Our Prejudices - or - Interpreting our opinions:

We Like: cruise areas with a mixture of harbours and anchorages; day hopping from place to place; having dolphins come and play; pilotage challenges; exploring inland; mooring in the middle of a village; whacky bars; draught beer; rare beef; mussels picked off the rocks; reading; eclectic music; anchorages populated only by birds and seals; the culture shift moving from one country to the next.

We Tolerate: 24hr (or longer) passages; night sailing; overcast weather; rain. These necessities must be suffered from time to time to reach nirvana.  Age, I guess.

We Don't Like: beaches paved with sun-beds and umbrellas; layers of tourist tat hiding great architecture; restaurant touts; heavy maritime traffic; big waves; loud bars full of muscular boozing; fuel refineries; marinas which won't let you in; midges and mosquitoes.

Definitions.  We assume you'll be transiting through or chartering within a cruising area. Our 'weeks worth' assessment is for an un-hurried cruise, with 2 night or 3 night stops in the finer locations to allow proper exploration. Shorten our assessment if you're a hit and run cruiser!  We rate areas 1 to 10. Our rating guide:

1-2 - consider avoiding for the reasons given.

3-5 - no strong attraction.

6-8 - include these in your itinerary.

9-10 - must go!