8 Wonderful Cruises of The World

The romance of long ocean and river trips of heritage holds powerful sway over the desires of many world vacationers. But there is however no reason to relegate the great trip to the realm of books and dreams — many can still be done nowadays in classic style.
The following ocean and river trips rank among the most legendary and unforgettable vacation experiences on or off water. So put on your best Poirot accent, and brush up on your own Huck Finn river lingo, and climb aboard for the voyages of your life.

The Nile

Cruising boat or time machine? The world’s longest river is like it’s the oldest, and to board a vessel on the Nile is to peel back millennia and decelerate to river speed as ancient temples, oxcarts and palm trees — unaltered since Pharaohs ruled the roost — pass by.
Essential experiences:

Docking at Luxor for Ancient Egypt’s greatest: the colossal columns of Karnak, Luxor Temple (best seen lit up after dark) and the Valley of the Kings.
Quaffing beverages on the deck of Aswan’s grand Old Cataract Hotel.
Entering the tombs of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, moved in the 1960s to avoid being covered by the waters of Lake Nasser.
Discovering the ‘smoking water’ of 45m-high Tis Issat (Blue Nile Falls) in Ethiopia.

The Northwest Passage

Sail through the most legendary shipment route on Earth, following in the wake of a host of Victorian-era explorers searching out the ocean’s holy grail: safe boat passage through the frozen top of North America for the riches of Asia.
Essential experiences:

Wandering over the Northwest Passage Park and Interpretive Centre at Gjoa Haven, in Nunavut.
Stopping in at Beechey Island, a national historic site east of Cornwallis Island, where the Franklin expedition wintered before vanishing forever — traces of the men and their lost rescuers remain.
Watching the remains of Roald Amundsen’s schooner Maud in the harbor of Cambridge Bay, where Northwest Passage explorers often took refuge.

Norway’s fjords

Scoured and gouged by historical glaciers, Norway’s fjords really are a veritable wonderland. These deep, sea-drowned valleys, scissored by impossibly tough landscape, were recently elected by National Geographic Traveler magazine as the world’s best travel vacation spot.
Essential experiences:

Staring gobsmacked at the imposing cliffs of Geirangerfjord.
Getting the thrilling Flåmsbana train trip among Hardangervidda and Flåm.
Admiring art nouveau architecture in enchanting Ålesund.
Exciting to the excitement of Bergen, an attractive, charming city, with a World Heritage-listed community, Bryggen, and buzzing harbor, ringed by 7 hills and seven fjords.

Down the Mississippi to New Orleans

The Mississippi: America’s most important river. It gave birth to the blues, Huckleberry Finn, Budweiser and even more. It experienced the Civil War and the end of slavery. Follow it down to New Orleans and bid it goodbye as it leaves, seeping out into the Gulf of mexico.
Essential experiences:

Visiting the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal to bone up on your Huck Finn knowledge, and finding the places he transposed into his famous novel.
Discovering Memphis’ Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum to understand regarding the transportation of slaves down the river to freedom.
Make pilgrimage to Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis, and having a dose of the blues in Clarksdale.
Relishing river delicacies: slow-burning tamales and melt-off-the-bone ribs in Clarksdale; chili tamales and steaks in Greenville; and the full gamut of Cajun and Creole cuisine in New Orleans.

The River Ganges

Glacial teardrops gather into water ways, cascading down into navigable white water and finally smoothing into a tranquil mocha river that purifies sins, transports souls and irrigates productive farmland. It is the Mother Ganga, India’s most sacred river.
Essential experiences:

Backpacking from Gangotri Temple to Gaumukh, the terminus for the hulking Gangotri Glacier, the original source of the Ganges.
Meditating the ashrams of yoga-mecca Rishikesh, where The Beatles got their Eastern fix in the 1960s.
Snapping images and soaking up the devotional soul of India in the neglected city of Haridwar.
Exploring the tumbledown ghats on foot or by boat in Varanasi, as the pilgrims have a bath in the sacred river.

The Amazon River

The Amazon: Physically, it’s immense and mythically it’s the very same. A riverine Amazon journey never fails to evoke overlapping imagery: exotic, dense rain forest; indigenous tribes; abundant wildlife; enveloping mystery; sometimes even menace.
Essential experiences:

Canoeing through a flooded forest.
Dozing in a hammock on a slow boat to nowhere.
Listening to the song of a thousand birds and the eerie cry of howler monkeys.
Stopping at a riverside town and hiking through the lush rain forest.

Mekong River

One of the world’s longest rivers, to follow it is to experience the great cultural and geographical diversity of a continent, to absorb its many refractions of Buddhism and to meet rural Asia at her most picturesque, almost always bathed in natural, mystical beauty.
Essential experiences:

Wandering along the headwaters in the unforgettable Tibetan Plateau where cultures collide in the shadow of the Himalayas.
Exploring China’s mystical and enchanting Yunnan Province, dotted with limestone peaks and carved with deep river gorges.
Being seduced by the saffron-robed monks, shady streets, colonial buildings, handicrafts and patisseries of charming and delicious, Luang Prabang.
Exploring the vast, colorful water world that is the Mekong Delta.

The Yangtze by slow boat

A cruise down China’s Yangtze, the world’s third-longest river, is one of the most memorable water-borne journeys on earth. When the river threads through the Three Gorges, flowing between rock formations and stunning cliffs, it’s nothing less than magical.
Essential experiences:

Watching the Three Gorges peek into view through a shroud of mist.
Changing boats at Wushan for the Little Three Gorges.
Enjoying the ancient town of Fèngjié overlooking Qutang Gorge, the entrance point to White King Town.
Taking it easy as the boat slowly wends its way.

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