No-Fly Cruises From the UK: Ports, Lines and Destinations

A no-fly cruise leaves from and comes back to a British port, usually Southampton but also Dover, Liverpool, Newcastle and Tilbury. No flight to book, no airport to find your way round, no chance of a delayed plane leaving you waving from the tarmac. Destinations run from short trips to the Norwegian Fjords right through to full Caribbean crossings.

What is a no-fly cruise?

A no-fly cruise is a holiday that leaves from and comes back to a port in the UK, so you never touch a flight at any point. A fly-cruise is the opposite: flights are part of the package, flying you out to join the ship somewhere overseas and flying you home again once it’s over.

No-fly cruises are a growing slice of cruises from the UK, especially the ones sailing out of Southampton.

A true no-fly cruise is also “cruise-only” in the sense that there’s nothing else to sort, but that phrase usually means something else: a cruise that starts overseas where you book your own flights separately. The two get mixed up easily, so check the embarkation port before you book rather than just whether flights are “included”.

Most no-fly sailings are round trips, getting off at the same UK port you boarded from, which is why there’s nothing to juggle at either end. A smaller number are one-way sailings that still finish with a flight home, and we’ll come to those further down.

UK ports with no-fly cruise departures

Southampton handles the vast majority of UK no-fly departures and gives you the widest choice of cruise lines and itineraries, but it isn’t the only game in town. Passenger numbers through UK ports reached 2.9 million in the most recent year on record, up 45% on the year before, with 90% of that traffic through Southampton and 3% through Dover, according to the Department for Transport’s sea passenger statistics.

Separately, the number of passengers setting off from a British port broke 1.5 million for the first time, a 26% jump on the previous record, according to Cruise Britain.

Exactly how many ports count is a bit of a moving target: some lists name four main no-fly ports, others name seven, and others stretch to nine or more once you count smaller or seasonal ports like Hull. The port that matters is whichever one has a sailing to where you actually want to go, so check sailings from Dover and from Liverpool as well as Southampton before assuming you have to travel furthest.

Cruise lines that run no-fly departures from the UK

Most of the cruise lines sailing no-fly from the UK fall into two camps: traditional British lines built around smaller ships and extras thrown in, and the big mainstream lines that now run seasonal UK programmes alongside their usual fly-cruise business.

Saga Cruises sails almost exclusively from Dover and Portsmouth, is over-50s only, and includes chauffeur transfers from home to port, gratuities, Wi-Fi and most drinks as standard. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has the widest regional network of any UK line, with no-fly departures from Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle, Rosyth, Greenock, Dover, Tilbury and Bristol, on smaller ships carrying around 1,300 to 1,400 passengers. Ambassador Cruise Line calls itself Britain’s no-fly cruise line, sailing adults-only to more than 100 destinations without a single airport queue, from its base at Tilbury alongside seven other ports.

P&O Cruises runs one of the most consistent mainstream programmes from Southampton. Even the big mainstream names have joined in: Royal Caribbean’s no-fly departures currently sail only from Southampton, where Liberty of the Seas is based for a season covering the Norwegian Fjords, Spain and Portugal, France and Northern Europe. No-fly cruising clearly isn’t just a British-line thing any more.

No-fly destinations, from the Fjords to the Caribbean

No-fly cruises from the UK cover a lot more ground than most people assume, from three-night breaks to voyages of 120 nights or more. The Norwegian Fjords, the Baltic and the wider Mediterranean are the staples, all reached within a few days’ sailing of Southampton, Dover or Newcastle.

The Canary Islands are a popular winter pick, about three days’ sailing from Southampton, with Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma and Madeira all on the usual route; Saga and Fred. Olsen both run dedicated winter Canaries sailings. Dover and Southampton both offer regular Baltic departures reaching Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

The surprise for most people looking into this is that no-fly doesn’t mean nearby. Ambassador’s Ambience reaches the Norwegian Fjords, the Baltics, Iceland, the Arctic Circle, Canada, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, all without a flight.

