British Isles Cruise

[sunscreen]

I am looking for some advice regarding booking a British Isles Cruise.   First ever trip to Europe and was planning for mid april-May.   I would really like to see alot of the castles and history as opposed to art galleries,etc.   Would I be better off with Mediterranean itinerary or stick with the British Isles?   I am partial to Royal Carribean or Princess lines and hope to pay in US funds as Canada to Euro is not great.  Any advice would be appreciated.   

[mskaufman]

If you want history and castles, British Isles is great (went last summer).  However, on a first trip its tough to top Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Naples, on the Med. Its been posted before but here is a link to my video from last summer.

 

 

[Nolafan]

What a wonderful video @mskaufman! Thanks for sharing! I am so looking forward to our July cruise to the British Isles. 

[mskaufman]

Thanks

[Globaliser]

9 hours ago, sunscreen said:

I would really like to see a lot of the castles and history as opposed to art galleries, etc.

 

To be frank, if your real interest is in castles and history in Europe, then a cruise is not a particularly good way to do it.

[edinburgher]

12 hours ago, sunscreen said:

First ever trip to Europe

You may find that following your first cruise to Europe that you will want to return for at least one more, so choose one of your options for the first one and save the other for another trip the following year

And I partly agree with the above observation that if castles are your preference, you would be better with a driving land tour rather than a cruise, or at least allow several days pre and post cruise added to the UK itinerary to go off and explore a few more castles, some of which may also be reachable by public transport.

 

Scotland has lots of castles and no two are the same, but not all are easily reachable without a vehicle or a tour..

[Harters]

As the comments from my two compatriots, a land based trip is the  way to see the UK's castles, which may well not be conveniently located near cruise ports. And, even then, you may need two trips (or one long one), to cover Wales and Scotland . 

 

But, in terms of your question about whether to choose a British Isles or Mediterranean one, then I have an initial suggestion. Find one of each itinerary with the two cruise lines that suit you. Check out the ship's excursions - not necessarily to book them but simply to see what is doable in a day. Whilst there might not be castles everywhere, there is always history. It may help you in your decision. 

[ABQrobin]

We just did the Regal Princess 10-day to British Isles and LOVED it.  Every port was good to fantastic.  Yes, if you love history and castles, this is your cruise.

 

we have 8 videos of all our ports here:  

 

 

[karatemom2]

In my personal experience, our British Isles cruise offered a wonderful opportunity to visit castles, cathedrals and historical sites which was a huge priority for me. Just to give you a sense of what we were able to do on our 12 day British Isles cruise with 4 days pre-cruise in London here is a list of what we visited:

 

London: Buckingham Palace

              Westminster Abbey

              Tower of London

              Churchill War Rooms

              Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre

              St. Paul's Cathedral

              Maritime Museum at Greenwich

 

Southampton Departure Day: Windsor Castle

 

Guernsey: Castle Cornet

                  WWII Sites and Museum

 

Cobh: Rock of Cashel

 

Dublin: Glendalough Monastic City

            Christchurch Cathedral

 

Belfast: Giants Causeway

             Dunluce Castle

             Titanic Museum

 

Liverpool (tour to Wales) : Conwy Castle

                                          Snowdonia Park

                                          Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

 

Invergordon: Dunrobin Castle

                     Cairn Liath

                     Falls of Shin

                     Dornoch Cathedral

 

Glasgow: Sterling Castle

                Castle Leoch

                Village of Luss

                Loch Lomond

                Trossachs National Park

 

Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle

                  Royal Mile

                  St. Giles Cathedral

                  Royal Yacht Brittania

                 

Le Havre: Omaha Beach

                 American Cemetery

                 Bayeux - for Cathedral and Bayeux Tapestry

 

Southampton Departure: Hampton Court Palace

                                        Stonehenge.

 

So, you can find that you will have ample choices of castles and historically significant sites if you prioritize those things for your ports and pre and post departure days. I will always remember our British Isles cruise as one of our most memorable and wonderful travel adventures!!

