to see but Florence felt kind of rushed due to the distance from the port. We also saw Flavor Flave walking down the street in Rome, which was pretty cool.

I've been to Mallorca a few times before this trip, so nothing new there. We never got off the ship in Ibiza. There was a ferry in our docking location having issues and we didn't end up docking until well after lunch with a 6 pm departure time. Honestly, it was a bit of a relief considering we felt ran ragged from all the daily excursions we had done before.

Honestly, this wasn't our favorite cruise due to all the activity and the long bus rides we had to take from some of the ports to see Florence, Rome, and Pisa.

We did a cruise with Regent cruiseline (part of Norwegian) and loved it. The fact that the excursions were included made everything more relaxed. Some days you don't want to take an hour bus ride to the town, etc.