Final thoughts

Before you book a European cruise, give some thought to your travel goals.

Touring Europe by ship is not a substitute for an extended stay in one city or region. You won't get to know Rome or Paris on a day trip from Civitavecchia or Le Havre, and you'll have less contact with the locals than you would if you were traveling independently and staying in small hotels, pensions, apartments, or cottages. If you want to immerse yourself in the local culture while traveling by sea, consider building your own slower-paced itinerary with European ferries.

On the other hand, cruising is a wonderful way to travel under the following circumstances:

• You want the convenience of an escorted tour without the agonies of bus travel, daily hotel check-ins, and constant packing.

• You want to sample a variety of countries, cities, towns, or islands before making plans for future vacations.

• You want to visit places that you otherwise might not get around to seeing.

• You've been torn between a resort vacation and a European holiday, and you've decided that a cruise offers the best of both.

• You're combining a cruise with a land vacation, either independently or via a cruise line's optional land package.

• You miss the days of transatlantic liners (as we do), or you simply love traveling by ship.

In closing, we'd like to make a confession: Before our cruises with Renaissance, Silversea, Oceania, and Viking River Cruises, we tended to look down our noses at cruise vacations. We're now hooked on cruising--not as a substitute for independent travel, but as a change of pace that lets us relax while visiting European ports as sailors, traders, and invaders have been doing for thousands of years.