European Cruise Advisor

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.

The Norwegian Cruise Lines or NCL are a relatively new addition to the current lineup of cruise line operators and they are quickly making their name as a popular operator for visiting Northern Europe by ship.

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 were to tell a friend that you were going to be going on a cruise, most of us would immediately conjure up a sunny sun drenched cruise, perhaps around the Mediterranean or Greek islands. Of course this is not necessarily the only type of cruise you can take, how about somewhere colder, perhaps an Arctic cruise springs to mind?

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.