Cruise news, ships, ports and journeys
Cruise news, ship guides, ports and journeys

Latest articles

Palma de Mallorca: A Gothic Cathedral, a Vintage Train, and 200 Beaches

Palma de Mallorca tends to arrive as a surprise for cruise passengers expecting little more than a beach resort island. What actually greets ships sailing into the bay is a proper capital city with genuine architectural weight: a Gothic cathedral taller t

Laura Robertson • 9 Aug 2026 • 5 min read

Palamós, Spain: A Working Fishing Town with the Best Prawns on the Coast

Palamós doesn't put on much of a show, and that's rather the appeal. Unlike the grander names further down this coastline, this is a genuine working fishing port on the Costa Brava, where the daily rhythm still revolves around boats going out at dawn and

Laura Robertson • 8 Aug 2026 • 5 min read

Barcelona, Spain: Gaudí's City, and Where to Watch Your Pockets

Barcelona rarely needs an introduction, and that's part of the challenge it presents to cruise passengers: there's simply too much of it to see properly in a single port day. Gaudí's soaring, otherworldly architecture, a medieval old town built on Roman f

Laura Robertson • 8 Aug 2026 • 5 min read

Piombino, Italy: The Understated Doorway to Elba and the Etruscans

Piombino rarely makes anyone's list of Italy's most famous destinations, and that's rather the point. This working Tuscan port town, perched on a promontory between the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas, has spent nearly three thousand years quietly getting ot

Laura Robertson • 8 Aug 2026 • 5 min read

Palermo, Sicily: Where Every Conqueror Left Something Behind

Palermo doesn't offer a tidy, single-note history, and that's precisely what makes it so rewarding. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and Italians have all held this city in turn, and rather than erasing what came before, each one seems

Laura Robertson • 8 Aug 2026 • 6 min read

Naples Guide: Castles, Pizza, Vesuvius & Pompeii

Naples doesn't do quiet arrivals. Ships sail into the Gulf of Naples with Mount Vesuvius looming over the skyline, dock practically in the middle of the historic centre, and deposit passengers straight into one of the noisiest, most vividly alive cities i

Laura Robertson • 8 Aug 2026 • 5 min read

Villefranche-sur-Mer: The French Riviera's Prettiest Front Door

Villefranche-sur-Mer has a habit of stealing the show before the day has even properly started. Tucked into one of the deepest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, its crescent of pastel houses and terracotta rooftops greets arriving ships with what is,

Laura Robertson • 8 Aug 2026 • 5 min read