Cruise vacations are among the most variable vacations available. There are literally thousands of different cruise vacations to select from. Some of the aspects that you can control are the length of your cruise vacation, the time of year you want to take it, and the cruise line that provides it. It is also up to you to select the destination(s) you want to visit and the area of the world you want to sail through, and it is this aspect of cruise vacations that we focus on in the present article. That is, we are interested in answering one simple question: where can you go on a cruise vacation?
The short answer, and one that is only partially hyperbolic, is everywhere. With few exceptions, cruises sail all over the globe, although, of course, significant portions of the globe are cut off from cruises because of their inland location – no cruises to the heart of mainland China. Sorry! This obvious limitation aside, let’s look at the main destinations of cruise vacations.
Perhaps the most familiar cruise destination is the Caribbean. When people think of cruising, the Caribbean always seems to come to mind. Tons of cruise vacations center around trips to the Caribbean, where passengers spend their days off the ship laying on the beach, snorkeling, and doing other such tropical activities. Those who cruise to the Caribbean may also consider a trip to Central and/or South America. On such voyages, cruise ships often sail right through the Panama Canal, allowing passengers to check out, while lounging on the deck, the enormous man-made waterway that passes through large stretches of jungle.
Another common cruise destination is Alaska. (In a previous article, we wrote about why people take cruises to Alaska.) Cruises to Alaska appeal to travelers who are lovers of the northern landscape, and cruise lines offer the appropriate activities, like hikes inland to admire some of the 100,000 glaciers that are in the state. People who would enjoy an Alaskan cruise might also like to cruise to Canada, which is also a relatively popular cruise destination.
A more distant cruise destination, at least for those leaving from the U.S., is Europe, a location to which all the major cruise lines sail. European cruises can focus on a number of different locations, including the British Isles and Northern Europe, as well as several areas around the Mediterranean.
An even more distant cruise destination (again, from the perspective of those departing from the U.S.) is Asia and the South Pacific, and since these areas are far from the common ports of the U.S., trips to this part of the globe tend to be rather long (and therefore expensive). Trips to this part of the world may visit countries in Asia (e.g., Japan) and some of the many islands in the South Pacific, and they also travel to Australia and New Zealand regularly.
The locations described above constitute the major destinations of cruise vacations. However, there are cruises that go to other parts of the world, like Africa and the Middle East, so if you’re really interested in taking a cruise to this part of the world, rest assured that it’s possible. Again, the bottom line is that cruise lines sail their fleets all over the world, so you can likely plan a cruise vacation to the area of the world that you are most inclined to visit.