My friend recently told me of his great experience on a mini cruise holiday he had had with DFDS seaways although P&O also do similar holidays. He initially went for 3 days and went for the more luxurious packages. He was used to going on specialty holidays such as carting and orienteering and thought this would be a nice relaxing change. The part that appealed to me the most was when he said that you can sleep during the evening and then when you wake up, you are in a different port, in a different country, with new surrounds to explore and adventure around in. Indeed he isn’t the only one to enjoy this cruise holiday. With more and more people in the UK going on a cruise holiday, the market is set to more than double by the year 2012. Experts in the cruise field spoke at the ABTA travel convention and with money spent on cruise holidays expecting to be nearly 2.6 billion in 2013.

I have looked into booking a mini cruise holiday for myself and have booked it for May of this year and received the itinerary this morning. I will depart from Harwich and then travel to Scandinavia, Germany & Holland, exploring all of these wonderful countries and having lots of fun in the process!

This new uptake in cruises and ferry holidays is said to come from the same types of people who go to spas, take special types of holiday like adventure or fitness breaks and who also enjoy theme parks.

Even if you just wanted to get away from the UK, the facilities aboard the ferries seem very luxurious and there is enough on the ferry to keep you entertained for weeks from what i have read. There are casinos, swimming pools, bars, restaurants and entertainment.

To capitalize on this new market, the main ferry carriers are already planning to build more than 40 new ferry cruise ships to be launched by P&O, DFDS (LINK) and other carriers in the early 2010’s. These will be state of the art ships with luxurious cabins, top-notch facilities and be the stars of the respective fleets.

Ferries cover everything from crossing channels to seas and the ferry is a mostly overlooked and overused form of transport nowadays that the independent traveler mostly forgets about. Indeed if you want to drive your own car or caravan to a foreign country then you will pretty much have to go via ferry and in some places it can be expensive. If you suffer from travel sickness then a ferry may not be right for you and a short ferry ride would be advisable to see how you react to it before you look at going on a 2 to 3 day cruise.

Many people overlook ferries and instead fly with airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet as they are mostly cheaper, but that is offset against the lack of space you experience and the views of the ports when you come to dock. Also the ability to arrive refreshed to your destination port because of the facilities on a ferry, meaning you can get a good nights sleep for that all important business trip or party!

I am already dreaming of that day in May when i leave the UK on the ferry and travel across the sea, whilst I am in the bar and drinking, then catching a snooze and rolling into a port in a new country and enjoying the pubs and clubs of the destination before sailing off home to the UK again. Happy times!