PICTURE: VISIT BRITAIN/ROD EDWARDS


CRUISE ROUND-BRITAIN DESTINATIONS


◗ BEST OF BRITISH From Liverpool they can do a Beatles tour or join outings to Chester or the Lake District. Cunard offers afternoon tea with the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, plus a chance to go into the bell chamber of the city’s Anglican cathedral and onto the rooftop for views of the metropolis below. From Invergordon, they can


search for monsters in Loch Ness, tour medieval Cawdor Castle and visit Culloden Moor, site of the last battle fought on British soil, when government troops defeated Charles Edward Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie, in 1746. They can climb aboard former


royal yacht Britannia in Rosyth, learn about the Titanic in Belfast, where the ill-fated ship was built, and explore Cobh, its last port of call before being sunk by an iceberg in the Atlantic in 1912. In Newcastle, there’s the Angel of the North, a 66-foot- high sculpture with a 177-foot wingspan, or tours to Durham, just over an hour away, where a Unesco-listed cathedral and a Norman castle built in 1072 are highlights. Most cruises also visit St Peter


Port in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, where the beach, Second


We focus on remote islands that clients might not have seen and are expensive to visit any other way


World War museums (the island was occupied by the Germans from 1940 to 1945) or round- island tour are among options.


◗ SEA OF OPPORTUNITY Cruise & Maritime Voyages is the champ when it comes to cruising the British Isles, with 13 departures in 2019 that are already filling fast. CMV head of marketing Mike


Hall says round-Britain cruises in June, July and August are its top-selling itineraries (a 10-night cruise on Columbus next June is already wait-listed) and tend to attract older, well-travelled clients keen to visit places on their doorstep they have never seen. Cruises range from 10 to 14 nights and depart from UK ports including Portsmouth, Tilbury, Cardiff, Poole and Avonmouth. Hall says: “We focus on remote outer islands such as the Orkneys or Isles of Scilly, which our clients might not have seen and are expensive to visit any other way.” An 11-night cruise from


LEFT: Cavern Club, Liverpool


ABOVE LEFT: St Peter Port, Guernsey


ABOVE RIGHT: CMV’s Columbus


Avonmouth on Marco Polo next April calls in to the Isles of Scilly, the Orkneys, the Outer Hebrides and the Isle of Mull, as well as Newcastle and Belfast. A 12-night voyage round-trip from Tilbury on Columbus in September visits the Orkneys, Isle of Skye, Isles of Scilly and Channel Islands, as


well as Belfast, Dublin and Cobh. Prices from £1,589 per person. Every year, Princess Cruises


dedicates one ship to a summer season of 12-night round-Britain sailings (it’s Crown Princess in 2019), which offer an in- depth tour of the UK aimed at Americans, but are increasingly popular with British clients. Tony Roberts, vice-president UK and Europe, says UK bookings for round-Britain cruises this year are up more than 30% year on year. “Cruising with Princess is more cost-effective than weekend city breaks, and you get the variety a cruise offers,” he says. A British Isles with Liverpool


cruise, priced from £1,549 per person in May 2019, takes in Liverpool, Belfast, Greenock (the port for Glasgow), South Queensferry (for Edinburgh), Cobh and Dublin in Ireland, and St Peter Port in Guernsey. Selected departures stay two


days in Dublin or venture north to Kirkwall in the Orkneys, where tours visit the Ring of Brodgar (like Stonehenge, but smaller and you can get close to the monoliths), the stone-age settlement of Skara Brae and include a food- and-whisky-tasting adventure.


◗ HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has dropped its round-Britain


25 October 2018 travelweekly.co.uk 49


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