Luxury cruises
Venice, Dubrovnik and Kotor in a week, on ships small enough for the old harbours.
The Adriatic is short distances and long days ashore: Venice or Trieste at one end, Dubrovnik and Kotor at the other, and a string of walled towns and islands between them. The sea is calm, the swimming is excellent, and the pace suits grandparents who want to walk a town in the morning and be on deck by four.
Small ships matter here. Dubrovnik limits large-ship arrivals, Kotor is a fjord-like bay best entered at dawn on something quiet, and Hvar, Korčula and Rovinj are made for yachts.
Highlights
Planning figure for a typical week in a veranda suite. Final price depends on sailing date, ship, suite and availability.
Start PlanningRitz-Carlton for a yacht with a children's programme; Explora when its itineraries call here.
Seabourn and Silversea for calm seas, walkable ports and small ships.
Best cruise lines here
Butler-served suites, serious destinations, and one of the strongest expedition fleets afloat.
Small, sociable, quietly luxurious ships, with a sister expedition fleet.
French small ships and a true polar icebreaker, with a children's programme in the summer holidays.
Hotel-style luxury on yachts of roughly 300 to 450 guests, with a surprisingly warm welcome for children.
Food-led, country-club casual ships of around 670 to 1,200 guests at an accessible luxury price.
How to choose
Derived from our own ratings of the lines above, not from brochures.
Silversea, Seabourn and Ponant are small-ship; The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is yacht-style; Oceania Cruises is mid-size. Smaller ships reach the smaller harbours in Adriatic & Croatia; larger ones carry more for children and more dining choice.
Ponant, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Oceania Cruises keep it relaxed. Ask us which suits the party before anything else.
Ponant and The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection rate highest with us for families here; Seabourn and Oceania Cruises are effectively adults-only. Children's facilities vary more than brochures suggest; we will say which ships really have them.
Silversea, Oceania Cruises, Seabourn, Ponant and The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection lead on food in our experience of Adriatic & Croatia sailings.
Cruise ideas
Planning figures per person.
Silversea's brightest ship through Croatia, Montenegro and the Ionian, with a butler in every suite.
In pictures
Licensed photographs of the ports and the ships we would put you on, not brochure renders.
Land & sea
A long flight deserves a soft landing. We build the nights before embarkation and after disembarkation into the same plan: the hotel, the transfers, a day or two on land, all booked by the same specialist.
Island houses, a boat for the day, and dinners by the water.
A house on the coast or in the hills, and a long table.
A terrace over the sea and a boat below.
A terrace over the sea, a boat for the day, and a chef when you want one.
Connecting suites, different activity levels, dining that works for everyone, and transfers that suit grandparents and toddlers alike. The best family suites go first, so start early.
Further reading
Our own planning notes: who a ship suits, how many cabins to book, when to go.
Crowds, buffets, seasickness, feeling trapped, dressing for dinner, children underfoot and the price. What is true of a 3,000-guest ship is mostly untrue of a 300-guest one. Here is what we tell first-time guests.
Teenagers are the hardest age to please on a ship and the easiest to lose to a phone. The lines, cabins and itineraries that keep a fifteen-year-old on side.
Mobility, pace, medical reassurance and the small details of a ship that make a week comfortable for someone in their late seventies or eighties.
Good to know
Large ships no longer sail through the historic centre; most luxury itineraries embark at Fusina, Trieste or Ravenna with transfers into Venice for pre-cruise nights. We build those nights into the plan.
Don't spend thirty hours comparing forty ships, cabins, dates, flights and hotels. Give us five minutes and we'll narrow it down to what is worth considering.