This was published 6 years ago
The Shipping News: A week in Italy on the SeaDream I
SeaDream I, docked here at Bonifacio in Corsica, also visits St Tropez and Cannes.
FRENCH ACCENT
The 112-passenger mega-motor-cruiser SeaDream I is sailing a week-long itinerary from Civitavecchia (Rome) to Nice, leaving on August 25, 2018. The cruise visits the French island of Corsica with stops at Bonifacio and Calvi (where it docks right in the town centre for a guided city walk), as well as movie-star haunts Saint-Tropez and Cannes on the French Riviera, San Remo in Italy and Monte Carlo in Monaco. At Cannes, SeaDream I anchors in the bay so that guests not going ashore can use the ship's water-sports equipment.
Phone 02 9958 4444. See seadream.com
HOLE IN ONE
APT has introduced three opportunities to play golf on its 2018 Best of France river cruises as part of an expanded Freedom of Choice sightseeing program. On the Rhone River, Grand Avignon golf course features flat, wooded and water hazards. Vaudreuil on the Seine offers a real test, with narrow fairways and subtle greens. And in Bordeaux, Le Chateaux is routed across flat open country; the effect of ocean winds and course design make this a top golfing challenge. The cruises include 18-hole greens fee, electric golf buggy and a full set of clubs.
Phone 1300 196 420. See aptouring.com.au
QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 is currently sailing a special 50th anniversary voyage to the Mediterranean. The regal ship is Cunard's longest-serving ocean liner, although when it entered service on September 20, 1967, critics predicted it would soon be made redundant by the jet age. Instead, QE2 continues to be both a trans-Atlantic liner and cruise ship, and also served as a troop ship during the Falklands War during the 1980s. It has carried 2.5 million passengers over nine million miles, which the company says is further than any other passenger ship.
Phone 13 24 41. See cunard.com
IN TRAINING
Land-based add-ons are becoming increasingly common in cruising, and Azamara Club Cruises has announced just such a program in Europe, in partnership with the famous Venice-Simplon Orient-Express train. The train travels between London and Venice and revives the golden-era age of travel with its gourmet cuisine and original 1920s vintage carriages, and passes through magnificent landscapes in the Swiss Alps and Dolomites. Pre and post-voyage train packages must be booked in tandem with featured sailings. In 2019, the program will expand further to include the Canadian Rocky Mountaineer train with cruises to the Pacific Northwest.
Phone 1800 754 500. See azamaraclubcruises.com
VIKING VOYAGES
Viking Cruises has announced six new itineraries in 2018 and 2019, including an 11-day Amsterdam to Catalonia cruise via Europe's western coastline that finishes in Barcelona, and an eight-day Iberian Explorer itinerary from Barcelona to London that focuses on the heritage of Spain. The four other cruises explore Baltic and Scandinavian destinations, such as a 12-day Majestic Fjords and Vibrant Cities cruise from Bergen to Copenhagen that features overnights in both cities as well as in Oslo. Also notable is a winter cruise from London to Bergen during the season of the Northern Lights.
Phone 138 747. See vikingcruises.com.au
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