Find your perfect cruise holiday

When considering your next cruise, do you want a familiar destination or somewhere new that you’ve always fancied going to? Do you travel to experience new cuisine, learn history or rejuvenate on powder-soft beaches? Whatever your preference, what if there were alternatives you haven’t thought about that might suit you better?

If you love spicy food, swap the quintessential honeymoon hub of the Maldives for Sri Lanka for a change, and if you crave the sun, unfurl your beach towel in Macaronesia rather than on a Caribbean cliché. Alternatively, say arrivederci to Italian history and sail back in time in Greece; skip Australia’s cities for Asia’s or discover two Baltic cities for the price of one while St Petersburg is off the menu. An open mind opens you up to new possibilities – so you might have a change of heart.

TOP SWAP FOR BEACH LOVERS
Soaring volcanoes giving way to tree- shrouded slopes, palm-fringed sands and aquarium-clear waters: this might sound like the Caribbean, but we’re off to the Canary Islands.

If the Spanish archipelago doesn’t sound glamorous enough for you, you can tell your neighbours you’re pioneering in Macaronesia. You are – and you won’t be disappointed, as the isles are barely 100km from Africa and more than 2,000km from Madrid. While the Caribbean’s high season runs from December to February, the eternal spring of the Canary Islands draws frozen continental Europeans to its eight isles all year round.

Tenerife is renowned for its circuit of black sand beaches such as El Bolullo, which is bordered by banana plantations – just like the Caribbean – while white sands grace the southern resort of Playa de las Americas and Las Teresitas beach in the capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Like Tenerife, Lanzarote sports black sand to rival Black Point Beach in St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. But if you crave white sand coves, then seek out Papagayo,
a cockleshell-shaped beach sheltered in a hidden bay in the south of the isle.

In Gran Canaria, the protected dunes of Maspalomas stretch for miles, while the capital, Las Palmas, offers Las Canteras, where a sheltering reef creates an ideal family spot.

Fuerteventura is the purist’s beach destination. The second largest Canary Isle is swathed in dazzling white sands such as Morro Jable’s four kilometre-wide beach in the south, which is overlooked by a lighthouse.

Meanwhile, the arid Corralejo Natural Park in the northeast – which echoes the desert island of Curaçao in the Caribbean – is home to empty dunes, walking trails and the 300m Montana Roja (Red Mountain), a volcano that is just waiting to be climbed.

Get on board
P&O Cruises’ 14-night Canary Islands Fly-Cruise aboard Azura, return from Tenerife via Madeira, La Palma, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, departs on January 3, 2025, from £1,099 per person including flights from various UK airports.

TOP SWAP FOR FOODIES
Nestled in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives and Sri Lanka are culinary cousins, as both are blessed with boat-fresh seafood, aromatic spices and intensely flavoured fruit.

Sri Lanka is a mirror image of the Maldives, lending its favourite spices – cardamom, chilli, cumin and turmeric – to the low-lying coral archipelago.

Both countries offer a smorgasbord of tuna, barracuda and mahi-mahi, but in Sri Lanka the national dish is curry, raised to the level of an art form. You don’t get just one curry but an assortment, usually slow-cooked in coconut milk and a collage of spices, accompanied by an assortment of dhal and spicy sambal paste.

In the Maldives, a breakfast highlight is mas huni – tuna swirled with coconut, chilli and zesty lime. But you won’t miss it on a cruise to Sri Lanka; simply swap it for Sri Lanka’s legendary ‘hoppers’. These crisp, bowl-shaped pancakes are cooked with coconut milk and topped with eggs and sambal, and best enjoyed from a street stall.

Get on board
Panache Cruises’ 11-night Treasures of India cruise aboard Ponant’s Le Lapérouse, from Colombo to Mumbai via Trincomalee, Hambantota, Galle, Kochi and Goa, departs on March 2, 2025, from £6,680 per person.

TOP SWAP FOR HISTORY BUFFS
Think Mediterranean history and most people think of Italy, of rampaging Romans and baying Colosseum crowds, of Pompeii and the empires of Naples and Genoa. But for the real historic deal why not swap Italy for Greece, the original cradle of Western civilisation?

Greece is the birthplace of democracy and the core of Western philosophy, culture and literature. Sail to Greece and you’re sailing even further back in time.

