Bored with business class? Have lots of time and money? Well, I’ve got an idea for you!

Seabourn is a cruise company that caters for the top end of the market in smaller, more intimate cruise ships. Actually, it prefers to call them ‘yachts’, and to refer to the experience as yachting. With a typical crew of 160 to assist 280 passengers, you know you’re going to get looked after. All cruises include seriously high-end dining, with free wine, champagne and spirits.

Their ships also have a unique self-lowering harbour which is used for watersports. Pretty nifty!

Anyway, I’ve been hankering for one of these trips for quite a while now, so when I found this trip on the VacationsToGo site, I nearly wet myself. 60 nights onboard one of these Seabourn yachts, starting in Rome and going all the way to Singapore, via Dubai, India, Thailand etc.

Just remember to factor in the detox bill from the Betty Ford clinic after all that indulging!

One of the most depressing things about 21st century travel has to be dealing with luggage. Packing it, taking it to the airport, unpacking it, lugging it up and down escalators — you get the idea. I’m constantly baffled when I see celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Joan Collins pushing trolleys at airports full of (albeit very expensive) luggage.

Surely far more civilised is to have your luggage sent ahead! A few times I’ve thought about using my courier account to send suitcases a few days in advanced to their destination. I’ve never actually gone through with it though. I did help one friend send his belonging back from Ireland where he’d relocated for six months — low cost airlines charge as much as £20/kg if you go over the limit.

The point of this post however, is to share with you Seabourne’s “Personal Valet” service. And long may it reign! Someone comes to your house, picks up your luggage and then essentially delivers it to your room, and unpacks everything. How marvellous! I really do think this is one of those added extras that’s worth paying for. Ok, Seabourne’s cruises (sorry : ‘yachting experiences’) cost upwards of about £3,000 but they definitely go the extra mile.

http://www.seabourn.com/PlanACruise/Personal/

Remember that volcano? Yeah – the one you couldn’t pronounce. Well, it was over a week ago now so no doubt you need reminding. A massive volcano errupted on Iceland and prevented tens of thousands of passengers from flying into British airspace. There was a lot of talk by the government to send the Royal Navy to go and pick people up from Spain. In the end, only one ship was sent.

At least that’s what I thought. In fact, Celebrity Eclipse was also sent in as part of a rescue operation, seemingly financed by Celebrity themselves. A pretty good gesture, Travelay thinks. The ship is due to launch this summer, and was doing a few days of showing off in British waters before being called into duty.

The ship actually looks stunning, and is the first at sea to feature a lawn on the deck. No doubt those stranded Britons deserved a martini or three for their troubles. I’m secretly dying to take a trip on this beast of a ship, not least because it also features an apple lounge, where you can hang out and play with Macs. Nice work if you can get it!

Now that the QEII is out of service (currently residing in Dubai, but still awaiting its final fate), the most traditional journey would be a trip on the QMII. Cunard allows you to book that trip on their website, but you’re likely to pay much more than booking through an agent. Virgin cruises has just released their fares:

http://www.virginholidayscruises.co.uk/cruise-deals/cunard-queen-mary-2-transatlantic-cruises-20100204.php

There are of course more economic ways to travel between Southampton and New York, but few as glamorous. Personally though, I think I’d rather take a slightly longer cruise that takes in more countries. Some of the bigger lines’ repositioning cruises take in a slightly more interesting itinerary and are far cheaper – but then it’s not for everyone!

Still though, even at around £1,000 it’s equivilant to the business class fare. If you’ve got time, I say – why not?

I’ve recently become rather obsessed with the idea of visiting my friend Yolande in South Africa, but flying there and back seems like a bit of a drag. Since I’m embarking on a world tour next year, I am going to try to fly as little as possible so this could be a good option when I need to return to Europe.

The ship MSC Sinfonia sails from Cape Town to Genoa which takes around 18 days. Because it’s a repositioning cruise (the ship returns to Europe for the summer months), it’s very low cost. Even with a flight to South Africa thrown in, and one back from Italy included the price can be as low as £890. Compare that to my two weeks’ rent or business class air ticket. Buying the cruise only will bring the price down further.

http://www.iglucruise.com/msc-sinfonia/3rd-april-2010_c46027

The only other alternative I can think of to get back from South Africa without flying would be to hitch a ride on a freighter which will set you back around $70-100 per night, so a lot more expensive and without the dining choice of a cruise liner. But then some people prefer to travel by freighter; your cabin is bigger and you don’t have to put up with annoying cruise passengers!

How often do you see ‘too good to be true’ offers online? Personally, I stumble across pages of the things every week. Usually they’re littered with bad, animated images and spelling mistakes. So when I found an eBay store offering cruise vouchers, with similarly ill-designed graphics I nearly clicked away.

But I thought it wise to invest a little bit more time. The eBay shop has the unimaginative name of ‘Best Cheap Cruises‘ and operates a business whereby you can purchase a voucher which will then entitle you to make a reservation on any number of cruises available in their database.

