Update, 31 July 2026: The big fires are now stabilised, ports remain open — and Saga passengers may have spotted the first itinerary change. Read the latest here. Wildfires have displaced more than 250,000 people across France and Spain, killed one man near Valencia and forced Spain to declare a national emergency.
If you have a cruise booked, here is what it actually means. Fires are being contained and breaking out again by the hour, so this is where things stood on Sunday afternoon — some of it may have moved since.
How safe is it to cruise to France and Spain?
Safe to sail. Not safe to assume your day ashore is unchanged.
No cruise line has cancelled a sailing. Every port is open. Ships are arriving and departing on schedule.
The Mediterranean ports most British cruisers use are unaffected. The problems are specific, they are limited to three places, and they are all about what happens after you step off.
Which ports are affected?
Bordeaux, Le Verdon and Pauillac. All three sit in the Gironde, where 197,000 people have been evacuated. Parts of three of Bordeaux’s western suburbs have gone, including the area around the airport, with flames within roughly 30km of the city.
The berths are north and east of the fires. The zones the Foreign Office names — Saumos, Le Porge and Lège-Cap-Ferret — are on the coast to the south, with a separate fire at Biscarrosse in the Landes.
Valencia. The port is fine. The problem is 50km north at La Vall d’Uixó, where more than 50,000 people across Castellón are confined or evacuated and eight roads are cut.
Marseille. The city and port are clear, and it is not in an affected department. But it is surrounded by forest that closes on high-risk days, which is a different problem and a real one.
Which ports are fine?
Barcelona, Málaga, Cádiz, Cartagena, the Balearics, La Rochelle, Toulon and Saint-Tropez are all unaffected and operating normally.
Spain’s national emergency covers fires near Madrid and Ávila, where 23 towns have been evacuated. Both are hundreds of kilometres from any cruise berth and have no practical effect on sailings.
A fire in the Var has burned around 2,700 hectares and moved 500 people from the inland villages of Pontevès, Cotignac and Correns — serious locally, but 40km from the coast and nowhere near a cruise excursion.
Which ships are calling at the affected ports?
Every scheduled call is going ahead. Here is who is due where through August.
Bordeaux city quay
AIDAsol on the 3rd and 14th. Fred. Olsen’s Borealis overnight on the 7th and 8th. Saga’s Spirit of Adventure overnight on the 10th and 11th. Explora III on the 14th, on her way to Southampton. Deutschland on the 22nd.
Le Verdon
Mein Schiff 6 on the 1st, 15th and 29th. Virgin’s Valiant Lady on the 3rd. Oceania Sirena on the 7th. Ambassador’s Ambience on the 8th. Carnival Legend on the 17th.
This is the one to watch. Le Verdon is a two-hour coach ride from Bordeaux and the town itself has about 1,500 residents.
Pauillac
Mostly river ships on the Gironde wine circuit. Uniworld’s SS Bon Voyage on most Mondays, AmaWaterways’ AmaDolce on the 3rd, 24th and 31st, Scenic Gem and Scenic Diamond on the 11th and 28th, Scenic Azure on the 28th and Viking Forseti on the 27th.
Valencia
Marella Explorer on the 7th and 28th. MSC Orchestra every Saturday, MSC Musica every Thursday and Costa Pacifica every Wednesday. Norwegian Dawn on the 4th and 18th, AIDAstella on the 11th and 28th, Brilliance of the Seas on the 2nd, Silver Muse on the 11th, Silver Ray on the 19th and Seven Seas Navigator on the 23rd.
Twenty-three ship calls are scheduled through the port in August, with a combined capacity of around 52,000 passengers.
Marseille
The British ships: P&O’s Arvia on the 10th and 24th, Cunard’s Queen Victoria on the 16th, Marella Explorer on the 13th and Virgin’s Scarlet Lady on the 5th.
Alongside them: MSC World Europa, Meraviglia, Splendida, Seaview, Orchestra, Musica and Opera on weekly rotations, Costa Toscana and Costa Smeralda, Norwegian Epic, AIDAcosma and AIDAstella, Mein Schiff Flow, Celebrity Xcel and Celebrity Equinox, Explora I, Europa 2, Azamara Onward, Sun Princess, Silver Shadow, Silver Ray, Silver Muse, Viking Star and Renaissance.
British passengers sail on all of them, whoever owns them.
Which excursions are likely to be affected?
Three, specifically.
The Calanques, from Marseille. Bouches-du-Rhône is France’s most fire-exposed department, and between June and September it decides access to its 25 forest massifs day by day. On the worst days it closes all of them, including the Calanques National Park.
