European Cruise Guide 2012

ABOVE: MSC Poesia cruises up the Giudecca Canal in Venice, Italy. INSET BELOW: Go Barging's La Renaissance in a French canal lock, and Holland America Line's MS Rotterdam in Oslo, Norway.

Cruising in Europe has become enormously popular in recent years, for several reasons:

• It's an easy way to visit interesting places along Europe's coasts and waterways. Once you've boarded the ship and unpacked, your transportation, hotel, and dining needs are taken care of until the end of the cruise. (See our Tour Europe by Ship article for an introduction to "port-intensive" ocean and river cruising.)

• Most expenses are built into the fare, so you know what you're paying up front. And when fares are quoted in your own currency, you're protected against fluctuating exchange rates.

• Cruising is simply fun--especially for people who enjoy ships.

To help you plan a cruise in Europe, we've put together this European Cruise Guide with brief descriptions and Web links for ocean- and river-cruise lines that welcome English-speaking travelers.

Where possible, we've included links to our own cruise reviews, and you'll also find a page of links to other cruising sites. In a number of cases, we've supplied links to ship videos from our collection of Venice cruise videos.

To get started, see our cruise line index or use the menu below:

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Most recent cruise reviews:

• Costa Magica (Costa Cruises)

• MSC Poesia (MSC Cruises)

• Rotterdam (Holland America Line)

• Renaissance (European Waterways)