From the Baltic to West Africa, the hottest new cruising destinations
New ports of call, fresh itineraries and splashy ships launching in 2023 and beyond.
Where will you sail this year? With the world now almost fully open to cruise ships, post-lockdowns, there’s no shortage of choices – some unexpected. One thing’s for sure: cruise fans have deep pockets, and they’re looking to invest in exotic locations and memorable experiences.
“The theme this year is adventure,” says Robin West, vice president of expeditions and planning for luxury line Seabourn. “Nothing now is out of reach.”
Seabourn is launching a spiffy new ship, Seabourn Pursuit, in August, which sets sail in the Mediterranean. Silversea, Regent, Oceania and Scenic are also debuting new ships in 2023, more lavish, more sustainable and more expensive than ever before.
-
Discover untapped and extraordinary destinations in the latest edition of Travel + Luxury magazine, available online and in print on Friday, 17 March.
-
With this optimism come new destinations that push boundaries, or traditional destinations reframed. Alaska, which enjoyed a bumper season in 2022, is back with adventures from dog-sledding on a glacier to float-plane sightseeing and sea kayaking.
The war in Ukraine has impacted tourism in the Baltic, but cruise lines are showing impressive creativity in persuading passengers to look beyond the art treasures of Saint Petersburg. Viking, for example, is offering exclusive behind-the-scenes tours at Oslo’s Munch museum to see one of the eight versions of The Scream up close. Regent, Holland America Line and Oceania are sailing from Amsterdam to the Baltic this season; snap up one of the early cruises in May and you’ll still have time to catch the sumptuous Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum.
Silversea has introduced expedition cruising in the Baltic, with 12-night voyages between Hamburg and Helsinki on the 274-passenger Silver Wind.
“This Baltic voyage connects some truly enriching experiences, from an exploration of Finland’s Vaasa, with its 14th-century heritage, to the UNESCO-listed town of Rauma, the largest wooden town in the Nordics,” says Adam Radwanski, Silversea managing director, Asia Pacific. The focus is very much off the beaten track; in Finland’s Oulu, for example, excursions include white-water swimming and night-time owl watching.
The vast volcanic landscapes and hipster towns of Iceland are also calling.
“Iceland is a must-see destination with circumnavigations on Seabourn Ovation combining glaciers and wildlife with cities and culture,” says West. Reykjavik is also an easy embarkation point for expeditions to the wild, barely explored Northeast Greenland National Park, where musk oxen graze the tundra and the deep fjords of vast Scoresby Sund are scattered with icebergs the size of cathedrals.
The real bragging rights, though, might go to Aurora Expeditions, which is taking its 132-passenger Greg Mortimer to the far north of Greenland’s east coast in August and again in 2024, sailing to Kronprins Christian Land, a dramatically glaciated peninsula on the edge of the vast ice sheet. Because conditions here are so extreme, the itinerary will be dictated by the weather and ice conditions.
Equally intrepid are a pair of West African cruises. Swan Hellenic’s new SH Vega is embarking on an ambitious voyage in April from Angola to Accra in Ghana via Congo, Benin and Togo. Nothing’s off-limits here, from the chaotic Grand Marché in Pointe-Noire to the voodoo culture of Togo, and the itinerary will be repeated in 2024.
In November, Hurtigruten Expeditions launches a series of 12-night, round-trip voyages from Dakar, Senegal, sailing the Cape Verde archipelago and, most excitingly, four days in the Bissagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau to explore mangroves, tropical forests, coastal lagoons and to learn about the ancient culture of the Bijagós people.
On the other side of the African continent, French-owned Ponant has a new expedition on Le Jacques-Cartier – a round-trip from Port Louis, the Mauritian capital, to Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands of volcanic Réunion and tiny Rodrigues.
In Egypt, the much-anticipated opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum has been delayed yet again, but demand for the Nile is already surging – Viking alone is launching four ships here in four years.
Now is arguably the best time to visit, before the rush. There’s a lot that’s new: the Royal Mummies Hall in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, as well as two recently excavated tombs in Saqqara, near Cairo, with incredible hieroglyphs. The magnificent 3000-year-old Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor is open, after years of excavation, connecting Luxor and Karnak temples.
Closer to home, Asia is making an impressive cruising comeback, with the notable exception of mainland China. Seabourn will sail from Singapore and Hong Kong to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand as well as the Philippines and Indonesia, while Silversea has put four ships in the region, sailing from Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai, and Scenic has introduced a series of Japan cruises in June and July.
Meanwhile, Regent’s ultra-luxurious Seven Seas Explorer has sailings from Tokyo most of this year, including two that cross the North Pacific and head south along the coast of Alaska – the best of both worlds, indeed.