German cruise line Nicko has opened bookings for its 2028 summer ocean voyages, and the programme leans heavily into the north. Managing Director Guido Laukamp unveiled the deployment at a digital press conference, centring it all on one ship: the Vasco da Gama.
The season runs from 13 to 23 days per voyage — long by mainstream cruise standards — and stretches across Scandinavia, the Baltic, the British Isles, the Atlantic coast and the Arctic. Nicko frames it under its "time to discover" banner, which translates into smaller ports, varied shore excursions and longer stretches of time actually on land rather than queuing to get off the ship.
The Baltic gets the most attention. Two 13-night sailings leave Kiel in June and July, calling in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Poland. A third Baltic cruise in August adds Gdańsk, the Danish island of Bornholm, Malmö and Copenhagen to the mix.
Western Europe features three itineraries, departing in May, August and September. These cover the British Isles, the Spanish Atlantic coast, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal — a route that works well for anyone who prefers port cities and coastal towns to beach days.
The headline trip is a 23-day Arctic voyage taking in Iceland, Spitsbergen and the North Cape, the kind of itinerary where you trade quantity of ports for genuinely remote destinations. The Vasco da Gama will also cruise the Norwegian fjords, with departures from both Kiel and Hamburg — handy if you'd rather start your holiday from northern Germany than fly to a distant embarkation port.
Five more cruises for the same ship and season are still under wraps, pencilled in for the Mediterranean and due to be announced in January 2027. Everything currently on sale is detailed in Nicko's Ocean Voyages 2028 brochure.
Why it matters: Nicko sits in the small-ship, destination-focused corner of the cruising market, and sailings of two to three weeks suit travellers with time to spare who want depth over a quick sampler. If a Baltic or Arctic trip is on your wish list for 2028, this is an early window to book cabins on a single ship where the good cabins go first. Med fans should wait for the January 2027 reveal.
