We’re all about cruising without the crowds. QuirkyCruise is THE source for reviews, news & round-ups about unusual & small-ship cruises under 300 passengers, from river boats to canal barges, sailing ships, coastal cruisers & expedition vessels. We also share special offers & info on private charters.
The latest small-ship cruise news by our chief news correspondent Anne Kalosh.
We review our favorite small-ship cruise experiences to inspire & inform. Here, we also share special offers from our cruise partners.
Here we share ideas for private charters of small boats, barges & yachts that are ideal for intimate friend & family groups.
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We do a deep dive on all aspects of small-ship cruising under 300 pax, with reviews, news, tips & destination overviews to inspire & inform.
When Will European River Cruising Resume? By Anne Kalosh An estimated 70 to 80 river vessels operated in Europe this year, including those of A'Rosa, Phoenix Reisen, Nikko Tours, Lüftner Cruises, Douro Azul and Scylla, among others. They carried only Europeans,...
Ponant's Summer Sailings By Anne Kalosh Ponant's Summer Sailings Ponant, which resumed service last summer before halting over the winter, plans a gradual resumption in summer 2021 featuring its new polar vessel, Le Commandant-Charcot, and sailings in the Arctic,...
Windstar Drops Alaska in 2021 By Anne Kalosh Windstar Cruises became the first line to give Alaska a pass in 2021. This news comes with the postponement of all sailings until May and revised routes to skip the United States and Mexico. The delay impacts the recently...
The Chesapeake Bay By Theodore W. Scull In the eastern United States, the Chesapeake Bay, fringed by the states of Maryland and Virginia, forms the country’s largest estuary measuring 200 north-south miles. Its present brackish expanse, only about 3000 years old,...
Hurtigruten Sells 1964-built Lofoten By Ted Scull Aficionados, do not despair! With almost any ship, aged 56, one would expect the next destination would be the last — a scrapyard where ships die. Nothing doing for this workhorse, having held down a proud place in a...
Running on Waves One of the world’s largest sailing yachts, the 42-passenger Running on Waves is a tall ship built with classic proportions and modern technology. It was built by the Polish superyacht yard Segel Masten Yachten and launched in 2011. This luxury...
Tradewind Voyages 2023 UPDATE: This company is currently not operating the Golden Horizon, as the ship is laid up once again due to various disputes. Golden Horizon as completed is a near replica of 1913’s France II, the world’s largest square-rigged vessel....
Skarv Lines Skarv Lines is an owner-operated, single vessel, small cruise ship company that offers rugged adventures around Scotland’s incomparable Hebrides. More unusually they also venture to the country’s Orkney archipelago and Scotland’s East Coast. While there is...
Atlas Ocean Tours Atlas Ocean Tours has a mighty powerful name for a company that is the smallest QuirkyCruise ship operator we have covered thus far. One-week trips explore the southern part of Haida Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte Islands) in a patch of Canadian...
Star Breeze Stretched And Transformed by Anne Kalosh. Windstar Cruises' Star Breeze has just emerged from what was heralded as the most challenging cruise ship lengthening ever undertaken. Besides being cut in half to gain a new midsection, the vessel built in 1989 as...
Tahiti-based ARANUI 5 Compagnie Polynesienne de Transport Maritime (C.T.P.M.) is a French Polynesian shipping line owned by the Wong family who have operated passenger-freighter ships in the remote South Pacific Marquesas Islands for three decades and cargo service...
St Lawrence Cruise Lines This one-ship line, started in 1981, is family-owned and based in Kingston, Ontario. In 2016 Jason Clark took over as president from his uncle, Bob Clark, who once ran it with his brother. The ship, the Canadian Empress, is a composite...
Heidi & Ted, along with their team of expert travel writers, have reviewed and traveled their way around the world, seeking out the very best in small-ship cruising. We have organized our reviews in six small buckets — river & canal, sailing, micro, coastal, oceangoing and expedition small-ship cruises.
If you can imagine it, we’ve cruised it! With reviews, articles and destination overviews, we’ve got you covered.