A no-fly cruise can cross an ocean, not just the North Sea. If a long fjord or Arctic itinerary is on your list, a packable rain jacket that folds into its own pocket takes up almost no case space for the days the weather turns on you.

No-fly river cruises use coach or rail, not a UK-departure ship

A no-fly river cruise usually means something different from a no-fly ocean cruise. Rather than a ship leaving from a British port, you travel to the continent by coach or rail and join the river ship once you get there.

Saga’s no-fly river cruises start with a shared chauffeur service to the Eurostar terminal, then a train through to Europe and a coach on to the ship, with the crew taking your luggage from there. National Holidays runs similar coach-and-ferry river cruises from over 450 pickup points around the country, while Riviera Travel and Avalon Waterways both use high-speed rail from London St Pancras, reaching Paris in just over two hours.

Eurostar only runs to and from St Pancras, not Ebbsfleet or Ashford, so anyone outside London has to get there first. Most operators get round this by running their own coach pickups from regional towns straight to the ship, so you never actually need to reach London yourself.

Check each itinerary on its own merits too: National Holidays’ Seine sailings are proper no-fly trips with coach and ferry travel included, but its Douro cruises with A-ROSA include flights to Porto. “River cruise” doesn’t automatically mean no-fly.

For more on how these trips work, see our guide to river cruise options.

All-inclusive vs pay-as-you-go pricing on no-fly cruises

All-inclusive no-fly cruises bundle in extras like drinks, gratuities, Wi-Fi and transfers, while pay-as-you-go lines charge for most of that separately, so the headline fare alone tells you almost nothing. Saga has no single supplement on most sailings. Ambassador works the other way: drinks, shore excursions and gratuities are all extra, which can make its headline fares look cheaper than they end up being.

Before you compare two no-fly cruises on price, check what each one actually includes: port travel, parking, luggage allowance, dining, drinks, tips and any extras. That’s the only way to work out the full cost of the holiday rather than just the cruise fare, no matter if you’re looking at Ambassador, Saga or something like all-inclusive cruises from Southampton.

Solo travellers and single supplements on no-fly cruises

A single supplement is the extra charge for having a cabin built for two all to yourself, since cruise lines price cabins on double occupancy; solo travellers typically pay between 150% and 200% of the per-person twin-share rate. It varies by line and by sailing, and knowing how to avoid single supplement fees can make a real difference to what a solo no-fly cruise ends up costing.

Saga has a small single supplement only on premium cabin grades or the most popular itineraries. Fred.

Olsen sets aside a fixed number of inside and ocean-view cabins on every sailing for solo travellers at no supplement, with 26 on Bolette, 22 on Borealis and 8 on Balmoral. Once those are gone, a supplement of 50 to 75% kicks in, so it’s worth checking live Fred.

Olsen no-fly availability early in the booking window. Ambassador leans more on periodic no-supplement offers and solo guarantee fares, where you book at a fixed price and get allocated a cabin closer to departure; see how Ambassador’s solo cabins system works for more detail.

Off-peak sailings, especially spring and autumn departures from Southampton, generally show better solo availability than the summer rush.

Accessibility for disabled travellers on no-fly cruises

Accessibility on a no-fly cruise starts with there being no airport to navigate at all, which is exactly why plenty of disabled travellers choose this kind of holiday in the first place. That doesn’t mean every ship is equally well equipped, though: Ambassador’s Ambience has just 2 wheelchair-accessible cabins out of a capacity of 1,400, so these need booking well ahead.

Saga’s accessible cabins include solo interconnecting doors, and its smaller ships plus included port shuttles make it one of the stronger accessible options among UK no-fly lines.

When to book a no-fly cruise for the best price

The best time to book a no-fly cruise for a bargain is close to departure, when cruise lines discount heavily to fill the last empty cabins, though you won’t always get first pick of cabin grade. This works better for no-fly cruises than fly-cruises, because a late flight to match a late cruise deal can be hard to find or pricey enough to wipe out the saving.

Shorter sailings and repositioning voyages tend to show the most flexible solo and last-minute pricing, and it’s worth reading more on when to book for the best value before you commit to a date.

