​A Great Lakes cruise offers the opportunity to explore some of North America's must-see destinations. From beautiful islands to explore to breathtaking natural wonders that will leave you in awe, each stop promises a new experience that you sure won’t want to miss! We offer cruises that stop at some beautiful locations and offer the opportunity to travel in a luxurious way. 

We know you will love taking the cruise much more than driving and exploring on your own. The best part? You get to relax and have a great time even between destinations making a cruise on the Great Lakes a stress free, relaxing way to see parts of the world. We would love to help you plan your cruise today so you have a break from reality and enjoy a luxurious break from your day-to-day life! 

Here are our favorite must-visit destinations for you to consider when you book your next Journey with us!

​When you visit Mackinac Island, Michigan, you will feel like you took a step back in time as you will quickly notice horse-drawn carriages and Bicycles covering the island, because motor vehicles are prohibited!  You will also have the chance to enjoy some historic sights such as Fort Mackinac, which served as a stronghold for both the British and American armies throughout its time as an active fort. When you visit you can tour the fort and explore its original buildings, each restored to their original 1880s appearances.

Niagara Falls is one of the most popular natural attractions in North America. Yearly, it draws millions of visitors to both its Canadian and American sides, because it's one destination that lands on a lot of Bucket Lists! One thing our guests love to see is the spectacular view where the Niagara River flows from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, where it then forms three beautiful waterfalls: Horseshoe Falls, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls. If you want to see the falls make sure you book soon! We have many cruises that visit the falls including the Great Lake Cruise hosted by Tauck Cruises.​

​The town of Parry Sound, found on the eastern shore of the Georgian Bay in Lake Huron, is a charming little Canadian town. The area was designated as a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and is home of the world's largest freshwater archipelago known as the 30,000 islands. While visiting the Parry Sound, you will get to see many beautiful sights and get the chance to visit some very Popular Events. The popular Festival of sound is hosted at the Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts and Bobby Orr Hall of Fame are home. There are also a multitude of options for adventure lovers whether you want to enjoy boating, hiking, or even cycling, there is something for everyone!

​The Apostle Islands can be found lining the shore of Lake Superior, where you will notice some beautiful rock formations! They are home to 8 Historic Lighthouses, some beautiful sea caves, rock formations, wildlife & sea life, cliffs, and so much more! If you are looking for an adventure, no matter what type, you will find one to enjoy while visiting the Apostle Islands! If you are looking for a big adventure, The Apostle Islands also offer a one-in-a-kind Kayaking Adventure in 18ft Kayaks that take 2 people just to paddle! This excursion gives you the chance to get so close with the beautiful sealife and the neat rock formations that you can even touch them! If you are an adventure lover, you won’t want to miss a cruise here!

​In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, The Soo Locks connect Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which are maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District.  They are the largest locks in the United States. When you take a great lakes cruise that visits this area, you will have the opportunity to go on an Soo Lock boat tour excursion.This will allow you the opportunity to fully experience Soo Locks and the tour boat rising or lowering with the 22 Million Gallons of water. Aside from the Soo Lock Boat Tour, they also offer dinner boat tours and lighthouse boat tours as well. One of our top cruise lines, Viking Cruises, visits this area on their Undiscovered Great Lakes Cruise.

​While this destination may not land directly on the Great Lakes, it is a popular destination for cruises that extend into Canada. Charlottetown is considered the ‘Birthplace of Confederation’. This small history rich town is a culture filled adventure for any traveler! You can take time to enjoy the culture, take in the beautiful sights, or have an adventure for your taste buds and enjoy the unique cuisine! If you want to go out on more of a historic adventure you can head to destinations like Prince Edward Island National Park, the Confederation Bridge, and the Wood Islands. If you love historically rich places and visiting new destinations you should check out our Canadian Maritime Cruises as many visit Charlottetown.

​Thunder Bay, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior, is a must-see destination that blends urban attraction with the beauty of nature. Thunder Bay is known to locals as the Largest City on the Edge of the World. Whether you are wanting a destination that contains historical significance, natural attractions, or unique cultural aspects, Thunder Bay has something for you! 

