I think I might prefer land trips over cruising

I love this discussion as we have a Greece/Italy cruise planned next year with NCL. We opted for this as it is truly allowing us to see more for the dollar! I’m now looking into a British Isle cruise for 2021 but wondering if we shouldn’t just do Scotland (land trip) for a week. The issue is the time it would take to plan it!! But, I do have time as it’s a ways off yet!!
 
I view cruises (both river and ocean and especially in Europe) as a buffet of sorts-I get a taste and then decide where I want to return as well as a floating all inclusive resort.

It's helpful for me to know that there are certain countries I don't ever care about returning to and I'm happy they're off the return on land list (I won't list them because everyone is different, lol)-I'd hate to think I'd spend a week in a place I consider meh.

Next year I'll be doing the Baltics so that will give me an indication of that region as well as (not DCL) Australia/NZ. I'm hoping that I won't fall in love with many of the places we visit since my Return To List is not getting any shorter.

This summer I'm returning to Prague and Budapest, while in the fall I'm returning to Paris, London and Dublin and doing a NYE DCL cruise.

In 2021 I'll likely return to my beloved Scotland and possible add in a Norway/Iceland/Scotland cruise (that's the goal, anyway!).

Variety is good for my travel habits and I definitely agree with cruising as an easier form (for me) when doing multigenerational trips :)
 
I love this discussion as we have a Greece/Italy cruise planned next year with NCL. We opted for this as it is truly allowing us to see more for the dollar! I’m now looking into a British Isle cruise for 2021 but wondering if we shouldn’t just do Scotland (land trip) for a week. The issue is the time it would take to plan it!! But, I do have time as it’s a ways off yet!!
If you decide to do the land trip in Scotland you can read my blog to get some ideas. I did a lot of planning for that and had an action packed week there that was fantastic.

This summer I'm returning to Prague
That'll be so fun! I lived there for a summer in college it was an amazing city.

and doing a NYE DCL cruise.
I still like cruises, just think I'm focusing more on land trips. I think I'm going to book the NYE cruise for next year just because it would work great with time off. But not sure if we'll keep it or not. I have the Iceland cruise booked for next year that I'm probably going to keep unless I get pregnant, but I'm on the fence because going to Iceland in the winter and seeing the northern lights sounds fantastic right now.
 
I still like cruises, just think I'm focusing more on land trips. I think I'm going to book the NYE cruise for next year just because it would work great with time off. But not sure if we'll keep it or not. I have the Iceland cruise booked for next year that I'm probably going to keep unless I get pregnant, but I'm on the fence because going to Iceland in the winter and seeing the northern lights sounds fantastic right now.

The Iceland cruise is amazing, and while I would like to see the Northern Lights I also thought about how hard it is to see the rest of Iceland when it's freezing. Just look at their weather today - it's like winter where I live. And this is summer. We loved touring Iceland and I figured I could see the Northern Lights another time. Just one person's opinion, but that cruise is really one of the best trips I've ever taken. :goodvibes
 


The Iceland cruise is amazing, and while I would like to see the Northern Lights I also thought about how hard it is to see the rest of Iceland when it's freezing. Just look at their weather today - it's like winter where I live. And this is summer. We loved touring Iceland and I figured I could see the Northern Lights another time. Just one person's opinion, but that cruise is really one of the best trips I've ever taken. :goodvibes
I do really like the itinerary of the cruise with all the stops. I really think the only reason we'll end up cancelling is if I end up pregnant and can't sail. (we're trying for a baby right now) Iceland is a place I've wanted to go to for years
 
When I went as a teenager with my parents and brother we stayed in hotels in Italy and everyone had a sleeping space. The rooms are smaller compared to American hotels, but it's definitely not impossible. All the hotels I stayed at in England and Scotland had options for two queen beds, we just chose the king rooms. I think it depends on the kid if they'd be bored. I loved history from a very young age and always could find ways to entertain myself. I think if I brought my step kids to Europe they'd be bored to tears it doesn't interest them at all they wouldn't even want to do a Disney cruise there.
I never said it was impossible. It’s just not as enjoyable. Nothing is ever impossible.
 
When I went as a teenager with my parents and brother we stayed in hotels in Italy and everyone had a sleeping space. The rooms are smaller compared to American hotels, but it's definitely not impossible. All the hotels I stayed at in England and Scotland had options for two queen beds, we just chose the king rooms. I think it depends on the kid if they'd be bored. I loved history from a very young age and always could find ways to entertain myself. I think if I brought my step kids to Europe they'd be bored to tears it doesn't interest them at all they wouldn't even want to do a Disney cruise there.

