Most families compare programs. Fewer compare formats — and the format decides more about your Yom Tov than which hotel you pick. There are four real options, and they suit genuinely different people.
The four formats
There are four ways to do Pesach away — a hotel program, a kosher cruise, self-catering, or staying home — and they solve genuinely different problems at genuinely different prices.
| Format | What you get | Listed from | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel program | Kashered kitchen, communal Sedarim, shul, children's programme, full board | $4,050 per adult, eight days | Families wanting the work done and children occupied |
| Kosher cruise | Sailing plus kosher food at one of three levels | $349 per adult, varying lengths | Couples and families who want to move, not sit |
| Self-catered | An apartment or villa, your own kitchen, your own pace | Property cost only | Families who want to cook and control the food |
| Staying home | Your own kitchen, your own Seder | Nothing | Families for whom the home Seder is the point |
There are currently 88 Pesach programs and 14 kosher cruises listed on this site. The prices above are starting rates per adult, excluding flights.
Hotel programs
A hotel program buys three things: a kitchen someone else kashered, meals someone else cooks, and childcare — which is why it is the default and why it costs what it costs.
This is the default, and what most of this site covers. You are buying three things: a kitchen someone else kashered, meals someone else cooks, and — for families — a children's programme that runs while you are not with your children.
It is worth it when those three things solve a real problem. It is a poor purchase when you are buying it because everyone else does. The honest breakdown goes through where it genuinely pays and where it does not, and what it actually costs covers where the extras hide.
The thing to get right is the room, not the resort. Connecting rooms and family suites disappear months before standard rooms do — when to book has the timeline.
Kosher cruises
"Kosher cruise" describes three quite different products, and the difference shows up on Shabbat rather than at dinner — read the levels before comparing any two sailings on price.
The critical point: "kosher cruise" describes three quite different products.
- Fully kosher charter — the operator takes the ship. The kitchens are kashered, the whole sailing is kosher.
- Kosher dining room — a supervised kitchen and dining room on an otherwise normal cruise.
- Kosher meals on request — sealed, prepared meals served in the ordinary restaurants.
The full explanation covers what each means once you are actually at sea, particularly on Shabbat. Note that a charter is not automatically a private ship: some are, some share the vessel with guests who are not observing Shabbat, which changes the atmosphere considerably.
Cruises look dramatically cheaper — from $349 per adult against $4,050 for a program — but the sailings are shorter and the comparison is not like for like. Work it out per night, and check what the fare excludes. Most of the cruises listed here are chag-specific departures around Greece, Cyprus and Italy rather than eight-day Pesach programs at sea.
Self-catering
Renting an apartment or villa and cooking is the option nobody quotes and often the cheapest by a wide margin — you are trading money for the work a program removes.
The option nobody quotes, and often the cheapest by a wide margin: rent an apartment or a villa somewhere warm, take your own kitchen equipment, and cook.
Be honest about what you are signing up for. You are turning over a kitchen you have never seen, shopping for Pesach in a place whose kosher supply you do not know, and cooking through Yom Tov away from home. For families who enjoy that, it is a genuinely good holiday at a fraction of a program. For families who are booking a program specifically to stop doing that work, it is the wrong answer dressed up as a saving.
A workable middle route: a self-catered base near a city with real kosher infrastructure, rather than a villa two hours from the nearest shop.
Staying home
Staying home is a legitimate answer and frequently the right one, which a site full of programs will not otherwise tell you.
Worth saying plainly, because a site full of programs will not say it otherwise: staying home is a legitimate answer and often the right one. If the Seder at your own table is the part of Pesach that matters most to your family, a hotel dining room does not improve it. If the cost would genuinely stretch you, the chag is not better for the debt.
The middle options exist too — a program for the second days only, or joining family and splitting the cooking. Not every choice is eight days or nothing.
How to decide in five minutes
Start from the problem you are actually solving — cooking, childcare, warmth or company — because each format solves a different one and only one of them is about money.
- What problem are you solving? Cooking, childcare, being somewhere warm, or being with other people. Different formats solve different ones.
- Who is coming? Small children push strongly toward a hotel programme with real childcare. Teenagers and adults have far more options.
- What is the total budget, flights included? Not the room rate.
- Do you want to sit still or move? That is the real program-versus-cruise question, not the price.
- What is your kashrut standard? It removes more options than budget does — start from non-gebrokts or non-kitniyot if either applies, and see the terms explained.
Then ask whatever you shortlist the twelve questions.
If you would rather not do the shortlisting yourself, tell us once what you are looking for and matching options come back to you directly. The quote service is completely free.
