For Getaway host Catriona Rowntree, trying to choose her favourite cruise route is like being asked to choose a favourite child. "It's impossible!," she tells 9Travel. But if you've never taken a cruise before, Catriona has what she calls the "toe warmer" cruise - a perfect way to get a feel for it.
"I recommend doing Amsterdam to Budapest," she says. "It's all the classics rolled up into one." Watch the video above.
"It gives you a bit of culture, it's a wonderful and gentle cruise, and it's not too expensive," she says of the Scenic European river cruise. "What I love about cruising - and why it is one of the most popular forms of travel in the world - is that there really is genuinely a cruise for everyone." No matter your age, no matter your budget, and no matter what you like to do on holiday, there's a cruise that will suit you to a T.
Especially with the rise of smaller ship yacht cruising, which is becoming the latest way to travel on the oceans. Now talking to her own personal experience on cruises, Catriona says that there was one cruise she took which "unexpectedly deeply affected me": a Scenic Eclipse voyage in the Arctic. "I loved going to Norway and soaking up the culture, learning about the great explorers, learning about the music that has come from there," she shares.
Of course, the wildlife there is stunning, as is the trip through Greenland up what is known as 'iceberg alley'. "All my senses were working overtime all the time." Another cruis.