In-depth guides to the world's best cruise ports: things to do, shore excursions, beaches, restaurants and getting around.
57 ports
Your complete guide to Visby cruise port on Gotland: a short walk into the UNESCO-listed medieval Old Town, the Ringmuren city wall, Gotlands Museum and the ruined Visby Cathedral district.
Your complete guide to Gdańsk (Gdansk) cruise port: the Westerplatte berths 7 to 8 km from the Main Town, the…
Your complete guide to Stockholm cruise port: the central Stadsgården quay beside the Old Town, the Vasa Museum on Djurgården,…
Your complete guide to Kiel cruise port: the Ostseekai terminal a short walk from the city centre, the Laboe Naval…
Your complete guide to Tallinn cruise port: the Old City Harbour beside the UNESCO Old Town, the new Tram 2…
Your complete guide to Riga cruise port: the Riga Passenger Terminal beside the Old Town, the Art Nouveau quarter, the…
Your complete guide to Klaipėda cruise port: the central Pempininkai quay, the foot ferry across to the UNESCO Curonian Spit,…
Your complete guide to Warnemünde cruise port: the Cruise Center berths, the S-Bahn to Rostock in 21 minutes, the long…
Your complete guide to Helsinki cruise port: getting from Hernesaari and Katajanokka to the centre, Suomenlinna fortress, Helsinki Cathedral, the…
Your complete guide to Copenhagen cruise port: getting from Oceankaj to the city centre, Tivoli Gardens, Nyhavn and the Little…
Ajaccio is Napoleon Bonaparte's birthplace, and his childhood home, the street names, and the outstanding Musée Fesch — which holds…
Villefranche-sur-Mer is a tender port with a 13th-century covered street, a Baroque church, and harbour cafes — and it sits…
Cartagena's Roman Theatre, discovered by accident in 1987 beneath a decayed medieval quarter, is a 1st-century BC venue for 6,000…
Alicante's Castillo de Santa Bárbara sits 166 metres above the port and is visible from the ship on approach —…
Vigo's greatest asset lies just offshore: the Cíes Islands, a UNESCO-protected natural park of pale granite and intensely turquoise water,…
Porto's Ribeira district, a UNESCO-listed terrace of painted houses above the Douro, faces the port wine lodges of Vila Nova…
Cagliari's Castello quarter — a medieval hilltop neighbourhood of narrow lanes, Pisan towers, and ochre palaces — looks out over…
Palermo is one of the most layered cities in the Mediterranean: Arab, Norman, Byzantine, and Baroque in the same city…
Messina is the nearest cruise port to two of Sicily's greatest attractions. Taormina, built on a cliff with a 3rd-century…
Genoa is the most underrated city on the western Mediterranean cruise circuit: a medieval labyrinth of lanes running directly to…
Ephesus, 18 kilometres from the port, is one of the best-preserved ancient cities in the world. Its marble-paved streets, the…
Valletta was built by the Knights of St John in the 16th century and is one of the smallest, most…
Katakolon is a small harbour village with a pleasant beach — and 18 kilometres inland, Ancient Olympia, where the Olympic…
The Palace of Knossos, 5 kilometres south of Heraklion, is the most important Bronze Age site in Europe — the…
Toulon is the most honest port on the French Riviera circuit — less glossy than its neighbours, but with a…
Marseille is France's oldest city, founded by Greek traders around 600 BC, and its Vieux-Port has been the heart of…
Gibraltar is a 6.8 square kilometre piece of Britain at the entrance to the Mediterranean, home to the only wild…
Funchal rises steeply from its curved harbour in layers of white buildings and dense green hillside — one of the…
Fuerteventura's greatest draw is simple: the dune landscape at Corralejo in the north, protected as a natural park, has the…
Lanzarote's centre is covered by 51 square kilometres of black and red lava fields formed in eruptions between 1730 and…
Your complete guide to Saranda (Sarandë) cruise port, Albania: walking the Lungomare promenade, reaching the UNESCO site at Butrint independently,…
Tenerife is the most varied of the Canary Islands as a port day, and the first choice shapes everything. Teide,…
Your complete guide to Koper cruise port, Slovenia: walking the Venetian old town, the practical realities of a Piran or…
Las Palmas gives you a proper city: Playa de las Canteras, a three-kilometre reef-protected beach in the north, and Vegueta,…
Everything you need for a Cadiz port day: walking the old town from the dock, the cathedral and Torre Tavira,…
Venice no longer allows large cruise ships into the historic lagoon. Ships now dock at Porto Marghera on the mainland,…
Lisbon spreads across seven hills above the Tagus, and moving between the Alfama, Belém, and the historic centre takes longer…
Kotor's medieval old town sits two minutes from the gangway, enclosed in walls that climb the cliff face behind the…
Split's Diocletian's Palace is not a museum — it is a living neighbourhood where restaurants, apartments, and a cathedral converted…
Dubrovnik's Old Town sits behind limestone walls built in the 14th century, and walking the 1.9 km circuit along the…
Stavanger's port day depends almost entirely on where your ship berths. Ships at Strandkaien dock steps from the wooden houses…
Geiranger is one of the most dramatic fjord anchorages in Norway: the ship moors directly below waterfalls that drop hundreds…
Flåm sits at the end of the Aurlandsfjord, surrounded by waterfalls and near-vertical mountain walls. The Flåmsbana railway — climbing…
Bergen's waterfront puts the city's defining image within minutes of the gangway: the coloured wooden Hanseatic warehouses of Bryggen, a…
Ålesund is Norway's Art Nouveau capital, rebuilt entirely in that style after a catastrophic fire in 1904. The 418 steps…
Most cruise passengers come to Livorno for Florence and Pisa, both reachable by train from Livorno Centrale. Pisa is 15…
Naples is the most chaotic and arguably the most rewarding city on the western Mediterranean cruise circuit, and the gateway…
Rome lies 80 kilometres from Civitavecchia, and the train from the port's own station makes it straightforward: hourly services to…
Malaga is one of the most walkable cruise ports in the Mediterranean. From the terminal at Muelle Uno, the Alcazaba…
Rhodes Old Town is one of the finest intact medieval cities in Europe, enclosed in walls built by the Knights…
Palma's Gothic cathedral sits directly on the waterfront and is visible from the ship on approach — one of the…
The Acropolis sits above a city continuously inhabited for 3,000 years, and the Parthenon — even in its partially ruined…
Mykonos tenders passengers directly into Chora, the island's whitewashed capital, and the windmills, the Little Venice waterfront, and the labyrinthine…
Barcelona's Gothic Quarter, Sagrada Família, and the Barceloneta seafront are all within reach of the cruise terminal, but the city…
Santorini is a tender port, and on a busy summer day the queue for the cable car from the tender…
Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences — a futuristic complex of museums and an opera house in a park built…
Corfu's old town is a UNESCO-listed Venetian quarter with a French arcade, two Venetian fortresses, and narrow lanes little changed…
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