Up next in 10
6 Best ALTERNATIVES TO A CRUISE Vacation
4K views
Jan 28, 2025
What are the best vacation options for cruisers while we can't cruise, or even don't want to cruise for a while. I look at the 6 very best alternatives to cruising that draw on the best parts of cruising, what makes a cruise vacation and avoids some of the things that cruise passengers prefer to avoid on their cruising vacation. These are all things that I have done and feel are a great alternative to a cruise vacation right now. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video. Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #CruiseVacation #VacationOptionsDuringCovid #VacationTips 00:00 Start 00:40 Water Options 02:20 RV Caravan Options 03:36 Curated Trip Options
View Video Transcript
0:00
you're about to discover the six best
0:02
vacation alternatives
0:03
when you can't or don't want to go
0:05
cruising including what lets you pack
0:08
and unpack just once the things that
0:10
incorporate the best parts of cruising
0:12
without the worst and
0:13
one or two rather unusual ones that i
0:15
think cruisers will like i'm gary
0:17
bembridge
0:18
and i've been taking a look at what we
0:19
can do when we can't or don't want to go
0:21
cruising i ask people in my channel
0:23
about their plans for cruising and
0:25
surprisingly two-thirds of people
0:27
are not sure if they are going to go
0:28
cruising for some period of time so
0:30
we're all looking
0:31
for alternatives to cruising vacations
0:34
so i've taken a look
0:35
at what i think the six very best
0:37
alternatives for us who love cruising
0:39
are of course cruising is all about
0:42
being
0:43
on the water so are there any
0:44
alternatives that are open to us
0:46
that involve going on the water there
0:47
are actually three quite exciting
0:49
alternatives
0:50
first of all river cruising so when we
0:52
talk about cruising most of us think
0:53
about ocean cruising but river cruising
0:55
is operating
0:56
certainly across europe there are a
0:57
multitude of rivers you can cruise on
1:00
whether that's the dwara in portugal the
1:02
ryan the danube
1:04
and all the rivers are opening up so you
1:05
can go river cruising quite extensively
1:07
in europe of course
1:08
if you're traveling from the us or
1:10
australia we do need travel restrictions
1:12
to be lifted before you can do that
1:13
however if you are in the united states
1:15
you can also go river cruising as that
1:17
starts to open up
1:18
it's opening up particularly in the
1:20
mississippi but there are cruises right
1:21
down
1:22
in florida you can go and also in the
1:24
east coast inland where you can cruise
1:26
all the way from
1:26
jacksonville right up to baltimore so
1:29
river cruising is definitely an option
1:30
to take a look at
1:32
secondly if you are in europe
1:33
particularly in the uk
1:35
in france or in holland or you have
1:37
access to those countries
1:38
barge cruising is opening up so in the
1:40
uk you have the
1:42
narrow barges but certainly places like
1:44
france you have those great barges one
1:46
of which i went on last year with crossy
1:47
europe
1:48
where we cruised in this magnificent
1:50
barge which holds up to 16 people so
1:52
barging is a big opportunity european
1:54
waterways has opened up
1:56
where they offer the chance to actually
1:58
charter entire barges yourself so
2:00
six or eight of you can go as a family
2:02
unit off barging if you're worried about
2:04
mixing with other people
2:05
cruising on lakes is also a great
2:07
opportunity this is particularly
2:08
relevant if you're in the united states
2:10
where there are some amazing cruises
2:12
around the great lakes which are opening
2:14
up take a look at
2:15
victory cruise lines because they offer
2:17
a myriad of lake cruising options
2:20
one of the great things about cruising
2:22
of course is you can unpack
2:23
and pack just once so what are our
2:25
alternatives here there's one really big
2:27
one that is taking off enormously and
2:29
that's
2:30
traveling by rv or by caravan i read
2:33
some data other day that the sale and
2:35
higher of
2:36
rvs those mobile motorhomes has grown by
2:39
over 180
2:40
in the us and we've seen the whole
2:42
explosion around europe of both rvs and
2:44
caravans the great thing about that is
2:47
of course you you have effectively a
2:48
cabin like you'd have on a cruise ship
2:50
you can move around different ports
2:52
without packing and
2:53
unpacking uh obviously there's a bit of
2:55
setup the great news about those is also
2:58
you can travel as a family unit
2:59
the actual caravan parks or rv parks
3:01
already are socially distancing because
3:02
you have a little
3:03
patch of ground but also it's a very
3:05
social activity so you'll find there's
3:07
lots of people being very friendly so a
3:09
lot of those things that you get on
3:10
cruising with a sense of community
3:12
and being together so it captures all
3:14
the good things about cruising
3:15
ability to move around see different
3:17
places with unpacking and packing just
3:20
the one time a group of friends of mine
3:23
just last year
3:24
actually hired an rv and traveled the
3:25
whole way across
3:27
canada over a couple of weeks so this
3:29
