Top 10 Cruise Repositioning Routes
That means you tend to sail away from the port for roughly half of your holiday before turning around and sailing back again and that tends to keep the ship in a relatively similar region throughout your holiday.
For those with a sense of adventure or who simply like to have different types of experiences on holiday, there is a simple way to experience different cultures, different scenery, and even different season’s whilst on holiday and that is by taking advantage of repositioning cruises.
A repositioning cruise in its basic from, is simply where a cruise ship needs to get from one place to another and allows passenger to go along for the ride.
There are a number of reasons for this, with some seeing cruise ships head from Europe to the Caribbean and vice versus for the winter/summer seasons but there are some that are designed to specifically take in as many great ports of call as possible.
Repositioning cruises seem to have been on the increase over the past decade or so and there is now a fantastic range of options available and that can now make it difficult to decide upon the repositioning cruise you would like to enjoy.
Here at CruiseHols, we have created this list of our Top 10 repositioning cruises to make your decision easier.
As ever our list takes all aspects of the cruises offered into account, from the destinations to the cruise lines and from the number of options to the cruise ships themselves and much more besides.
Our Top 10 Cruise Repositioning Routes
Alaska to Asia
This has to be simply one of the most spectacular cruises that you can enjoy as it takes in so many different aspects of a cruise holiday and includes so many fantastic attributes.
It is of course a cruise that can go either way as it is usually the case that cruise ships leave Alaska at the end of the summer season, around September, and head across the Pacific to Asia to spend the winter months in the warmer and calmer waters before heading back to Alaska in March/April.
If you do the journey starting in North America, you usually have the choice of cruising out of either Seattle in the USA or Vancouver in Canada from where you head up through the inside passage, into Alaska and out into the open Pacific Ocean.
That allows you to take in the incredible scenery of Alaska that includes mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, icebergs, fjords and more and lots of opportunities for nature lovers to get up close to a diverse range of wildlife.
After leaving the cool waters of Alaska, you get to experience crossing the international dateline and become a time traveller (well sort of!), as when crossing from west to east you lose a day, or if you travel the other way, you gain a day.
When you cross the Pacific through the Bering Sea, most cruises will first dock in the far eastern Russian port of Vladivostok, the eastern terminus of the iconic Trans-Siberian railway, before continuing onto popular Asian destinations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.
From there you can enjoy the warm weather and incredible food on offer whilst taking in the great sites of interest found in this incredible region.
Mix a cold weather nature cruise with a warm weather big city cruise and enjoy some relaxing sea days all on a repositioning cruise from Alaska to Asia or from Asia to Alaska.
UK to the Mediterranean
With so many great round trip cruises from the UK to the Med, you may be wondering why we have listed a repositioning cruise to the Med so highly on this list.
The answer is that it gives you the chance to enjoy 2 fantastic holidays in one, starting with a week or so cruise from these shores to the warmer weather of the Med and then you can enjoy a stay in a fantastic city such as Rome or Barcelona.
Perhaps most importantly, there is also a big choice of cruise lines, ships and destinations on offer for those wanting to enjoy a repositioning cruise to the Med, especially towards the beginning of the cruising season when ships coming back from the Caribbean call into the UK on their way to the Med.
The main ports that you can end your cruise in have relatively easy access to international airport with quick, direct, and cheap links back to many airports around the UK that makes it simple to get back home after your time on the continent.
Panama Canal
This is one of those cruises that you may not think of as a repositioning cruise but for those doing the full transit, you usually sail from a California port to a Florida port (or vice versa) so not only do you get to enjoy one of the world’s greatest canal transits, but you can also spend time before and after your holiday exploring great destinations.
The Panama Canal is one of the world greatest engineering accomplishments and links the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean so not only can you watch your ship go through the giants locks at either end but you can view some of the world largest ships up close, all whilst never been far from the Central America jungle and lots of wildlife.
Transatlantic
This is probably the archetypal repositioning cruise and the one that most people will think of but there are a lot more options than you may first think of to make it a much more exciting proposition for many of us.
In its basic from, these routes tend to be from Northern Europe (UK, France, Germany) to the North East of the USA (New York, Boston) and they simply take the shortest route which mean you have around 5 days at sea and little to no stops.
