Iconic World Ports · Meridian Solstice
The Grand World Voyage
One hundred and eight nights. Six continents. Forty-two ports. One suite, unpacked once. The oldest and greatest idea in travel.
The journey
Day by day
Venice
Embark on the Giudecca. A private palazzo reception, then sailaway past San Marco — the only proper way to leave Venice.
The Mediterranean
Dubrovnik, Athens, Crete, and the long blue afternoons between them.
Istanbul
The Bosphorus at both ends of the day; the Grand Bazaar with a guide who knows which door to knock on.
Suez Canal Transit
Seventy-five years of shipping history, twelve hours of desert sliding past at walking pace.
Dubai
The spice souk and the Creek in the morning; dinner in the dunes under more stars than the sky should hold.
Mahé, Seychelles
The granite isles: Victoria's market, the Morne Seychellois in cloud, and a snorkel over the reef at Sainte Anne before the overnight sail for India.
The Indian Ocean
Mumbai, Kochi, Colombo — the spice route in its original order.
Singapore
Gardens by the Bay, a hawker-centre lunch our chef escorts personally, and the skyline at sailaway.
Ha Long Bay
Anchor among the karsts after the day boats have gone. Kayak the grottoes at dawn.
Bali
Pura Ulun Danu Bratan on its lake, the rice terraces of Jatiluwih, a gamelan farewell on the beach.
Sydney
Under the Harbour Bridge at first light. Two full days: the Opera House, the beaches, the harbour's hundred coves.
The Pacific Crossing
New Zealand's Milford Sound, Tahiti's lagoon, and the long blue weeks that regulars call the reason they come back.
Around Cape Horn
Patagonia's fjords, the Horn where weather permits, and Ushuaia at the world's end.
Buenos Aires
Tango in San Telmo, beef and Malbec, the Paris of the South living up to it.
Rio de Janeiro
Sugarloaf at the harbour mouth, Christ the Redeemer on the mountain, and 108 nights of the world behind you. Disembark, changed.
Grand-voyage all-inclusive: business-class air, pre-cruise palazzo night in Venice, all dining and beverages, full shore programme, butler service, laundry, medical cover, and the companionship of the same 263 fellow travellers for one hundred and eight days
In six chapters
The shape of the voyage
Venice at dusk; Dubrovnik and Athens; Istanbul's minarets at call to prayer; the Suez Canal by daylight, a slow procession through the desert with the pyramids a day away at Port Said.
Muscat's corniche; Dubai old and impossible; an overnight in the Seychelles' granite isles; Mumbai's Gateway at dawn; the backwaters of Kochi; tea country above Colombo.
The Malacca Strait to Singapore; Bangkok by river; overnight among the karsts of Ha Long Bay; Hong Kong's harbour, still the world's best entrance.
Bali's temple gates; across the equator; the Great Barrier Reef; and Sydney — under the Bridge at first light, the Opera House to port.
New Zealand's fjords; French Polynesia's lagoons; the wide Pacific measured in chapters, lectures and long lunches; the fjords of Chile.
Patagonia and Cape Horn; up the Atlantic to Buenos Aires — tango in San Telmo — and finally Rio: Sugarloaf at the harbour mouth, the whole city spread out like a welcome home.
The destination
Iconic World Ports
One ship, one suite, one unfolding map: the grand harbours of the world arriving at your veranda, one dawn at a time.
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