Winter is shaping up to be the new summer when it comes to Mediterranean cruises.
Instead of deploying all of their ships to the Caribbean and other balmy destinations when the weather in Europe gets colder, more cruise lines are opting to ply the Med’s waters year-round. And as ships are added, more passengers are gravitating to these voyages during so-called “quiet season” from November through March.
“We’ve seen a lot of interest in it,” said Karen Stang Hanley, a travel advisor with Chicago-based Q Cruise + Travel. “You get the benefit of visiting those port cities when there’s less tourism, more availability, and friendlier pricing.”
There are upsides and downsides to sailing this popular body of water during what’s traditionally been the least popular season, but major cruise line players are making the quiet season a little louder in the Med.
More ships are wintering in the Mediterranean
The luxury line Silversea announced that starting in late 2025, it will launch winter trips in the Mediterranean aboard its 596-passenger Silver Muse.
But some Europe-based cruise companies, such as MSC and Costa Cruises, have had a winter presence in the area for years. And against conventional wisdom, they keep adding to it.
The 6,758-passenger MSC World Asia is slated to make its December 2026 debut in the Western Mediterranean. Its 7-night voyages call on Spain, France, Italy, and Malta.
Viking, which got its start with small boats on European rivers, moved into the Med in 2015 when it rolled out its first oceangoing vessel. As of the 2025–26 winter season, Viking will have 5 ocean ships in the Mediterranean full-time, with a sixth vessel added for select sailings.
Celebrity Cruises began wintering in the Med more recently, in 2023. That’s the same year Windstar Cruises joined the party, which happened almost by default. Unrest in the Middle East derailed Windstar’s plans to sail in that region, so the line kept its 312-passenger Star Legend in the Med instead. Those off-season voyages between Rome (Civitavecchia) and Barcelona proved to be a such a surprise hit that Windstar decided to do it again the following winter—with more itineraries.
“That first season became so popular,” said Star Legend Capt. Mark Symonds. “People who were coming out for a week just to try it kept extending [their trips]. We had people doing as much as 9 weeks on board, back-to-back. They were just enjoying being in the area when it wasn’t the middle of summer in peak season. They felt more like locals than tourists.”
The allure of winter cruise voyages
Todd Lantz and his wife, Andrea, know what it’s like to cruise the Mediterranean in peak summer season.
“We did Greece in June and temperature-wise, it was just miserable,” Lantz said.
Avoiding Europe’s increasingly sweltering summers was a big reason these married physicians decided to take a Windstar cruise along Spain’s Mediterranean coast in February, when the waves are mild and so is the weather. Highs typically reached the 60s Fahrenheit (upper teens Celsius) and lows hovered around the mid-40s F (5–9 C).
Another selling point for the Greenville, S.C., couple: the cost. When temperatures drop, so do fares.
In the winter of early 2025, Windstar advertised a 7-day sailing from Barcelona to Rome in January starting at US $2,079. Meanwhile, a weeklong cruise in July 2025 between those two ports—albeit on a different Windstar ship—clocked in at $4,518.
“It’s not just the price of the cruise but also the airfare,” Lantz said. “I paid half what I paid to go to Europe in June.”
And because winter passengers probably won’t spend a ton of time hanging out on the balcony, choosing a less expensive interior cabin might not feel like such a sacrifice.
Winter means thinner crowds in port, too, which can be a huge plus in today’s era of overtourism.
“There aren’t a lot of lines, and it’s easier to just walk around and wander into places without having a reservation,” said Lantz, who’s leaning toward booking another cruise the same time next winter. This time, “maybe Italy and the Dalmatian coast.”
Potential downsides of winter Med cruising
Sailing the Med in the off season is easier for some passengers than for others. Retirees usually have flexibility with when they can travel. Families with school-aged children, not so much.
The scenery, for the most part, won’t be quite as vivid when the trees have shed their leaves and fewer flowers are in bloom. And winter’s shorter days means there are fewer daylight hours for touring. Even indoor attractions and museums tend to pare back opening hours during winter—but some visitors find the slower pace more comfortable and manageable.
“In some of the more coastal regions, some places basically shut down,” said Debbie Ames, founder of Foster Ames Travel in Boston. “In Italy along the coast, especially the Amalfi coast, they’re not really opening until the middle of April.”
There also won’t be as much action on the ship’s lido deck as there is during toastier months. Those big towels on the lounge chairs by the pool? Odds are you’ll spend more time lying under them than on top of them. But if you’re not the type of person who spends much time in the ship’s pool, anyway, this may not matter much to you.
You’ll also need to make room in the suitcase for clothes that will keep you warm—and dry. Many of the areas along the Mediterranean get most of their precipitation during the cooler winter period.
“We have occasionally had to adjust the itinerary for one or two ports because of the odd local storm coming through, but it hasn’t been extensive,” Windstar’s Capt. Symonds said.
“And we’d rarely get a response back from a port that ‘we haven’t got room for you because we’re full of cruise ships’,” he added. “We’re more able to adapt in the winter because there’s more space available—at least for now.”