​No matter what destinations you go to on your Great Lakes Cruise, you will have an unforgettable trip that anyone in your group is sure to enjoy! We are excited to help you book your dream vacation today! Reach out to us below and we can help you find the cruise that visits the destinations that you want to visit!

The most adventurous cruise line of the Great Lakes, Viking Expedition Cruises has just announced a limited-time sale to make their incredible cruises an even easier choice. Until October 31st, Viking will include free roundtrip airfare and their premium silver spirits beverage package with all Great Lakes itineraries and their St. Lawrence Seaway cruise.

It's no secret that one of the trickiest parts of cruising can be getting there -- especially with airfare slowly making it back to normal. Free flights to your cruise and back home can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars too. Essentially, this means you can focus less on what many consider the most stressful part of travel and more on what matters -- having the time of your life.

And, that's made even easier with the sale's other inclusion: Viking's Premium Silver Spirits package. While wine and beer are included aboard Viking's North American voyages, cocktails and liquor are not. With the package, which ordinarily costs $20 a night per person, you're able to order these beverages to your hearts desire.

Over at the end of October, this sale encompasses all of Viking's Great Lakes cruises, as well as their top New England and Saint Lawrence Seaway itinerary. Find all of Viking Expedition's cruises here:

​These once-bustling areas were impacted severely by this, and towns once full of thousands of residents dwindled down to the hundreds as many sought employment elsewhere. Still, Lake Superior’s North Shore communities held on, maintaining several local industries while creating a new one – tourism. Surrounded by virtually untouched, magnificent nature, this next endeavor was an obvious choice. Initially, North Shore tourism was only regional, bringing in visitors from nearby areas for weekend getaways and outdoor adventures. Attractions like Silver Islet, known for its underwater silver mine, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, Battle Island, and Kakabeka Falls (the Niagara of the North) were the most popular places to visit, located close to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Countless others were found along the Lake Superior region, leaving the North Shore dotted with locales primed for tourists. Conveniently, many of these destinations could be reached by Lake Superior boat tours, allowing an even better experience of the massive, seemingly endless Great Lake.

​Once locals and Great Lakes tour operators began to see the potential held for Lake Superior cruises, it was only a matter of time before it was proposed as an all-new destination for expedition cruising. This charge was led by Stephen Burnett, executive director of the Great Lakes Cruise Association, with the establishment of the “Lake Superior North Shore Inside Passage.” This new route would take a Great Lakes cruise ship along the top portion of the lake, from Thunder Bay to the beachfront city of Terrace Bay. 

​Aside from Thunder Bay, the journey brought the small group of cruising experts to the communities of Silver Islet, Red Rock, and Rossport. In between these destinations, they stopped at locations like Battle Island, where they climbed the historic Battle Island Lighthouse. Famously, the lighthouse had several of its top-level windows broken by a wave during a dangerous 1977 storm, 117 feet above the water below. Other finds included the Silver Islet Mine, a now underwater chasm that continues almost 1300 feet into the lakebed, and the Fort Williams Historical Park, the site where the North Shore’s fur trade took off due to a collaboration between the French Canadian and Ojibwe peoples.

To learn more about current cruises that visit Thunder Bay and the North Shore, engage our experts today – we're happy to be your personal Lake Superior cruising guide.

A fixture of the Great Lakes cruise industry, Canada announced that it will begin charting a new way forward for its pandemic-era travel. This comes after years of travel restrictions that have protected citizens, but posed a challenge to all forms of travel to Canada and the businesses that benefit from it. For most as of late, a negative COVID test or quarantine was required for entry.

Since April 1, 2022, Canada has updated its policy on travel, now allowing visitors who are vaccinated and carrying proof of it to enter the country. While not requiring a negative test might seem like a simple change to some, this re-opens cruise lines to the prospects of cruising to and from Canada.

