holidays of distinction

Once you are logged in, you can go straight to the holidays database by clicking here.

Overseas holidays are very important to us, since they are about seeing new places, meeting new people, trying different food and ideally also getting to taste the wines of the region in which we find ourselves. Like everything else, our holidays have evolved: from driving around France, Italy, Spain, Florida or California for several weeks, to simply lying on a Caribbean beach with a pile of paperbacks, to wanting to tick a few more boxes before it’s too late.

Since 2006, we have therefore spent a fair number of our holidays cruising, both on sailing ships (such as the Royal Clipper and Star Flyer) and on more conventional vessels — but still not large ships (with no more than about 1,200 passengers). This is an ideal way to see the world, without having to get on and off aeroplanes, or keep packing and unpacking. The trick is to find a cruise company that has the right formula — great itineraries, spacious mid-sized ships with a Berlitz [Cruise Guide] rating of >1,500, open seating and open dining, good food, relaxed smart casual ambience plus a gregarious and well-travelled target audience. The cruises we have taken since 2008 with Oceania Cruises pretty much define what we are looking for, whether on Nautica [680 max] or Marina [1200 max]. Sadly, we don’t always get it right, and we made a wrong choice in June 2010, when we travelled with Voyages to Antiquity (although in our defence it was the no single supplement that swung it for our party of three).

We are very fortunate to have travelled on every continent (apart from Antarctica), and to have set foot in over 75 countries apart from our own; their flags are shown above (hover over them to see which is which). To see our photographs from those holidays requires you to log in, but once you are logged in you can either click the globe at right for the list of all holidays, or you can click on a flag above to see holidays to that country (if there are no photos yet uploaded it will say).