Europe

Mediterranean

Whitewashed islands, ancient ports, and golden coastlines from Barcelona to Santorini.

Overview

Sailing the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean is the classic first cruise for a reason. A single week can string together Barcelona, the French Riviera, Rome, and the Greek islands without ever repacking a bag. Itineraries range from big-ship western Med runs to smaller ships that tuck into Santorini’s caldera or Croatia’s walled coastal towns.

Best time to sail: May – October

Where to Sail

The routes within the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean splits cleanly in two. Here’s what each half is actually like.

Western Mediterranean

Art, history, and glamour. The easier region to fly into, with Barcelona and Rome as the two most common embarkation ports.

Barcelona, SpainNice / Cannes / MonacoRome (Civitavecchia)Florence / Pisa (Livorno)Naples & Capri

Eastern Mediterranean

Whitewashed islands and ancient ruins. A slower, slightly less crowded counterpart to the west, built around the Greek islands and Turkey.

Athens (Piraeus), GreeceSantoriniMykonosKuşadası (Ephesus), TurkeyDubrovnik, Croatia

Did You Know

Why the Mediterranean is worth it

1Santorini's caldera cliffs were formed by one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history, around 1600 BC, an eruption so massive some historians link it to the Atlantis legend.

2Dubrovnik's Old City walls are almost entirely intact after 800 years. You can walk the full mile-and-a-quarter loop on top of them with views straight down into the Adriatic.

3Rome's cruise port, Civitavecchia, sits over 50 miles from the city center. Most shore excursions budget well over an hour of travel time each way to reach the Colosseum and Vatican.

4Mykonos has more than 300 churches and chapels on an island of just 33 square miles. Locals say there's one for nearly every day of the year.

A Closer Look

What the Mediterranean actually looks like

Oia, Santorini
The whitewashed terraces cling to the caldera rim, built into what's left of the volcano after it collapsed into the sea.

Dubrovnik Old Town
The walled city from above, still fully encircled by the fortifications that have protected it for 800 years.

La Sagrada Família, Barcelona
Gaudí's still-unfinished basilica, over a century in the making, one of the most common shore excursions in the Western Mediterranean.

Photos: Anna Tsolidou, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Julian Lupyan, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

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