Fly to Europe for the amazing cruise deals this summer
Long-time readers of this blog know that the usual topic is strategies for finding cheap flights, but today’s topic is actually about paying a fairly high price for flights in order to take advantage of an unbelievable deal in travel this summer. Namely, Mediterranean cruises are being sold for prices as low as those cheapo Caribbean cruises were 18 months ago, so paying a bit more for the flight is worth it.
Mediterranean cruises versus Caribbean cruises
This summer you can get a Mediterranean cruise for $399 for a week for an inside cabin, which is about half the normal price. You can still get Caribbean cruises in this price range during the non-peak times of that winter season, but I want to point out the major differences here.
When you take a Caribbean cruise you’ll be spending about 10 hours in each port, but these ports (at least on the cheaper cruises) are all small cities that you’ve never heard of, and that are completely taken over by the cruise ship audience. There’s nothing but overpriced tours and souvenirs and restaurants.
However, these Mediterranean cruises also spend about 10 hours in each port, but the ports are some of the nicest and most desirable cities on earth. Barcelona, Venice, and Rome are the most popular ports of call, but there will also be Nice, France, plus Malta, Palermo in Sicily, and Naples as well. These are all cities where a hotel will usually cost a fortune and it’s easy to find interesting things to see and do that aren’t all aimed at cruise visitors. It’s a much more authentic experience in every way.
So with cabins going for $399 to $499 per person based on double occupancy, each person is paying around US$70 to US$80 per day, including transportation, meals, entertainment, and lodging, and then you get to tour many of the world’s great cities included in the price. If you can possibly find the time and money, these are amazing value right now.
Getting to Europe for these deals
The most common starting and ending points for these cheap Mediterranean cruises are Rome and Barcelona, and fortunately there are fairly cheap flights to both of those cities this summer. Between New York and Rome you’ll pay about US$1,020 round-trip during July, but only about US$920 between New York and Barcelona. The flights to Spain are obviously a bit shorter and cheaper so they are probably the better choice if you could do either, but if you’ve not been to Rome before then it’s probably a wonderful opportunity to spend a couple extra days there before or after your cruise just to see the sights. Barcelona is also a wonderful city, but it doesn’t really compare to Rome if you haven’t been to either yet.
I’m sure I’ll be getting some opinionated comments about the Rome and Barcelona controversy, but I stand by the fact that Rome is on par with Paris and London, while Barcelona is a step below. Let ’em fly.