David
If you’re fortunate to have experienced a number of cruises for your holidays but maybe have had enough of the same old Caribbean cruise packages or taking the identical type of Mediterranean cruise too often, perhaps it’s time to think outside the standard box. There’s nothing wrong with Barcelona, Antigua, Tenerife and the many other enjoyable destinations on a normal cruise, but if you hanker for something rather different then finding cruise deals to unusual locations could be just what you’re looking for.
First things first though. Getting to an unusual cruise destination means that you’re going to be paying more because the luxury cruise lines generally have more exotic itineraries that are also usually longer, hence the additional expense. You could also choose to go on an expedition ship, a lot smaller than the big liners and again relatively expensive.
One good way to get to some more far-flung destinations is to go with one of the large mainstream lines that cross the Atlantic or the Pacific and stop at some of the remoter destinations. The Azores, for example, is an autonomous region of Portugal, a volcanic island archipelago in the Atlantic some 850 miles east of Portugal itself. Or drop into the Marquesas in the south Pacific, part of French Polynesia and an island group that’s one of the world’s remotest places, effectively in the middle of the ocean between Australia and South America.
You could also find a cruise that takes you to Easter Island, another deeply remote place in the Pacific that belongs to Chile, where you can see at first hand the hundreds of iconic stone statues the island is famed for.
It’s not always necessary to go ocean cruising to find unusual destinations. More and more countries are opening up their inland waterways and as well as European river cruises you will start to find many more opportunities to visit places that have often been off the beaten track for visitors.
As with any exploration of cruise deals, those that go to unusual locations are around but may be less obvious than the tried and tested routes and itineraries. Some destination names may be unfamiliar to you unless you are an avid geographer but they are well worth ferreting out for something very different.
If you’ve been on an Alaska cruise and discovered new and amazing sights and experiences then try a cruise to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on this vast country’s far eastern shores. You’ll find snow-capped mountains and volcanoes and a thriving wildlife that includes seabirds, brown bears and otters. Cruises go either from Japan or Alaska, though some world cruises occasionally stop off there too at the port of Petropavlovsk.
If African safaris are what you want then cruise to Port Elizabeth in South Africa, about halfway between Durban and Cape Town. You can book an African safari as part of the cruise offering, take a short guided tour in a national park and hope to see the Big Five animals, elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion.
Finally take a trip to Kimberley in Western Australia, a sparsely settled region and home an eerie landscape of rugged sandstone cliffs and gorges and a huge variety of wildlife, including crocodiles, turtles and bats. You might also spot whales on your trip, a fitting experience for a cruise to an unusual location.
