There’s something sort of majestic about cruise vacations. Floating on the water as you experience time away from work and life has a special feeling to it. Cruise vacations have a lot of fun benefits that you don’t get in other trips. There are admittedly downsides too. Many rooms are not exactly spacious and some cruise lines may not offer premium services. The old adage “you get what you pay for” can sometimes really apply. While most people think of giant luxury cruise liners that function as floating cities, there are also smaller cruises that offer more intimate experiences or travel on rivers. 

1 - Easy Planning Means No Stress

While some people like to plan out every detail of a vacation, most people find that to be very stressful. A great thing about a cruise is that it will give you an easy itinerary and offers you up a number of things to do in every port. If you want to take advantage of some of their great ideas you can. If you want to do your own thing, you can do that too! Regardless, the stress of planning a number of attractions to see on a tight schedule is gone and you can simply unpack on the ship and spend your time having fun or seeing 

2 - Travel While You Sleep

This is an especially impressive feature of a river cruise, but also applies to cruises that don’t spend a lot of time between ports due to distance. Essentially, you spend the first day in one exciting destination. You return to the ship, maybe have an after dinner drink and go to sleep. As you doze, the ship moves on down the river (or over the ocean) and you’ll likely wake up in a new city to explore the following day! It’s not that the views can’t be wonderful in the meantime, but it really does allow you to explore more cultures and cities than you might if you had to travel during the day from place to place. 

3 - All Inclusive

Most cruise ships are going to offer an all inclusive package. This means that you won’t have to be constantly worrying about over-spending on your trip, since your food and amenities are already going to be taken care of and there’s little to no hidden costs. If you accidentally over-spend on souvenirs in a port, you’re not going to have to worry or overspend to keep eating during your vacation! In a lot of cases, many cruise lines also have agents who will help people plan and budget for their cruises, even including the all inclusive nature of things. 

4 - Be as Social as You Want

If you’re someone who likes to meet different people, then going on a cruise is a unique opportunity to meet a large number of friends. You can do so through some of the on ship shows, meals or events. You can also make friends as you go off to explore the different ports. It’s possible to make some long term friends during a fun cruise that you’ll take home with you forever. 

5 - All the Amenities of Home

Almost all cruise ships have all the amenities that you’ll have from home. So if you want to keep a routine from home, you can. In addition to just having a gym, there’s often many exciting exercises like rock climbing, tennis courts and other physical activities to take care of. There’s likely also some wonderful classes featuring activities like Yoga or Tai Chi if that’s more your thing.