TRAVEL CATALOGUE | AUTUMN 2019 Ultimate Cruises AUSTRALIA COME SAIL AWAY Celebrated Ports of Call, Charming Voyages & More Silversea’s Silver Shadow in Alaska. Anchors Aweigh Dreaming of wide-open seas? In the following pages, you’ll find a luxury travel look book with a wave of tempting trips to inspire your next cruising adventure. These handpicked offerings range from intimate journeys along storied rivers to multicity hops via majestic mega-ships and small-vessel voyages to tropical lands; there are even suggestions for the perfect pre- and post-cruise hotel or tour. So settle in, search out your next destination (or ten), and get ready to set sail. Rest and relaxation: The Retreat on board Seabourn’s The world’s finest travel agencies Seabourn Encore. and advisors are Virtuoso®. MARTIN M303/GETTY IMAGES M303/GETTY MARTIN WHAT’S INSIDE: Ultimate Cruises A Cinque Terre rainbow in Vernazza, Italy. 2 THE NEW WAVE Ten experiences you didn’t know you could have on a cruise. 18 20 36 37 Travel Report Gear Up Postcard Smooth Sailing Advisor souvenir Adventure-ready History lessons Take these products picks and more. rucksacks for and local treats in on your next cruise. MARTIN M303/GETTY IMAGES M303/GETTY MARTIN cruising necessities. Warsaw’s Old Town. AUTUMN 2019 1 The New WAVETen experiences you didn’t know you could have on a cruise. BY ELAINE GLUSAC Rafting with Lindblad Expe- ditions in Alaska’s Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. DAVID VARGAS DAVID RIVER, BEAR AND SUNET) RALPH LEE HOPKINS, (ORCAS, MICHAEL S. NOLAN (SLOTH) 2 ULTIMATE CRUISES oday’s cruising boom is good news for everyone, from aficionados who love setting sail to those ready T to give a new holiday style a go. And as cruising’s popularity grows – a projected 27 million people took a cruise in 2018 – cruise lines have diversified. It’s all about variety these days, not just in ship size – rang- ing from intimate 60-passenger yachts to next-level 6,000-person mega-vessels – but in style too. You can sip coffee on your balcony as you float down a European riv- er, go searching for wildlife on an expedition ship, or get lost in a floating city at sea. Itineraries, too, are more cre- ative: Onboard culinary academies and wellness centres, for example, pair well with surprising shore excursions, from hiking up mountains to attending orchestra con- certs. Welcome to the new era of cruising, where almost everything goes. BRING ON A NEW ADVENTURE EVERY DAY. Explore as much as you like with Lindblad Expeditions, the cruise line that stores kayaks and 1expedition landing craft for water and land adventures and employs dedicated expert expedition leaders and naturalists to lead hikes, educational lectures, and more. On the intimate 62-passenger National Geographic Sea Bird cruisers can listen to whales swimming nearby on the ship’s hydrophone, transfer their wilderness photos on the iMac photo station, and participate in morning stretch classes on the sundeck. Disembark on a 15-day, Seattle-to-Sitka sailing to kayak Alaska’s Inside Passage and visit Glacier Bay National Park. Multiple departures: 11 May 2019 through 4 September 2020. Adventure time with Lindblad Expeditions, clockwise from top left: Orcas off Vancouver Island, a brown-throated sloth in the Amazon, a sunset skiff ride on the Amazon River in Peru, and a bear sighting in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. DAVID VARGAS DAVID RIVER, BEAR AND SUNET) RALPH LEE HOPKINS, (ORCAS, MICHAEL S. NOLAN (SLOTH) AUTUMN 2019 3 Clockwise from top: Viking EXPLORE MARINE SAIL AROUND THE Ocean Cruises’ Viking LIFE FROM INSIDE A WORLD … LITERALLY. Sun near New Zealand’s $4 MILLION SUBMARINE. Bay of Islands, Bergen Cross the Atlantic and the Pacific 2Realise your James Bond fantasies with 3on a voyage that takes guests to six countryside, and the Crystal Esprit submersible. a trip on Crystal Cruises’ Crystal continents. Viking Ocean Cruises’ Esprit, a 62-passenger yacht that touts 245-day world cruise itinerary a three-person submersible as one sails round-trip-from-London to a of its water-based activity options. (Jet whopping 53 countries on board the Skis, kayaks, and stand-up paddleboards 930-passenger Viking Sun. Brush up are also at the ready.) A pilot takes two on your Viking history and visit a fish passengers at a time on explorations 900 market among fjords in the port town metres below the surface, including on a of Bergen, Norway; stay the night in seven-day, Dubrovnik-to-Venice sailing. the historic American city of Boston TheEsprit is an ideal vessel for scuba after cruising Cape Cod Bay and taking divers and snorkellers, and its small size in the campus of Harvard University; means it can call on smaller ports, includ- cruise the Amazon looking for pink ing the yacht marina in Kotor, Montene- dolphins (also known as the Amazon gro; Croatia’s walled city of Dubrovnik; River dolphin); and explore the islands and all the way north to Venice. Depar- of Singapore – all in one