How well travelled are you?

I was wondering how many international non cruise holidays people have done and where to and how they found it compared to cruising?

I have done a number of cruises on a range of ships, but have done more time land based either working internationaly or on holiday. I hope to make some in roads to changing this soon!

To be honest, I dont think cruising is the way to visit most areas and regions. You need to be at a place more then 5 or 6 hours to say you were really there. You are far better off visiting places and staying for a few days then just a port stop from a ship. Nothing wrong with cruising, but you really cant say you really love an area or island when you only spent a few hours there, as you have not really experienced the area

I've traveled most of Europe, South, Central & North America, the Caribbean, as well as the north coast of Africa by land. Cruising does not replace a land vacation simply because you can't see as much of a particular country when you cruise. You just sample, in a very general way, each destination. But we like what cruising has to offer. It's really what we look for in an ideal vacation. It's convenient since you have lodging, meals, entertainment, and transportation between one destination and another figured out. And which other way of traveling can make it possible to visit Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and the Cayman Islands in one week? Or go to bed in Italy, wake up in Croatia the next morning, visit Greece the next day, and Turkey one day later? :)

These days, we are not so much into in-depth exploration of any particular country. We are happy with the convenience and relaxation that cruising has to offer. We are happy "sampling". But cruising is not the way to vacation for everyone. We had a family vacation (14 family members last summer) to Alaska, and while everybody had an absolutely wonderful time, neither one of my 2 sisters and their respective families are jumping at booking their next cruise vacation. Both have literally traveled the World on land vacations and prefer that type of traveling to cruising. They did agree to the Alaska cruise because that is one destination where cruising plays a pivotal role since you can only reach certain places by water.

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Have visited about 70 countries prior to cruising. In 70s now prefer cruising for the food, entertainment, relaxing all in one spot, although I mainly pick my cruise for the ports.

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England, France, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Germany....we haven't been travelling as much internationally the last several years. We don't feel as safe in foreign countries as we used to, and prefer cruising now. We really want to cruise the Greek Islands, and Norwegian fjords.

You sound similar to us. We have lived or worked in a number of countries - i am at work in Tanzania at the moment. We now live in Australia, though we were British and my wife was born and raised in Peru. We have travelled a lot.

I find though as i get older i can be less bothered with the hassles of land trips.

The only thing holding us back from more cruising is the lack of ships coming into our home port - Fremantle. I fly commute between Tanzania and Australia, so every month do the equivalant of round the world on a plane so the last thing i am willing to do is get on a plane to go on holiday.

Aside from the Caribbean, I've travelled to England, Wales and Ireland a few times and enjoyed tours of those countries. Would love to see more of Europe through land based trip as well as cruise. We like cruising now for the convenience, fun and relaxation. We aren't beach people really, wouldn't enjoy staying on one island resort for a week, and like the idea of touring different islands while our luggage stays in one place!

I've been to England (several times), Scotland, France, Germany, Canada and Mexico and although I did love each and every one of those places, they were not relaxing. I am a 'must see as much as I possibly can in 7 days' vacationer so the cruises are a nice relaxing change. We have been to a couple of places on cruises that I would like to come back to and spend a week though.

To be honest, I dont think cruising is the way to visit most areas and regions. You need to be at a place more then 5 or 6 hours to say you were really there. You are far better off visiting places and staying for a few days then just a port stop from a ship. Nothing wrong with cruising, but you really cant say you really love an area or island when you only spent a few hours there, as you have not really experienced the area

I fully agree with this. There's nothing wrong with cruising, but when one says they've done extensive international travel via cruising, I just laugh and roll my eyes.

I've traveled extensively throughout the US and Canada, via road trips, and throughout Europe as well. My passports are well stamped.

I enjoy cruising very much, but it is a completely different animal than a land based stay. I have traveled to many places and one of my favorite memories was having the little bakery in Cambodia remember me in the mornings and have my coffee and croissant when I walked through the door. I met the whole family, and answered questions about America as best I could. Those things aren't possible on a cruise, but a cruise is a whole lot easier and relaxing because you don't have the push to squeeze in a million things in a few days. Your time in port is limited. I love both, but for different reasons.

I've only had the opportunity to travel to Europe once and it was in conjunction with a Med cruise. So I tried to make the best of both experiences by flying to Venice several days earlier than the cruise departed.

Then we cruised to Croatia, Greece, Turkey and several other Italian ports. We ended up in Rome where we spent another 3 days before flying back to London and spending 3 more days before flying home.

I hope to repeat the same thing in 2016 when the Vista comes out but plan on 3-5 day stays in Spain and France pre and post cruise.

I've lived overseas and have traveled to several countries (China, Korea, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Ireland, Hungary, Norway, Czech Republic, and others) and love land travel equally as well as cruising. They are for different purposes for me.

Cruising is a relaxing weekend.

Land vacations are sometimes more stressful than being at work, but are more fun/adventure.

I never want to go to South Korea again. ;)

Having visited different countries in 3 different continents (Europe, Asia and Africa) before I cruised I always kind of felt that you can have too much of any type of holiday.

I had wanted to cruise since I was around 10 I was always on sun soaked holidays in the above areas which I enjoyed but I don't like staying in the same place for 2 weeks now I am in my twenties. We have found cruising to be a really good way to taste countries to see if we would go back to explore inland. Its lucky to be in Europe because just by hopping on high speed train from London you can whizz through different cultures and countries in a day.

