9 Exotic Cruise Itineraries You Need to Know About

Image: Regal Princess in the open sea. (Photo Credit: Princess Cruises)

by Scott Laird
Last updated: 7:00 AM ET, Sun September 8, 2024

With so much of the earth’s surface covered in water, it’s no wonder cruising is a fast-growing segment for leisure travel. A significant share of the globe’s destinations are reachable by river or ocean-going ship, including destinations well outside the normal rounds for travelers. Cruisers who might have enjoyed their voyages to the Caribbean, European capitals, or Alaska are looking for new places to visit, and some of these exotic itineraries explore lesser-visited parts of popular cruise regions, or combine areas in new, exciting ways.?

We've curated a selection of noteworthy voyages for the diversity of regions they cover, up-and-coming ports, or good old-fashioned seclusion. If at least one of the ports causes a decently well-seasoned traveler to scratch their head and say, "Where's that?" it's not a stretch to call it "exotic."?

Abercrombie & Kent – 14 Night Zanzibar to Seychelles

Stretching from Tanzania on Africa's east coast to the Seychelles, far out into the Indian Ocean, this voyage covers a corner of the world quite distant for most North American travelers. A&K charters Ponant's luxury expedition ship Le Bougainville for the journey, offering balconies in each room and butler service in suites, the ship stops into both the Inner and Outer Seychelles, with a rich diversity of marine and bird life, including a stop at Aldabra Atoll, home to two-thirds of the world's giant tortoise population.?

Quasar Expeditions – Galápagos

The Galápagos are certainly secluded, and voyages there are all intimate, as local authorities limit the size of vessels that can operate cruises. But with only 16 guests onboard (and eight guests to each guide), Quasar's Grace Yacht is intimate to the max. The ship’s small size also means it can visit parts of the Galápagos inaccessible to larger ships, meaning the yacht’s guests really do get that exclusive experience—what’s more, the yacht’s name isn’t just happenstance, it’s so named because Princess Grace of Monaco spent her honeymoon onboard the yacht—a wedding present from Aristotle Onassis—in 1956.?

Sea Dream Yacht Club – Best of the Secluded Caribbean

Another gorgeous yacht journey is onboard Sea Dream Yacht Club’s Sea Dream I. Departing Barbados, she spends several days in the Grenadines in the Caribbean, slipping into intimate coves and other tranquil parts of Mayreau, Tobago Cays, and Bequia much too small for larger vessels. Then it’s on to the Guadeloupe—but not exactly Guadeloupe. The yacht is bound instead for the tiny ?les des Saintes of the coast, where the locals vacation and unwind, then it’s on to utterly French St. Barths for an overnight call for luxury shopping and chic cafés before winding through the U.S. and British Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico.?

Aranui – Austral Islands

French Polynesia’s Austral Islands lay to the south of Tahiti, and they’re some of the most isolated islands in the world. Each of these islands has something distinctive to offer, from the rare manu’ura lorikeet on Rimatara to the cannibal caves of Rurutu. Aranui V is an extraordinary “mullet ship”—cargo in front, cruise in the back—that makes two voyages to the Australs each year without cargo, giving travelers an extraordinary chance to visit these almost untouched Polynesian islands.

Princess Cruises – 21 Day Tropical Passage

Many of these ports may be familiar, but this itinerary is wildly exotic. The three-week journey from London (Southampton) to Galveston, Texas, onboard Regal Princess calls in Bilbao, Spain, noted for its Guggenheim Museum, and the autonomous Portuguese island of Madeira, where guests can sample some of the island's eponymous wine and ride down steep volcanic slopes in a wicker basket. In Galveston, stick around for a day or two to check out the distinctive glass pyramids of Moody Gardens or the recently renovated historic Grand Galvez Hotel.

Oceania Cruises, Malta, Riviera, Oceania ships

Oceania Cruises – Palm & Pagodas

Not many travelers have been to Brunei or Puerto Princesa in The Philippines. Ditto Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where visitors can float down the Love River or enjoy plenty of art, both modern and historic. This 11-day sailing from Singapore to Hong Kong packs each of these lesser-visited ports into a voyage onboard Oceania's newly renovated Riviera.?

Regent Seven Seas Cruises – Flavors of Luxury

Sailing from Valletta, Malta, to Monte Carlo, Monaco, this voyage already hits lesser-called ports in the Mediterranean, but it’s two stops in France that really catch the eye. Sete is a Proven?al port not typical for cruises but with plenty of incredible sights to see, from the walled city of Carcassone to a cruise on the 17^th century Canal du Midi, one of the earliest engineering feats of the early Industrial Revolution. The second is Sanary-sur-Mer, situated between Marseilles and Nice, giving access to both Provence with excursions to Marseille, Cassis, and Aix-en-Provence or the twinkling Cote d’Azur beach town of St. Tropez.

Viking – Iceland’s Majestic Landscapes

Iceland may not be exotic to many, but what about the small northern communities of ?safj?rdur, Akureyri, and Seydisfj?rdur? How about the Faroe Islands? Viking calls at each of these ports en route from Reykjavík to Bergen, Norway. Bathe your way through Iceland in a series of geothermal baths or explore scores of waterfalls, canyons, or rugged fjords, before immersing in the distinct culture of the remote Faroe Islands, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Finish off with a journey through Norway’s fjords, before ending the journey in picturesque Bergen, once the capital of Norway.

MS Roald Amundsen, Antarctica, expedition cruises, Hurtigruten, penguins

H|X Hurtigruten Expeditions – Inside Passage, Bears, and Aleutian Islands

This isn't your typical Alaska cruise. Hurtigruten Expeditions calls at tiny, uninhabited St. Matthew Island to catch glimpses of seabirds like puffins or mammals like arctic foxes. Poke around the eery ghost town of Unga on the Alaska Peninsula, see brown bears in Katmai National Park, or see ancient petroglyphs on the beach near Wrangell, a city not on the regular Alaska cruise circuit. The voyage finally ends in Nome, a town spurred by a gold rush, after a visit to remote St. Paul in the Pribilof Island group, home to a designated Important Bird Area, and the largest community of Indigenous Unangan people in the US, although the prevalence of Russian surnames belies a not-too-distant colonial past.

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