Boats can still sail in. Landing is prohibited. The route des Crêtes closes with it.
It has gone red six times this month — the 1st, 3rd, 8th, 19th, 22nd and 23rd of July. The next day’s decision is published each evening at risque-prevention-incendie.fr/13.
The Calanques boat trip is the Marseille excursion. On a red day it becomes a sightseeing cruise past cliffs you cannot step onto.
Bordeaux, from Le Verdon. The Foreign Office warns access may be restricted and roads may close at short notice. The French government has advised against road or rail travel to the area.
Take the coach away and there is very little port call left. Pauillac is 53km out, and the draw there is the Médoc châteaux.
Coves de Sant Josep, from Valencia. Europe’s longest navigable underground river, and an established half-day trip from the port. It closed on Sunday as a safety measure. Reopening depends entirely on the fire.
Everything else is running. City tours, Aix, Arles, Avignon, the Médoc estates — all operating.
Are the airports affected?
Bordeaux stayed open through the suburb evacuations, but train and bus links to it were disrupted and the government has warned against road and rail travel to the region. That is the one to watch if you are flying in for a departure or home after one.
Valencia stayed open despite a fatal fire at Manises, the airport’s own municipality. That fire is now out.
Marseille, Barcelona and Madrid are operating normally.
Is the situation likely to last?
Nobody knows, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
What is known: the Madrid fires eased overnight on better weather. The Manises fire is out. The Gironde blaze is still burning, and prime minister Sébastien Lecornu says it has grown strong enough to generate its own winds.
France is expecting a fourth heatwave next week.
The underlying driver is not going anywhere. July temperatures in the affected French region have averaged 32.2°C — 7.3°C above normal — and forecasts show no improvement.
Assume disruption is possible for the rest of the season, not the rest of the week.
Should I cancel — and would I get my money back?
You almost certainly would not.
The Foreign Office has updated its advice for both countries but has not advised against travel to either. For Spain, it says avoid the affected areas of Madrid and Ávila. For France, it names Saumos, Le Porge, Lège-Cap-Ferret and Biscarrosse, and says check with your accommodation or travel provider.
That is guidance, not a travel warning. It is the warning that unlocks refund entitlements and insurance cover on safety grounds.
Cancel now and you cancel at your own cost, under whatever terms your line offers.
If your ship cancels an excursion, you are refunded — that is standard. If you booked ashore independently, that is between you and the tour operator.
What are the authorities saying?
Lecornu says the fires “have reached a level that has never been seen before”. Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, called it the “worst fire in the history of the region”. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has told British nationals to follow local authority advice alongside Foreign Office guidance.
France’s minister for international partnerships, Éléonore Caroit, has asked tourists not to cancel, saying entire areas are unaffected and most regions are fine.
Fifty-four firefighters have been injured, nine evacuated, none life-threateningly.
The Gironde prefecture runs an information line on +33 (0)9 70 80 90 40, 9am to 5pm, option 1 for Gironde. Spain’s emergency number is 112.
What are the cruise lines saying?
On the fires, nothing publicly — because there is nothing to announce. Ports are open and sailings are intact. Excursion changes are handled ship by ship, through the shore excursions desk and app alerts, not press releases.
On the rivers, they are talking, and that is a separate story.
Drought from the same heatwave has drained the Danube and Rhine. The Danube in Romania has fallen to its lowest level since 1996; in Budapest it came within three inches of a record. Riverboats cannot clear shallow channels or pass beneath bridges.
Avalon Waterways has cancelled a small number of departures, telling Travel Market Report that the vast majority of its cruises continue to operate as planned. Viking, in a letter to travel advisors, said select river itineraries may be modified and that affected guests are being notified directly. Scenic, Emerald and Tauck have all told Travel Weekly they have adjusted sailings, while AmaWaterways disembarked AmaMagna passengers near Budapest, put them in a hotel and coached them to Vienna.
Riviera Travel, the British operator, told Travel Weekly it has “not and will not cancel any sailings”, changing excursions and destinations instead. Seven of its ships are affected, including Emily Brontë, Oscar Wilde and William Wordsworth.
None of that is caused by fire, and none of it is on a river anywhere near one.
The bottom line
Go.
But check what you have booked ashore, and check it the night before rather than the week before.
A Valencia cave trip is shut today. The Calanques have been closed to landings six times this month. Neither shows up in government travel advice, and neither will reach you unless you look.
The sailing is safe. The day out is the bit worth checking.
Correct at the time of publishing. This is a fast-moving story and we will update it.