With virtually every cruise line requiring full vaccination, travelers will once again be able to visit the lovely cities and towns of Canada with ease. The country draws millions of visitors each year across all its Great Lakes cruises destinations, from the incredibly diverse metropolis of Toronto all the way to the naturally beautiful Thunder Bay on the Lake Superior North Shore. 

At the end of March 2022, the US cruise industry saw CDC travel health warnings for COVID dropped. This comes after nearly two years of hard work, all beginning with the cancellation of countless 2020 cruises worldwide.

From that point, Great Lakes cruise lines and oceanic cruise lines alike have labored tirelessly to create the safest possible environments aboard their ships. Socially distanced spaces, all-new and always-updating cleaning protocols, and vaccine mandates have allowed our favorite cruise lines to continue doing what they do best.

On each and every one of our Great Lakes cruises, continuously evolving protocols that ensure guest safety allow you focus on the adventure, the history, and the magnificence of the lakes themselves. In addition, the same also goes for our St. Lawrence Seaway and New England voyages.

With the removal of the CDC's travel health warning and the continued popularity of close-to-home vacations, our cruises have filled up fast, and are almost completely booked for 2022. Next year, North American cruising is only expected to pick up speed; we're already beginning to see spots fill up! To learn more about our 2023 Great Lakes cruises and other offerings, Engage our Experts today.

New for the 2022 Great Lakes cruise season, American Queen Voyages has announced overnight stays in key ports of call, allowing passengers more time to explore their favorite destinations.

This comes at a time when more and more cruisers are requesting an extended amount of time to explore destinations. While a quick tour might suffice for most spots, cities like Toronto, Ontario simply can't be explored in a day. These new assortment of Canada and Great Lakes cruises from American Queen seek to tackle that issue by offering that most valuable thing -- time. 

On these limited new itineraries from the former Victory Cruise Lines, you'll stop in exciting destinations that feature a whole new suite of excursions -- from evening activities like beach sunsets to nighttime tours. The following American Queen Great Lakes cruises give you the freedom to explore more, all while aboard the classic Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator.

With our affinity for the Great Lakes, we greatly enjoy any opportunity to spend time in the cities that American Queen's added. Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, and Mackinac Island are extremely popular destinations for cruisers, each offering a unique experience that's packed with history, great dining, architecture, and more.

Cruisers are able to give direct feedback to the business, streamlining the communication process so that voyages are tailored to the desires of those actually cruising the Great Lakes. Essentially, guests are the ones who shape the future of Great Lakes cruising. We look forward to keeping you updated with more developments from American Queen and our other Great Lakes cruise lines as North American cruising continues to grow.

This past Tuesday, February 15, 2022, the US' Center for Disease Control announced a change to its current Travel Health Notice. Based on a series of events, from general COVID cases dropping to cruise lines establishing an extensive private network of preventative protocols, the CDC lowered its risk warning from "Very High" to "High."

Changing to just a High warning level puts cruising at the same level of risk as visiting countries that have weathered the pandemic decently well, due to high vaccination rates and other factors. Countries like South Africa and Indonesia ranked similarly on the list, all unrecommended for those not vaccinated, but safe for those that are. For comparison, cruising now ranks as safer than visiting popular European countries like France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, who still maintain a Very High warning according to the CDC. 

This new change follows months of hard work by cruise lines to establish next-level safety procedures for travelers. While the recent CDC guidelines for cruise ships have now become voluntary, you'll find safety requirements are still standard across all Great Lakes cruise lines. On board sanitation procedures, vaccination requirements, and other safety precautions now accompany vast networks of on-call doctors and medical professional testing.

It's no wonder then that cruising has been lowered to just a High warning level. The industry has invested lots into making this one of the most well thought-out means of travel in our modern era, ensuring that the immersive experiences, cultural adventures, and delicious cuisine offered by cruising aren't lost on travelers. We look forward to keeping you updated as our small ship cruise industry continues to evolve.

