A few years ago, in 2006, the Nevada legislature imposed a public smoking ban.

The new rule does not apply – so far – to the casino floors of Las Vegas, where smoking is still allowed on gaming floors. And, of course, Nevada is not the only recent state to impose restrictions on smoking in public. In fact, joins over thirty states (at this writing) to the laws on the books. If you’re reading this in the United States, it is likely that a similar law applies to your area: half the country’s population is currently under the jurisdiction of a public regulation of some smokers kind.

But the idea of a smoking ban passing the Nevada legislature seems almost like a kind of spiritual defeat for cigar smokers: after all, what could be more epitomize “cigar cool” than the mental image of Frank Sinatra Rat Pack, cigars and drinks in hand, finger-popping their ways through the floor of a casino in Las Vegas?

Only symbolizes a fact that has made passionate smokers life “a little more difficult in the last decade: in the interest of public health (and for the sake of asthmatics and others), more and more local councils and state legislatures are choosing complete public smoking ban or limit it to certain licensed facilities.

The arguments about the effectiveness or appropriateness of these bans aside, we all agree it means that smokers have to put a little more energy in the vacation planning. For someone who loves the taste of a good cigar, for which the relaxation does not become significant until you have a cigarette involved, no sense in a holiday where you can not even smoke in your hotel room. With the current smoking ban in Atlantic City (and this ban extends to casinos) and similar bastions once the cigar culture, frustrated cigar smokers are turning to a new option: the cruise ship.

And why not? cruise holidays offer the last chance to “get away from everything,” a continuous stretch of blue water, and the opportunity to meet interesting people from all over the country (and world). Few cruises are completely smoke-free, with most offering at least, designated smoking areas that might include cigar bars or lounges. So it’s hard to go completely wrong – wherever you book your flight, you will almost always have at least some chance of smoke.

More and more luxury cruise lines do not allow smoking in the home – which is a fall. After all, the next person using your room can be a nonsmoker, and no economic sense for cruise ship directors to designate permanent “smoking” and “no smoking” rooms, this measure would be logistical nightmares in the reserve. But luxury quarters often include balconies, where smoking is sometimes still allowed.

The recent case of a cruise line based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida gives smokers an indication of what to expect. The cruise line, according to some reports, the loss of millions of dollars in bookings after instituting a partial smoking ban in 2007. But compared with the prohibitions that have caused smokers such dismay in Atlantic City and Ottawa, the prohibition of the cruise line based in Florida smoking does not apply to bars and casinos.

In fact, the cruise industry seems to be following the opposite track of most U.S. states and municipalities – as they grow more restrictive toward consumption, cruise lines are becoming more permissive. A complete line of smoke-free cruise out of business for a while, another time-line of a smoke-free has changed its policies to allow some smoking in boat.

Smokers will probably want policies before booking a cruise, as there has examples of ships with the policies of almost free of smoke. Smoking in these lines are only allowed in two designated areas – and if ignited elsewhere, may be expelled from the boat!  (That presumably does not mean you will be forced to walk the plank, but probably not worth discovering.)

Another rule of thumb mentioned by several travel writers: if you are looking for the company as smoke, go for a cruise line with a large number of European and Asian customers. Citizens of many of these countries often continue to smoke in greater numbers than contemporary Americans, and there is a cruise line based in Spain which currently sports a policy of not smoking for at least restrictive out There.