No-fly cruises vs flying to join a ship abroad

No-fly cruises are usually cheaper overall than flying out to join a ship abroad, because fly-cruise packages add flights, taxes, baggage fees and airport transport on top of the cruise fare, and sometimes a night’s hotel either side depending on flight times. The other risk with flying to an overseas port isn’t the cost, it’s the timing: if your flight is delayed or cancelled, you can miss the ship outright, with no way to catch up once it’s sailed.

A no-fly cruise from Southampton or another UK port suits itineraries that are naturally close to home, such as Northern Europe or the Mediterranean, and it suits anyone who’d rather not fly at all. The trade-off is reach: a fly-cruise can start much further from home, opening up itineraries a no-fly sailing simply can’t cover in the same time.

One-way sailings: sail out, fly back

Some itineraries offer a hybrid: you sail from a UK port on a transatlantic crossing, join a separate cruise round the Caribbean once you get there, then either fly home or wait for another transatlantic sailing back to the UK. That’s not a true no-fly cruise if you take the flight option, since one leg still needs a plane, but it can save time compared with sailing both ways across the Atlantic.

If avoiding flights entirely matters to you, check whether an itinerary described as “repositioning” or “transatlantic” finishes with a sailing back to the UK or a flight.

What happens on departure day: parking, luggage and check-in

Departure day for a no-fly cruise means turning up at the port, checking in and walking straight on board, no airport security and no flight to time your arrival around. Tilbury is reached by rail at Tilbury Town station and has parking on site for anyone driving.

Some lines fold parking into the fare itself: Celebrity Apex sailings from Southampton to Norway’s Flam include free Southampton parking as part of the package.

One real advantage of sailing rather than flying is that there’s no airline-style luggage weight limit to worry about, since nobody’s weighing your case at a desk. Cabin space is still limited, though, so it’s worth packing with a bit of sense, especially on a longer no-fly itinerary that covers several climates.

No-fly cruises FAQs

What is a no-fly cruise?

A no-fly cruise departs from and returns to a port in the UK, so you never need a flight at any point, unlike a fly-cruise where flights to and from an overseas port are built into the package.

Can I take a no-fly cruise to the Caribbean?

A no-fly cruise to the Caribbean is possible, though it means several days crossing the Atlantic each way; Ambassador’s Ambience, sailing from Tilbury, is one example of a ship that gets there entirely without flying.

Do no-fly cruises cost less than fly-cruises?

No-fly cruises usually cost less overall than fly-cruises, since fly-cruise fares add flights, taxes, baggage fees and airport transport on top of the cruise itself, though it’s worth comparing the full cost of each option.

Which UK port has the most no-fly departures?

Southampton handles the large majority of UK no-fly departures, with the widest choice of cruise lines and itineraries of any British port.

Are all no-fly cruises all-inclusive?

Not all no-fly cruises are all-inclusive, it varies by line: Saga includes drinks, gratuities and Wi-Fi as standard on most sailings, while Ambassador charges for drinks, excursions and gratuities separately.

Is there a single supplement on no-fly cruises?

A single supplement on no-fly cruises depends on the line and sailing. Saga has none on most sailings, while Fred. Olsen offers a limited number of no-supplement cabins before a 50 to 75% supplement applies.

Can I do a no-fly river cruise from the UK?

A no-fly river cruise from the UK is possible, but it usually means travelling to the continent by coach or high-speed rail and joining the river ship there, rather than sailing from a UK port.

When is the best time to book a no-fly cruise for a bargain?

The best time to book a no-fly cruise for a bargain is close to departure, when cruise lines discount remaining cabins to fill the ship, and it’s more reliable than a last-minute fly-cruise since there’s no flight to match.

Are no-fly cruises accessible for wheelchair users?

Accessibility for wheelchair users on no-fly cruises varies by ship, so check accessible cabin numbers before booking; Ambassador’s Ambience, for example, has just 2 wheelchair-accessible cabins out of a capacity of 1,400.