epic trip. tures: 7 July, 25 August, and 8 September. Departure: 31 August. IMAGES (BERGEN) JOURNEY2008/GETTY 4 ULTIMATE CRUISES FINALLY FIGURE OUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A JULIENNE 4AND A BRUNOISE CUT. Make tasty use of your time at sea on Oce- ania Cruises’ 1,250-passenger Marina or Riviera ships by enrolling in a cooking class or three at the onboard Culinary Center. Kick things off with Slice: Master- ing Chef Knife Skills to learn the basics of mise en place before trying your hand at making pasta or grilling. The 12-day, Rio de Janeiro-to-Buenos Aires voyage on the Marina offers a balanced diet of cultural excursions in Paraty, Brazil; beach time in Punta del Este, Uruguay; and food and wine tours in Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Departure: 7 December. SPEND ALL DAY AT THE SPA. Bookending stops in Sint Maarten, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Antigua, and 5Saint Bart’s, four of the 11 days on Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ round-trip-from- Miami journey on the 750-passenger Seven Seas Explorer are spent at sea, offering prime time to find some inner peace in the ship’s full-service Canyon Ranch spa. This at-sea outpost mirrors the famous destination retreat, with yoga classes, seaweed wraps, hot stone massages, reflexology, and hydrotherapy features ranging from saunas to cold rooms. Between oxygen facials and pedicures, check out the ship’s impressive art collection, including several Picassos, or learn about the healthful secrets of Mediterranean cooking in the Culinary Arts Kitchen. Departure: 8 January 2020. From top: Making croissants with Oceania Cruises, dinner is served on an Oceania ship, and the Canyon Ranch spa on board Regent’s Seven Seas Explorer. (BERGEN) JOURNEY2008/GETTY IMAGES (BERGEN) JOURNEY2008/GETTY AUTUMN 2019 5 DISCUSS TECH WITH STEVE WOZNIAK. There’s nothing like sailing with an 6astronaut, scholar, or filmmaker to vanquish the shuffleboard-and-buffets cruising stereotypes. Seabourn raises the intellectual bar with its Seabourn Conversations series, featuring notable guests who don’t just lead onboard lectures, but engage with fellow passengers over meals and excursions From top: Discovering Bangkok as well. Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and a Seabourn lecturer. and philanthropist, will educate guests on the 599-passenger Seabourn Ovation during a 14-day, Singapore-to-Hong Kong cruise around Thailand and Vietnam. Passengers will tour energetic Bangkok, barbecue on an unspoiled Thai beach, and more. Departure: 21 December. TURN YOUR EXPEDITION PHOTOS INTO MASTERPIECES. Go beyond VSCO and your smartphone’s 7filters: The fully equipped Photo Studio aboard Silversea Cruises’ 254-passenger Silver Cloud offers master classes in composition, editing, and Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop programmes. High-tech printers encourage shutterbugs to create postcards and panoramic prints, regardless of whether they were taken using an iPhone or a DSLR. Photograph the wildlife that inhabits the bottom of the earth on a ten-day, round-trip-from-Ushuaia expedition to Antarctica. The ship’s resident photo manag- er will coach passengers on adjusting shutter speeds so they can capture images of seabirds in the Drake Passage, penguins on the South Shetland Islands, and otherworldly icebergs in the Antarctic Sound. Departures: Multiple dates through 10 December. (BANGKOK) LEO PATRIZI/GETTY IMAGES LEO PATRIZI/GETTY (BANGKOK) 6 ULTIMATE CRUISES Penguin photography in Antarctica with Silversea. (BANGKOK) LEO PATRIZI/GETTY IMAGES LEO PATRIZI/GETTY (BANGKOK) AUTUMN 2019 7 TRAVEL BACK IN TIME ON THE NILE RIVER. 8 From the hand-built pyramids at Giza to tranquil Nile excursions aboard a traditional felucca, travellers will revel in the ingenuity of past centuries during their time in Egypt. Seven of the 12 days on Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection’s round-trip- from-Cairo itinerary are based on the elegant 82-passenger River Tosca. Egyptologist- guided excursions decode the colossal statues of Memnon, the mummified remains of King Tutankhamun in his Valley of the Kings tomb, and the hieroglyphics adorning temples from Luxor to Aswan. Changing pace, ride a felucca and take tea at the hotel where Agatha Christie set Death on the Nile. Go now, while tourism is growing, but before the masses return. Departures: Multiple dates through 28 December. FOLLOW IN THE FOOT- STEPS OF MOZART AND 9 OTHER COMPOSERS. Was it something in the Danube River’s water – in the ripple of the waves or the movement of its current – that inspired some of Europe’s greatest classical composers? Explore music theory visually and aurally on Tauck’s 12-day, Budapest- to-Prague Danube River adventure on the 130-passenger Savor or Joy. The seven-day sailing, which visits ports in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, begins and ends with a pair of two-night stays in Budapest and Prague.