A Jewish vacation aboard a Mano cruise ship

We have been blessed with eight grandchildren from our two daughters and the cousins make up four pairs of roughly the same age. When they reached bar/bat mitzvah, we took them on trips abroad.

The first pair, a boy and a girl, got to London to see the sights. The second pair, also a boy and girl, went to Scotland. The third lot, two boys, were taken on a safari to South Africa. And the last pair, whom we weren’t able to take because of COVID, recently found themselves cruising the Greek islands on a Mano ship at the age of 15.

As graduates of several very good cruise lines, we found Mano a bit of a culture shock. Some of our fellow-Israeli holidaymakers were difficult – loud, pushy, and demanding at times. The children enjoyed every moment, however.

We left Haifa on a Sunday morning, sailed to Rhodes one day and Crete on another, and got back to Haifa on Thursday morning – five days of really good food, entertainment, and sea air.

As we were slightly apprehensive about being in sole charge of two teenagers, we cleverly invited their mothers – our two daughters - along as well. We booked ourselves into a suite and two less splendid rooms on the same floor for our kids and grandkids.

The accommodation was excellent – clean towels twice a day, left on the bed in a variety of creative shapes.

The food was exceptionally good. The choice at breakfast was just like in the best Israeli hotels. Lunch and dinner were also evidence of creative thinking in the kitchen, with an endless stream of mouthwatering kosher dishes.

On the entertainment side, there was a troupe of four men and four women who sang and danced; they put on a Beatles evening, an Abba evening, and music from the movies evening.

There was even an Elvis impersonator who really looked the part, singing all the famous Elvis hits in Russian-accented Hebrew.

Visiting Holocaust memorial in Rhodes

In Rhodes, we were moved by the Holocaust Memorial to the 1,600 Jews murdered by the Germans. There is an old synagogue there but it was closed and the children just wanted to shop anyway.

The other stop was in Crete, where we strolled around and shopped some more. The children weren’t interested in either the history or the geography of the places we visited.

Several years ago, we stayed in an English village, near a Butlin’s holiday camp, whose chippy (fish and chip restaurant) we ate in a few times. Our cruise reminded me of that holiday, and our fish and chips suppers in Butlin’s in particular, as the people there and the ones on our boat seemed to have a lot in common. 

All in all, we ended up having a really good time!