shows you that you can really have a
3:31
fantastic
3:32
time doing an rv vacation and recreate a
3:35
lot of the things that you have with
3:36
cruising
3:37
the third thing that cruising does of
3:38
course is cruising is a kind of a
3:40
curated
3:41
travel experience the itineraries are
3:43
chosen you're given a range of
3:45
activities to do
3:46
your accommodation is all organized you
3:48
have to worry about dining because
3:49
that's all laid on
3:50
so what is the best alternative for that
3:52
a really great alternative and something
3:54
that i've done
3:55
a number of times is to actually go on
3:57
an escorted
3:58
tour now there's two different ways you
4:00
can do that one of the ones which is the
4:02
most classic one is a bus
4:03
escorted tour so i've been on a score of
4:05
tours with companies like
4:07
titan travel for example out of the uk
4:10
i've also done some with latin roots but
4:12
you can also do those domestically
4:14
if you don't want to travel
4:15
internationally and across borders the
4:16
great advantage of
4:18
a escorted tour is you have a tour guide
4:20
and a driver
4:21
the whole activity is laid out the
4:23
excursions are included
4:24
they've normally sorted out all your
4:26
dining options you'll find that
4:28
accommodation is all sorted so you
4:29
basically can sit back
4:30
go with the flow and pretty much like
4:32
i'm cruising you don't have to make many
4:33
decisions another alternative which is
4:35
one that
4:36
really appeals to me enormously is you
4:37
can also do that by train
4:40
so there are companies for example great
4:42
rail journeys
4:43
where they organize a huge wide range of
4:46
escorted tours but
4:47
using trains instead of buses so for
4:49
example you can travel a whole way
4:50
across the united states
4:52
using a combination of different trains
4:54
you can travel around
4:56
the uk europe wherever so again it's the
4:59
same
4:59
approach you have a tour guide all your
5:01
accommodations organized or
5:02
excursions organized everything's
5:04
bundled in as a cost so definitely
5:06
take a look at escorted tour options
5:08
with it's internationally
5:10
or even domestically definitely a
5:12
fantastic alternative
5:13
i've had some brilliant times on
5:15
escorted
5:16
bus and train journeys for me another
5:19
one of the appealing things about
5:20
cruising is the sense that you're
5:21
traveling on these magnificent
5:23
and significant forms of transportation
5:25
so of course it could be as exotic
5:27
as something like the queen mary 2 which
5:29
is a big classic and the only liner in
5:30
the world
5:31
where you can whisk between the uk and
5:34
the us on the classic transatlantics but
5:36
it might also be that you want to go on
5:38
a really
5:38
modern and new ship like the whole
5:40
celebrity apex celebrity ed ships or the
5:42
certain ships that you just really like
5:43
or you enjoy the big massive resort
5:46
ships that you would have on royal
5:47
caribbean or norwegian
5:48
or whatever it is but it's around the
5:51
ship itself the transportation and of
5:52
course
5:53
there are also some amazing things you
5:55
can do when you can't go
5:56
cruising a lot of those i would also
5:58
recommend you focus looking at
6:00
trains there are some phenomenal train
6:01
journeys and certainly as a cruise lover
6:03
i've been on some incredible
6:04
train journeys so for example in
6:06
australia going on the gan
6:08
all the way from darwin right down to
6:09
adelaide through the center the red
6:11
heart
6:12
of australia going to places like alice
6:14
springs you can also do the indian
6:16
pacific where you go from perth
6:18
to sydney in europe you've got of course
6:21
the famous orient
6:22
express in south africa you've got
6:24
robots rail which are these beautiful
6:26
old carriages pullman carriages from the
6:29
30s 40s and 50s which have been
6:31
recreated and restored you have the blue
6:33
train
6:34
as well another iconic trip all around
6:36
the world you have classic and famous
6:38
trains you have the trans
6:39
siberian express through russia you have
6:41
the eastern orient which
6:43
travels through thailand of course with
6:45
international travel restrictions
6:46
at the spring time you may not want to
6:47
do some of those exotic ones but you may
6:49
find close to you there are some classic
6:51
and
6:52
famous train journeys so for example in
6:54
canada
6:55
you have the magnificent rocky
6:56
mountaineer which is one of the most
6:58
magnificent
6:58
journeys that i've been on depending on
7:00
the type of trip you choose you're
7:02
either going to have those where you
7:04
sleep on the train so
7:05
you actually sleep across the whole time
7:07
on things like the gan
7:08
the indian pacific rovers rail blue
7:11
train
7:12
you'll find on some other trains where
7:14
you actually don't sleep on the train
7:15
overnight you actually get off the train
7:17
and stay in hotels next to the station
7:21
itself
7:21
so for example on the rocker mountaineer
7:23
you travel on the train during the day
7:25
you get off in the evening to go and
7:26
stay in a local hotel get back on the
7:28
train
7:28
and the same is also true often with
7:30
many of the royal scotsman journeys
7:32
through scotland so take a look at big
