You may associate the word "cruising" with short jaunts to the Bahamas or Mexico. On those cruises, a lot of the experience is about the onboard fun, and some passengers never even leave the boat.
But if those typical short cruises out of Florida aren't necessarily your kind of thing and you are planning a trip with kids, there's a very different type of experience available in Europe that is worth considering.
I've been traveling to Europe with kids from when they were crawling to now, with one on the cusp of high school. On those trips, we've stayed in traditional hotels, apartments and even in a dome above the Arctic Circle. While all of the trips were magical in their own ways, our most recent almost-two-week European trip included five nights on a cruise, and this may now be my favorite way to experience Europe with kids.
Here's why cruising to Europe with kids during your European vacation might be an even better trip than staying in hotels on dry land.
Related: Best European cruises: Ships that stand out across the pond
Occupancy limits
First and perhaps most importantly, booking traditional hotels might frustrate you quite quickly when you're in Europe with a family.
Most of the time, you'll find that standard hotel rooms have an occupancy limit of two people per room — three if you're really lucky. Outside of some airport hotels and pricier family-specific rooms, you'll almost never be able to sleep four to a room in Europe due to occupancy limits.
So, for example, if you have a family of four, you'll often have to book two rooms — and whether you're paying with cash or points, that adds up quickly. (You can inquire about family plan rooms where the second room is at a discount, but even that can be hit and miss.)
If you choose the apartment or home rental route, there are other issues to consider, such as evolving laws and sentiments related to using vacation rental companies such as Airbnb, which residents often feel contribute to local housing crises.
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However, if you opt instead to sleep aboard a cruise ship in Europe, you can easily find rooms built for four or even five. For example, we recently sailed in Europe on Disney Dream and it has standard cabins bookable for up to five people.
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Related: Beware occupancy limits: How to save money when booking hotels for a family trip to Europe and beyond
Familiar foods when you want them
While eating and experiencing different kinds of cuisine is a big, fun part of exploring Europe for adults, that may not be the case for children. Not every kid is ready to scour a new menu, in potentially another language, for each and every meal.
When we travel, it can be tough to keep one of my kids fed since she struggles with eating unfamiliar food (though not for lack of trying). So, a cruise is a great option for our family. We can go ashore for a local lunch and then return to the ship at night for some easy comfort food.
For example, a few culinary highlights (for me) on our trip included lunch on a Tuscan farm featuring cheese, truffle honey and oil-dipped bread, and a paella in Barcelona.
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As excited as I was about those dishes, my 8-year-old was equally thrilled to see some familiar favorites back on board. In other words, it was a win for all involved.
Related: The best European destinations for families
See a lot without working hard for it
Traveling through Europe with kids is amazing, but it's also work. There's packing up, dealing with checking in and out, making sure you didn't forget that charger or stuffed animal, hauling everyone's bags to the train station or airport, unpacking, restocking the fridge, and on and on — all of that can get old quickly.
Conversely, if you are cruising Europe with kids (at least for a portion of your trip), there will be no packing or unpacking to deal with during that part of your journey. Simply drift away to sleep at night after sailing out of, say, Barcelona and wake up in Livorno, Italy, just a short drive from Pisa, while leaving the "work" of getting there to the ship. You get somewhere new to explore virtually every day without worrying about the logistics of getting there.
Not only do you have the option of some of the larger ships on lines such as Royal Caribbean and Disney available in Europe, but there are even some river cruises that are family-friendly, such as the Adventures by Disney river cruises, which opens up all kinds of additional ports and destinations.
By sailing from port to port, you can get a taste of an area without committing to multiple days there. The worst-case scenario with less time in each destination means that you may fall in love with a place and want more time. But then, you can always plan another trip there in the future.
All that said, it is worth noting that when you cruise in the Mediterranean, some of the frequently used ports are quite a distance from the major cities you'll likely want to experience. For example, the port used to visit Rome, Civitavecchia, is about an 80-minute bus ride from the Eternal City itself. The considerable distance between the port and Rome can lead to early mornings, long days and tired kids. In our case, we used our time on the bus to take some power naps and keep everyone happy.
Something for everyone
In my opinion, if you're going to Europe, you should do things that you can only do in Europe. That might mean walking through the Roman Forum, seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa or dancing under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And often, if you are traveling as a family, you will be doing those things as a family.
