The Case Against the Cruise

We are not against ships. We are against spending a week being delivered to places for four hours at a time and calling it knowing them.

We have been on the shore side of that equation many times. In St Thomas we plan around the port schedule, because the island is genuinely lovely at eight in the morning and genuinely difficult at eleven. That is a knowable thing, and it only comes from being there on both kinds of day.

The trade you make on a cruise is control. Someone else picks the hours, the meals, the route and the pace. If a town turns out to be the best place you have ever eaten, you still leave at five.

The alternative is not harder, it is just planned differently. A rental car, one or two bases rather than seven, and days built around when a place is at its best. That is the whole method.

So no cruises, no coach tours, no ticking boxes. Give us the same week and we will give you a trip you are still talking about in ten years.