The giant ocean liners of the Cunard brand are the ships most associated with these types of holiday but for those wanting head across the pond on a more conventional cruise holiday there are lots of options.
One of the growing transatlantic routes is to head across the Northern Atlantic and visit countries such as Iceland and Greenland before heading down the coast of Canada and finishing in ports such as New York or Boston.
This is a great option for those who love cold weather cruising and the stunning natural beauty of the Arctic region but if you prefer warm weather cruising there are a couple of great options as well.
One is to head along the coast of Portugal before calling into European Islands such as The Azores, before crossing the Ocean to a Southern US state such as Florida or heading further south to the Caribbean.
Europe to Middle East (Suez Canal)
To get from The Mediterranean to the Middle East, you can either sail the whole way around the continent of Africa or you can sail through the Suez Canal and guess which way cruise ships go!
Going through the Suez Canal allows you to enjoy one of world greatest engineering feats and have the experience of been up close to some of the world’s largest ships all whilst sailing close to the Arabian coast.
There are also lots of great ports of call to enjoy along the way and if you sail from Europe to the Middle East, you can enjoy 2 completely different cultures at both ends of your journey for a holiday to remember.
Europe to South America
Although this one technically is a Transatlantic repositioning cruise, it is so different from a traditional crossing of the Atlantic Ocean that it deserves its own ranking on this list.
The crossing to South America is often a much longer one than those heading to the North and it tends to be more relaxed, with the whole crossing building up to exploring the incredible ports of call that await you.
A number of cruises call into ports along the west coast of Europe along the way and some call into archipelagos such as The Azores or the Canary Islands before the numerous sea days needed to reach countries such as Brazil or Argentina.
Asia to Australia
For those with lots of time, and to be honest money, there are a number of cruises that set sail from popular Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore and set off on the long journey down to Australia where they head to the big cities of Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane after visiting Perth and Adelaide.
This is a great way for those wanting to explore Australia but who also don’t want to have the 2 day long flights to the country or for those who want to explore the best of Asia before the best of Australia for a holiday full of contrasts.
Along the way, cruise ships call into a number of Indonesian islands including destinations such as Jakarta and Bali whilst some even go to places such as Borneo, Komodo and even Papua New Guinea for once in a lifetime experiences.
South Africa to Asia
This is a route that has really grown in popularity over the last decade or so, with the South African city of Cape Town becoming a go to port for many cruise lines and it is from the city that many cruises start or end their journeys.
That allows for lots of options and for easy access from the United Kingdom and whilst many holidays offered are round trips around the south coast of Africa, it is possible to take advantage of ships heading around the southern cape to Asia.
Many cruises offering this route go from Cape Town to Singapore and take in such incredible locations as Madagascar, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka as you cruise across the Indian Ocean.
Around the Horn (Cape Horn)
The Southern tip of South America offers some of the most stunning scenery available anywhere in the world with the Patagonia region been home to mountains, glaciers, and fjords and that is what visitors can expect through there cruise around Cape Horn.
Cruises will more often than not start in either Argentina, on the Atlantic side or Chile, on the Pacific side, so holidaymakers can enjoy time before or after their cruises in great cities such as Buenos Aires or Santiago.
On your cruise, you will be not only able to take in the great coastal scenery but you will also head into the stunning Chilean fjords before heading around Cape Horn and getting close to Antarctica, with some lines even offering the chance to stop off at the northern parts of the frozen continent for a moment to remember.
Pacific Coastal
For cruise ships based up in Alaska that don’t head over to Asia in the winter months, they head down south to the warmer waters of Mexico or the Caribbean and to get there, they travel along the Pacific Coast from either Vancouver or Seattle to southern California and take in ports of call such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
Along the way, you will get to take in the stunning coastal scenery of the west coast of America, enjoy some of the best whale watching in the world and call into small towns along the way.
This journey is great for nature lovers and can be enjoyed both ways as ships head north for the summer season.
Repositioning Cruises
If you are driving to the cruise port you are embarking at, it makes perfect sense to choose a round trip itinerary that brings you back to where you started from.
If you are flying to your departure port, it really doesn’t matter where you end up so long as it has an airport as you will still need to get from the cruise port to the airport and then fly home.
That is something that often gets overlooked when it comes to choosing a repositioning route as so many cruisers think that they are more complicated than a closed loop cruise, but in reality, they aren’t.
