Mediterranean: East or West? Favorite Itineraries and Ports?

[georgiapeach84]

We're planning a 7-10ish day cruise in 2024 (either May or Sept/Oct). We'll have our 2 kids with us who are pretty easygoing travelers (at the time they'll be 4 and 8- they don't need screen time to be constantly entertained and mix well-ish for their ages with adults). We travel at a pretty leisurely pace and enjoy equal times being touristy and relaxing with a book, are more likely to visit a museum, check out historical sites, or have beach days than go skydiving or speedboating. We have been on several MSC cruises in the Caribbean and already are familiar with and fans of the line 😄 so no surprises there. 

 

I've traveled a bit by land in Western Europe, but have never been to Eastern Europe. There is a strong likelihood we'll be traveling by land in Spain, France, and Italy sometime again in the next few years, but unlikely that we'll go to Eastern Europe any time soon. 

 

That said- if you've experienced either or both- by land, air, or sea- what are your thoughts? Western Europe is more of a known trip that I personally already know I'd enjoy, but I've never experienced southern Italy (anywhere past Naples/Amalfi Coast), Greece, Turkey, Croatia, etc. 

 

Also if you have been on either east or west cruises: what port or ports are your favorite(s)? 

 

Thanks! 

[sverigecruiser]

 

I prefer not to go to Turkiye, for political reasons, so Western Mediterranean should be my choice.

Edited April 2, 2023 by sverigecruiser

[Essiesmom]

I much prefer the eastern routes, but I’m trying hard to think of things that would interest a four year old.  The Med is not known for beaches…at least not the pristine sand you are used to in the Caribbean.  Honestly, if I was to take young children to Europe I would focus on Northern Europe. EM

[Heartgrove]

We are like you (even though we are 4* on HAL) after sailing on the MSC Splendida in YC from Genoa last October and are now also fans of MSC. This September we are on the MSC Preziosa from Hamburg to the British Isles. And now currently trying to decide which European MSC cruiseto sail on before our HAL Transatlantic in Fall 2024!

 

Looking on the MSC website there are two MSC cruises with YC you might consider in September/October 2024. Of course both are what I call "bus stop" sailing with multiple choices of ports for embarking/disembarking.The MSC Splendida will be leaving from Trieste and sailing to Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The MSC Divina will be leaving from Civitavecchia and sailing to Sicily, Malta, and Greece. This Divina cruise is one of the cruises that we are considering. The other is the MSC Poesia from Copenhagen to Genoa over 15 days.

 

We enjoyed Siracusa on our Splendida cruise and did a daytrip MSC excursion to three small towns nearby.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Heartgrove

[georgiapeach84]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

I much prefer the eastern routes, but I’m trying hard to think of things that would interest a four year old.  The Med is not known for beaches…at least not the pristine sand you are used to in the Caribbean.  Honestly, if I was to take young children to Europe I would focus on Northern Europe. EM

We're not planning to do Northern Europe at this time.

 

What did you like most about the Eastern routes? 

[georgiapeach84]

1 hour ago, Heartgrove said:

We are like you (even though we are 4* on HAL) after sailing on the MSC Splendida in YC from Genoa last October and are now also fans of MSC. This September we are on the MSC Preziosa from Hamburg to the British Isles. And now currently trying to decide which European MSC cruiseto sail on before our HAL Transatlantic in Fall 2024!

 

Looking on the MSC website there are two MSC cruises with YC you might consider in September/October 2024. Of course both are what I call "bus stop" sailing with multiple choices of ports for embarking/disembarking.The MSC Splendida will be leaving from Trieste and sailing to Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The MSC Divina will be leaving from Civitavecchia and sailing to Sicily, Malta, and Greece. This Divina cruise is one of the cruises that we are considering. The other is the MSC Poesia from Copenhagen to Genoa over 15 days.

 

We enjoyed Siracusa on our Splendida cruise and did a daytrip MSC excursion to three small towns nearby.

 

 

 

Those are two I've itineraries looked at! We've never sailed on the Splendida, but we've spent a couple weeks on the Divina and really liked the ship. 

 

I'll have to check out the Poesia one as well.

 

Thanks for the insights 🙂

 

And I hope you do a review of the transatlantic trip! That's on my bucket list!

[perakcruiser]

I have cruised a lot in the Med, thought that no routing could make me excited anymore. But the Musica cruise in Oct/Nov does. 

 

Overall the choice is simple, Western med loads of ships, cheap prices, but Eastern is much more interesting. But make sure that Santorini is included.

[georgiapeach84]

6 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

I have cruised a lot in the Med, thought that no routing could make me excited anymore. But the Musica cruise in Oct/Nov does. 

 

Overall the choice is simple, Western med loads of ships, cheap prices, but Eastern is much more interesting. But make sure that Santorini is included.

 

This is my issue! The western route is an enjoyable known since I've been to a lot of the places and countries. 

 

But the eastern- it just looks so interesting! Such an intriguing unknown!

 

Ahhh! I am grateful that these are the kind of *tough* decisions to be facing at the moment. 😄

[HardToPort]

Personally, I wouldn’t be going to Easter Europe due to the political instability in Türkiye, Ukraine etc. 

 

in the western med cruises I loved Funchal, Madeira. I didn’t cruise with children though. We hired a driver for the day and we explored the island, tasted Madeira wine, hiked, viewed old churches, ate etc. 

 

We loved Agadir (very French influenced). We did not like Casablanca. It just felt unfriendly. We loved Grand Canaria. We loved Barcelona and Malaga.

[perakcruiser]

3 hours ago, HardToPort said:

 

in the western med cruises I loved Funchal, Madeira. I didn’t cruise with children though. We hired a driver for the day and we explored the island, tasted Madeira wine, hiked, viewed old churches, ate etc. 

 

We loved Agadir (very French influenced). We did not like Casablanca. It just felt unfriendly. We loved Grand Canaria. We loved Barcelona and Malaga.

None of these ports except Barcelona and Malaga belong to the Western med. Everybody loves Barcelona, but not as a cruise port. 

[Heartgrove]

On 4/2/2023 at 9:31 PM, georgiapeach84 said:

 

Those are two I've itineraries looked at! We've never sailed on the Splendida, but we've spent a couple weeks on the Divina and really liked the ship. 

 

I'll have to check out the Poesia one as well.

 

Thanks for the insights 🙂

 

And I hope you do a review of the transatlantic trip! That's on my bucket list!

 

We are actually leaning towards the Divina sailing as we have not been to Malta and Mykonos, plus having the YC aboard. This would actually allow us time (7 days vs 14 days for the Poesia) to do a trip through Umbria before boarding the Divina and then a little over a week to travel to Rotterdam for the Transatlantic home. One disadvantage to the Transatlantic is the one-way arefare cost but I am constantly comparing as airfares are so volatile these days

 

Transatlantic's sea days have a laid back atmosphere which is great for decompressing. Our  recent November 2022 Transatlantic left from Barcelona which we feel is one of the best cruise embarkation cities. There were a number of Spanish ports plus Lisbon then two days to Madeira. After leaving Funschal it was just over seven sea days before reaching Miami. Not sure if other cruise lines do this but HAL has rugs in the elevators with the day of the week. Great to keep track of time as sea days all look the same!

 

Enjoy your cruise!