Easter at sea, the spring sailings from British ports

An Easter cruise from a British port is a particular kind of holiday. It is short, it does not involve a flight, and it fits neatly into the school holidays and the long weekend. It sails at the turn of the season, when the North Sea can still be grey and lively but the ports on the other side are beginning to bloom. And it suits people who would rather spend the Easter weekend being looked after than cooking for a crowd.

In 2027, Easter Sunday is on 28 March, which is early. Good Friday is 26 March and Easter Monday 29 March. The sailings timed for it run from late March into April, and on that calendar spring in northern Europe is only just getting under way: magnolias and early bulbs in flower, the trees still bare, the light lengthening by the day.

Bulbs and canals: Holland and Belgium

The classic spring voyage from Britain goes to the Netherlands, for the bulbs. The great show is Keukenhof, near Lisse, a park of about thirty-two hectares planted every autumn with some seven million bulbs, which opens for only a few weeks each spring. In 2027 it is expected to open on 18 March and close on 9 May, so an Easter visit falls in its first weeks, when the early tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are out. The fields around it, where the bulbs are grown commercially, flower in great stripes of colour later in April. Tickets for Keukenhof are sold in timed slots and need to be booked ahead.

Ambassador's four-night Easter Gardens of Holland and Belgium sails from London Tilbury in April, with IJmuiden, Amsterdam, Zeebrugge and Bruges in its list. IJmuiden is the port for Amsterdam, at the mouth of the North Sea Canal; Zeebrugge is the port for Bruges, the medieval Flemish city of canals, brick gables and belfry, a short way inland.

Ambassador's five-night Coasts & Canals - Easter Short Break, from London Tilbury in March, takes a different line: Honfleur and Cherbourg on the Normandy coast, then IJmuiden and Amsterdam. Honfleur is one of the prettiest harbours in France, a small port of tall, slate-hung houses around an old basin, painted again and again by the artists of the nineteenth century, and Amsterdam in early spring, before the summer crowds, is a city of canals, bicycles and bare trees just coming into leaf.

The Scandinavian capitals

The other direction is north. Fred. Olsen's eight-night Cosy Capitals of Scandinavia at Easter sails from Newcastle in March, with Oslo, Malmö and Copenhagen in its list. In late March the Scandinavian spring is only just beginning, and the voyage up the Oslofjord can still have snow on the shore. The cities, though, are at their most hospitable, with candles in the windows, cafés full and the special foods of Easter in the bakeries. Scandinavians take Easter seriously as a holiday: in Norway in particular, many people head to the mountains for the last skiing of the season, and some shops and museums keep holiday hours over the long weekend.

What to expect of a spring sailing

The weather is the main variable. The North Sea in March and April can be calm and sunny, or it can blow, and a short cruise does not have many spare days to absorb a rough crossing. Pack layers, a warm coat and a hat for the deck, and expect the temperatures ashore to be closer to a British spring than a Mediterranean one. If you are prone to seasickness, take the remedies you trust, and choose a cabin low and in the middle of the ship.

On board, Easter is usually marked in some way, though what is offered varies from ship to ship and line to line, and it is worth asking before you book if particular arrangements matter to you.

Ashore, plan around the holiday. Easter Monday is a public holiday in much of northern Europe, and in Scandinavia Good Friday is too; on those days, and on Easter Sunday itself, some museums, shops and attractions close or keep shorter hours. Check before you plan a day around one, though the old towns are pleasant to walk whatever is open.

And on the last morning, be on deck as the ship comes home up the Thames or the Tyne. A spring arrival in a British river, with the light growing and the gulls overhead, is a good way to end any holiday, and a better way to end Easter than a motorway queue.