Rome’s historic treasures are well known, but Athens packs a serious punch – the Acropolis is Europe’s historic fulcrum. Built on a lofty rock perch by Pericles in the fifth century BCE, the Parthenon is a camera- pleasing draw. Like Rome, Athens is no one-trick pony. Explore the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, Hadrian’s

Arch, ancient Agora and the temples of Hephaestus and Olympian Zeus. You’ll forget about Roman stadia after seeing Athens’ ‘new’ Olympic stadium, built in 1896 for the first modern Olympics.

On the Greek island of Kefalonia, discover the Cyclopean Walls of ancient Krani, which date from the seventh century BCE, or explore Corfu Town’s fortress, a Venetian-era defensive masterpiece that rivals anything on Italy’s coast.

Get on board
Celestyal’s seven-night Heavenly Adriatic cruise aboard Celestyal Journey, return from Athens via Kefalonia, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Bari, Corfu and Katakolo, departs on March 22, 2025, from £499 per person.

TOP SWAP FOR ARCHITECTURE AFICIONADOS
You needn’t miss out on a Baltic cruise despite St Petersburg being off limits – just switch to the Estonian capital of Tallinn and the Latvian capital of Riga instead, and you’ll get two cities for the price of one.

Tallinn sits on the Baltic Sea, just 370km along the Gulf of Finland from St Petersburg. It’s chocolate - box pretty, with a cobbled old town and a fine city square that’s reckoned to be the best in the Baltics. Head up Toompea Hill to survey terracotta-tiled roofs and a flurry of church spires, passing Alexander Nevsky Cathedral – a St Petersburg doppelganger – en route.

The novelist Graham Greene once acclaimed Riga the 'Paris of the Baltics' and this metropolis of a million souls has a real big-city vibe. Like Tallinn, it rivals St Petersburg for architecture – its tiered Latvian Academy of Science building is dubbed Stalin’s Wedding Cake, while old airship hangers have morphed into an enticing food market.

The Unesco world heritage-listed old town is a warren of churches and merchant houses that could pass for anywhere in its Russian rival, while the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia tells the story of the Soviet invasion of 1940 in captivating detail.

Across the green lung of Bastejkalns Park – with its waterway echoing St Petersburg’s – you’ll find a fine collection of German Art Nouveau properties, another Unesco draw.

Built when Riga was one of the Russian Empire’s principal cities, the most ornate buildings along Elizabetes Street stand comparison with anything you will find further east.

Get on board
Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ 13-night Fairytale Castles & Old Towns of the Baltic cruise aboard Balmoral, return from Edinburgh (Rosyth) via Copenhagen, Warnemunde, Riga, Tallinn and Klaipeda, departs on June 27, 2025, from £2,099 per person.

TOP SWAP FOR URBAN EXPLORERS
Skyscraper-strewn skylines, vibrant harbours and that unmistakable buzz are just some of the similarities that connect Australian cities with their effervescent counterparts in Southeast Asia and Japan.

Love gazing at Sydney on the ferry to Manly beach? Then you’ll also appreciate seeing Hong Kong’s forest of glass and steel from the Star Ferry in Victoria Harbour, or Singapore’s spectacular horizon by riverboat.

Australia is lauded for its fusion cuisine, yet many of its most exciting cooks – such as the TV chef Luke Nguyen – hail from Asia. Tokyo is one of the world’s great foodie cities, with a whopping 263 Michelin stars and gastronomic temples such as Azabu Kadowaki, Kanda and Joel Robuchon, not to mention lashings of cheap but delicious street food too.

Southeast Asia and Japan’s cities are more than a match for Australia’s, which were built relatively recently. There are shadows of colonial history, of course, but Asia’s cities were inhabited long before the arrival of Britain’s ‘first fleet,’ which transported government officials and convicts Down Under in 1788. Compared to Asia, Australia’s urban history can seem like IKEA – so you won’t miss Oz when exploring Kyoto’s ancient lanes.

Get on board
Princess Cruises’ 11-night Southeast Asia & Japan cruise aboard Diamond Princess, from Tokyo to Singapore via Toba, Osaka, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Ho Chi Minh City, departs on November 25, 2025, from £2,029 per person.

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