Cruising has fast become a favourite holiday among South Africans - every year more and more take advantage of cruise ships visiting the South African coast.
 
Some ships, like the magnificent Crystal Cruise ships, Cunard's majestic QM2, P&O Cruises' Oriana, Hapag-Lloyd's award-winning Europa and now the Europa 2, or one of the Silver Seas cruise ships are now regular sights in the ports of Durban, Cape Town Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay or East London, with even Mossel Bay getting an increasing numbers of calls, while neighbouring Walvis Bay is now also a favourite destination as is Maputo in Mozambique.

Apart from cruising between local ports or to Mauritius and Madagascar, South Africans can also make use of numerous fly/cruise options that enable you to join cruise ships in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Alaskan waters, the Baltic, South East Asia or any of the other exotic and exciting destinations that are available. Many of these work out costing much less than one might expect.
 
Much credit for the rise in popularity in cruising must surely go to the organisers of the popular cruises that have operated out of Durban and Cape Town every summer since the mid 1990s. The MSC Cruises on board ships like the Symphony, Monterey, Melody and now the MSC Sinfonia has introduced hundreds of thousands of South Africans to cruising -- no doubt whetting the appetite for more. Many happy South Africans take several of these weekend or longer cruises each season, regarding them as another opportunity of 'getting away from it all'.
 
We hope to enlarge our cruising features and articles, providing details of the most popular cruise destinations as well as personal views and impressions of some of the ships. In this respect we welcome input from readers with views about ships, destinations etc.