The answer is both or really there are three because the Med can be divided into West and East - with in my view the East Med being exactly what you are looking for in terms of easy ports, walks from the boat and tremendous photo opportunities. To get there it is more sensible to fly cruise or maybe train and cruise from Savona or Barcelona. Big advantage for Fiords is that you can leave from Southampton or Harwich and again the scenery is fantastic but more like your Baltic cruise in terms of the culture. Other main thing is to choose the right cruise line - from your tastes I would stronly advise you give both Royal Caribbean and P&O a big miss, as they are now both like holiday camps as others on this web site have constantly testified. Ports of call that are fantastic for what you want should include : Venice, Corfu, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, Izmir (for Ephesus), Valetta, Naples in the Eastern Med Bergen, Stavanger, Flaam, Geiranger, Alesund for the Fjords. At the end of the day I suppoe you have to decide between the Mediterranean or the North European culture but both are wonderful cruise destinations.

We travelled to the Norwegian Fjords on Spirit of Adventure at the beginnig of August this year,weather was great and the ship fantastic.It is a small ship with just 320 passengers..perfect.

We did the North Cape cruise last year with Celebrity (Century) and loved it. 3 weeks ago we did the Med and Black Sea on the Azamara Quest and loved that as well, great itinerary and great weather. You'll love whichever you choose, but you take a risk with the weather in Norway even in July or Aug.

Norwegian Fjords with Fred Olsen is terrific. Avoid big ships with other lines - they cant get into some of the prettier small fjords

The Med has some fabulous ports and so many cruise liners visiting them that it is easier to say which ports may suit you. This could turn out to be a "which is your favourite Med port" survey but, for me, the best port for easy do your own thing with plenty of photo opportunities it has to be Venice (but preferably not during school holiday time when it is just too busy).

Hi, I am glad you enjoyed the Baltics I would like to learn more about that. I have personally only done the Med, we are not beach people either, but, if you like history and the sun it will be for you. Rome I found was a wonderful experience also villefranc we enjoyed going to monte carlo etc. Barcelona well that is so fantastic, we are going again in Sept this time Sardinia, Italy and France and I can not wait. Have never done the Fjords again would be interested in learning more about. So try the Med and enjoy. Best of luck.