Theme or Cultural Cruises

Theme cruises provide the opportunity to enjoy a favourite hobby, to learn new skills or just increase your knowledge. You can choose from a variety of subjects from gourmet cuisine and fine wine to music (pop or classical), culture and history. These cruises usually feature special guest speakers, performances by noted entertainers or related shore excursions and the chance to talk to leading figures in a particular field.

Learning Cruises
Cruise lines now offer lectures, workshops and classes in a variety of subjects:

• Some lines like Crystal offer learning programmes at sea, allowing passengers to broaden their general knowledge across a range of subjects.
• Others offer computer, art and language classes on every sailing; others include acting classes or workshops on personal finance, health and fitness, art, dance or Yoga.
• Some of the bigger cruise lines like Princess are now experimenting with tiered learning schemes. Passengers can attend complimentary general lectures on a variety of subjects like - for example - pottery making.

Theme Cruises
Some cruise lines, including Crystal, Fred Olsen, P&O and Silversea, offer one-off special interest cruises built around a specific theme, such as antiques, cookery, painting. classical music, football, health and wellbeing or dance. Visit our Theme Cruises page (navigation bar above) to see the full range of cruises available.

Cultural Cruises
Some lines like Hebridean Island Cruises, Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery make every sailing a cultural experience:

• Specialist lecturers are on board to offer a passengers a deeper insight into the places they're visiting.
• Lecturers are drawn from many disciplines - experts in ancient history and archaeology or former diplomats with first-hand experience of a country's culture and politics.
• In many destinations expert botanists, horticulturalists and ornithologists will be at hand to talk about a region's flora and fauna so the learning experience is not confined to lectures.
• Specialists also host informal question and answer sessions, and accompany guided walks and tours ashore, pointing out objects and areas of interest and providing background information.