UK departure ports

Sailing from Britain, port by port

Eight UK ports carry enough real inventory to be worth planning a holiday around. Each page says what actually sails from there, which lines board and which do not, and who would be better served somewhere else.

Cruises from Southampton

The UK's busiest cruise port, and the only one where the choice is wide enough that the ship, not the sailing date, is what you are choosing between.

15 lines

Cruises from Tilbury

London's cruise port in name, Essex in fact, and the home of Britain's short-break fleet. If you want to be at sea for three nights rather than fourteen, this is the port that does it.

2 lines

Cruises from Dover

P&O, Cunard and Princess do not sail from Dover. Nearly two thirds of what leaves here is American, and that changes what you can book far more than the map suggests.

7 lines

Cruises from Liverpool and Newcastle

Two ports, two cruise lines, one proposition: traditional British cruising that starts in your own city rather than five hours down the motorway.

2 lines

Cruises from Portsmouth

Twenty miles from Southampton and not one line overlaps. Portsmouth is Saga, boutique luxury and the shortest cruise on this whole site, not an overflow port for the big ships next door.

6 lines

Cruises from Belfast

Forty departures, and they skip the middle of the market entirely. Belfast is budget round-Britain or genuine luxury, with almost nothing in between.

5 lines

Cruises from Greenwich

The closest a large ocean ship gets to central London, and in practice Viking's home port. Almost everything else here is small, expensive and occasional.

5 lines

Cruises from Edinburgh

Seventeen departures, every one of them luxury or expedition. Leith is a small port with no mainstream cruising at all, and the Silversea ships here are the expedition ones.

6 lines

Why some UK ports are missing

Cruise ships call at more British ports than these eight. Most of those calls are visits rather than departures, and a port you cannot board at is no use for planning a holiday. Two ports do have departures and still have no page here, because there is not enough choice to build one honestly:

Bristol, with 8 departures on the books.
Greenock, with 1 departure on the books.

We would rather say that plainly than build a page around a handful of sailings and let you find out for yourself. If either grows, it gets a page.

Not sure which port?

Tell us where you'd rather not fly from

Answer in plain English and we'll match you to the ship that fits, judged on fit, never on who pays us more.

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