In recent news, the United States' Center for Disease Control (CDC) has announced a change to its existing Conditional Sail Order. Mandatory for all cruise lines visiting US ports, the Conditional Sail Order required each ship to adhere to strict guidelines regarding safety and sanitation. The CSO reached its expiration on January 15, 2022, transitioning to a voluntary measure. ​Despite the Conditional Sail Order no longer being mandatory for ships visiting the US, the CDC plans to continue to offer recommendations for cruise lines that wish to remain compliant.

Fortunately for our Great Lakes cruise lines, the previously required CSO functioned as the very baseline for established safety protocols. ​Already using much smaller ships than cruise lines Carnival and Norwegian, cruises on the Great Lakes keep travelers safe with less exposure to COVID. This is in part due to fewer travelers, even more limited capacity, and robust safety measures. In addition, most Great Lakes cruises come to port in Canada at some point, where they still have to meet practical guidelines for pandemic safety.

As of late, we've seen Great Lakes cruise lines' COVID vaccine mandates updated to combat the newest Omicron variant. All of the current cruise lines sailing in North America require travelers to be vaccinated, but several are taking steps to prevent the latest variant's spread by requiring booster shots as well. 

With these additional and existing safety protocols, our cruise lines are continuing to make small ship cruises on the Great Lakes one of the safest ways to travel. 

Here are our current cruise lines requiring a COVID booster:​

Hapag Lloyd recently announced that it's adventurous cruise ship, the Hanseatic Inspiration, would be returning to North America in the year 2023 to cruise the Great Lakes once again. After many hurdles caused by the travel industry's pandemic slump, ourselves and many others were overjoyed to learn that Hapag Lloyd would finally be making a comeback.

​The cruise line is known for its immersive German-speaking -- but English-friendly -- adventures that offer voyagers the chance to travel in places many other ships can't. Aboard the Hanseatic Inspiration, cruisers are given an intimate experience filled with culinary and natural excursions. Only carrying up to 230 passengers, the ship is one of the smallest vessels among our Great Lakes cruise lines. With its small size and a uniquely European feel, the Inspiration is one of the greatest new ways to explore the Great Lakes, providing an easy entry point for European travelers and a fresh point-of-view for those that've already cruised the lakes.

For their 2023 return, the line plans to offer a total of five cruises across the Great Lakes and North America. Sailing from May to early July, voyagers will have the chance to visit popular Great Lakes destinations like Chicago, Toronto, and the famous Mackinac Island while traveling in fashion aboard the Hanseatic Inspiration. The Great Lakes cruises individually range from 10 to 15 days, allowing for plenty of time to take in the wonders. With excursions like whale watching from a rigid inflatable boat and carriage rides across scenic islands, these cruises are sure to impress new and experienced travelers alike. 

While many other lines have made their return in 2022, Hapag Lloyd's 2023 return is wonderful news for Great Lakes travelers looking for a one-of-a-kind cruise. At Great Lakes Cruises, 2023 already has us excited for the future of the lakes! Learn more about our upcoming 2022 and 2023 cruise itineraries.

Transport Canada Minister Omar Alghabra announced that the health restrictions which prevented cruise ships from visiting Canadian waters would be lifted November 1, 2021. Minister Alghabra said "We will welcome cruise ships - an important part of our tourism sector - back in Canadian waters for the 2022 season." 

The original ban was set to expire in February 2022, so the difference between a November re-opening and next February is negligible, given that prime sailing for Alaska cruises and Great Lakes cruises generally runs from May through September. Most cruise lines have already canceled the remainder of the 2021 season and have focused their efforts on preparing for the 2022 season. 

The Jones Act is an American law that requires foreign flagged vessels to make a call at a foreign port before visiting another American port. This, combined with Canada's cruise ban effectively shut down all cruising in the Great Lakes and Alaska. The US Congress passed a law granting a temporary exemption to the Jones Act, allowing Alaska cruises to sail directly from the lower 48 states to Alaska without a foreign port call. The first revenue cruise departed Port Seattle on July 19, 2021, effectively restarting the Alaska cruise season.