Top 10 Unusual Cruise Destinations
If you set sail from the same ports and visit the same countries in the same regions, that will be the case so if you are fed up with visiting the beaches of the Med, the islands of the Caribbean or the cities of Northern Europe, this is the list for you.
When I cruise, I love to head to out of the way places or ports that offers something different from the usual and whilst it can take some effort to head to those places, many ports or destination that many would call unusual are just as easy to visit as any other port.
In this list, we take a look at ports that offer something different from the norm, are maybe ports many won’t have heard of or destinations that are only visited infrequently by cruise ship- or to put it simply, the top 10 unusual cruise destinations.
I have tried to keep to places that can be reached on a variety of cruise lines including mainstream lines as whilst there are plenty out of the way places that can be visited on an expedition cruise line, that should perhaps be another list in its own right.
Our Top 10 Unusual Cruise Destinations
Antarctica
Only a select number of people get to visit Antarctica every year and the chances are that you won’t know anybody who has been there so with just that in mind, Antarctica is a unique place to visit, but there are so many more reasons why.
Antarctica is the only continent with no permanent residences despite been bigger than Europe and is of course almost fully covered by a sheet of ice, with an average thickness of over a mile.
When it comes to visiting there onboard a cruise, there are two distinct different types you can choose from.
Smaller, expedition style cruises head there from Ushuaia in Argentina and allow guests to head onshore and take a walk on the Antarctic land, but those cruises do come at an incredibly high cost.
The second option is more accessible to most as mainstream cruise lines allow you to set sail from a number of different South American cruise and then head down to Antarctica where you simply sail around a number of bays and islands at the northern edges of the continent.
Despite never setting foot on land, you still get close to what makes Antarctica so special including ice bergs, ice shelfs, mountains, whales, seals and penguins.
Galapagos Islands
If you are an animal lover, there can only be one place at the top of your bucket list to visit on a cruise and that is the incredible Galapagos Islands.
Holidays to the islands are sadly out of the reach of many as only small expedition ships can visit and all of them come at quite a hefty cost but if you are in the lucky position to be able to go, you get to follow in the footsteps of Darwin and gain a while new understanding of the natural world.
Your adventure will often start in the Ecuadorian city of Quito before heading out into the Pacific Ocean to explore the island chain that saw Darwin make a world changing breakthrough with his theory of evolution and when you see the numerous animals that have evolved into their own unique species across the Galapagos, you will understand why.
Prince Christian Sound (Ikerasassuaq/Prins Christians Sund)
The Prince Christian Sound, or Prins Christians Sund may not be a port, but it is a destination in its own right.
I was fortunate enough to visit there in 2023 and it was an experience that I will never forget, although it is somewhere that is difficult to describe accurately.
Photos and videos just do not give the size and scale of the channel any justice but if you love to sail through the fjords of Norway and the stunning scenery of Alaska, you really should visit Greenland on a cruise through the Prince Christian Sound.
The channel separates the mainland from Sammisoq in the far southern tip of Greenland, so whilst not a fjord it has the feeling of one.
It takes around 6 hours to sail from one end of the channel to the other, including a couple of stops at glaciers along the way but despite taking that long, it flies by as you are never more than a few metres from a huge mountain, a waterfall or a glacier.
Longyearbyen, Svalbard
Longyearbyen, on the island of Spitsbergen in the archipelago of Svalbard is a cruise port many may have expected to be on a list such as this.
Not only is it a remote island in the Arctic but it is also the northernmost settlement with a population of over 1,000.
If you visit there in the winter, you can experience the Aurora Borealis, whilst if you go in summer, as most will, you can experience 24 hours of daylight and the midnight sun but what draws most visitors is the fact it is the last place in Europe (Svalbard is part of Norway) where visitors can regularly see polar bears in the wild.
Hydra, Greece
Hydra is one of the most historic of Greek Islands and is part of the Saronic Islands and despite been only around 70 miles from the Greek capital city of Athens, it is a world away.
What makes the island so unique is that motorised vehicles are banned, aside from rubbish trucks.
If you love peace and quiet on holiday and to stroll around without worrying about traffic and the increasing issue of electric bikes and scooters whizzing around, Hydra could be just the port for you.
Its name, derived from the Greek word for water, comes from the natural springs found on the island that have attracted visited for 1000’s of years and it is that sense of clean air and clean, natural surrounds that still attracts visitors to this very day.