However, there may be times when some family members don't want to do things at the same time as everyone else for days on end.
Maybe you want to enjoy some jazzy piano tunes and a quiet drink at a bar while your tween wants to play basketball with their friends and your partner wants to go for a swim. After returning from a day out and about onshore, everyone can return to the ship in the evening to do exactly what they want to do when they want to.
A little time (slightly) apart can be a fantastic way to reset so you're ready to enjoy more experiences together the next day.
Related: How Disney makes cruising Europe easy for families
Cool off easily
A lot of Europe is quite warm in the summer — hot, actually. When we visited Rome in mid-July, temperatures clocked in at 100 degrees, and it felt even hotter than that.
In much of Europe, widespread air conditioning and swimming pools are few and far between, so it can be tough to cool off between adventures. However, if you stay on a large cruise ship, you will have access to not only some pretty great air conditioning (which means a whole lot, especially in southern Europe) but also pools, waterslides and plenty of ways to cool off.
Readily available 'easy button'
Just before boarding our most recent cruise, the kids needed something familiar for dinner on our fourth night in Barcelona. So, since I had spotted a global pizza chain across the road from our hotel that night, I fired up Google Translate, went online and ordered some pizza. It wasn't fancy, but I hoped it would be easy and affordable.
When I walked across the street to pick the order up, there was no pizza. There was no record of the order despite my email confirmation number. My Spanish and their English weren't meeting in the middle enough for anyone to understand the problem — or solve it. Magically, after an hour or so of confusion and two trips into the store, my order eventually appeared, but it's a good example of how sometimes the "easy button" can be hard to find abroad when you're doing it yourself.
On the ship, when we wanted a pizza after a long day exploring Rome, we simply walked up to the top deck and got it.
While each ship is different, some other amenities of a large ship that may make your life easier include a way to do laundry, really good air conditioning waiting for you, onboard medical assistance if someone in the group is unwell, and easily accessible staff members that speak your language in case you have questions or are in need of recommendations.
You may not need those conveniences, but knowing they are there can take away some of those stresses you may have in the back of your mind.
Related: I just flew these 2 kid-friendly international airlines — here's what US airlines could learn from them
Combine time at sea with time on land
Of course, if you do head to Europe for a family cruise, then you might as well go a little deeper and at least explore the city you're departing from. If you have time, you can even tack on more time in the city that your cruise will end in, too. That means you can get the best of all worlds: You can enjoy all the conveniences and made-for-kids entertainment available on the ship and have time to really explore Europe on your own, too.
For us, that meant spending more time in Barcelona at the beginning of our cruise. We had plenty of time to walk the Gothic streets; shop; feast on Iberian ham, paella and gelato; enjoy an evening stroll in Park Guell; and, of course, visit the Sagrada Familia, among other things.
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After the cruise disembarked in Barcelona, we took a train to Paris and spent several nights exploring there, too.
In both of those locations, we were often shelling out for multiple rooms each night, grateful for the easy days in the middle of the trip that we'd spent on the ship and — every now and then — really missing the familiar food waiting on the ship and the fun (and friends) readily available in the kids and teens clubs.
Pro tip: Some European cruises start in one port and end in another, which is an even easier way to make the most of your time in two different cities.
Bottom line
If you're nervous about navigating Europe with kids, first know that it is absolutely doable. But having tried multiple methods, I would highly recommend considering a cruise as an easy introduction to Europe.
You can visit various cities, see impressive sights and do it all with the familiar home base of your cruise ship waiting for you each night. Or, do what we did and combine some days on your own, exploring by land, and some days aboard a cruise with a captain at the wheel. That way, you can see more places than you otherwise would, and everyone can take a bit of a break and wake up in a new port to have as busy or lazy of a day as their heart desires.
As for my family, I now have my eye on a Northern Europe cruise, where we could perhaps experience places like Ireland, Norway, Iceland or even Greenland — it's an experience that would be tough to replicate solely traveling by land and air.
Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:
- The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
- A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
- 8 cabin locations on cruise ships you should definitely avoid
- Cruise packing list: The ultimate guide to what to pack for a cruise
- Which cruise brand is best for you? A guide to the most popular lines
- 21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
- 15 ways that cruising newbies waste money on their first cruise
- The ultimate guide to choosing a cruise ship cabin
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
