Category: Destinations

Most people picture Iceland and think Reykjavik. They think of the geysers and the Blue Lagoon and the crowds. Isafjordur sits in the far northwest and almost none of that applies here. This is the main town of the Westfjords. It is a thumb of land that hangs off the top corner of Iceland. Roads…

Chiloe is a big island hanging off the bottom of Chile, and most cruisers have never heard of it. The main town is Castro. Your ship may stop there on the way to the Chilean fjords, and most people treat it as filler. That is a mistake. Castro is one of the strangest and most…

The ports people complain about most are often the ones worth remembering. Here is the tell. If your ship cannot dock and has to tender you ashore in little boats, half the passengers stay onboard. That is your signal to go. A tender port means there is no deep water pier. No pier usually means…

Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly halfway between Lisbon and New York, there is an island most cruisers only see through a porthole. It is called Sao Miguel. The port is Ponta Delgada, in the Azores. The Azores are Portuguese. They sit far out in the ocean, which is exactly why cruise ships…

Most cruisers pick Norway for the fjords. Then they treat the towns as places to wait until the ship moves again. Ålesund breaks that habit. The whole town center is built in one style, Art Nouveau, and there is a strange reason for that. On a stormy night in January 1904, a fire tore through…

Most cruisers in the Arabian Gulf are looking at Dubai. Muscat sits down the coast, quieter and older, and most people treat it as a fuel stop between the flashy ports. That is a mistake. Muscat is the capital of Oman. Ships dock at Port Sultan Qaboos, with mountains rising on one side and the…

There is a volcano across the bay from Kagoshima that erupts on a normal Tuesday. Sakurajima smolders while people run errands. Locals sweep ash off their cars the way other cities deal with pollen. Most cruisers know Japan means Tokyo, Kyoto, and maybe Okinawa. Kagoshima sits at the southern tip of Kyushu and gets skipped…

Sitka sits on the outer coast of Baranof Island, facing the open Pacific instead of the sheltered Inside Passage. That is exactly why a lot of cruises skip it. Getting there means a little more open water, and some ships would rather stay tucked inside. Their loss. Sitka is the most beautiful town in Southeast…

Vanuatu has a beach so good the name sounds made up. It is called Champagne Bay. It sits on Espiritu Santo, the largest island in the country, and cruise ships tender you right to it. Most people book a South Pacific cruise for Fiji or New Caledonia. Then Champagne Bay shows up on the itinerary…

Namibia has a cruise port. Most people do not know that. Fewer still could point to it on a map. The port is Walvis Bay. It sits on the Atlantic coast of southern Africa, and it is the main deep water harbor in the country. Cruise lines from Royal Caribbean to Cunard call there, usually…