New Luxury Catamaran From Haugan Cruises

Regular readers will know we are big fans of the adventure-cruise style of travelling and avidly follow a number of high-quality expedition-style cruise companies, like Nomads of the Seas, Pandaw Cruises, Aqua Expeditions, Orion Expedition Cruises, Lindblad Expeditions, and others.

Head out to the specialist world of the Galapagos Islands cruises and you find another of our favourite lines, Haugan Cruises, and their latest news is definitely one to make us sit up and take notice. See what you think:

The brand new Cormorant from Haugan Cruises incorporates the very best of Galapagos Catamaran design. The modern and ample accommodation includes Jacuzzi, huge sun deck and a private balcony for each of the spacious staterooms. The Cormorant catamaran combines high quality with high value making your Galapagos experience an affordable luxury.
Key Features: Private Balconies (all staterooms), The Newest Galapagos Boat, Large Suites Available, Excellent Itinerary, High quality, high value and Assistance at the airport.

For further information, contact Haugan Cruises or, in the UK for bookings and travel packages, contact the adventure-cruise specialists of The Cruise Line Ltd.

Galapagos Islands with Haugan Cruises

Here's a very timely reminder of a great way to visit the Galapagos Islands with one of our favourite adventure cruise specialists.

With six superb state-of-the-art luxury catamarans operating in the islands, Haugan Cruises is owned and managed jointly by experienced personnel from both Ecuador and Europe. Their aim is to give guests a great Galapagos experience at extremely competitive prices and always in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.

The pricing includes ALL of the following:

• Top quality bilingual local guide throughout the cruise:

• Dedicated onboard cruise manager
• All meals on board
• Bottled water & sodas
• Welcome cocktail
• Snorkelling equipment
• Free use of all amenities on board (laptops, etc)
• Free trip and planning service for all your needs in the region
• Free airport assistance - Mainland Ecuador (Quito & Guayaquil)
• Free airport assistance - Galapagos Islands
• Free use of airport VIP lounges (Quito & Guayaquil)
• Free transfers between boat and airport
• Free 24-hour helpline for personal assistance for your entire time in Ecuador
• Free International flight confirmation service
• Wetsuit use

For more information, visit www.haugancruises.com or contact the UK's leading adventure cruise specialists of The Cruise Line.

(Photo courtesy of GalapagosIslands.com)

Happy New Year!

By guest blogger Steve Newman

A happy New Year to you all!

Well I guess like me you are looking forward to a new year of cruising opportunities. I am lucky enough to be going to Antarctica with Hurtigruten this month, one of my dream destinations for quite a few years now.

Browsing through all the brochures that have popped though my letterbox, I was struck by Silversea’s Alaska and Pacific Coast offerings, even though any ship with more than 100 guests on board is not my cup of tea really! Eco/adventure cruising is more my style and the hot spots this year are likely be Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia and the Far East. In fact, if you get a chance, do have a look at the Adventure Cruise Collection brochure from The Cruise Line.

So where would I like to visit this year? Well, being a fanatical bird-watcher and naturalist, my number one all-time spot is the Galapagos Islands. Companies such as Haugan Cruises, Lindblad Expeditions and Ecoventura all offer excellent options. If, however, you would prefer to do your wildlife watching from the deck clutching a gin and tonic, then some of the larger cruise lines such as Celebrity offer this as a choice.

The problem is there is just SO much to see. But the incredible scenery you find around the Thailand coast when onboard wind powered vessels like Star Clippers (above), Paul Gauguin and Windjammer have a definite appeal.

Where ever you go, I hope you have a fantastic time and do keep coming back to these pages to find a bargain - or your dream cruise in 2011.

Luxury Cruising in the Galapagos Islands

By guest blogger Steve Newman

Haugan Cruises is pleased to present their new 2011 itineraries for M/C Athala (above) & M/C Nina, the only two luxury catamarans in the Galapagos with state-of-the-art design and technology, making them the fastest, sleekest and most stable catamarans cruising the islands.

They will be one of the first Galapagos Tour Operators to offer a 15-day itinerary with the very best visitor sites and flexible length of cruises. The programme will be divided into two 6-day itineraries and one 5-day itinerary, while 8-day cruises will also be available.

For further information, go ti their website at http://www.haugancruises.com/ or call the UK's adventure cruise specialists The Cruise Line Ltd on 0800 008 6677.

New edition now out!

OK, I'm more than a week late with publicising our latest edition, but the Spring issue of World of Cruising magazine is now available to subscribers and online visitors alike.

It is choc-full of great destination features (Singapore, the Pacific North-West, the Maldives and the Aegean Sea, plus river cruising on both the Rhine and Rhone in Europe), ship reviews (the new Silver Spirit, Princess Danae, Majestic Cruises and Royal Clipper), insider news and comment (Aft View, Passenger Perspective and our annual Cruise Planner on every ship worldwide), and our unique regular features like World of Spas, Fashion and The Admiral.

You can see more online at http://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/ - and look out for our all-new website, coming soon!

