After a summer of overtourism in cruise ports like Barcelona and Amsterdam, and talk of caps on ship arrivals in Greece and other places, the cruise industry has come up with a surprising suggestion for where to sail in winter: Europe.
Traditionally, ships stationed in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe in the summer move to the Caribbean and other warm regions in winter. But a growing number of cruise lines are positioning ships in the Mediterranean in late fall and winter when crowds are fewer and the weather tends to be comfortable. Low-season sailings in Europe also offer itineraries at bargain prices, often half that of summer fares.
The Mediterranean is second only in popularity to the islands of the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda for cruising, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. Its statistics show that offseason departures in the Mediterranean have risen 23 percent between 2019 and 2023.
“As the number of ships has grown and tourism itself has grown, more and more travelers desire to visit places when there’s not tens of thousands of other people descending on Europe,” said Samuel Spencer, the general manager of Ocean & River Cruises Travel, a travel agency based in Calgary, Alberta.
Isabel Rushton of Stoke-on-Trent, England, is one of those off-season passengers. A veteran of 76 cruises, she has sailed in the Mediterranean as late as December.
“You’ve got to accept you’re going to get rain and wind if you’re unlucky,” said Ms. Rushton, 76.
When it comes to sightseeing, she added, “The slight downside is that some places may not be open, but the upside is if they are open, they’re not so busy.”
Viking takes the lead
With multiple routes and departures, Viking Cruises has emerged as a leader in what it calls the “quiet season” in the Mediterranean.
Founded as a European river cruise line in 1997, Viking began offering winter sailings in the region when it added its first oceangoing ship, the 930-passenger Viking Star, in 2015. This winter, Viking is stationing three ships full time in the Mediterranean and will increase the fleet dedicated to the region to five in the 2025-26 winter season.
“We recognized past travelers would appreciate traveling in the Mediterranean during a time period in which it was still very, very temperate,” said Richard Marnell, the executive vice president of marketing at Viking. Midwinter temperatures in Barcelona tend to run from the high 40s to the low 60s.
Among 21 winter Mediterranean itineraries currently offered, an eight-day trip between Venice and Athens recently started at $2,999 compared to $5,299 in summer for the same itinerary, saving more than 40 percent.
Operating more than 90 ocean and river ships, Viking is closely associated with Europe, a destination that accounted for 60 percent of its passenger capacity in 2023. Restricted to travelers over 18, Viking ships target “thinking people,” as Mr. Marnell put it, who are interested in culture. Many are retired with the flexibility to travel in the off-season.
Victoria Hardison-Sterry, an Orlando, Fla.-based travel adviser with Lake Shore Travel, identified a demographic divide over quiet-season booking.
“Boomers are all for it,” said Ms. Hardison-Sterry, noting older adults tend to appreciate the value and have flexible schedules. “Honeymooners, if they’re going to be cold, they’re going to ski, and Gen Xers with families are more constrained by the calendar.”
Global realignment
A number of Europe-based cruise lines, such as MSC Cruises, have long offered winter sailings in the region. But the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 forced others to reposition ships originally slated to operate in the Middle East.
That’s when Windstar Cruises moved the 312-passenger Star Legend to the Mediterranean, sailing between Rome and Barcelona. Though Windstar had little time to sell the trips — the itineraries began last December — the company said it was pleased with the results and is expanding its Mediterranean winter schedule this year.
“The pricing is more competitive than in summer,” Mr. Spencer of Ocean & River Cruises Travel said.
The original Barcelona-Rome itinerary, repeated this year, spends seven days visiting ports such as Nice and Cannes in France and Genoa, Italy; it was recently priced from $2,028 a person. In comparison, a Rome-Barcelona itinerary in July starts at $4,799, more than double the winter fare.
Among new Windstar routes is an eight-day Rome-to-Venice itinerary in January that visits Naples and Sicily in Italy and overnights in Dubrovnik (recently priced from $2,238). Another new route plies the southern Spanish coast over nine days round trip from Barcelona in February, with calls at Valencia, Málaga and Palma de Mallorca (recently from $2,799 a person).
Celebrity Cruises also began year-round sailings in the Mediterranean in 2023. This winter its ship Celebrity Infinity, which holds 2,170 passengers, will ply the Mediterranean offering a variety of itineraries, including eight nights in Italy and Greece in January, recently priced from $987 a person, and a 10-night trip in February in Greece from $998 a person.
Fewer beaches, different excursions
Off-season itineraries tend to favor larger cities like Barcelona and Rome, which are easier — and cheaper — to fly to in winter, over smaller ports where services may be limited or shut down.
Value season requires some trade-offs. Major museums and archaeological sites tend to maintain winter hours, but some shore excursions may be adjusted to account for seasonal closures. And the experience may change with the seasons; if you’re visiting a winery in winter, for example, you’re likely to see leafless vines.
Viking said winter sailings have added a few new seasonal shore excursions, including a trip to an olive orchard on the Greek island of Crete during the winter harvest.
Small ships are also stretching the season
As small and expedition ships — which are more vulnerable to weather — tend to leave the region in winter, cruisers have a more limited range of ships to choose from at that time.
But over the past three years, Mediterranean small-ship companies have joined the larger cruise lines in extending the traditional summer months (although not as extensively), with departures as early as April and as late as November, said Todd Smith, the president and founder of AdventureSmith Explorations, an agency based in Truckee, Calif., that specializes in small-ship cruising.
Also on the small-ship spectrum, river cruises — which tend to go on hiatus after the popular Christmas market cruising season, when trips on the Danube, Rhine and other rivers link towns with holiday festivities — are expanding their schedules.
Last year, AmaWaterways launched a February cruise on the Danube River and was pleased enough with the reception that it plans to offer two departures (Feb. 23 and March 2) in 2025 aboard the 196-passenger ship, AmaMagna. Rudi Schreiner, the president of AmaWaterways, said that the line is planning four winter season sailings in 2026.
“The overall growth in demand for river cruising paired with the current travel trend of escaping crowded destinations is making the prospect of extending Europe river cruising throughout a 12-month period increasingly more viable,” Mr. Schreiner wrote in an email.
To the extent that it disperses travelers across the calendar, off-season cruising on both large and small ships is seen as a way for the industry to address overtourism, which the cruise industry is often blamed for.
“Having been in Santorini when it’s so congested and crowded, I can really see the pain in some destinations from overtourism,” said Mr. Spencer of Ocean & River Cruises Travel, who sailed to the Greek island in the high season in 2023.
Winter cruising will grow, he predicted, “Not massively but distinctly for people who are OK with a colder but more authentic time.”
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