Here are 8 destinations for winter cruises that take you from Hawaii to Cairo with details of places you shouldn’t miss. These cruise destinations are the some of the best places to go on cruises during winter. Read on to know more about how you can plan that winter cruise…
Nobody likes spending their winter at home with all the surrounding darkness and the chill setting in. Most of the offices and schools are shut due to snow and there is nothing interesting left to do at home. Winter cruises have always been a common and favorite option to spend the winter vacations. Everyone looks forward to those winter cruises and so the bookings are done weeks, sometimes months, before the season. Here are few of the best places to go on cruise vacations in winter, places that will take you away to some sun. Here is a list of such nice places to cruise in winter.
Best Winter Cruise Destinations
Hawaii
Hawaii is one of the most favorite destinations among all winter cruises. There is so much you can do here and the best part is that it gives you a feeling of being far away from the world. You can go snorkeling with sea turtles and dolphins or horseback on the shoreline. You can eat some amazing food in Honolulu and hike across the lava fields of Hawaii’s lunar landscapes. The acrobatics show in Hawaii’s famous shore break is another activity you would want to watch when you are cruising there. Some of the famous vacation spots in Hawaii are Oahu, Maui, Kauai beaches and Hawaii, the Big Island. Kauai is nicknamed the Green Island as it is a lush green paradise with rain forests where the movie Jurassic Park was shot. In Oahu, you can enjoy some shopping, whereas in Maui you can visit Haleakala which is the worlds largest dormant volcano. Also visit the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii, the Big Island. Hawaii beaches and islands are few of the unexplored islands in the world today offering quiet and peace throughout the year. Hawaii vacations are a perfect way to enjoy some sun and some adventure.
The Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is one of the best places to go on cruises in winter as along with the sun, it offers some of the world’s best architecture. All the ports of call in the Panama Canal cruise will offer you lots of shopping, water sports and some of the best scenes in Central America. However, more than these scenes of nature, the best part is the transit through the canal. The time when the ship gets in line behind other huge number of ships, is the best time to see all the engineering skills that were applied to make this canal in the early 90′s. The physics applied in lowering ships with weights of 100,000 tonnes is something spectacular. These Panama Canal facts and many more make this one of the worthwhile cruises. There are two times when you can go on this cruise, once in Spring from East to West and then in the fall from West to East as the ships move from the Caribbean to Alaska. If you have the time and the money, you can choose for a cruise up to whichever port of call you want on the ships way to Alaska or while coming back to the east. There a number of routes that you can choose from for this cruise, so make sure you choose the best.
Caribbean Islands
Before planning a cruise to the Caribbean Islands, you first need to decide whether you want to travel to the Eastern or Western Caribbean Islands. There are a number of Islands you can visit while on a cruise to the Caribbean. Some of the must see places or islands in the Caribbean are Grand Cayman Island, St. Maarten, Dominica, United States Virginia Islands, Puerto Rico and Barbados. Stingray City in the Grand Cayman Island is famous of water rides and sports like scubadiving whereas in in St. Maarten, you can go for some yacht racing. In the USVI, you should visit Buck Island Reef and also go rain forest hiking in El Junque, Puerto Rico. In Barbados, don’t forget to have some high tea in Sunbury. In Dominica, you can or rather should visit Champagne as Caribbean Cruises are not complete without this one. Champagne is an area where in the sea bed you can see famous tiny volcanic fissures which keep on releasing small bubbles in the water. On almost every island, you can go for small submarine rides. The best part about choosing winter cruises to the Caribbean islands is that you get some great variety in places and can cover many tourist attractions in a few days.
Mexican Riviera
If you want to see some vibrant culture and lots of fun on the beaches, you should opt for the Mexican Riviera winter cruises. You can visit Cabo San Lucas and snorkel among the most vibrant tropical fish and coral reefs with colors you never knew existed. You can get some good sun on Mazatlan’s spectacular beaches. Baja in Mexico is a town with beautiful beaches, just a small trip away from Los Angeles. During this cruise, you can also visit The Starlight, a famous undersea garden in Catalina. You can go in search of whales in Los Cabos and also trek through some exotic plantations and jungles during this cruise. Learn how to make wine the Mexican style in Ensenada. Many people plan yearly trips to beaches in Mexico, as apart from the beaches, it also boasts of other tourist attractions from museums to archaeological sites and some beautiful Mexican resorts. Cancun is another beach city in Mexico you shouldn’t miss as it has 12 miles of beautiful shores that have perhaps the best scenic waters. The Mexican beaches will make you forget the worries of winter in no time and you’ll be enjoying some good heat, food and music far away from home.
