Ship at Barcelona cruise port. Credit: Wikimedia Creative Commons license

Planning for a Mediterranean cruise starts with deciding which port is a good starting point for the cruise.

At first glance, the decision isn’t easy. Over a 12-month period, a major travel booking site listed 387 Mediterranean cruises and 10 different embarkation ports in six different countries.

Anyone who wants to simplify the decision about where to begin the cruise could focus on the five most active Mediterranean embarkation ports. They are:

• Athens, Greece
• Barcelona, Spain
• Genoa, Italy
• Marseilles, France
• Venice, Italy

Part of their appeal includes their historical and cultural attractions. Less active ports include Cannes, France; Istanbul, Turkey; Lisbon, Portugal; Palermo, Italy; and Naples, Italy. They also have appealing tourist attractions, but they simply have fewer cruises from which to choose.

A breakdown of scheduled cruises among these 10 embarkation ports showed the following available cruises over a 12-month period:

1. Athens: 13 cruises
2. Barcelona: 78
3. Cannes: 3
4. Genoa: 32
5. Istanbul: 5
6. Lisbon: 5
7. Marseilles: 33
8. Naples: 9
9. Palermo: nine
10. Venice: 34

It’s helpful to understand that most Mediterranean cruises don’t travel throughout the entire Mediterranean (except for longer and more expensive cruises). Instead, they concentrate on either western or eastern Mediterranean destinations.

Western cruises are especially popular. They often embark from Barcelona, Spain, Genoa, Italy, or Marseilles, France, and visit various ports among those three countries. Other options include embarking from Genoa or Naples, Italy, and visiting the southern coasts of Spain and France. Some go as far south and east as Morocco.

Venice, Italy, is a popular embarkation port for eastern Mediterranean cruises. They may visit countries such as Albania, Croatia and especially Greece. Cruises that depart from Athens Greece will often tour the Greek isles.

Western Europe cruises embark from places such as Southampton, England, and travel south along the western coast of France and the northern coast of Spain.