 

 

 

 

[WESTEAST]

1 hour ago, karatemom2 said:

In my personal experience, our British Isles cruise offered a wonderful opportunity to visit castles, cathedrals and historical sites which was a huge priority for me. Just to give you a sense of what we were able to do on our 12 day British Isles cruise with 4 days pre-cruise in London here is a list of what we visited:

 

London: Buckingham Palace

              Westminster Abbey

              Tower of London

              Churchill War Rooms

              Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre

              St. Paul's Cathedral

              Maritime Museum at Greenwich

 

Southampton Departure Day: Windsor Castle

 

Guernsey: Castle Cornet

                  WWII Sites and Museum

 

Cobh: Rock of Cashel

 

Dublin: Glendalough Monastic City

            Christchurch Cathedral

 

Belfast: Giants Causeway

             Dunluce Castle

             Titanic Museum

 

Liverpool (tour to Wales) : Conwy Castle

                                          Snowdonia Park

                                          Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

 

Invergordon: Dunrobin Castle

                     Cairn Liath

                     Falls of Shin

                     Dornoch Cathedral

 

Glasgow: Sterling Castle

                Castle Leoch

                Village of Luss

                Loch Lomond

                Trossachs National Park

 

Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle

                  Royal Mile

                  St. Giles Cathedral

                  Royal Yacht Brittania

                 

Le Havre: Omaha Beach

                 American Cemetery

                 Bayeux - for Cathedral and Bayeux Tapestry

 

Southampton Departure: Hampton Court Palace

                                        Stonehenge.

 

So, you can find that you will have ample choices of castles and historically significant sites if you prioritize those things for your ports and pre and post departure days. I will always remember our British Isles cruise as one of our most memorable and wonderful travel adventures!!

 

 

 

 

Agree and would add a few:

- Cobh: Blarney Castle

- Invergordon: Cawdor Castle and Urquhart Castle

- Belfast: Troubles history tour 

- Dublin:  Trinity College (don't miss the Long Room) + beautiful Cathedrals

 

[Cotswold Eagle]

6 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

Just to give you a sense of what we were able to do on our 12 day British Isles cruise with 4 days pre-cruise in London here is a list of what we visited:

Wow. Thank you for sharing this, which shows what can be done. I’m exhausted just reading it - you packed so much in! What a lot of planning must have gone into this great trip. It might be interesting for folk doing their own planning if you can give an idea of how you did all this - ship’s excursions, other bus tours, private or small group tours, or self-guided? It looks as if Edinburgh and maybe Guernsey were possible without a tour, using public transport?
 

You mentioned Castle Leoch, which is fictional (Outlander - I had to look it up, having never seen the series). I think you were probably at Doune Castle, which is near Stirling and apparently was used for the exterior shots (it has been used in other film and TV productions too). 

[karatemom2]

1 hour ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

Wow. Thank you for sharing this, which shows what can be done. I’m exhausted just reading it - you packed so much in! What a lot of planning must have gone into this great trip. It might be interesting for folk doing their own planning if you can give an idea of how you did all this - ship’s excursions, other bus tours, private or small group tours, or self-guided? It looks as if Edinburgh and maybe Guernsey were possible without a tour, using public transport?
 

You mentioned Castle Leoch, which is fictional (Outlander - I had to look it up, having never seen the series). I think you were probably at Doune Castle, which is near Stirling and apparently was used for the exterior shots (it has been used in other film and TV productions too). 

Oh my gosh! Yes, I was looking at what I wrote in my travel journal that day and that is the name of the castle I wrote down. But of course you are right - the reason we stopped there is that we had some huge Outlander fans on the tour so our guide made a point of including a brief detour there. That was the name I remember them calling it! : )

 

You are right about the planning - I spent months researching and we mostly booked private tours. In Guernsey and Invergordon we had private guides and in several other ports we booked through local tour companies. Discover Scotland in Glasgow, Odyssey Tours in Belfast, Busy Bus in Liverpool and Overlord Tours in Le Havre. We did ship excursions in Cobh and Dublin. And Edinburgh we did on our own using local taxi to get around. 
 

Everyday was fully packed as I was determined to see as much as possible and we made the most of every second. It was exhausting but also amazing and so worth the long days and tired feet!

[Harters]

10 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

FWIW, I've "skippered" a canal narrowboat across it. Great views from up there. 

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, WESTEAST said:

Agree and would add a few:

- Cobh: Blarney Castle

- Invergordon: Cawdor Castle and Urquhart Castle

- Belfast: Troubles history tour 

- Dublin:  Trinity College (don't miss the Long Room) + beautiful Cathedrals

 

And at Trinity College do not miss The Book of Kells.

