Advantages of Early Booking If you have been cruising for a long time, you probably don’t need to read this article. You've been booking your cruises well in advance – most of the time – so chances are, you are not going to change. But come-lately cruisers or those new cruisers accustomed to all inclusive [...]
If you are thinking an escorted cruise is anything like an escorted land tour, please think again. Escorted cruises give you the best of both worlds – independence but assistance when or if you need it. Here are the advantages of an escorted cruise: • For the first timer or the more timid traveller, an [...]
Chile is that long, skinny country on the Pacific side of South America extending from Cape Horn at its southern tip to Bolivia and Peru in its north. Halfway along this stretch is the harbor of Valparaiso, today as it was centuries ago, a port of great importance to those sailing not only the Pacific [...]
A Favourite Cruise Ship Destination One of the favourite island port of calls of cruise lines, St. Lucia in the Lesser Antilles, is a small (200,000 plus square miles) island in the Eastern Caribbean. Covered in lush vegetation, hilly – volcanoes – it has a small native population of about 175,000 which swells with cruise [...]
The Little Port Town, unspoiled Museum If you are sailing the Black Sea on a cruise, one of your unique ports of call might be the tiny port town of Amasra in the province of Bartin,Turkey. It’s a small (population less than seven thousand) but very old settlement which today thrives on tourism. What to expect [...]
Amsterdam and its Canals Flying to Europe from North America often leads you to Amsterdam. If you cruise in northern European or take one of the popular river cruise vacations into the heart of Europe, you will likely cross paths with this city as a beginning or end point. One of the favorite pastimes of [...]
A Look at the City of Porto in Portugal Unless you are a cruiser, most travellers in North America would not be familiar with the second largest city in Portugal, the quaint town of Porto, or Oporto as most English speaking folks say, on the Portuguese coast. This Mediterranean looking city is located on the [...]
St.Peter Port and Guernsey If you have ever read the novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Anne Schaffer and Annie Barrows, you will be intrigued by this delightful book and by the thought of visiting its setting, Guernsey. Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands lying off the coast [...]
Bilbao and Ferrol Travelling to Spain? Most people head to the Mediterranean coast with its famous resorts and beaches or inland to the capital of Madrid. But Spain also has a northern coast on the Bay of Biscay, a body of water between it and France, and opening to the wide Atlantic on the west. [...]
The Attractions of Naples Naples – a city port along Italy’s west coast, capital of the region of Campania and 3rd largest municipality in the country. This is a droll description that does not conjure up much excitement in the traveler’s heart. But let me assure you, no traveler to Italy should miss this vibrant [...]