The Time I Spent Over A Month Getting To and From Europe

Back in late 2012, I made the somewhat last minute decision to backpack Europe for as long as I could. I could feel that I was getting closer to a permanent teaching contract, and because I had worked hard to get to that point, I knew I wouldn’t want to quit in a few years to take an extended trip. It was now, or at some mysterious time in the future. 

So I gave myself about 8 months to save like crazy. During this time, I spent any free time researching how to travel on one of the more expensive continents, on a super small budget.  I had much more time than money, and putting up over 1200 for flights was an expense I wanted to avoid, so I looked for other options.  

On one of my google searches, I found a site dedicated to cruises. Sure, not something that usually fits into ‘budget travel’, but then a 350$ repositioning cruise caught my eye. What!? How could a 16 day cruise cost less than 25$/day?

Easy. How many people take a two-week vacation and choose to spend it crossing the ocean, only to come home again? Not enough. 

When you cruise, your accommodation is included. Your food (endless food…) is included. Most of the entertainment is included. You spend several days at unique ports of call, and spend extended days staring at endless ocean, cloudless starry skies, and what I like to call ‘forced relaxation’. 

Not to mention daily room cleanings, turn down service and chocolates on your pillow. 

The ship left Tampa, Florida, and made stops in Nassau (Bahamas), Kings Warf (Bermuda), The Azores (Portugal), Malaga (Spain), Valencia (Spain), and finally docked in Barcelona. 

I then explored the continent for 6.5 months and wound around to London, where I caught another trans-Atlantic cruise (actually, funnily enough, the same ship, returning for the winter Caribbean season) from London to New York, by way of Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland. 

Any guess on what these two cruises, totalling just over a month at sea, spent exploring 4 countries I might not have explored otherwise, with my food, accommodation, and entertainment provided cost me?

Give up?

 Just over 600 USD. 

Can you find roundtrip flights from the US to Europe for that price? Absolutely. It’s not easy, especially not if you need to go during high season; or want to go on a specific date. 

But, if you are like me at the time, I had much more time that money, I wanted to explore as much as possible, and I wasn’t finding a flight that allowed me to travel when I wanted to for less. 

Each direct took just over two weeks. While there are shorter journeys, most notably through Cunard (sometimes taking as little as 6 or 7 days from New York to South Hampton), the longer trips allow you to explore some interesting ports of call, to get off the ship every few days, and, perhaps most importantly, access cheap/free wifi (ahahah…but seriously. Onboard wifi is the single most expensive extra on a cruise ship. Allow yourself a break from technology and don’t spend your money here – although side note: recently I was able to remain in contact with passengers on a norwegian cruise in the Caribbean. They weren’t able to receive emails or browse social media, but the connection was strong enough to iMessage and exchange whatsapp messages. While this certainly can’t be relied on, it’s nice to think that cruise ships are realizing that it’s nice to stay in touch without spending hundreds of dollars). 

While ships continue to offer shore excursions, if you are an independent traveler of any kind, you will likely find a tour doing just about anything you could desire, once you arrive in port. If you’re the type to preplan (guilty!), you can arrange these on any tourism website, just remember that you won’t likely have wifi connection in your days leading up to your port of call, so make sure all arrangements have been made well enough in advance. 

If the thought of being on tour and for whatever reason, being delayed and missing your ship (because yes, it does happen. And you will be responsible for getting yourself to the next destination), scares you – and it should! – many sites offer specific cruise-ship tours which guarantee you will make your ship, or they will pay for your transit. Cruise ships will only wait for you if you are on a ship-run tour. For this reason, there are a few ports of call that it actually makes sense to pay the extra money for a ship-run shore excursion. (For shore-excursion tips, check out my post on the subject here). 

Remember that your cruise is exactly that. Your cruise. My first transatlantic crossing finished in Barcelona officially. It was only after I was on board and met fellow passengers who had made plans to disembark in Valencia. Sure, you miss a few days of the cruise, and maybe the last port of call, and you likely won’t have any reduction in price, but if you’re planning to return that way anyway, and your train trip cost enough, if early departure prevents backtracking, it might make sense to forfeit the last day or two of the cruise.  


If you’re planning your next trip, and you have more time than money, check out repositioning cruises you may be surprised how much you can save, and see!