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

The one UK port where the British lines do not sail. Dover is where American and luxury operators base a European season, and that changes what you can book here 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

The one UK cruise port that isn't reachable by road from the rest of Britain. Belfast means a ferry or a flight to get there, and in return a genuine mix of Viking, budget round-Britain and real ultra-luxury.

5 lines

Cruises from Greenwich

Viking's London base, and a genuine spread of boutique luxury alongside it. Worth knowing before you search: a third of what actually leaves this port isn't something we can find for you yet.

5 lines

Cruises from Edinburgh

Every single line sailing from Leith is Luxury tier or above, nothing mass-market, nothing family. And the Silversea ships that call here aren't the classic fleet, they're 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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