Transatlantic Cruises

Transatlantic Cruising Saves Money
In this day of rising oil prices and humiliating security measures at airports, why not take a transatlantic cruise to save your sanity and your money?

Saving money by taking a cruise? When you can get a 15-day cruise for $799 that replaces the cost of a return air ticket that seems like quite a bargain to me. Especially when half of that cruise is in Europe.

Look at it this way, you can spend $3600 for two people to fly roundtrip to Europe and take a 10-day cruise which will cost you well over $1000 apiece, or you can spend $1800 for two people to fly to Europe, get on a 15-day trans-Atlantic cruise that spends a week in Europe and then sails back to the U.S. The cost of the cruise is $799 per person, about the same as the roundtrip airfare without the cruise.

So, all of the 15 days you spend on board, with meals, entertainment and passage back to America included, is basically "free" as it is the same amount as what it would have cost you to fly roundtrip.

I see a Norwegian Cruise Lines cruise on the brand new "Gem" that starts in Barcelona and sails to Florence, Villefranche (France), Civitavecchia (the port for Rome), the isle of Corsica and Malaga, Spain. From there is makes a bee-line for New York City. You get a seven-night cruise with seven ports, and then a six-night trans-Atlantic cruise. The cost? From $749 per person.

In fact, there are many trans-Atlantic cruises out there. Not only do you save on your airfare home, but you fly to Europe late in the season (October through December) which cuts your air costs. You pay less to get there. While a balcony is nice, you don't need it on a trans-Atlantic cruise, so take the less expensive inside cabin.

There aren't many better ways to relax than being literally "out to sea" for a week at a time. Take a good book, watch plenty of DVDs or movies onboard, get reacquinted with your spouse, talk about good times, play trivia games or dance after dinner. Whatever, it's your time to do as you please. It's one of the best travel bargains going.