You might think of A Prairie Home Companion as a live radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor, and that’s because it is. What you might not know is that there is A Prairie Home Companion cruise that has set sail several times in years past, generally in the summer. There will be A Prairie Home Companion cruise in 2012, as Keillor and company – consisting of a group of historians, naturalists, and musicians, as well as the guests who care to join them – take an 11-day European cruise at the end of August, from the 18th to the 29th.
In addition to proving that Keillor has without question one of the greatest jobs in the world, the cruise sounds like an excellent voyage simply from the standpoint of cruise vacations. The journey begins in Amsterdam and travels along the coast of Portugal and Spain, concluding in Barcelona, that grand metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea. After setting sail, the ship will be at sea for two days, and then it stops at Vigo, Spain, where the crew will enjoy fresh olives in the many tapas bars of this Spanish fishing port, according to the dream itinerary that Keillor has posted on the website of A Prairie Home Companion.
The ship will next visit Lisbon, Spain, which the group will explore for a day (Aug. 22), and then moves on to the ancient Spanish cities of Cádiz and Seville for an overnight stay the following day (Aug. 23 – 24). On the 25th, they will arrive in Tangier, Morocco to explore the expansive markets of this city, and then for the rest of the voyage they will make stops exclusively in Spain. They will first see, on the 26th, the Moorish castles and the Picasso museum in Málaga, which will be followed by an entire day at sea (the 27th). On the second to last day of the trip, the group will visit Valencia and its beautiful beaches and gardens, and then will at last arrive to Barcelona the following morning.
The cruise seems to be first and foremost a European cultural adventure, but during the trip there will be plenty of the staples that people have come to expect from A Prairie Home Companion cruises, including a daily glee club, dance lessons, and, naturally, evenings filled with storytelling.
There are still some tickets left, but the majority are sold out, so you should act quickly if you are interested in joining Keillor on what will inevitably be an amazing cruise experience. Both the high-end and low-end cabins are fully booked, so you’ll have to grab one of the middle-of-the-road tickets, financially speaking, if you want to partake, and these cost anywhere from nearly $7,000 to under $2,000, depending on how many people are in your party. (If you are traveling solo, you’ll pay more because you won’t be able to split the expense of your cabin with anyone else.)
The 2012 cruise comes after five previous voyages, all to different parts of the globe. The cruises started in 2005 and went till 2007. A three-year break followed, but the voyages resumed in 2010 with a cruise to the Western Caribbean, and then there was a trip last year that centered on Canada. It sounds like a pretty awesome tradition.
You can find more information about the 2012 cruises here: