Hi, we are thinking about a cruise towards year-end or early next year. We are very interested in a cruise that covers the Iberian coast - Spain, Morocco and Portugal would be ideal, but if it covers only Spain and Morocco, that's fine too. Cruise length 7-9 days. Has anyone been on this type of cruise, and if so, which line would you recommend? I checked out some cruise sites and got some hits for Costa Cruises but they all start from Italy. Thanks!

There is a 7 day, Adventure of the Seas, cruise starting and ending in Malaga but the only other port they cover in Spain is Palma.

Such itineraries exist, but they are few and far between. They are usually one-time itineraries for the entire season. If you are searching for cruises, look for cruises that call in the Canary Islands. They are more likely to include stops in Morocco, Portugal, or Spain, but I'm not aware of any specific ships or lines that offer these as cruises.

You might try a Spanish-language cruise ship like Ibero Cruceros or Pullmantur. I don't know if they offer Iberia-only itineraries, however, and they may be hard to book from the U.S. And you will need to be fluent in Spanish because English will not be spoken widely, if at all.

Thanks, it sounds like I will have to do a lot of searching. We would not want the Pullmantur cruises as we don't speak Spanish. Have you heard of Louis Cruises? They have a ship Louis Majesty that hsa some good itineraries and the ship looks nice.

Baby_Bear, regarding your question about Louis Cruises, this is a Cyprus-based cruise line that specializes in Greece and Aegean cruises. The line has a reputation for being very middle-of-the-road and not offering too many long itineraries. They do mostly shorter cruises from Athens but also some other itineraries. The line gets a fair share of Americans, but they are generally not the majority of passengers on board. There are some agencies in the U.S. through which you can book these cruises. But most of their ships are older and have smaller cabins and ships with few amenities. That's not necessarily bad since the focus of this kind of cruise is off the ship, but it's certainly a consideration if your idea of a cruise is on a huge Royal Caribbean ship.

Thanks Doug.