Cruises

Luxury Travel And Value: Why Your Best Europe Trip Might Be A Cruise
By Larry Olmsted In the face of record hotel rates that continue to grow, coupled with sustained high airline fares, some travelers feel they can no longer take a luxury European vacation. They are wrong. After being locked down at home during the pandemic, it’s understandable that people got antsy

Sailing the Tyrrhenian Sea on the Star Clipper Tall Ship
By Brian E. Clark In my decades as a writer and photographer, I’ve been lucky to knock around much of Europe and even live abroad a couple of times. But I was clueless when it came to the Tuscan archipelago off the west coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Until this

A Windstar Cruise in Croatia & Italy
By Brian E. Clark Near the end of an eight-day cruise in the Adriatic, Ioanian and Tyrrhenian seas last month, I relaxed in a jet tub at the stern of the 600-foot-long, five-masted Wind Surf sailing ship (windstar.com) and watched the Amalfi Coast slide by as the sun sank below the western

Ciao Bella! Costa Cruise Line Introduces Its New Flagship, Costa Toscana
By Cathie Arquilla Costa Cruises’ new flagship, the Costa Toscana is a love letter to Italy. Adam Tihany, the Creative Director of the ship explained, “Costa wanted to build a ship that presents all the beauty and fantastic experiences of Italy. I said to myself, it’s an easy thing to

Cycling the Danube with Backroads Travel
By Brian E. Clark In 1192, on his return from the Third Crusade in the Holy Land, Richard the Lionheart (of Robin Hood fame) was captured by an Austrian rival and imprisoned in Durnstein Castle above the Danube River in northern Austria. The English monarch was detained in a dungeon

Exploring the Danube with the AmaMagna
Story and Photos by Neil Wolkodoff On the big Blue Danube, the longest and widest river ship to cruise the famous waterway is the AmaMagna. Before your actual river journey, it is best to explore the embarkation and departing cities, given the distance traveled. AmaWaterways provides fully guided tour packages

Cycling and River Cruises with Backroads & Ama Waterways
By Brian E. Clark I’ve done cycling trips from Canada to Chile to Cuba to Ireland – to say nothing of pedaling through California’s wine country and riding across Iowa as part of RAGBRAI, an annual tour which attracts more than 10,000 cyclists every summer and is sometimes referred to

Small Luxury Cruising with Atlas Ocean Voyages
Story and Photos by Neil Wolkodoff Before Covid, cruising was undergoing a re-set with new ship and activity options. That hit the accelerator to cater to the changing market preferences. With their Next Gen ships, Atlas Ocean Voyages is touting a safer, seamless, and more convenient experience with a Lux-adventure

Windstar Cruises’ New 79-Day Grand European Bucket List Adventure
By Everett Potter Windstar Cruises has announced a new 79-day Grand European Bucket List Adventure. It is the longest itinerary ever offered by the award-winning small ship cruise line. This Grand European cruise will depart Stockholm, Sweden on July 25, 2023 and embark on a new voyage that spans 22

Last Cruise in the Sea of Cortez
Story and Photos by Deborah Loeb Bohren If you’re looking for a cruise ship the size of a small city with the likes of rock walls, extreme water slides, go-karting, and laser tag, you can stop reading now because this isn’t the cruise for you. But, if the idea of