We are also hard at work on the next edition for June, featuring Nomads of the Seas in Chile; Royal Caribbean's amazing Oasis of the Seas, an Arabian Odyssey around Oman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai; cruising on the Brahmaputra River in India; sailing on the unique Patricia of Trinity House; the amazing Galapagos Islands with Haugan Cruises; a look at how life aboard ship has changed in the past 100 years; a luxury voyage on The Nile; and a special look at 'green' cruising.

It is all in store in the Summer edition of Europe's premier publication on the subject of cruising, so make sure you order your copy now!

We're on Countdown Central here at Chez Veness, ready for our big epic adventure of the year - off to Chile and a week's cruise with Nomads of the Seas followed by a post-cruise stay in the capital Santiago.

It marks the start of our loose 'theme' with World of Cruising magazine for 2010, the whole subject of adventure cruising and the best ways to do it in different parts of the world.

We have already highlighted the new Adventure Cruise Collection just published by our sister company The Cruise Line Ltd, but our subjects for the magazine promise to go into a lot more depth in each case.

We will open the Spring edition with the great Pacific North-West, exploring the little-known region between Seattle and Vancouver (including the charming San Juan islands), and then go on to present Chilean Patagonia in all its splendour. After that, we go on to sample river-cruising in Indo-China; the classic Norwegian Coastal Voyage of Hurtigruten; the Galapagos with Haugan Cruises; Alaska in the company of American Safari Cruises; and discover how to enjoy a true African safari with your cruise.

But, for now, we are suitably excited about the prospects of a flight from Miami to Santiago and then Santiago to Puerto Montt (both with LAN Airways, about whom we hear good things) to meet up with Nomads and their unique operation.

It is certainly one of the most unusual and enticing trips I will have tried as editor of the magazine, and one which has been a long-standing ambition since I first saw the BBC TV documentary series Flight of the Condor back in the 1970s.

The whole region of sub-equatorial South America has long been a major fascination for me and this will be the ideal opportunity to discover if the fantasy lives up to the reality. We should get to see a lot of the Chilean Andean landscape and its wildlife (the whole week is subtitled as a Wildlife Cruise), and I will have the camera very firmly primed for lots of pictures - many of which you will see in our Summer edition.

Following that up with a few days in Santiago and a chance to visit the neighbouring wine country should be equally captivating. It is a city and region about which I know little (apart from what the Lonely Planet guidebook has told me so far!), but it promises to add an extra dimension to our trip.

So you'll have to excuse me if I seem a little distracted this week. But it should be worth waiting for...!

A Truly Adventurous Collection!

I make no excuses for banging this particular drum again this week, but having been working on this for the past month or so (it just seems longer!), I wanted to be sure to get full value for it here at Time Spent At Sea.

The Adventure Cruise Collection is now out; available; freely on the market; ready to be perused; published!

Having struggled mightily with writing large parts of it and helped in the design and general style (for which all of Robin Maclear, Emma Tilbury and Debbie Belcher at The Cruise Line Ltd also deserve heaps of praise), I can vouch at first hand that this is NOT your average cruise brochure. To start with it is highly selective. Only the creme de la creme of genuine, upmarket adventure-cruising operators are featured; 12 distinctive, unique companies that all have that 'something different' appeal and bags of personal charm and style.

It is not intended to be comprehensive but a well-chosen assemblage of one-off destinations that can all lay claim to a peerless operation in their particular sphere on influence, be it in the North-West Passage, Antarctica, the Chilean fjords and Patagonia or the South Pacific.

Indeed, it will probably not appeal to mass-market sensibilities (and budgets!) as it is a genuine tailor-made collection of excursion-style voyages that eschew the large and formulaic in favour of the truly personal experience, all with a luxurious, creature-comfort-laden approach to providing the very best onboard service and attention to detail.

Take your pick from the following:

• The Galapagos Islands with Ecuador specialists Haugan Cruises
• The rivers of Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar with Pandaw Cruises
• Majestic Chilean Patagonia with the unique Nomads of the Seas
• The wonders of Antarctica with six-star Silversea Cruises
• A crossing of the North-West Passage with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises
• The Norwegian Arctic in the company of Hurtigruten
• A journey into the Orinoco with Le Compagnie du Ponant
• Mysterious Papua New Guinea with Orion Expedition Cruises
• The Peruvian Upper Amazon with distinctive Aqua Expeditions
• The South Pacific with epic adventurers Zegrahm Expeditions
• A true Indian Ocean odyssey aboard the chic Le Diamant
• And the small-scale Alaska of deluxe American Safari Cruises

It all comes complete with a level of specialist guides and cultural experience that is second to none and adds up to possibly the most complete and eye-opening collection of aspirational travel ever assembled in one easy-to-digest package.

But don't take my word for it. The Adventure Cruise Collection brochure is free and ready to be ordered by click of mouse or by phone. Just call 0800 008 6677 or go to this link!

Then, just sit back, read and enjoy. I guarantee a wonderful time ahead.......!