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American Cruise Lines vessels combine intimacy with plenty to do. Photo: American Cruise Lines

Our room rivaled those we have enjoyed in many an upscale hotel. The food and table settings were both five-star. The lengthy list of available activities in our temporary home-away-from-home covered a wide diversity of interests.

Oh yes, there also were opportunities to explore inviting towns that provided deep dives into Civil War and other history, visit magnificent anti-bellum plantations and m

The exclusive dining experience on the Princess Discovery is unlike any other I have been a part of during my travels.

"360: An Extraordinary Experience" is dining immersion making one feel like you’re sitting in the Greek countryside with olive trees or smelling the fragrance of lavender in France. Thanks to Princess Cruises, I savored this time with fellow bloggers.

I immediately became captivated with the experience when I heard beautiful music played by two violinists and felt transported t

DeseoTravel.com

Our planet's vast, remote, southernmost continent - larger than Europe - is a much-coveted "final frontier" for many travelers. And booking Antarctica vacation packages via cruise ship offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see frozen landscapes that can't be seen anywhere else along with a plethora of polar wildlife. With vacation packages typically ranging from one to three weeks, cruise ships departing from Argentina's Tierra del Fuego make the two-day crossing through the pow

A French Country Waterways barge in France

One evening several years ago, my wife Fyllis and I savored a sumptuous four-course gourmet dinner accompanied by wines that had been produced nearby. 

More recently, we listened raptly to lectures by knowledgeable experts about a variety of issues, some controversial, in several Eastern European countries.

The settings for these experiences could have been a five-star hotel or resort - and indeed in atmosphere and attractiveness they deserved that rat

The poet William Wordsworth once said that the best way to view the hills of the English Lake District was from a boat on one of the lakes. I’d agree with that; when I was a kid, my holiday job was working on those boats on Lake Windermere.

A lot of time has passed since then, and I’ve amassed many more over the years. Cruises on lakes, river cruises, trips around the harbour, ferry crossings - the only thing I excluded from my list was ocean cruises.

River cruises fall into two categories. Th

Some folk describe glaciers as "rivers of ice", and in essence that’s just what they are. It starts with a snowfall, back in the Year Dot. If that snow doesn’t melt, there’s another snowfall next year, which just lies on top of it. Repeat this process for a few thousand years, and the snow is compressed into ice. Just the same as if you squeezed a snowball really tightly, you’ll finish up with an iceball.  Slowly but surely, the ice heads off downhill until it reaches a level where it can melt;

Myanmar (aka Burma) is changing fast and is now one of the "gotta-visit" places before it is too late.  Tourism is now booming and things are changing fast.  One are that is still of the radar of most tourist is the Irrawaddy Delta. Only Pandaw cruises can provide a comprehensive tour of the area.

The delta, which comprises nine main tributaries and a capillary system of smaller creeks and waterways, stretches over 10,000 square miles. Heavily populated, this water-logged maze has played a major

After writing scores of articles about ocean cruises, we decided to see what motivates vacationers to take European river cruises. We are glad we did.

So Much to Choose From

There are endless selections of river cruise itineraries on the internet, so we sought the guidance of three prominent river cruise companies in Europe – Amway, Uniworld, and Viking.

Viking River Cruises Comes Through

Viking River Cruises was most generous with their public relations department and customer service time, so we s

We boarded our ship in Buenos Aires, and the cruise would take us right around South America around the famous … or infamous … Cape Horn to Valpariaso.

I thought of the old sea shanty ‘Paddy Lay Back’:

‘… for we’re bound for Valparaiso round the Horn’

Then I remembered more words of the same ditty:

‘ … half the crew were spewing o’er the ship’s side

And the other half were spewing over me’.

Happily, such conditions didn’t happen on this cruise. We called at Punta del Este, Puerto Madryn and Port S

Our goal in taking a month-long cruise around Hawaii and Tahiti on the Golden Princess was to experience – and then write about – how a major cruise line like Princess caters to its suite passengers. It was one of our most enjoyable projects.

Suites for two

Over the past ten years, we have photographed and written about suites in B&Bs, hotels, resorts, and on cruise ships. It is our writing practice to always consider our subjects from a “couples” perspective. In that light, we have found many sui

Pandaw River Expeditions has become the first Western operator to reach China’s Yunnan Province via the Mekong River, when the RV Champa Pandaw moored yesterday at Guanlei.

The Champa Pandaw, which has 14 teak-finished staterooms, was specially built to withstand the strong currents and challenging navigational conditions of the Upper Mekong and deliver Southeast Asia’s first ever “four country” river expedition.

Running from October through April, Pandaw’s 14-night cruise The Mekong: from Laos to

Our visit to Dubrovnik seemed to be generating lots of hype onboard the ship. As this was our first Mediterranean cruise we were swept up in the added anticipation. Let me tell you, we weren’t disappointed.

There were many ex-pats on board the ship with us who were looking forward to the visit. Also, many with ancestors from the area. Perhaps as a result of the former Yugoslavia’s troubled past, many were returning to their homeland for the first time. You could visibly see the added excitement

The "Other Down Under" destination of New Zealand is on the bucket lists of many Americans -- and justly so. Problem is, New Zealand is a long way from anywhere U.S.A. Consequently, most tourists want to see as much as possible on their first visit. Our suggestion for an orientation trip to New Zealand – book a cruise.

The Rationale

A cruise will visit several ports on the two islands of New Zealand, which is a great way to get a taste of the entire country – and all without packing and repacking.

Grand Cru, Medoc, St Émilion, Bordeaux Left and Right Banks - all terms of which I was aware, but wanted much more information. That’s the beauty of a river cruise with wine as its main topic (and the wine isn’t bad either, to put it mildly!). We were about to embark on an eight-day UniWorld boutique wine river cruise along the Garonne River - an area settled by ancient Romans and once ruled by the English, but every bit a French region.


Each evening of the cruise started by imbibing in the "

After more than 45 years of traveling the globe, we have finally put together a list of our favorite travel destinations of a lifetime.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means, as we can think of additional wonderful places which could be considered for such a list. We have to draw the line somewhere, and so we selected twelve of our favorites.

After reading several similar lists available on the internet, from well known publications as well as from other bloggers, we felt that we should

Did you know that booking a cruise with a cruise expert could save you time and money? I recently worked with Jamie Erdman and learned a lot about cruises from a real expert.

Jamie is the Brand Manager of DiscountCruises.com, a website dedicated to cruise travel. She shared her knowledge and tips and told me that there's a cruise line and a cruise ship to suit almost everyone’s taste and budget. She also said that many travelers miss out on the best deals because they don’t utilize the services