Lake Tahoe
Another winter cruise destination in the western parts of America is Lake Tahoe, and this is one of the cheap cruises. This lake is set in mountains and has some beautiful scenery. Located in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Lake Tahoe is a huge freshwater lake. To be precise, it is located between Nevada and California, to the west of Carson city. It is the largest alpine lake and the second deepest with depth a depth of 1,645 feet. Summer here is spent with a dozen activities near the water. If you want to go on a small cruise and enjoy some quiet and some fishing, this is one of the winter cruises you should opt for. There are some amazing Paddle Wheeler tours to the Emerald Bay which you might find interesting. Some of the cruises at Lake Tahoe are M.S. Dixie II, Tahoe Paradise, The Party Boat, Tahoe Queen, Tahoe Thunder, Tahoe Cruz, Tahoe Princess, Woodwing Sailing I and Woodwing Sailing II. One thing you must note is that most of the cruises on Lake Tahoe are one day cruises. So, you should plan to stay at different locations every night to make this a longer trip and experience all of the cruises mentioned above.
Winter Cruises Abroad
Cruise on the ‘Nile’
If you are done cruising the seas, how about cruising on a river- The best part of winter cruises on the Nile is that you can visit a lot of places that you usually can’t if you travel by air or land. Traveling through the Nile was earlier the only way to visit temples and other landscapes along the river. Apart from the advantage of having your hotel travel with you, you can visit 5,000 year old cultures that still thrive in Egypt. This winter cruise is somewhere between a minimum of three days to a maximum of 14 days. Some of the important ports of call are Luxor, Aswan, Cairo, Dendera and a short flight to Abu Simbel even. The latter usually come along with the longer cruises. The prices range anywhere between 55USD to 350USD per night depending upon the cruise lines. During Christmas and Easter there is usually a price rise of 25%-50%. The longer cruises wait at Cairo for around 4 days so that you can see the Egyptian pyramids with detail and see all of them. This is one of those winter cruises where you get to see the best of both land and water.
Australian Cruises
There is absolutely no better way to cruise than to cruise in Australia and wake up to a amazingly scenic destination everyday. This is one of those winter cruises that you need to plan absolutely well as there is so much to see. Australian cruises can be summed up of many cruises together such as the Great Barrier Reef Cruises, Whitsunday Cruises, Sydney Harbor Cruises, Murray River Cruises, Top End Australia Cruises and Fiji Site cruises. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest marine park globally and there are some amazing facts about the great barrier reef that will surely make you plan this trip. While cruising here, smaller ships are made available to places where larger vessels don’t get entry. Whitsunday Cruises will take you to the outer Great Barrier Reef where you can enjoy some adventurous snorkeling among the reefs. In the Sydney Harbor cruises, you can cruise the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers and along the Sydney Harbor. These cruises can also be done over a weekend. Cape York Peninsula, Arnhem Land and the Coburg Peninsula are other important places included in Australian tourism that you wouldn’t want to miss. Also a must are the boat rides to the wetlands.
Mediterranean Winter Cruises
Mediterranean winter cruises are always special as you can visit many countries in a single cruise. Few of the countries that make up the best destinations for winter cruises are Italy, Turkey, Spain and Jordan. Some of the other common destinations for winter cruises are Athens, and Greece, which is surrounded by 4 amazing mountains and spectacular sites of the Parthenon and Acropolis. Then you can visit Cairo in Egypt where you can see one of the seven wonders of the world, the Pyramids. Morocco is another destination you wouldn’t want to miss, specially the different and beautiful culture there. While cruising in the Mediterranean, you would want to know some Mediterranean sea facts and try the Regent’s Freedom of Seas cruise. This cruise will offer it all from an interactive water park to an ice skating ring. It also has a full-size basketball court, a miniature golf course, a rock climbing wall and cantilevered whirlpools for you to enjoy. Just like an Australian cruise, you need to plan the Mediterranean winter cruises with absolute detail as there are many variations to it. So far, the Mediterranean winter cruises offer the most variety in destinations and places right from the northern hemisphere to the southern.
These were some of the unique and best winter cruises 2010. I hope this list of nice places to go on cruises this winter appealed to you. Winter cruise deals are always lucrative if you start searching for them as early as possible. In the winters, people from Canada too come down south for these winter cruises so make sure you are fast with your bookings. Cruises are the best way to spend some time away from those cold winds, basking in the sun and enjoying the sea. Hope you have a good one too!