I admire what your parents did! But I will agree with others - cruising is easier with kids and for my family it is also more enjoyable. I have 3 kids, finding hotels in Europe that fit 5 is a challenge, not to mention expensive. Cruising is also a great way to get a taste of history, a taste of various cities, without committing to any particular place. And frankly to not move my luggage around and to know I'll always have a yummy dinner without having to stay in an Airbnb where I have to cook and clean ... that's an actual vacation!
 


I admire what your parents did! But I will agree with others - cruising is easier with kids and for my family it is also more enjoyable. I have 3 kids, finding hotels in Europe that fit 5 is a challenge, not to mention expensive. Cruising is also a great way to get a taste of history, a taste of various cities, without committing to any particular place. And frankly to not move my luggage around and to know I'll always have a yummy dinner without having to stay in an Airbnb where I have to cook and clean ... that's an actual vacation!
It’s definitely hard to find hotel rooms for 5, even in the US. My parents loved traveling and took us everywhere but most our travels were in North America. And they love cruises we went on a lot, until my honeymoon I had never really considered travel outside of cruising because of that. I just really loved this land trip it. I do have two Disney cruises booked for next year so I definitely haven’t given up cruising lol.

I don’t know if I agree with cruising being cheaper though. Our trip cost half it would have cost if we had ended up taking the Princess cruise and that was with nice hotels, dinners out and tours. If it had been a Disney cruise it would have been even more since it cost the same as the two week cruise.
 
I didn’t mean cruising is cheaper necessarily just that hotels can be quite expensive in Europe especially for 5 of us.

I look forward to land travel when my kids are older. We still go RVing in the summer. But for big trips, I’m super happy to cruise. It’s just such a safe and comforting thing :)
 
I would love to read your trip report! I want to plan a trip to Scotland and Ireland for my 20th Anniversary. I just don’t know where to start!
 
I would love to read your trip report! I want to plan a trip to Scotland and Ireland for my 20th Anniversary. I just don’t know where to start!
I started it under the cruise trip reports. If you want to read a more detailed report I went into more details on my blog Travelswithalysia.com

I did a lot of research for this trip so if you have any questions I’d be happy to help. I didn’t go to Ireland so can’t really help there, but can suggest a lot for Scotland. Which I totally fell in love with.
 
We prefer land vacations over cruises and only cruise for unique destinations (Panama Canal, coastal AK, etc.). In fact
we had sworn off Caribbean cruises. After our DCL cruise in October (going for the ship & Castaway as an add on to WDW) we won't be cruising again for several years until we do one around the tip of South America.

When we were in Stockholm for several nights we would enjoy the city after the hoards of cruisers left and we realized how much we would have missed of such a beautiful city. We've also said after this year we won't be going Disney World for a long time. After visiting the other parks throughout Asia we prefer (especially Tokyo) those parks where I don't have to book fast passes 30-60 days out and get to experience cities/countries with unique cultures. The world has so many great cultures and places to explore that 6-8 hours just doesn't make sense for us.
 
We just got back from our big land trip to Europe: 2 and 1/2 weeks in and around Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam. Wow. We'll remember this trip forever and we could not have seen half as many sights if we'd been on a cruise.

However, for our next European vacation, we plan to cruise. Here's why:

*No worries about having to plan which hotel to stay at or where to eat the main meals of the day.

*No changing hotels required during the trip. Less packing & unpacking, & less hauling suitcases around.

*No having to manage transportation between cities in foreign countries on our own.

*Having a home away from home onboard where we'll always have a ready room, good service, and lots of other people around us who speak English fluently. (We tend to get homesick abroad, and I think this would help.)

*The ability to see more cities in a shorter amount of time. On our land trip, we visited a few major cities that intrigued us enough to want to spend several days exploring each one, but we also like the idea of day visits to places that we've heard of and would like to see, but that we don't feel a need to visit at length.

*The European city I'd most like to visit is St. Petersburg, and that seems to be most easily visited via a cruise, due to Visa requirements & issues with their water.
 
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We definitely prefer land trips for Europe, although 2 of our first 4 trips with kids were combo trips, which worked out beautifully. We spent 2 weeks in Italy with preschoolers, divided between a villa in Tuscany and an apartment in Venice, then did a one week Greek cruise. It was great to relax and enjoy the ship after a fun, but busy time in Italy.
Three years later we spent 2 weeks exploring Scandinavia on our own (Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark) followed by a Baltic cruise to St Petersburg, Helsinki and Estonia. We found Scandinavia to be super family friendly and easy to explore, but food was very expensive so a week of buffets on the cruise was very welcome!

I agree that cruises and land trips are two totally different vacations. Right now we seem to average 3 or 4 land trips for each cruise but we're starting to get pickier about our destinations. I don't really have much interest in the boring Eastern and Western loops after doing each once. And no more Nassau! We have a 10 day southern Caribbean booked with NCL in March and then we may be done for the Caribbean.
 

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