7:34
iconic
7:35
forms of travel one of the options you
7:37
could have within this whole category
7:39
is bear in mind there's a number of
7:40
famous ships that have turned into
7:42
hotels
7:43
so in dubai you can stay at the qe2
7:46
the old famous classic qe2 which has
7:48
been turned into a hotel
7:50
in holland you have the absolute famous
7:53
rotterdam which is one of their famous
7:55
classic ships which has been turned into
7:57
a hotel and of course in the u.s you
8:00
have the original queen mary
8:01
which is down in long beach so there is
8:03
choice of actually staying on a ship
8:05
even though you're not heading out to
8:07
sea another key aspect
8:09
for me anyway when i go cruising is the
8:11
fact that whichever place you go to
8:14
there is a myriad of different things
8:15
you can do
8:16
a wide range of excursions you can do so
8:18
you'll go to a specific port a specific
8:20
place
8:21
and you can go on activity excursions
8:22
you go on cultural excursions
8:24
you can go and find out more about the
8:26
culture the food whatever
8:28
it is whatever your interests are and
8:30
one of the things that i've certainly
8:31
been doing a lot of and
8:32
doing in you know many many weekends
8:34
away is
8:36
finding places that are not that far to
8:37
travel to and going for a kind of a city
8:40
or a country or a destination break and
8:41
effectively recreating
8:43
that whole port kind of experience what
8:45
i've been doing and what i've found
8:47
is i've been avoiding the big hotspot so
8:49
avoiding going to the beaches and places
8:51
like that
8:51
where there's gonna be lots of people
8:52
and looking for hotels are
8:54
dotted around the country or locally
8:56
that are doing deals we'll find as
8:57
hotels are opening up you're gonna find
8:59
that fantastic
9:00
deals so they normally include you'll
9:02
find often a dinner
9:03
a bed and breakfast rate so similar to
9:04
being on a a cruise where you have your
9:07
meals and accommodation included but
9:08
then what i'm doing is picking a place
9:10
and then effectively building a range of
9:12
excursions so assuming it's almost like
9:14
an overnight
9:14
in a port so for example recently stayed
9:17
near oxford and did things like going to
9:18
blenheim palace
9:19
went and explored the old castle and the
9:22
prison on another excursion went on a
9:24
big cycling
9:25
excursion all around down through the
9:27
various canals
9:28
and the waterways there went out on a
9:31
sort of
9:32
explored the food and sort of went on a
9:34
foodie excursion so picking places
9:36
heading off there doing a kind of a
9:38
combined and a bed and breakfast
9:40
and then building a series of excursions
9:41
a great thing about that is also you can
9:43
help support
9:44
the local economy close to the country
9:46
you live or where you live
9:48
and also many of those tour operators
9:50
which have lost international travelers
9:51
are really excited
9:52
when you go back and try and build
9:53
excursions around the place that you're
9:55
visiting
9:56
one of the big attractions for many
9:58
people on cruising
9:59
is the fact that they're going to a
10:01
resort so particularly if you're
10:02
cruising on things like msc cruisers
10:04
some of their newer ships or
10:06
some of the big new norwegian cruise
10:07
line ships or royal caribbean ships
10:10
there is an enormous amount of resort
10:12
type activities
10:13
crammed onto those ships so of course
10:15
one of the
10:16
alternatives for vacations if you like
10:19
those is looking for all-inclusive
10:21
resort vacations now i guess before the
10:24
whole pandemic las vegas was one of the
10:26
big
10:26
options however a lot of people are
10:28
nervous about going to las vegas so seek
10:29
out and look for
10:30
some of those more all-inclusive resort
10:32
places and there are many companies
10:34
around the world
10:35
that cater for those whether it's
10:37
traveling cross-country
10:38
whether it's within your local country
10:40
but you'll find a resort
10:42
all-inclusive is going to recreate many
10:44
of those things and the reason i say
10:45
that is also
10:46
particularly if you've got kids those
10:48
resort venues
10:49
have kids clubs and so you can recreate
10:52
one of the
10:52
strongest things that i know many
10:54
families like is you have a wide range
10:56
of activities for everybody but very
10:58
importantly
10:58
you have kids clubs while we can't
11:01
cruise or don't want to cruise
11:03
of course we still want to vacation
11:05
until we head back to see
11:07
when we feel it's right for us these are
11:09
the alternatives to vacation that i've
11:11
certainly been looking at
11:13
whilst i can't cruise hopefully these
11:15
gave you some inspiration
11:17
and you find the found these really
11:18
really helpful i'd love to hear
11:20
what you think bear in mind i have loads
11:23
more videos packed full advice and tips
11:25
of all sorts of
11:26
travel and cruising so why don't you
11:28
watch another one of those
11:29
right now
#Adventure Travel
#Boating
#Cruises & Charters
#Guided Tours & Escorted Vacations
#Specialty Travel
#Tourist Destinations
#Transportation
#Travel Agencies & Services
#Travel Guides & Travelogues
#Water Activities