When are the waters calmest in the Mediterranean?

My husband gets seasick easily and unless I can promise him calm sailing, it's going to be difficult to get him on a cruise ship again! I want to do a Mediterranean cruise next year, and he'll agree only if I can assure him we won't have stormy seas.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find this information, or does anyone have first-hand knowledge?

Thanks for your help!

No one can guarantee smooth seas, as storms that are quite far away can have an impact on the waves. That said, summer to early fall is probably the time of least risk. Unfortunately also the most crowded and hottest time of year....

On our November 2006 cruise we had quite smooth sailing for the whole trip.

Has he tried any of the remedies for seasickness?

July & August are the best - but you can also get calm waters at other times eg June, Sept.

We have done approx 25 Med cruises and these are definitely the best months. There have been times when we haven't known the ship has been moving. BUT remember it can get rough at any time. Good luck.

Exactly how rough are we talking? Our last cruise was a Disney cruise across the Gulf Stream and we had 30+ foot seas (at times 50ft) for the majority of our first night. I was assuming that the Med never got that rough for some reason, but you know what they say about "ass"uming.....

A good friend of mine is quite prone to seasickness, and she swears by ginger candy.

A year ago mid-May we had absolutely calm seas in the Mediterranean for the whole 10 day cruise. But we also had no rain except for one day in Dubrovnik.

You can get very rough weather in the Med.

Last time we started a cruise in Rome they had just replaced most of the ships china, because it was mostly broken in a big storm the night before we joined the ship!

I think around the foot of Italy is especially bad. We've had the similar seas in the Med, to sailing out of New York in March.

Thanks, all of you. Our favorite time to travel is in late September or Early October, so it sounds like we might be ok. A little movement won't be a problem - it's gale force winds and 30 ft seas that become a problem. We had two days like that in March out of New Orleans. Meclazine takes care of the rest of the time.

Hi, the worst I have had has been in the Gulf as well. We did have some very high winds in the Med, dishes were broken, and water splashed out of the pools, but it was not nearly so bad as the Gulf of Mexico.

The best we have had is the Baltic, the seas were usually .1 meter, which is about 3 inches, like a lake, I don't know if that is normal for July but it was great.

Best of luck, b

My DH and I recently watched a Mythbusters on tv that dealt with non-pharmaceutical sea sickness remedies. They put them in this machine that absolutely made them sea sick then tried a bunch of different things. The one thing that worked completely were ginger pills.

The Med. Sea can get rough. If looking up information, remember it just might be reported in meters (39 inches to one meter...). But, the ships have ample warnings and will change course to avoid the worst. Last January, upon leaving Alexandria, we were informed that we'd be passing Crete to avoid the 7 - 8 meter waves (we went through 4 meter ones).

As with anywhere else in the world the weather is unpredictable at any time of the year. We can get very violent storms here in the Med at any time of the year.

Last August we had a thunderstorm worse than I have ever seen.

We cruised from Rome to Barcelona last November and the sea was so rough we all got a certificate at the end of the cruise to say we had sailed through bad weather. We also missed 3 ports of call. We also had problems because so many of the crew were seasick - yes it was really bad.

I would say avoid November to May. These would be the most prone to bad weather.

It also depends on where in the Mediterranean you're talking about. July-September can be the best sailing for most of the Sea but not necessarily around the Greek Isles. The Summer is when they get hit regularly with the strong Meltemi winds. We experienced that last August on our Med cruise. We had six foot swells sailing on a small ferry between Delos and Mykonos on which everyone could barely hold their lunch. Sailing out of Mykonos later that day on the cruise ship it was very windy and rough and stayed that way through the night. It was so windy that the captain cancelled our port of call in Rhodes as he felt we couldn't safely enter the harbor. And then we also experienced strong winds and rough seas on our last night sailing between Naples and Rome. You just never know.

This itinerary goes through many areas of the Mediterranean and the only weather of note was a day of rain in Marseille and rain on departure in Venice -- no issues re rough water or missed ports. My sense would be to avoid the winter months and start with a large stabilized ship with a center to aft cabin with at least a large picture window.

This is a great topic and hope there are more postings re problems, I hope that rough weather is predominantly October through April.

Get your dear husband out there! Just like being on a horse, don't avoid the possibility and miss out.

David

We sailed transatlantic last December from Barcelona on The Brilliance of the Seas to Miami. The seas were very calm and the weather was very warm the entire crossing (we brought cold weather clothes and feared the worse). In April, we sailed transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to Amsterdam on the Jewel of the Seas and had 20+ ft. waves and cold weather. The stabilizers worked wonderfully. I am prone to sea sickness but felt fine on this crossing. Yet, in 2003, on a Princess ship in Alaska, the seas looked calm yet I felt truly awful. I honestly think it is the ship and whether the captain chooses to use the stabilizers. Hoping for calm seas on our Med. cruise in October.

You might want to consider *what part* of the Med to do. I would imagine that the Greek Islands, the Aegean, might be most dependable in that regard. My only experience in the western Med (Nice to Malaga, and beyond), was fairly "bumpy".

That being said, weather is a crapshoot now, everywhere. I always take Bonine with me when I cruise, but rarely take it. It's good insurance for your husband--I was terrified on my first cruise because I have terrible motion sickness. Sure enough we had a good gale, and I took the pills and was fine. I have not needed them since, after 7 cruises.

Trouble with the July/August time frame is that is when it's hottest, and when the most tourists are around. I would try May or early June myself.