Give the kids a history lesson – even when school is out
CRUISES may be on hold for the time being, but there are some brilliant itineraries to look forward to in 2021. Among the great deals to be had, there are a tremendous variety of cruises departing from UK ports, meaning a swift start to your holiday, free from airport hassles.
Here are some of the best on offer.
FORGET home schooling. Cruise &
Maritime (cruiseandmaritime.com) has a
Baltic Cities & St Petersburg cruise that is a perfect way to give grandchildren funfilled history and geography lessons during next year’s summer holidays. It is usually for adults only but on this special two-week voyage aboard Columbus, child fares are just £199. The trip includes calls at Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm, with an overnight stay in St Petersburg and the opportunity to visit Berlin. Departure is from Tilbury on August 13, 2021. The price for adults starts at £1,169pp.
You can toast the midnight sun, enjoying endless views and unlimited cocktails, when you book a Norwegian Fjords cruise with Iglu (iglucruise.com) – because a drinks package worth £140pp is included in the price. MSC Magnifica sails from Southampton on June 19, 2021, for seven nights, with fares starting at £659pp.
Couples can spend St Valentine’s Day at sea on a Northern Europe cruise, being pampered in the swish spa aboard new ship Iona (pocruises.com). Fares for a seven-day jaunt start at £449pp and you will stop at Zeebrugge – the port for Bruges, with a chocolate shop on every corner – and hip Hamburg, and spend two days in Rotterdam for excursions to Amsterdam. Departure is from Southampton on February 13, 2021.
If you have more time to spare and like a bargain, the Mediterranean Adventurer cruise will take you all the way to Italy at a hefty discount.
Leaving Southampton aboard Grand Princess (princess.com) on July 24, 2021, there will be calls at Livorno (the port for Florence), Civitavecchia (for Rome),
Cagliari in Sardinia, Marseilles, Barcelona and Ceuta on the north coast of Africa.
Fares in the Princess sale, which ends on June 30, start at £1,499pp – a saving of £300pp.
But for bright blue skies, nothing beats hopping through the Greek Islands and a dip into Turkey.
A seven-night Idyllic Aegean cruise on Celestyal Crystal (celestyalcruises.uk) calls at the picture-postcard-perfect islands of Santorini and Mykonos, big and beautiful Crete, less-visited Milos – where the Venus de Milo was found – and Kusadasi to visit the spectacular ruins of Ephesus.
Departures from Athens are weekly between May and September 2021. The fare is now from £979pp (down from £1,120pp), which includes drinks and three excursions but not flights.