How to plan an amazing extension to your cruise!

You’re going on a cruise, and you want to stay somewhere else to augment your trip. Maybe at the port of embarkation or disembarkation, or another country enroute. You’re planning an extension to your vacation.

But, when should you tack it on? Beginning or the end of the trip?

For us, it depends on what experience we want to get out of the land vacation.

Typically, on a cruise you are taken care of, and have all your meals prepared for you. You have activities setup for you to enjoy. And excursions are either purchased or planned for. Alot of our land stays we do all our own cooking, and walk everywhere. So, different types of vacation.

What type of land vacation are you thinking of? Do you plan every second of your time somewhere? Or, activities to keep you busy? Or, are you staying at a resort? Are you looking for the land vacation to give you the relaxation you want after your cruise? Or, do you want it to get you into vacation mode?

So many questions.

When I refer to planning an extension, I mean 3 or more days/nights in a destination place/city. Enough time that we would plan our time there.

When do you plan your extension for?

We tend to plan our land vacations for pre cruise if at all possible. Why? Because we love the pampering on the cruise to be our memory of the vacation time; and, it means our land vacation is active and followed by a lovely relaxing cruise. We like them to be distinct separate vacations in a way. If we have a very active cruise planned with lots of excursions, we might plan a pre-cruise in the sun or with less activities and more cultural wondering – museums and the like.

What do we book first?

The cruise.

The cruiselines we like include (but are not limited to!):

What next?

We determine how much time we want to be on vacation in that part of the world. When do we need to be home?

Then what?

We figure out specifics like accommodation, what we want to do, and when we need to be in the port of embarkation for the cruise. Once these are figured out, we book them.

When do you book your flights?

For this type of vacation, after we have figured out the start and end date for the vacation. We also build in a day or two at the beginning and end – this is just in case and to make the travelling easier and relaxing – we are on vacation after all!

Do you book your flights through the cruise company or a travel agent?

Depends. If there is a large group of us travelling, we may book with the group to secure a better discount for the travel and then add in our deviation for our land stay. We always shop around for our flights, and sometimes when we book is as much about pricing as it is about wanting to make sure it is done so we don’t have to think about it anymore.

Try planning an extension on your own!

Check out our post on planning a crui se and how to book it on your own.