CRUISE OF THE WEEK
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Book by 23:59 on 14th April 2026
There are holidays that show you one place beautifully. And there are voyages that show you a world.
This is one of the latter. In thirteen nights from London Tilbury, you can stand in the pilgrimage squares of Santiago de Compostela and feel the weight of nine hundred ... years of devotion. You can watch Andalusian horses perform in the classical Baroque tradition in Jerez. You can cross from Europe into Africa and step into the sensory abundance of a Moroccan medina. You can spot dolphins — wild, resident, unhurried — in the Strait of Gibraltar. You can drive through terraced hillsides above Fuengirola to a whitewashed village that has barely changed in centuries. And on your last shore day, you can taste wine from a private Portuguese estate that most visitors to Porto never find.
Just think about this… no hassle of airports, queues and constant packing. Each morning reveals a new port to explore, with every detail already taken care of. Every meal is included. The ship becomes your home: comfortable, familiar, well-stocked and already pointing at the next destination. All of this, at a price that truly reflects the extraordinary value of seeing this much of the world you’ll experience.
CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS
Vigo, Spain
A handsome Atlantic city of granite streets and sea air, but it’s what lies around an hour and a quarter inland that gives this port call its true significance. Santiago de Compostela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has drawn pilgrims from across the known world for nearly a thousand years. Arrive in the vast Plaza del Obradoiro and look up at the cathedral’s famous façade — an extraordinary display of Baroque towers, carved stone and spiritual ambition rising against the Galician sky.
To complete the experience, enjoy tea and biscuits at the Parador Hostal de los Reyes Católicos — a late 15th-century pilgrim hospice, widely considered the oldest hotel in the world still in operation.
Cádiz, Spain
One of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited cities — founded by the Phoenicians, shaped by Romans and Moors, enriched by Spanish monarchs and English merchants, and still thriving on the Atlantic edge of Andalusia.
But the day’s true centrepiece lies inland, in Jerez de la Frontera. The Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art is, by any measure, one of Spain’s most extraordinary cultural institutions — think the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, reimagined under the Andalusian sun. Here, horses and riders trained to the highest standards of classical Baroque horsemanship perform with precision, power and remarkable grace.
Afterwards, there’s time to enjoy Jerez itself — the city that gave sherry its name. Its streets reveal a warm blend of Moorish influence and 18th-century grandeur, while its cafés and relaxed pace invite you to slow down, linger, and savour the atmosphere.
Ceuta, Spain
A Spanish enclave on the tip of the African continent, where Europe and Africa face each other across a few miles of blue water.
Forty kilometres into Morocco, Tetouan waits. The Gem of the Rif Mountains. One of the most beautiful and most authentic towns in the country, its UNESCO-listed Medina is a living document of Moroccan culture: narrow alleyways that twist and open and twist again; markets heaped with produce harvested that morning - figs and cumin and orange blossom and cinnamon in quantities that fill the air; stalls of handmade leather, embroidered fabric and spiced pastry.
Málaga, Spain
One of the great Andalusian cities, and it would be easy to spend a day there happily. But this excursion takes you somewhere less expected, and in some ways more rewarding: Mijas, a whitewashed village in the hills above Fuengirola, reached through the Guadalhorce Valley with its terraced rows of lemon, orange and olive trees.
Mijas is the kind of place that gets described in travel writing as a hidden gem, but the truth is simpler than that: it is just a very beautiful Andalusian village, built on a steep hillside with views of the Mediterranean stretching to the horizon. An hour of free time to explore at your own pace - coffee at a terrace café, pottery browsing, or simply standing at the viewpoint and looking south - rounds out a day that stays in the memory.
Gibraltar
The Rock of Gibraltar is one of those landmarks that arrives exactly as advertised: massive, unmistakable, rising from the water at the point where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean decide to become one. There is a geological theatre to it that no photograph quite captures.
The waters of the Strait are home to three resident species of wild dolphin - Common, Striped and Bottle-nosed - drawn by the deep currents, the abundant food and the shelter of the bay. Dolphin Spotting: a dedicated dolphin-watching vessel takes you out into the Strait, with the Spanish coast on one side and Morocco on the other, to find them. You may also encounter whales, flying fish, turtles and sunfish.
Oporto (via Leixões)
The voyage ends on the coast of northern Portugal, where the Douro River meets the sea and the city of Porto rises on its steep riverbanks, tiled and gilded and entirely itself.
Quinta da Aveleda, in the hills east of Porto, is a beautiful private estate that produces Vinho Verde - a wine so tied to this particular corner of Portugal that it cannot legally be made anywhere else. The estate announces itself with a dramatic entrance gate flanked by century-old trees. Beyond: formal gardens, working vineyards, and a bottling facility where the winemaking process is explained in full.
Vinho Verde is unlike most wines. Light, semi-sparkling and bottled immediately after production, it is intended to be consumed within a year of the harvest. The tasting, accompanied by local cheese, is the kind of afternoon that quietly becomes a favourite memory of the whole voyage.