[WESTEAST]

11 hours ago, ontheweb said:

And at Trinity College do not miss The Book of Kells.

Totally agree😀

[BarbaraEH]

On 11/8/2023 at 6:43 PM, karatemom2 said:

In my personal experience, our British Isles cruise offered a wonderful opportunity to visit castles, cathedrals and historical sites which was a huge priority for me. Just to give you a sense of what we were able to do on our 12 day British Isles cruise with 4 days pre-cruise in London here is a list of what we visited:

 

London: Buckingham Palace

              Westminster Abbey

              Tower of London

              Churchill War Rooms

              Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre

              St. Paul's Cathedral

              Maritime Museum at Greenwich

 

Southampton Departure Day: Windsor Castle

 

Guernsey: Castle Cornet

                  WWII Sites and Museum

 

Cobh: Rock of Cashel

 

Dublin: Glendalough Monastic City

            Christchurch Cathedral

 

Belfast: Giants Causeway

             Dunluce Castle

             Titanic Museum

 

Liverpool (tour to Wales) : Conwy Castle

                                          Snowdonia Park

                                          Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

 

Invergordon: Dunrobin Castle

                     Cairn Liath

                     Falls of Shin

                     Dornoch Cathedral

 

Glasgow: Sterling Castle

                Castle Leoch

                Village of Luss

                Loch Lomond

                Trossachs National Park

 

Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle

                  Royal Mile

                  St. Giles Cathedral

                  Royal Yacht Brittania

                 

Le Havre: Omaha Beach

                 American Cemetery

                 Bayeux - for Cathedral and Bayeux Tapestry

 

Southampton Departure: Hampton Court Palace

                                        Stonehenge.

 

So, you can find that you will have ample choices of castles and historically significant sites if you prioritize those things for your ports and pre and post departure days. I will always remember our British Isles cruise as one of our most memorable and wonderful travel adventures!!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info on what you can fit in in 4 days. We'll also have 4 days pre-cruise in May. I have several questions: Was wondering if your trips on your embarkation and debarkation days (Windsor Castle and Stonehenge) were done with a tour company that also took you to and from the port? If so, who did you use? Did you feel you really got to see those sites? I was thinking we would use two of our 4 days and take the train to Windsor and another day to Stonehenge so that we would have plenty of time to explore. But that leaves less time to see London. How late were you boarding the ship after the trip to Windsor? Did you also fly home the day you disembarked and went to Stonehenge? Thanks!

[karatemom2]

2 hours ago, BarbaraEH said:

Thanks for the info on what you can fit in in 4 days. We'll also have 4 days pre-cruise in May. I have several questions: Was wondering if your trips on your embarkation and debarkation days (Windsor Castle and Stonehenge) were done with a tour company that also took you to and from the port? If so, who did you use? Did you feel you really got to see those sites? I was thinking we would use two of our 4 days and take the train to Windsor and another day to Stonehenge so that we would have plenty of time to explore. But that leaves less time to see London. How late were you boarding the ship after the trip to Windsor? Did you also fly home the day you disembarked and went to Stonehenge? Thanks!

Happy to share some information. For our Windsor Visit, we shared the tour with another couple boarding our cruise and it was with a company called International Friends. They picked us both up at our respective hotels in London and we had about 2 1/2 hours at Windsor Castle. We got there just in time to watch the changing of the guard and had time to go through the whole castle tour and St. George’s Cathedral. I felt it was enough time for a first visit, although the town is so charming it would have been nice to explore there a bit. But I’m glad we didn’t shortchange any of our full London days because we really wanted to make the most of our time there. We got to the port just after 2 pm on walked right on the ship. 
 

Our Stonehenge tour was with EC Minibus. They picked us up at the port and we had about 90 minutes at Stonehenge which felt like ample time. We walked the grounds and all around the stones taking photos and explored the museum and exhibits and still had time to grab a quick cup of tea in the cafe. Then he took us right to Heathrow in plenty of time for our 5:30 pm flight home. It all worked out quite well. 
 

They were so great we booked with them again leaving our ship at Southampton this past summer when we got back from our Med cruise to visit Hampton Court Palace before heading to the airport.