You're about to discover the ten cruises that I believe everybody should have on
their to-do list, their bucket list or must do list.
I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is another of my tips of travellers. I want to talk about
the 10 essential cruises, the 10 cruises that I really believe that
everybody should try and do at least once in their life. The first of these is
a Caribbean cruise. The Caribbean is the biggest and most popular cruising region
in the world, and that's for a very good reason. It is absolutely magnificent and
all the islands and the places that the cruise lines go to are phenomenally well
geared up to deal with cruises and the whole cruising vacation. There are a
whole bunch of different cruises that you can do out of the Caribbean. Many of
them sailing out of Miami or Port Canaveral or other ports within the USA.
You can also do some directly from Europe where they cross the Atlantic,
spend some time the Caribbean and head back if you don't want to fly. There
are three key cruises in the Caribbean to consider. You have the Eastern
Caribbean, which will do things like the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Dominican
Republic, you've got the Western Caribbean, that will do things like
Jamaica, large parts of Mexico like Cozumel and Costa Maya, then you have the
Southern Caribbean which is more your St Kitts, Antigua, Martinique, Dominica
and Barbados. It's hard to choose between them, but definitely pick one of
them and (of course) if you want to add more cruises do all three of them and then
you've done all three sectors of the Caribbean, but definitely Caribbean
should be on that list. The second biggest cruising region in the world is
the Mediterranean, and again for very good reasons. It gives you a great overview of
Europe because on a cruise you'll often call on multiple countries and you'll see
lots of different cultures. There are beautiful historical sites,
there's stunning beaches depending on where you go. It's a great way of
seeing Europe and it's really great because you can see multiple
countries and different places and you only have to unpack and then pack
once. Like in the Caribbean, there are lots of different itineraries. Many of
them will go out of places like Barcelona, Athens, Venice or Rome or you can also do it
out of Southampton in the UK which takes a little bit of longer, because you have
to head through the Straits of Gibraltar to get into the Mediterranean. Lots of
different itineraries like the East and the Western and, of course, one of the
most popular for people to do is the trip from Venice down to Athens which is
really magnificent. You get a chance to see the Greek islands and also
places like Dubrovnik. The Mediterranean absolutely
should be on your list and again there are multiple options but definitely the
Mediterranean. My third suggestion is Alaska. Alaska, I think I'm right in saying, is the
third biggest cruising region. It's growing really fast and it's really
magnificent. It took me a while to get to Alaska, but once I went there I realised
why it was so popular. There is magnificent scenery. It really is
absolutely spectacular. You can do it out of places like Vancouver and it's also very
popular out of Seattle. I would recommend for your
very first cruise to Alaska do an Inside Passage cruise, and when you're looking
at booking try and make sure that you're going on one that includes Glacier
Bay. Not all cruise lines get into Glacier Bay as it's very restricted around how
many ships can go there every day, but it is really incredible and as
the name suggests there's lots of glaciers. My strong recommendation for your
first-time cruise to Alaska is an Inside Passage. It is a magnificent place
to go to, and more and more cruise lines are going - from the bigger ships down to some
of the smaller ships. You have lots of choice of options. Alaska definitely
should be on that list. My next suggestion and a really strong tip is to
do one of the iconic and classic trips: a transatlantic on the Queen
Mary 2. In the 40s 50s and 60s crossing Atlantic by ship was the only way you'd
get between Europe and the United States. Cunard has the only cruise liner in
Queen Mary 2 which is a traditional liner ship. It's a really magnificent
experience and takes between seven and eight days, depending on the itinerary
you choose. That's all at sea but it's a whole beautiful trip
where they try and recreate some of the romance and specialness of those very
glamorous days of cruising. It's a magnificent ship with art
deco-inspired decor. Lots of dressing up. It's a great trip to do if you've got
a special event like a birthday or an anniversary. Itis one of the most
iconic, and you need to do it on Cunard Queen
Mary 2. You can do other transatlantic trips which are repositioning but really
for me, the ultimate classic one is the Queen Mary 2. Absolutely definitely do
that one. One of the most beautiful trips that you can do is a cruise to the
Norwegian fjords. There's lots of options you can do. Yu can either go out
of places in Sweden or you can sail from the UK out of Southampton,
where they'll have a day at sea, time around the Norwegian fjords and a day at
sea back. The Norwegian fjords are absolutely magnificent and you sail
really far inland on ships with huge big walls of rock and water falls
into these beautiful little picturesque towns. If you go in summer, which is when
the season is, you also have pretty much midnight Sun, so it's light all the
time so as you cruise through the fjords you can go out on deck or relax on your
balcony and just enjoy the scenery. I would strongly strongly recommend the
Norwegian fjords, that was another trip that it took me a while to do but once I
did that I now recommended it like crazy to everybody! Norwegian fjords absolutely
magnificent. Another popular European based cruise is to the Baltics,
and this is very magical. These normally go to places like Helsinki and
Tallinn, and then they will head into St Petersburg in Russia- and normally
will be either two or three overnights to make sure that you can really
explore the magnificent that is St. Petersburg, with its beautiful buildings,
museums, chateaus and castles. It really is a magnificent
trip. It's very interesting because you're going to see parts of the world that
you don't really know that well, and it definitely is a great great trip to do.
