Southampton has been named as the UK’s best cruise ship departure port in recent awards run by maritime travel experts.

The city was pitted against all other departure ports in the Cruise Critic Best in Cruise Awards but managed to be branded Best UK Departure Port.

With five terminals, Southampton is by far the biggest port city in terms of passenger numbers.

According to data from Statista, 2.6m holidaymakers embarked and disembarked at the city in 2023, dwarfing the next biggest port Dover who only welcomed 103,000 people.

Southampton is also home port for at least one ship from P&O Cruises, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, such as Queen Anne which won Best New Ship in the awards.

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Cruise Critic editors praised the city's port for being environmentally friendly and for welcoming so many passengers into the UK.

They said: “Southampton is by far the UK's busiest cruise port and one of the largest in Europe, welcoming 2 million passengers a year from almost every major cruise line, as well as being home port for the UK's biggest cruise line, P&O Cruises.

“It is also the start and end port for QM2's iconic Transatantic crossing and has a long and storied cruise history.

“We applaud its environmental initiatives, including the £55m Horizon Cruise Terminal, home to the UK’s first shore power facility for cruise shipping" target="_blank">ships and 2,234 roof-mounted solar panels; and a second shore power connection at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal."

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Southampton is home to Horizon Cruise Terminal, Mayflower Terminal, Ocean Cruise Terminal, City Cruise Terminal and QE2 Terminal.

Cruise Critic is an online cruise ship community and review site, and executive editor Adam Coulter said its team of editors has cruised to every corner of the globe this year.

He said: “One thing that we can say with absolute confidence is that there's never been a better time to find a cruise ship to suit your needs - and this year's awards highlight just that."

P&O Cruises were named Best Mainstream Cruise Line while Liverpool scooped the award for Best UK Port of Call.