I would say a cruise visit counts as visiting that country. Its nice to not take a tour so you can wander round off the beaten track and sip drinks observing local culture.Its likely we will cruise for a few years then do land holidays again.

Crusing the Panama Canal this summer will tick off another 2 continents I guess as I have never been to the US/Central/South America. :D

I started traveling overseas starting at age 15 on a school trip to Italy, followed by one a year later to Greece. After high school I spent two months in Europe going to Ireland, England, Scotland, Belgium and Italy. I was supposed to travel overland to India going through Iran, Iraq and Afganistan, and afterwards on to Israel, but illness and a little war kept me from going on. Have also been to Mexico with a tour company I worked for. Worked for an airline for a couple of years and would travel to England three times a year primarily for dog shows.

The world is an entirely different place now. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable doing international travel these days. We discovered cruising and we love it. A week of having to think of nothing but when we want to go eat. No bed making, or cleaning, no cooking, no dishes. No worrying about bills. Except our S&S one of course! But after three cruises, we know about what that is going to be.

Cost is an issue too as I was checking into a 6 night trip to Disneyworld for 3 and it was $1700. Not including food. Our 7 night cruise we just booked is $1717. And travel to destination costs are less for the cruise.

I was wondering how many international non cruise holidays people have done and where to and how they found it compared to cruising?

 

I have done a number of cruises on a range of ships, but have done more time land based either working internationaly or on holiday. I hope to make some in roads to changing this soon!

I have been to Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada and France. I prefer this kind of traveling to cruising, actually, although the benefit to going on a cruise is that I come home relaxed, which is not the case when I travel to Europe.

We have done land based trips in Canada, Mexico, and all over the US. England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Egypt, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, & Thailand. We both now prefer cruising over land based trips. Although, we do still do some land based trips, just not as much.

I am not. I wish I was. Money has prevented this type of travel for us...well for me. LOL

Hubby is. He's been all over the place with his career. He loves travel

I prefer land vacations, but I still love cruising. I love ships, boats, just being at sea. I prefer beach vacations (Hawaii, Mexico, South America). Have been around Europe, Japan, and plan on going to South Pacific one of these days.

Europe, for me, is a lot of work. It's a lot more touring, planning, walking, etc. Not as relaxing. For me, cruises and beach vacations are my vacations to relax, which I prefer. But there's so much to see in this world, I haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

I wanna ride a bus again. It's not just for the untraveled.

I'm not well-traveled but I do travel well. I've been to England twice and France twice with a third trip planned for this June. We'll be doing 15 days between the Dordogne and Paris for my 40th birthday and my oldest child's HS graduation.

Europe is expensive to get to so we go for a minimum of 2 weeks. I have no desire to travel to Asia, South America or Africa. I'm just not interested in the history or cultures.

I've only recently started cruising and it is a totally different type of travel. To me cruising is a vacation, nice and relaxing. Travel is really digging in and experiencing the culture, food, history, art, etc of a place.

I think travel or a vacation is whatever each person wants it to be. I know people who have never been on an airplane and may go to the beach for a week every few years. They don't have the bug and that is OK. I have travel plans into 2016 already!

My travels, which average every month are both land and cruise based. I do travel Europe every year, usually involved in a cruise, but also at least an additional week. I don't do cruises, just to cruise (it seems some people do enjoy this) but I take cruises for where they can take me. I've been on 5 cruises this year, 87 total. Another next month to Alaska. I also go to Alaska and Hawaii every year, my preference, as well as a couple weeks split in NYC every year. :)

I do have the significant advantage of not paying for flights, which makes the world small. :)

I am in kind of a rut with my repeats, but they are where I want to be.

Well it's off to my eighth year at the Jazz fest in New Orleans tomorrow. :)

My travels, which average every month are both land and cruise based. I do travel Europe every year, usually involved in a cruise, but also at least an additional week. I don't do cruises, just to cruise (it seems some people do enjoy this) but I take cruises for where they can take me. I've been on 5 cruises this year, 87 total. Another next month to Alaska. I also go to Alaska and Hawaii every year, my preference, as well as a couple weeks split in NYC every year. :)

 

I do have the significant advantage of not paying for flights, which makes the world small. :)

 

I am in kind of a rut with my repeats, but they are where I want to be.

 

Well it's off to my eighth year at the Jazz fest in New Orleans tomorrow. :)

Lucky you, not having to pay for flights! I travel to London and Paris for work, so sometimes I combine it with vacation time. I'll fly to London, for example, for work for several days, and then extend the trip to travel around Europe. That way, the flight is paid for and all I have to pay for is the additional hotel days

For me, cruising is a way to sample places and that's why the DH and I love cruising to different ports as much as we can. Itinerary is the second criteria for a cruise after the price for us. If we want to really enjoy a specific city or country, than land vacations are the way to go. While I dearly love cruising and it is our favorite mode of vacation, sometimes you just have do go on a land trip to fully enjoy the total aspect of a region. We've done land trips in England, France, Italy, and Mexico (not to mention the U.S. and Canada), and have enjoyed them very much. Spain is the next country we hope to do a land trip to.:D

60 countries and 48 states and counting. We have lived overseas too. I don't think it matters if you take land or cruise vacations. It's the amount of research and effort you put into exploring new places.

Added: We are seeing the world one port at a time now.