Clicking onto their site, the cruises are all fixed price and include accomodation for two people:

Gold Cruises : £300
Platinum Cruises : £875
Diamond Cruises: £1800
Titanium Cruises: £3000

You can then bid on eBay for a voucher which will entitle  you to a cruise of a particular type (i.e. Gold, Platinum or Diamond). If you are the winning bidder, it’s a matter of going on their site and choosing the cruise you want. Obviously, you’ll have to buy flights separately.

To give you an idea, Diamond vouchers tend to go on eBay for between £200 – £250. The voucher entitles you to a cruise for two people in the Diamond category, an example of which is a 6 night cruise departing and returning to Miami via Mexico and Belize on a Royal Caribbean ship.

Searching on Kayak for the same cruise, I managed to find a ticket per person for $651. For two, the price would be $1300, or £730. Were you to buy a voucher for £200, the potential savings are around £530 for the holiday.

Over the next few days I’m going to be watching the site to see if this really does produce the goods. I’ll also compare the price of the cruises they’re offering to the actual price you end up paying to see if it’s worth it. Watch this space!

Since taking time out of a career and ‘gap’ years are so fashionable now, I thought of sharing an idea with you that involves a lot of travelling and getting paid. And if you have sea-legs, then this might be a brilliant opportunity!

I am of course talking about getting a job on board a cruise ship. More specifically, if you have special knowledge or a special skill then being an on-board expert is your ticket to a free cruise!

The way it works is like this — let’s say you’re an expert on ancient Roman history. You apply to a cruise-line that happens to be going around the Mediterranean and agree to take free passage in exchange for a few hours’ lecturing. The cruise line will also often pay your airfare and you get all the perks of being a passenger on board.

Alternatively for a longer-term outlook you might considering for a full time position. Although you’ll be in a cramped cabin (which you’ll probably have to share), your income is tax free and relatively well paid. You also get the opportunity to see a lot of popular cruise destinations. Remember that there is also no need to pay for accommodation and food while you’re onboard and the deal is actually very attractive.

So, not a bad idea if you want a gap year that actually pays!

Have a look at these sites:

https://www.cruiseservices.co.uk/questions-answers.html

http://www.cruiselinejobs.com/

Ok, so you’re looking to go around the world and you don’t want to fly. That’s understandable : flying in planes makes your carbon footprint something of a monster. If you’re like me and believe that the journey there is quite a lot of the fun, then going overland will definitely appeal to you.

Most articles I’ve read on it previously have said that the only way to get across oceans is to book a ticket on a freighter. Of course you can do this, and you’ll pay around $70 per day.

But I’ve found a little trick for those of you who don’t think they can handle two weeks on a freighter ship. It’s this – repositioning cruises. Every year, ships migrate between hot and cold climates to serve the needs of the market. In spring, many cruise ships move Eastwards across the Atlantic, and make a return journey in the autumn.

So here’s my tip. If you’re doing either of those routes and you don’t fancy either a Freighter or the QM2, then check out the Kayak Cruise search from about.com :

http://kayak.about.com/cruises

And then search for Transatlantic. It’s also worth bearing in mind that some ships also cruise between South America and Southern Africa. Other interesting routes include Cape Town to Rome. All these cruises are silly cheap, especially if you book relatively last minute.

What I found

It’s important to know when ships will be repositioning; once you know this you can search for the month and the location and hopefully Kayak will throw up a fare for the reposition.

Searching for March and Transatlantic I found a ship sailing from Sao Paulo to Barcelona. It’s on the Splendor of the Seas (one of those enormous Royal Carribbean ships), and takes 14 nights. The price? Wait for it… £319 per person. The equivilant amount of time on a freighter would be around  over £1000 pp.

Pros and Cons

Cruises aren’t for everyone. But then, neither are freighters. They’re both totally different experiences. Generally though, the benefits of a freighter are that

• you’ll get to know the crew
• slightly more ‘authentic experience’
• bigger cabin
• fewer distractions = more reading!

The cruise option has these things in its favour:

• more entertainment
• a lot more food (although food on freighters is fine, too)
• more ports of call

It’s important to remember that often on a freighter you’re not allowed to disembark. Or if the ship does dock, it might only be for a few hours at night so you’ll be unlikely to see anything of the city where you land.

If you can hack being surrounded by people wearing bumbags and shorts, then a cruise is great. Personally, given the chance to save £600 per person on a transatlantic crossing, with a few extra stops and a lot more dining options available I know which one I’d choose.

Kayak is well known for its consolidated searches – you can compare airfares from different websites, as well as hotels and car rental. But did you realise that there’s also a cruise search? It’s not advertised on their main site, and it’s not usually available to web users outside the US. However, it holds database information for almost every cruise out there!

I only stumbled across it because I  happened to be researching repositioning cruises and landed on About.com. Let me cut to the chase:

http://kayak.about.com/cruises?p=cruises&ai=about

It’s pretty rare to be able to compare cruises in this way and might be useful if you’re considering a sea journey any time soon!