There are holidays that you remember, and there are holidays that quietly rearrange your sense of the world. Cruises, when chosen well, tend to fall into the second category. A ship isn’t just transport: it’s a pass to places that would otherwise be complicated, costly or simply impossible to reach on your own.

Think of a well planned cruise as a shortcut to the extraordinary. Glaciers the size of motorways, deserts dotted with temples, fjords that turn into aurora amphitheatres at night. A flight can take you to a city; a ship can take you to a frontier. And because the hotel travels with you, you can go from penguin colonies to pyramids without ever packing a bag twice.

From the northern lights to the Panama Canal, here are nine sailings that deserve a space on your lifetime list.

Alaska and the Inside Passage

Glaciers the size of counties, salmon streams and bald eagles; Alaska is made for a cruise. The Inside Passage, carved by ice, winds among thousands of islands, fjords and coves. By ship you can reach towns that roads don’t: Skagway with its gold-rush past, Ketchikan for fishing lore, and Juneau, the state capital with no road in or out.

A balcony cabin here is worth the splurge; imagine waking up opposite the 76-mile Hubbard Glacier. 

A transatlantic on Queen Mary 2

Why fly when you can cross the pond with style? A transatlantic cruise trades jet lag for sunsets, sea days and time to actually enjoy the ship. The most iconic route is Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 between Southampton and New York: seven nights of libraries, lectures, black-tie evenings and deck walks, with the skyline of Manhattan as your curtain call.

Sailings are typically seven or eight days, with some round trips stretching longer. A seven-night crossing on 16 May 2025 starts at £899pp.

Northern lights in Norway

The aurora has lured travellers north for centuries; a ship just happens to be the coziest way to watch the sky perform. Cruising Norway’s fjords in aurora season (late September–March) gives you the fjord landscapes by day and, if the weather cooperates, the northern lights by night.

Hotspots include Tromsø and Alta, both in the so-called aurora belt. Lines like Hurtigruten even offer a money-back guarantee if you sail between October and March and see nothing.

Antarctica

The last continent is best reached by ship — with the chance to step ashore in boots or kayaks, spot leopard seals, and maybe plunge into polar waters if you’re brave. Icebergs tower over the decks, whales cruise past, and expedition staff deliver lectures in between.

Sailings run November to March, leaving mostly from South America via the notorious Drake Passage. Rules limit how many visitors can land, which makes stepping onto the ice all the rarer. Find out more about how to shape your own experience with HX Expeditions.

The Galápagos Islands

Darwin’s playground is a natural history binge: giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, penguins, albatross, iguanas and sea lions, often within the same day. Expedition ships can access remote islands like Bartolomé, Isabela and Genovesa, with two guided landings per day. The Galápagos National Park caps visitors at 100 per landing site, keeping it intimate.

Celebrity Cruises runs seven-night loops from Baltra. One sailing on 27 September 2025.

Mekong River

For a softer pace through Southeast Asia, the Mekong delivers villages, temples and floating markets between Vietnam and Cambodia. Cruises often start in Ho Chi Minh City and wind up to Siem Reap, with excursions to Angkor’s ancient temples.

The Nile, Egypt

A river that doubles as an open-air museum. Nile cruises typically begin in Cairo, with temples like Luxor and the Valley of the Kings unfolding from the deck. Shore excursions reach further: camels to the pyramids of Giza, spice markets in Aswan, and on-board Egyptologists to narrate it all.

African safari by ship

Wildlife meets waterfront. South Africa itineraries often mix Table Mountain, penguin colonies in Simon’s Town, and safari drives in reserves like Shamwari or Kariega to spot lions and buffalo. Some programmes extend to Kruger National Park, while others push east to Kenya’s Masai Mara or Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater.

The Panama Canal

One of engineering’s great party tricks: 50 miles of locks and lakes connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. Ships squeeze past jungle slopes, under the Centennial Bridge, and through the three major locks (Gatún, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores).

The takeaway

Cruises often get reduced to clichés about buffets and bingo. The reality, as these routes prove, is far richer. A ship can be the key to a continent (Antarctica), the stage for a natural wonder (the northern lights), or the best seat in the house for an act of sheet human audacity (the Panama Canal).

What ties them together isn’t just scenery, but perspective. Each of these journeys forces you to see the world differently: to notice the scale of a glacier, the fragility of an ecosystem, or the endurance of a civilisation. They are reminders that travel is meant to expand you, not just distract you.

You may not tick all nine — they’re a lifetime’s worth, after all — but pick one and you’ll carry it with you far longer than the photos suggest. And when someone asks why cruises, you’ll have an answer that begins not with the ship, but with the moment you leaned on the rail and realised you were somewhere only a ship could take you.