Forget what you have been told about the best time to sail away to faraway places. Off-season cruise travel is fast becoming the hottest ticket in the travel industry, and for many good reasons.
Mild and comfortable temperatures, no lines at major attractions, better buys on just about everything, fewer tourists to dodge — even the food seems to taste better as restaurateurs mostly serve locals and rely on return trade, not one-time visitors.
Our cruise ship, the Viking Star of Viking Cruises, was at full capacity and often the only vessel in port on our two-week voyage aptly named “Cities of Antiquity.”
We traveled in March, but during high season, three or four cruise ships would arrive at these same ports daily, and you would be seeing wall-to-wall tourists instead of mingling with the locals.
The journey began in Rome, then south along the Mediterranean Sea to Naples and Messina, Sicily, and the tiny independent island of Malta.
After day stops at each port, we sailed northeast to the Greek isle of Corfu, then south along the Ionian Sea to the Greek ports of Katakolon, Kalamata, Crete and Rhodes.
Next was a surprise and unscheduled stop at Kusadasi, Turkey, where we had the opportunity to visit one of antiquity’s best-preserved cities, Ephesus, once one of the largest metropolises in the world. Excavations reach back to the 10th century B.C., when this city hosted one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis.
Ephesus is filled with wonders, such as the towering facade of the Library of Celsus and its massive amphitheater that once seated 25,000 spectators. St. John preached here, and nearby is a tiny stone house where the Virgin Mary lived out her final days.
Our unscheduled Kusadasi stop replaced the Greek island of Santorini, which had suffered a recent earthquake. For many passengers, the tragedy of the earthquake provided the opportunity to view one of the world’s top tourist attractions at Ephesus.
We had a couple of days at sea during our voyage to enjoy the amenities of the Viking Star.
An eight-deck ship, it has five dining facilities catering to every taste and formality (hot dogs and beer to champagne and caviar), a spa, pool, lounges and bars, and a theater with live performances nightly.
Viking is often described as a luxury cruise line, but it is definitely not pretentious or hoity-toity. It has a comfortable feel about it — like a favorite sweater, everything in its place — a sweet combination of Scandinavian simple elegance and Swiss regular precision.
Viking has won more than 60 awards over the years and is usually ranked among the top three cruise lines in the world, often the first. All this adds up to a return passenger rate of more than 70%, something almost unheard of in cruise travel.
Ephesus was just one of the port highlights we experienced.
The usual aura of the Colosseum, Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Oddly enough, many tourists were taking photos of a scantily clad dominatrix seated in a chair near the Colosseum, holding a whip and chain, offering all degrees of dominance. Heaven forbid!
The charming hilltop town of Taormina on the east coast of Sicily.
One could spend a couple of days here with its quaint shops and restaurants, sandy beaches and a Greco-Roman theater still used today. Again, visit off-season. Once the high season rolls around, there are huge lines just to enter what turns out to be a sweatbox.
Corfu, an island off the northwestern tip of Greece.
Corfu has a rich history shaped by conquerors and by royalty seeking tranquility. The island is also home to one of Europe’s largest public squares and a spacious promenade once exclusively reserved for the local aristocracy. Odysseus stepped ashore here during his epic voyage.
Valletta, Malta
The Knights of St. John built Valletta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This baroque wonder is one of Europe’s first cities constructed from scratch, cut from the island’s honey-colored limestone. The humble facades of its churches and palaces hide extravagant interiors of marble, tapestries and paintings.
Katakolon, Greece
This typical, quaint Greek port leads to the legendary city of Olympia — the classical birthplace of the modern-day Olympic Games — in the shadow of Mount Kronos. The well-kept ruins here transport visitors back to the days when athletes competed for nothing less than the favor of the gods.
Rhodes, Greece
This is Europe’s largest medieval town. Its remarkably preserved fortifications face the harbor and stretch for three miles, with some sections of the wall more than 40 feet thick. There is a lot of talk here about rebuilding the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the early Wonders of the World, but most locals believe it is only talk.
We concluded our voyage in Athens and made the almost obligatory tours of the Acropolis and Parthenon, even though we had been there before. We then spent the rest of the day enjoying the charming old quarter of Plaka.
Athens is often referred to as the “birthplace of democracy,” where revered Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle formulated new ideas in government for captivated audiences.
We could use a little of that today.
Dominick and Susan Merle are travel writers based in Montreal. Dominick is co-founder of the International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association.
