Those looking for a touch of paradise can opt for the Caribbean leg of this journey (cruise JIvIR). Departing from Southampton, you will call at Madeira before continuing on to Caribbean islands including Antigua, Aruba and St Lucia, where you could spend your days relaxing on sandy shores.

You’ll enjoy the wonder of the Panama Canal and ports in Costa Rica and Mexico before disembarking in San Francisco. If it’s the bright lights of America that appeal the most, you could choose to see some of the all-time great American cities on cruise JPX, where you will call at such fantastic destinations as Miami, Orlando, Charleston, New York and Boston, before journeying back to Southampton. Or, if the Alaskan section of Arcadia’s voyage is what’s calling to you, you could enjoy the unexplored landscapes and vast wilderness of this beautiful state before enjoying ports as varied as Vancouver, Mexico and Los Angeles on cruise JRX.

Passengers on this cruise will get to enjoy the classic Alaskan ports of Ketchikan and Juneau plus some of the lesser-known but equally fascinating destinations Alaska offers. There are lots more ways to enjoy Arcadia’s Grand Alaska Voyage but, whichever one you choose, it’s sure to be the trip of a lifetime. www.pocruises.co.uk

If you choose to take a Norwegian cruise, you will have the extraordinary opportunity to envelop yourself in the Norwegian atmosphere and lifestyle that’s on offer when you cruise aboard a Norweigian liner. If you are a regular cruiser, you will definitely find something different on offer from the Norway coastal cruises that you might be used to. Of course the ships will have all the amenities and activities that you would be used to, but there is nothing quite like the peacefulness of the northern seas around the coastline of Norway.

With many cruises offering a variety of stopping off points at the numerous ports along the coast, you can get a taste first hand of life in a Norwegian town and city as well as taking in the glorious sights and views of Norway.

As mentioned above, many operators do many different tours because there are so many destinations the variety of choices means that you can make sure you visit the destinations you would most like to see, this is great especially if you have taken a similar trip the past, you can get to see a different aspect on this Norway coastal cruise.

With all Norwegian cruise liners, the quality is absolutely top notch, the food available is as to be expect the best you can expect. with a laid back atmosphere and plenty of activities to get involved with on board the ships you cant get board. Also the accommodation is going to be as good if not better than you will find on any other cruise.

Once you have enjoyed a Norwegian coastal cruise you wont look back, with wonderful memories and plenty of magical moments it will be somewhere that will definitely want to visit again.

The Hurtigruten cruise line offers just such an experience, with daily calls to something like 34 port destinations that a spread along the Norwegian coastline between Bergen and Kirkenes you will get the opportunity to visit many port destinations that are rarely visited by the standard commercial cruise liners. The main reason for this is because the Hurtigruten liners are real ships that not only carry passengers but also perform vital services to the local communities such as delivering cargo and post. All this means that you will get to see some wonderful towns that in most circumstances you would never get to see with other tour operators.

An interesting feature of the Norwegian cruise offered by Hurtigruten is that they offer a cruise that they have named a “Classic Round Voyage”. The advantage of this deal is that you will enjoy Free Flights to Norway that coincide with your cruise, its only on offer on selected departures, but it worth keeping an eye out for these offers.

For a Northern European Fjord adventure, the Hurtigruten cruise line is something you need to experience to believe, visiting the pretty fishing villages after you visit the Honningsvåg, the capital of the North Cape, is only one of the highlights, also look out for the town of Tromsø, which has been described was the “Paris of the North”. During the 19th century, British, Russian, Dutch and German ships would call in here before heading off to Arctic expeditions. Being able to immerse yourself in the history of Northern Europe has never been easier and there are some many more places like this to visit on this cruise.

Another interesting feature of these cruises is that when you venture further Northward towards the Arctic Circle the days will get very long with there being barely any night-time.

Choosing the right time of year to visit the Norwegian coast with Hurtigruten will impact the scenery that will be on display as you travel in luxury along the coastlines, however whatever time of year you take your vacation you are absolutely sure to have a wonderful time.

So you think you’ve decided on a Scandinavian cruise, or at the very least it’s on your shortlist of top destinations for a northern European cruise. There are a few things that you need to decide initially these being; what is the budget for the cruise, what time of the year are you thinking of travelling, which destinations in Scandinavia to you especially want to make sure that your cruise will visit as well how long you would like to spend on the cruise 1, 2 or perhaps even 3 weeks.

