Your Favorite 2-3 Week Itinerary?

I think that before you can determine "best" you have to understand what you enjoy doing in a port of call. For some every port means an organized tour of some sort (whether private or ship sponsored), for some it means taking transportation to the nearest beach to relax, to some an opportunity to explore at leisure on your own pace whether it is a charming town with its restaurants and cultural/historical attractions or natural landscape and finally for some a port is irrelevant as they just enjoy the ship itself and are only mildly interested in where it stops. Once you answer this question it will be easier to sort out what might be best from your perspective.

As to which places are best visited by land or sea I must chime in with respect to New Zealand. After looking at cruise options versus a land tour combined with doing your own thing we have settled for that later as so many of the places of interest seem to be inland and not well suited to a cruise format. So next Feb/March much as we will miss cruising on Seabourn, we have opted for a month or touring North and South Island by land (as well as helicopter and small airplane). Queenstown, which was mentioned, is inland meaning any visit there would involve hours of travel reducing the actual time left to actual enjoy the area. And the OP did specifically ask about a Seabourn cruise.

From everything I have read, Vietnam is best done by land. There is much more to see than what is accessible by ship and from only 3 ports.

Next April we are looking forward to the Quest's 14-day cruise from Lisbon to Copenhagen, and I think that will be another winner, at least for me. So many of the ports and excursions are places that have been on my bucket list for a long time. We have never been to Portugal and plan to arrive in Lisbon 4 days prior to the cruise so that we can take a few day excursions from there.

We'll hit several Normandy spots that are on my bucket list: the D-Day landing beaches, St. Malo, Honfleur; then a day in Bruges, and an overnight in Amsterdam, which I haven't seen in more than 50 years. I hope there will be an early morning excursion to the Alsmeer flower auction.

I am sorry we don't have time to do the Baltic cruise following Copenhagen, but 3 days in Copenhagen will be a wonderful ending. Hopefully, we'll be able cruise the fjords of Norway another year, but right now I am fortunate to have what's planned for next spring.

From everything I have read, Vietnam is best done by land. There is much more to see than what is accessible by ship and from only 3 ports.

 

Next April we are looking forward to the Quest's 14-day cruise from Lisbon to Copenhagen, and I think that will be another winner, at least for me. So many of the ports and excursions are places that have been on my bucket list for a long time. We have never been to Portugal and plan to arrive in Lisbon 4 days prior to the cruise so that we can take a few day excursions from there.

We'll hit several Normandy spots that are on my bucket list: the D-Day landing beaches, St. Malo, Honfleur; then a day in Bruges, and an overnight in Amsterdam, which I haven't seen in more than 50 years. I hope there will be an early morning excursion to the Alsmeer flower auction.

I am sorry we don't have time to do the Baltic cruise following Copenhagen, but 3 days in Copenhagen will be a wonderful ending. Hopefully, we'll be able cruise the fjords of Norway another year, but right now I am fortunate to have what's planned for next spring.

We were looking at that trip.What do you think weather will be like then?

Capri73…..

I think Lisbon will be warm, in the 70's, so we're looking forward to taking a train to the coast for a day and walking from town to town. As for France, the Netherlands, and Copenhagen, I think we'll see signs of spring, maybe some tulips. It's the right time for tulips, right? Certainly things will be green but who can predict the weather?

I think the coast of Normandy might be cool the first week of May, and you never know about rain on the coast, so we'll bring packable, lightweight down jackets and waterproof raincoats, just in case, and I think a wool jacket is a good idea. I like to think in terms of layering when I pack, so i am comfortable in most climates. We were in Paris for several weeks this March and, compared with New England, the weather was positively balmy…in the 50's during the day, and you just needed a light coat and at night….no rain to speak of. It's a mystery.

The itinerary is what I'm excited about. We'll deal with the weather.

We love the itinerary but we left Ct 3 years ago and no longer have warm clothing,definitely no rain gear.The seas can be rough that time of year.Still looking but do not want to buy clothes for 14 days.

hanks for your reply.

Capri73

I understand the dilemma. i just bought very inexpensive Uniqlo "water defender" lightweight down jackets for a hiking trip we're taking in a few weeks in Yellowstone, where the temp. drops from the 60's during the day into the 30's at night now. Those jackets will be useless in Boston, but I realized they will be perfect for the cruise next spring. They come with tiny bags…. you just roll them into the bag and tuck them in a suitcase. If you travel at all outside AZ then this is an item that I bet you can use again. As for the ship, it is always freezing in public areas, especially the dining room in my opinion, so you would need a nice sweater/jacket for evening no matter where or when you are cruising, unless you are in the Caribbean and dine outdoors every night. I think, if you like to travel, you bite the bullet and buy what you need. It doesn't have to be an entire wardrobe.

We were looking at that trip.What do you think weather will be like then?

We cruised Barcelona to Stockholm a year ago (April/May) and the weather was excellent. Just one rainy day in Rouen.