The best new ocean cruises in Asia, including Indonesia, Japan and Russia

The whole of south-east Asia has until recently been somewhat ignored by cruise companies in spite of the fact that its myriad islands seem made for adventurous cruise exploration. That's changing, however, which is good news for Australians looking to cruise closer to home and without jet lag. Some expedition companies now sail out of Darwin and Cairns, with Bali and Singapore other cruise hubs.

Among companies to expand their south-east Asian offerings is Peregrine Adventures (peregrineadventures.com), whose environmentally-aware small-ship cruises are offering five new itineraries from late 2018 in destinations such as northern Vietnam, the Indonesian islands and the west coasts of Thailand and Malaysia. Tall-ship sailing specialist Star Clippers, Coral Expeditions and Windstar Cruises (windstarcruises.com) also offer interesting routes in south-east Asia.

In November this year and in January 2019, Pandaw Cruises (pandaw.com) has a new, limited-edition, 10-night Burma Coastal Voyage to the remote Mergui Archipelago on its classic 1960s motor yacht Andaman Explorer. The scarcely-visited Myanmar islands provide abundant opportunities to snorkel, kayak, bird watch and meet local villagers.

Silversea (silversea.com) sails Bali to Manila and Manila to Singapore in March 2019, and is spending time in various Filipino ports on other sailings across south-east Asia, notably Coron for its limestone cliffs and diving, and Puerto Princessa for its underground river, which can be explored by Zodiac. The island-rich Philippines is however relatively un-cruised, with most cruise lines only visiting occasionally as they head to Singapore or Japan.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Cruising to Papua New Guinea is gaining pace, and for good reason. Travelling by ship is by far the most practical way to visit this rugged country of limited infrastructure and hotels. Our near neighbour offers encounters with rich and diverse tribal cultures. Wild landscapes combine smouldering volcanoes with sapphire seas and dense rainforest.

APT (aptouring.com.au) has a new, one-off departure to PNG on Caledonian Sky this October. The itinerary covers World War II history around Milne Bay and Madang, the Tufi fjords, wildlife watching in Lababia and snorkelling off the tiny Tami Islands. Latitude 33 (latitude33.travel) has a Sepik Warriors cruise in November 2019 that doesn't just sail the coast but also 160 kilometres up the Sepik River to visit the remote communities of Kambaramba Lake's stilt villages.

Coral Expeditions has several PNG cruises that sail out of either Cairns or Darwin. Among them is a comprehensive 25-night cruise in November 2019 that follows Papua's northern coastline and returns via Indonesia's West Papua and Spice Islands. Expedition vessels such as True North (truenorth.com.au) visit remote destinations such as the Louisiade Archipelago and Trobriand Islands, noted for snorkelling and diving. The energetic can snorkel with whale sharks, dive on WWII wrecks and fish for black marlin.

Larger companies are tackling PNG too. Big-ship PNG pioneer P&O Australia (pocruises.com.au) operates numerous New Guinea Island Encounter cruises in 2019. Princess Cruises (princess.com) sails a 12-day PNG itinerary round rip from Brisbane in February 2019 and another from Sydney in March 2019. Cunard's Queen Elizabeth (cunardline.com.au) sails a 14-night cruise to PNG out of Sydney in February 2020 that visits four of its ports, as well as Brisbane and Cairns.

JAPAN

Japan has excellent infrastructure and a fabulous range of historic port cities within short sails of each other. Osaka and Yokohama – Tokyo's window on the sea – are the main departure points for cruise ships and are crammed with big-city attractions, but Japan's smaller port cities are very rewarding too.

Silversea has added new Japanese ports to itineraries such as a 10-day cruise round trip from Tokyo in October 2019 that visits Aburatsu for its ancient shrines, and a 14-day cruise in September 2019 that calls at Aomori. Shore excursions bring you to Lake Towada, a gin-clear crater lake nestled in forest.

Princess Cruises offers a record number of Japan itineraries, many in combination with Taiwan and Korea, and some timed for the cherry-blossom and autumn-leaves seasons or summer festivals. Some sail northern island Hokkaido to Kushiro, surrounded by national parks and dramatic Cape Aikappu, then around the mountainous Shiretoko Peninsula and on to Otaru on Hokkaido's west coast, with its elegant 19th-century "herring mansions" built by fishing tycoons.

Other notable Japanese ports are Hiroshima, Nagoya, Kobe and Kagoshima. Several new nine-day Best of Japan cruises from Ponant (ponant.com) in April and May 2019 focus on the country's southern ports such as Nagasaki, where old European traders' mansions sit on the hillside, providing beautiful views over one of Japan's prettiest, island-dotted harbours.

APT's 14-day Japan Coastal Discovery in April 2019 has a few less usual destinations such as the Oki Islands, Kanazawa and – both notable for their samurai-era castles – Matsue and Hagi. Oceania Cruises (oceaniacruises.com) has three new country-immersive voyages in Japan, including a 10-day round trip from Tokyo in April 2020 timed for the cherry-blossom season.

Cunard Line (cunardline.com.au) recently launched its first cruise round trip from Japan and continues to develop more. Among them is a nine-night Southern Japan itinerary round trip from Yokohama in April 2020 that visits Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Miyazaki, as well as Jeju Island in Korea. There's also a Japan Circumnavigation in May 2020.

RUSSIAN FAR EAST

The Asian version of Alaska has only recently opened up to foreign visitors. Expedition ships are the only viable way to explore this largely undeveloped wilderness, whose landscapes include the volcanic Kamchatka Peninsula, fjords, Arctic tundra and thousands of islands. Silversea, Wild Earth (wildearth-travel.com), Aurora Expeditions (auroraexpeditions.com.au) and Lindblad Expeditions (expeditions.com) are among cruise lines sailing here. A new Russia's Ring of Fire cruise from World Expeditions (worldexpeditions.com) in May 2019 spends a week in the remote Kuril Islands and explores the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Some expedition cruises make it as far as Wrangel Island, particularly known for its polar bear and walrus populations, but also home to musk ox, reindeer and snow geese. Heritage Expeditions (heritage-expeditions.com) has numerous, comprehensive cruises to the Russian Far East, such as a Wrangel Island cruise in July and August 2019 that heads through the Bering Strait into far north-east Siberia.

While most cruise lines relocate from America to Asia on the long, wandering route via the South Pacific and Australia, some bolder companies such as Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (hl-cruises.com) make the North Pacific crossing between Japan and Alaska. Silversea sails between Tokyo and Seward in May 2019 and the reverse in September 2019. An 18-day crossing in June 2019 on Silver Explorer visits a notable number of Kuril and Aleutian islands and several port destinations on the Russian mainland.