If you are looking for a 10-14 day cruise, Princess Cruises have just the kind of vacation to the northern Scandinavian that you might be interested in. Specializing in a 10 day cruise (that’s 10 nights aboard ship) the cruise will take in lots of interesting places.

Perhaps you would rather a slightly short Scandinavian trip, perhaps only 4 nights, then Royal Caribbean offer a package deal to visit the Scandinavian Capitals, in fact they currently are running three different variations on these cruises so there is a wide range of choices available.

Don’t forget that a cruise doesn’t necessarily have to be for lots of nights on board ship, in fact you can quite easily get simple day trip of a few hours up to an single overnight stay on board a smaller cruise ship. Viator Tours specialize in this kind of trip whether you want day trips or perhaps something slightly longer.

If you are looking to get away for a few days, for a relaxing time, then a Norwegian cruises visiting the amazing Fjords is an excellent way to get some time away from the office.

Perhaps a Baltic cruise would be ideal destination to set sail for, Have a look here with Transocean tours where they have a North Cape Explorer, 12 night vacation sailing from London Tilbury or why not have a look here for a Baltic cruise offered by P&O cruises with some of the highlights offered here being, Hamburg city, the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen moving onto Gdansk, Kadriorg Park in Tallinn as well as The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

All in all a Northern European Scandinavian Cruise is an excellent choice for a vacation and is something that you will definitely will enjoy whether you are seasoned cruise traveler or a first time cruiser.

In general most cruise lines operate in a fairly similar manner, with standard guest facilities and features offered. Norwegian cruise lines however, pride themselves on offering something a little bit different.

They offer something which they have imaginatively titled “Freestyle Cruising”. In their own words, “Freestyle cruising is all about flexibility and freedom. Freedom from stress. Freedom from schedules. Freedom to create your own vacation”.

This freedom means they offer the ability to design your cruise exactly they way that you want. For example, each ship at NCL has up to 13 restaurants and dining rooms on board which means that you choose to eat whatever you want, there are no fixed meals so you can choose to dress and dine in whatever fashion best suites you.

With one of the youngest fleet of ships on the planet they will provide a cool, innovative and hippest vacation on water  and as far as accommodation goes, they  also have a variety of combinations so no matter whether there are 2, or an entire family holiday, they have staterooms to suit all requirements.

Norwegian cruise lines boast to have, due to their Freestyle Fun, lots of things to do in the evenings with exciting nightlife as well as plenty of fun family shore excursions with pretty much something for everyone. In fact there are so many things that you can do both on bard the ships as well as on shore that you will be guaranteed to never be bored on a NCL Cruise.

As far as the ships go, we already seen that they are the youngest fleet on the planet, which means that they are fitted with all the mod cons that you would expect on a top of the cruise ship. In fact they could be described as luxury floating hotels with an atmosphere that is suited to both young and old.

Norwegian cruise lines really do have so much to offer including a relaxing pool deck experience also they entirely cater for the family market, they run expanded kids crew hours which means parents can stay out and about longer and later in the evening with worrying about the children, each ship also has Wii video games available on every freestyle ships.

If you are first time cruiser then a northern European cruise, visiting places like the Norwegian Fjords or Greenland, is probably not something that you have previously considered. If, however, you have been on one of more cruises before hand, then visiting new and exciting destinations that you’ve not been too before is just one of many good reasons why you might like to take an Arctic cruise yourself.

Venturing into the Arctic Circle is one of the main reasons for taking a cruise like this, not many people can say they have travelled this far north especially by sea! Also you should consider a cruise to Greenland, which is one of the largest Islands in the world, there is plenty of wild life to see here, although you might not think so, as well as plenty of bleak snowy landscapes that you will definitely enjoy seeing and taking plenty of photographs of.

Although you should make sure you wrap up warm for the Arctic cruise, you should not too worried about this type of cruise trip being cold and uncomfortable. All of the cruise lines that offer Arctic cruises have ships that have all the modern comforts where you can easily warm yourself after you have been for a stroll on deck admiring the northern seas and coastlines.

There are many different selections of northern cruises to pick from, they tend to vary in times of the year and prices, so there are few things you will need to decide before picking. Having the opportunity to get up close to a glacier or see icebergs, but not too closely of course, means that you will have an exciting, interesting and memorable time.

With so many countries in the northern hemisphere to visit such as Norway, Sweden or Greenland to name a few, you will want to put an Arctic cruise on your shortlist for vacation destinations this coming year.