All aboard for bargains… if you plan your break early
A CRUISE is a brilliant way to take a touring holiday with the added reassurance that everything is organised by experts and so much is included in the upfront price.
And now is a great time to snap up bargains for next year and even 2022.
Book by tomorrow and a family of four can explore Ireland and Scotland for less than £50 per person a day, including full board and countless activities and entertainments. Crown
Princess (princess.com) sails a round trip from Southampton for eight nights on April 24, 2021, calling at Portland in Dorset, Guernsey, Cork, Dublin, Glasgow and Holyhead. Fares are from £649pp for the first two sharing a cabin, with the third and fourth paying £149pp – that is just £1,596 for a family of four.
On a gentler Tulips And Diamonds cruise of the Dutch and Belgian waterways, you’ll enjoy the uplifting sight of swathes of spring blooms. Tui Isla (tui.co.uk/river-cruises) sails from Amsterdam on April 18, 2021. Fares for the five-night cruise to Rotterdam, Antwerp, Dordrecht and Utrecht start at £800pp and include flights from Gatwick, tips and £120pp towards a choice of excursions. And there’s a whopping £950pp off a Rhine
Getaway with Viking (vikingcruises.co.uk), sailing between Amsterdam and Basel. Six guided tours – along with meals with wine, flights and gratuities – are included in the fare.
Highlights of the one-week cruise, which departs on March 26, 2021, include Cologne, the Black Forest and Strasbourg. Book by September 30 for fares starting at £1,645pp (down from £2,595pp).
If you want to avoid airports, Uniworld (uniworld.com) has new packages for luxury cruises on French rivers. Its one-week, allinclusive Brilliant Bordeaux cruise aboard SS Bon Voyage, is from £1,749pp (reduced from £1,999pp) and departs from Bordeaux on March 21, 2021. This price includes parking and saves £500 per cabin to set against the ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Caen and staying overnight in a hotel to break the 375-mile drive to the start of your cruise.
Looking farther afield and far further ahead, Fred Olsen (fredolsencruises.com) is offering £250pp on-board credit for a four-week, no-fly
Black Sea Discovery & Mediterranean
Adventure sailing from Dover on September 27, 2022, if you book by September 1 this year. The epic voyage aboard traditional ship Balmoral has relaxing days at sea, sailing first to Gibraltar, then Malta and Istanbul, before calling at the exotic Black Sea ports of Sochi in Russia, Batumi in Georgia, Odessa in Ukraine and Constanta in Romania, with scenic cruising in the Bosphorus Strait and the Dardanelles before calls in Greece and Menorca on the journey home to Dover. Fares start at £4,299pp.