The island is only small and the only urban area is found around the port which makes it easy to explore on foot but despite the lack of vehicles, there are still water taxis for getting around the island.
Easter Island, Chile
Easter Island is another remote island that sits in the Pacific Ocean and despite been owned by Chile, it it’s the southernmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
What makes Easter Island stand out is the fact that is it mostly a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a protected national park named Rapa Nui and whilst that means the majority of those tendering onto the island will have to pay a huge fee just to walk around the island, it is well worth it.
Easter Island is home to its iconic collection of around 1,000 monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the rarely Rapa Nui people, which are perhaps best known for the giant head sculptures that now seemingly pop out of the sides of the Rano Raraku volcano.
Adding to the uniqueness of the island is the remoteness of it that see’s the nearest inhabited island been Pitcairn Island, around 1,300 miles away.
Ushuaia, Argentina
Ushuaia’s motto of “fin del mundo, principio de todo”, which translates as “end of the world, beginning of everything” gives a great insight into just why we have chosen the Argentine city for a list such as this one.
It sits at the southern tip of the South American continent and for so long was deemed to be the end of the world as ships used the nearby Beadle Channel to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Nowadays, the port is popular with cruise ships setting off on Antarctic adventures and also for ships sailing in the region as it gives access to many great wildlife watching spots and the idyllic Tierra del Fuego.
What makes it so unusual is a mixture of the remoteness of the port, the fact it sits on a channel linking the two biggest oceans on the earth and the fact you are right on the Chilean/Argentinian border.
The stunning mountains that surround the city and the huge variety of cruise and expedition ships in port also make Ushuaia stand out as somewhere everybody who loves nature and natural beauty should visit as it just offers something that nowhere else can.
Manaus, Brazil
When it comes to cruising there are two different types in the main, sea cruisers and rivers cruisers and whilst some seaports may need to you to cruise down a small stretch of river and some river ports maybe at the coast, they remain separate types of holidays.
What makes the cruise port of Manaus so different is that its sits deep in the Amazon rainforest, around 1,000 miles from the sea but many of the ships that head there are large sea going cruise ships, with some even sailing there directly from the UK!
The city is on the Negro River, near to the confluence with the Amazon River itself and it is the giant river that you sail from the Atlantic Ocean and deep into the Amazon rainforest itself.
If you prefer river cruisers but always wanted to sail on a large ship or if you have always wanted to take a river cruise but have been put off by the small ships, this is the port for you as it is a truly unique one where you get the best of both types of cruising.
Enjoy the multiple bars and restaurants, entertainment venues and extra space or a large cruise ship with the incredible views and wildlife watching of sailing down a river with a cruise to Manaus.
Kotor, Montenegro
I personally love to cruise along fjords and don’t mind the bad weather that can often go with cruising in areas such as Norway, Iceland and Patagonia but we do know of plenty of people who are put off a fjords cruise due to the cold and wet you often get.
The Montenegrin port of Kotor offers a great workaround as it is often referred to as the only fjord in the Mediterranean Sea.
Now, whilst it is not actually a fjord, it is technically a ria, or a submerged river canyon but it does offer all of the hallmarks of cruising along a fjord including a narrow entrance, steep mountains going from the sea to the sky and a beautiful bay awaiting your arrival.
The city itself has lots to offer thanks to a long history of conflict which surrounds it with fortifications that can still be explored and with many cruise ships docking in the city centre and just a short stroll from the city walls, it is an easy place to explore and take advantage of the warm weather.
Tristan da Cunha, British Overseas Territory
With the majority of cruise ports, and certainly the most popular ones, been either large cities or tourist hotspots, visitors tend to be welcomed by numerous other ships, lots of traffic and plenty of queues everywhere you go.
It that is what you want a change from and what you think of as a more unusual port, then the island of Tristan da Cunha could be just the option for you.
The chances are that you may never have heard of the island and the other islands in the small archipelago it sits in and there is a good reason for that, it is the most remote inhabited island group in the world.
The main island of Tristan da Cunha is home to around 250 inhabitants and is a British Overseas Territory that gives the cruise stop a local feel for us Brits despite been located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where it is around 1700 miles east of West of Cape Town and 2450 miles East of Mar del Plata in Argentina.
Not too many cruise ships call in here and the ones that do tens to be more upmarket ones but if you get the chance to go and want to experience true remoteness, there is no where better.
