Luxury cruises
The easiest great cruise there is: short flights, famous ports, and a ship for every kind of family.
The Mediterranean is where most luxury cruise lines put their best ships in summer, which means more choice than anywhere else: yachts of 200 guests, elegant small ships, and modern family-friendly vessels all sail the same coastline. Flights from the UK are short, the ports are the ones everyone has heard of, and a week gives you Italy, France and Spain, or Greece and Turkey, without a single hotel check-in.
The trade-off is popularity. Peak dates in July and August fill early, particularly for connecting suites and larger family cabins. Late May, June and September are our favourite months: warm seas, shorter queues, and prices that leave room for a better suite.
We plan the Mediterranean more than any other region. If you tell us who is coming and how you like to travel, we will tell you which two or three ships we would actually consider for your dates.
Highlights
Planning figure for a typical week in a veranda suite. Final price depends on sailing date, ship, suite and availability.
Start PlanningExplora and Ritz-Carlton for children's programmes and connecting suites; Ponant in summer for a small ship with a kids' club.
Regent for the fully inclusive, elegant week; Silversea or Seabourn for a smaller ship and ambitious ports.
Best cruise lines here
Modern, relaxed, generous with space, and genuinely happy to see children.
Hotel-style luxury on yachts of roughly 300 to 450 guests, with a surprisingly warm welcome for children.
Butler-served suites, serious destinations, and one of the strongest expedition fleets afloat.
The most inclusive fare at sea, on all-suite ships that take elegance seriously.
French small ships and a true polar icebreaker, with a children's programme in the summer holidays.
How to choose
Derived from our own ratings of the lines above, not from brochures.
Explora Journeys and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are mid-size; The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is yacht-style; Silversea and Ponant are small-ship. Smaller ships reach the smaller harbours in Mediterranean; larger ones carry more for children and more dining choice.
Explora Journeys, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Ponant keep it relaxed; Regent Seven Seas Cruises leans formal and traditional. Ask us which suits the party before anything else.
Explora Journeys, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Ponant rate highest with us for families here. Children's facilities vary more than brochures suggest; we will say which ships really have them.
Silversea, Explora Journeys, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Ponant lead on food in our experience of Mediterranean sailings.
Cruise ideas
Planning figures per person.
Barcelona to Rome with connecting suites, a real kids' programme and nobody dressing for dinner.
Nice to Rome by yacht, with a marina off the stern and a children's programme that makes it work for families.
Portugal, Andalusia and the Spanish coast with the best restaurants at sea, at an upper-premium price.
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.
A house on the coast or in the hills, and a long table.
Alpine chalets in winter, a Provençal house in summer.
The Three Valleys from the front door.
A terrace over the sea and a boat below.
Ski school, a nanny, and the Three Valleys from the door.
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.
Which ships work when the party spans seventy years, what to look for in a children's programme, and the itineraries we would start with.
The order to decide things in, the questions that save arguments later, and what a specialist does that a booking site cannot.
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.
Good to know
As a planning figure, from about £3,800 per person for a week on a luxury line in a veranda suite, rising to £7,000 and more on yachts and in larger suites. Flights, hotels and transfers are extra unless the fare includes them. Your proposal carries a firm price for your dates.
For July and August, nine to twelve months ahead, earlier if you need connecting suites or several cabins together. For June and September, six to nine months is usually comfortable.
Western for Italy, France and Spain with short flights and famous coastlines; Eastern for Greece, Croatia and Turkey with warmer late-season seas and island overnights. For a first cruise with children we usually suggest Western; for couples, the Greek islands.
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.