Paul C Thornton's New Podcast Series by Heidi Sarna Paul C Thornton is a passionate man. He’s led a fascinating and full life, enough so to inspire him to write an award-winning memoir a few years back. Originally from New York and now based in Florida with his...
sponsored Grand Victoria Barge Cruise Charter By Heidi Sarna We love when travelers want to tell us all about their latest small-ship quirky cruises. Here, Ron Maxwell shares details on his recent charter of the luxury 6-pax Grand Victoria. QuirkyCruise: When did you...
The Best Small Ship Cruise Travel in 2022 By Heidi & Ted & the Gang For many, 2022 was a year of travel, for getting back out there after two years at home tethered to zoom and youtube doing the virtual travel thing. And so, our QuirkyCruise gang was...
My Luciole French Canal Barge Cruise Review I Love Luciole! By Heidi Sarna Updated January 2026 Was it the first evening I fell for her? When the charming Luciole’s beauty was captured in a moonlit reflection in the Yonne River where she was moored, just below the...
Sweden's Göta Canal By Heidi Sarna. Updated March 2025 Our family summer trip aboard the historic 46-passenger M/S Juno, one of a trio of wonderful old small cruise boats belonging to Sweden's Göta Canal Steamship Company, was one of my favorite quirky cruises to...
Pandaw River Cruises Restarting By Heidi Sarna It feels like a lifetime ago that river cruising in Southeast Asia was up and running, thanks to the COVID pandemic that put a stop to leisure travel in spring 2020. And while parts of Europe, North America and the South...
Maine Windjammer Cruise aboard the J. & E. Riggin By Heidi Sarna Maine with its gorgeous forests, rocky coastline, thousands of offshore islands and harbors dotted with yachts and lobster pot buoys is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful sailing...
sponsored Windstar Tahiti Cruise Deals For decades, Windstar has been one of the most beloved small-ship cruise lines around. In fact, one of my first-small ship cruises ever was aboard the 148-passenger Wind Spirit with my husband in the late 90s, sailing a dreamy...
By Heidi, Ted, Jane & Ben Lyons. Updated June 2025 Barge cruises are often not well understood. Don't barges carry cargo? Well, originally the flat-bottomed boats were used for carrying freight, typically on canals and rivers, either under their own power or...
Rhine River Family Cruises By Heidi Sarna. Aug 2024 Update: The River Empress is no longer with Uniworld, but the line offers nearly identical Rhine River cruises to the one I took on similar river ships, including the aboard the 152-passenger SS Antoinette. By the...
If you can imagine it, we’ve cruised it! With reviews, articles and destination overviews, we’ve got you covered.
Can ChatGPT Make a Good Packing List? By Paige Okun & ChatGPT I panicked for the fourth time in a week about packing for an upcoming trip. I travel all the time, and while I’m not a great packer, I’m competent. However, this trip had me in a tizzy. I was setting...
Crew Members Removed From Victory's Two Ships By Peter Knego QuirkyCruise Contributor and Ship Expert Peter Knego shares his commentary below, based on his extensive cruise experience and contacts within the cruise industry. Updated August 16, 2025 Following my...
By Robin McKelvie I’ve long been a fan of Hebrides Cruises, whose sturdy wee Elizabeth G has spirited me out to the ultra-remote St Kilda archipelago and on other superb adventures around the Inner Hebrides and along the remarkable Caledonian...
Cruising with Viking in India By Anne Kalosh Starting in 2027, Viking is branching out to a new river cruise destination, India, with its own new vessel, the 80-passenger Viking Brahmaputra. It will ply the Brahmaputra River between Guwahati and Nimati Ghat in the...
sponsored By Heidi Sarna, with Judi Cuervo Updated March 2026 You’ve done the Danube and rolled on the Rhine. Now it’s time to experience a hidden world of Europe river cruises. It’s not surprising that the best way to discover unique Europe River cruise routes is...
New Ship on the Nile River By Anne Kalosh Waldorf Astoria's luxurious style is joining the growing selection of Nile River cruises with a new vessel to debut in 2026. The five-deck, 29-suite riverboat will operate four- and six-night itineraries, down river from Luxor...
By Heidi Sarna. I've taken more than 125 cruises during my traveling life so far, many small-ship cruises carrying fewer than 100 passengers. Hands down, these are my favorites. Thus, why QuirkyCruise was hatched. Among the many kinds of small ships out there, barge...
By John and Sandra Nowlan It’s a river cruise for U.S. history buffs but, as we soon discovered, it offers a lot more. Our riverboat, American Harmony, is one of 20 modern vessels in the growing fleet of American Cruise Lines, the largest cruise line operating...
Historic London Pubs Tour by Paige Okun If you have half day before or after your Thames River cruise and want a unique view of London culture, try Liquid History’s tour of historic London pubs. Pubs are an integral part of British life, with nearly 40,000 pubs in the...
By Stephanie Sack Stretching from the Canal du Midi in the south to the Canal du Nivernais in the north, the complex canal systems crisscrossing France are not just inland waterways — they are living artifacts of European history, once crucial for trade and industry...
By Paige Okun It was the first morning of our Greek island cruise. The sun rose over the Aegean Sea, and I was feeling relaxed and ready for a day of island hopping — until I reached for my phone and found it at 5% battery. I rifled through my backpack in panic. Then...
