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Won't You Let Me Take You on a...Sea Cruise?
The Mediterranean. The Aegean. The North Sea. Flitting amongst the Greek isles or threading the Turkish Coast. Bopping your way along the French Riviera or criss-crossing Scandinavian waters. Ah, the call of the open sea....
Rather than make you pack and unpack and repack again to trudge from hotel to hotel in order to tour the cities of Europe, cruising allows you to unpack just once, settle in, and then the hotel itself scurries from port to port. Also: all-you-can-eat buffets.
To Cruise or Not To Cruise
Problem is, what if the bits of Europe you want to see aren't necessarily located in or near a port? (Also, be careful when a cruise itinerary says "Rome" because it actually puts in at Civitavecchia, a 2 1/2 hour drive north of the city!)Cruising is most definintely not the way to see Europe for the first time—not if you want to truly experience the culture and people. Cruising is an act of travel that appeals greatly to some, and defines one of the lesser circles of Hell to others. You know which kind you are.
If you've never cruised but the idea appeals, for heaven's sake don't spend thousands of dollars to find out whether you like it on a European trip. Take a $399 cruise in the Caribbean first to sample the waters, as it were.
How to find the best inexpensive cruises
Destination Oceans (www.autoeurope.com) - The cruises branch of Auto Europe offers the same sort of fab deals on cruises—sea and river—as they do on airfares and rental cars, with discounts on nearly 20 major cruise lines.
CruiseDirect (www.cruisedirect.com) - One of the top cruise discounters in the business, consitently underselling the higher rack rates you'll see posted on the web sites of the cruise companies themselves. CruiseDirect.com even have a last-minute
page with discounts on soon-to-leave ships.
Cruise Compete (www.cruisecompete.com) - You know the commercials for LendingTree.com? That whole "When banks compete, you win..." spiel? Well this the same thing for cruises. You put in the date and destination and ship (any or all of those), and it sends your cruise request to a whole bunch of cruise brokers and discounters. Each of them then contacts you with a quote on how little they can do that cruise for you. Basically, it does the shopping around for you, pretty cool, huh?
Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com) - Independent Website devoted to cruising in all its forms.
Small Ship Cruises (www.smallshipcruises.com) - Just what it sounds like: booking with dozens of outfits that offer cruises on small small ships in the Med, Russia, and Scandinavia as well as on the rivers of Europe (well, all over the world, technically, but those are the bits of Europe they cover).
easyCruise - There's a whole seperate page on this site describing the this exciting new entry into the Mediterranean cruise market. » Full Story
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This material was last updated January 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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