An advantage of going on a cruise, particularly go on cruise excursions, is you
don't have to worry with all the hassles of Russian visas because if you go on a
cruise on excursion you don't have to bother with a visa. That's the big plus.
The Baltics is definitely something I would have up there if you're
interested in understanding and experiencing different cultures and
you're interested in the cultural and the art side. Baltics is a
phenomenal cruise and again lots of different cruise lines go there as well.
Some of the smaller cruise ships they dock right in the heart of St
Petersburg, so if you're going on a Baltics
also look at some of those smaller ship cruise lines. Ever since I was a
little boy and heard about the Panama Canal, that was on my list of
things to do. Going through the Panama Canal is again a bit like a
transatlantic, it's one of the big iconic type of trips you can do. I always
recommend try and building at some point in your cruising life a trip that's
going to take you through the Panama Canal. It is an incredible experience. You
can do that if you're doing some big grand voyage like a world tour, as
they will often go through a Panama Canal, but you can often do from the
Caribbean up to Los Angeles or San Francisco or you can do if you're doing
parts of South America. Some of the cruises will go through it. Panama
Canal is a magical day and it is just a phenomenal understanding of man's
ingenuity and engineering. It really is one of those iconic trips so I
think if you're into cruising the Panama Canal ( like the transatlantic) is an
iconic thing that you want to have on your list of things to have experienced.
My next suggestion I really wrestled with whether I should make it 2 or 1 but,
because of the pure enormity of cost of going, there I've made it one - and that's
to go to one of the polar regions either the Arctic or Antarctica. Both of
those for me were on my wish list and I've been to both the Arctic and have
been to Antarctica. They're very different and if you go to the Arctic
you're going to see things like polar bears, and if you go to Antarctica you're going to see
penguins. Go to one or both of them. Antarctica for me was probably the most
different and the most incredible, and the one that for me really blew me away.
Antarctica is the place that I'm going to for a second time, so if I
did have to recommend I guess I'm saying Antarctica because that's the one
I'm heading back to for a second time. One of the most magical regions of the
world is the Galapagos, and that is definitely something that should be on
the list. It's like the polar regions and it's a very expensive place to go, but
the wildlife is so unique and different. There are very strict rules around
who can go there so that's what makes it expensive, but the Galapagos
definitely should be on the list. My next tip is around one of the most
beautiful and interesting parts of the world and that's the French Polynesian
islands. At the time of recording this, I have not long been back from there and
it was incredible. The islands are beautiful, the people amazing and the
culture is phenomenal. It's isolated and again it's quite difficult to get to,
it's eight and a half hours flight from Los Angeles it takes you 21 hours from
Paris to get there. Once you're there it is just absolutely beautiful. There
are just under 200 islands and only 60 odd of them are inhabited. Going on a
cruise you see very diverse islands, some are volcanic, some are very
lush and some of them are just incredibly beautiful beaches and reefs.
The French Polynesian islands is definitely one that i would
recommend you have on the list. There are so many cruises and options that you can
do. Those for me are the 10 absolute mist-see must do based on my experience. I
have loads of tips about cruising destinations and cruising
tips and ideas, so why don't you watch one of those videos right now?