Small Ships
Small ships are special to us - so special that we maintain a separate website (click on Small Ships in the column to the left). That website is designed to give a complete overview of the industry that is called Small Ship Cruising. Small Ship options are divided by company, where they sail, and has a healthy selection of itineraries with approximate prices so you can evaluate whether or not a small ship cruise is right for you and, if it is, which companies might be best for you.
We encourage you to take look at that site at any time. Here will will just go over a few points and mention some of our favorites - especially if they are offering any specials that you should be aware of.
What is a small ship? - considering the size of some of the large ships today, you might call a 1000 passenger ship small (at least by comparison). For purposes of our Small Ship site, we generally are featuring ships holding less than 500 passengers and most are actually less than 200.
What's the attraction? - small ships focus on destinations instead of ships, entertainment is a lecture from a naturalist or historian instead of a Las Vegas show, they visit ports that big ships can't, getting on and off when you get to port is easy. I guess, as we got older, learning something about the world became more important than dinner and a show followed by a few hours in a casino or disco.
What are the options? - that's really what our small ship site is all about so we won't go into much detail here. In a broad sense there are some small ship companies that send their ships all over the world (see the Cruise West button in the left column) while others focus on narrow areas. One of the most popular small ship hotbeds is river cruising in Europe (see the River Cruises button at the left).
Suffice it to say, we are very happy to help you unravel the
ins and outs and twists and turns of the small ship business - just
give us a call or e-mail.