Three Reasons To Book A Cruise On Iona

After 18 months without a holiday, you don’t need a reason to book one – especially on a brand new P&O Cruises ship. But, if for any reason you haven’t yet planned your Iona holiday, here are three reasons why you should.

Let there be gin!

Even its reputation as a mother’s ruin couldn’t keep the hipsters and housewives away from gin and sales of the spirit have tripled since 2009. Brits spent £461m on gin in 2017 according to the Office for National Statistics and the UK now has 315 distilleries, more than double the number operating just five years ago. But a gin distillery on a cruise ship? Now that is ground-breaking! Iona is the first ship to feature its very own gin distillery. Gin was originally drunk in London to help people forget the misery of Prohibition, but we’ll be raising a glass or two of the stuff to toast to amazing holidays on Iona.

Nostalgia with a 90s favourite

If anyone can make cruising even cooler it is former Blur bassist, DJ, writer and cheesemaker Alex James. Blur’s music formed the soundtrack to our youth and Alex is an icon. He’s cool, seriously cool, in fact he describes Iona as ‘a hell of a tour bus’. He’s the cheese maestro, with his dairy delights offered in restaurants around P&O Cruises ships, but one thing that isn’t cheesy is his taste in music. Alex will curate the onboard music for Iona’s many venues and he’s putting together one helluva playlist. He describes it as one that might see your Nan, kids and Kate Moss sharing the dancefloor and promised something to suit all tastes. So, whether you fancy cool 90s classics in hip adult hideaway 710 (surely he’ll throw a little Blur in there?) or ‘wedding bangers’ in The Clubhouse, Alex James is about to get your toes tapping on Iona.

Après ski at sea

We love skiing and we love cruising but the two rarely go hand in hand. Except now they do. Iona is set to offer some action-packed additions to the usual Norwegian fjords shore excursions and one of those is skiing. If you’re an adrenaline junkie who has been debating whether to cruise or ski on your next holiday, do both on Iona. Spend the morning skiing in Norway, the afternoon soaking your tired muscles in the infinity pool back on board and the evening doing après ski differently in one of Iona’s ten places to enjoy a drink.

What are you looking forward to on Iona? Find out more about new P&O Cruises Iona holidays.