New Zealand 2026
The next country on our Circle Pacific cruise was New Zealand. We had visited in 2024, and three of our stops were the same. Auckland Our first stop was Auckland,…
French Polynesia 2026
The second island group on our Circle Pacific cruise was French Polynesia, a new location for us. It is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to. …
Pre-Cruise Travel and Hawaii 2026
We are currently on a Circle Pacific Cruise, from Los Angeles to Los Angeles. We had not planned to do another long cruise, but we do not like long flights…
2025 Transatlantic Cruise Southampton to Boston
After our 2025 travels in Europe and the UK, we returned to the US by our favorite means, a cruise ship! Since it was my 60th birthday, I chose the…
Highlights of Great Britain 2025
We spent six weeks in Great Britain in 2025, in England and Scotland. The following are the highlights of the trip for us, listed in the order we visited them.…
Farewell to France – St. Malo (the city and the Brittany Ferry)
Our last stop in France was the city of St. Malo, a port city on the English Channel of approximately 50,000 people in the Brittany region of France. It has…
Angers, France
Our next stop in France was Angers (pronounced “ahn-hey”), a city in Western France southwest of Paris, on the Maine River a tributary of the Loire. The city has just…
A Different View of Paris
Our first visit to Paris was in 2010, during our first trip to Europe. We did many of the typical tourist things on that trip – stayed within view of…
Lyon, France
Our next stop in France was Lyon. Lyon is the 3rd largest city in France, with a population of just over 500,000. It is at the confluence of the Saone…
Antibes, France
Our first stop in France was in Antibes, a city of just over 75,000 people on what is known as the French Riviera, the Mediterranean coastline in Southeast France. It…
Last Two Stops in Italy
After leaving Cinque Terre, we spent two nights in two places on our way to France. Nervi, Genoa The first was the Nervi neighborhood of Genoa. We had been to…
Cinque Terre
Our next stop on our self-guided tour of Italy was Cinque Terre (Five Lands). The name refers to five villages located within Cinque Terre National Park, which is also a…
Hanging out in Livorno
Our next stop in Italy was Livorno, a city of approximately 150,000 in Tuscany on the Ligurian Sea, which is north of Corsica where many (including me) may have thought…
March-April 2025 Transatlantic Cruise – Emerald Princess
(Edited 4/23/25 to add our bridge tour) In late March/early April 2025 we took a transatlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Civitavecchia, the port closest to Rome. Several stops on…
World Cruise – Final Impressions
Going on a world cruise was a very interesting life experience. I am writing this post in mid-June of 2024, seven weeks after we got off of the ship on…
Bermuda
Our final stop on our cruise, after five days at sea, was the island nation of Bermuda. This is another British Overseas Territory. It was our first visit. Bermuda was…
Our Last Stops in Europe
After crossing back to the western side of the Mediterranean, we had three stops, in three different countries, before ending the European portion of our cruise. All of these were…
Greece and Turkey – Scenic Beauty and Excellent Food
The next four stops on our cruise were in Greece and Turkey. These were new countries for us and places we looked forward to visiting. These stops were four days…
Four Stops in Italy
The next country we visited on our cruise was Italy. We had been to Italy before, but all the scheduled stops were new places for us. We ended up with…
Two Stops in France
Next on the agenda were two stops in France. Marseille Our first stop was Marseille, a city we visited on our first trip to Europe in 2010. Marseille is the…
Spain – March 2024
Our next two scheduled stops were in Spain, although due to weather conditions, one of them was changed which resulted in two bonuses from our perspective. The day before we…
A Day in Lisbon
Our next port was Lisbon, Portugal, our third time in this great city. One of the nice things about returning to a city you’ve been to before is that you…
Final African Stop – Agadir, Morocco
Our fifth and final African stop was in Agadir, Morocco. This was the only African stop on our original itinerary. Agadir is a city of nearly 1 million people on…
A Visit to Macaronesia
Macaronesia is a group of four island chains in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. We had previously visited one group, the Azores, part of Portugal,…
Two Stops in Southern Africa
After a few more days at sea, we arrived at our first stop on the African continent, Cape Town, South Africa. We stayed overnight so we had a few days…
Port Louis, Mauritius
After a crossing of the Indian Ocean from Australia, we arrived in Port Louis, the capital of the island nation of Mauritius, off the coast of Madagascar and Africa. This…
Australia
We next visited three ports in Australia. This is a reduced number than on the original itinerary, and we visited Melbourne instead of some of the others. This was because…
New Zealand
New Zealand is an idyllic place: stunning scenery, friendly people, reasonably priced (compared to the United States) and a farm-to-table foodie paradise. I thoroughly enjoyed our four ports of call!…
Suva, Fiji
After six days at sea, our next port was Suva, Fiji, our first time in the South Pacific. Suva is the largest city in that part of the world, with…
Hawaii – Honolulu and Accepting Change
Our next two stops were in Hawaii. We have been to Hawaii many times, but we always look forward to it and would be glad to return again. When we…
Los Angeles (San Pedro)
Our last stop on the first “segment” of our cruise was Los Angeles. Our ship docked in the Port of Los Angeles, located in the San Pedro neighborhood. Docked in…
Two Stops in Mexico, Including Friends!
We continued our cruise with two stops in Mexico, one new, and one we are familiar with. Huatulco Our first stop in Mexico was Huatulco, specifically Puerto Santa Cruz (there…
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Our next port was Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We had been here once before, on our previous Panama Canal cruise in 2009. The last time we and a van full of…
Panama Canal
We have a few “scenic cruising” days scheduled, where there is a day of scenic touring that you can see from the ship, but where we do not go ashore. …
Cartagena, Colombia
Our first port of call was Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena was founded as a Spanish Colonial city in 1533, an important port in the export of silver from the Americas to…
Vagabonding
Vagabond, noun: a person who wanders from place to place without a fixed home: one leading a vagabond life. Vagabond, verb; vagabonding: to wander in the manner of a vagabond:…
2026 Final South Pacific Stops: Samoa and Fiji
We visited two out of the four planned remaining stops on our South Pacific itinerary. The stop to Vanuatu was cancelled due to difficult sea conditions. The ship did visit…