48 ............... Saturday, September 3, 2016 1SM

IT’S 24°C INFUERTEVEN-TURA—sevennights’ all-in-clusive at the 4H

Labranda Aloe ClubResort in Corralejo isfrom £303pp. Flightsfrom Glasgow onNovember 30. Book bySeptember 12. Seeblueseaholidays.co.uk

HOTSPOT

IT’S 28°C INTHAILAND —stay eightnights for theprice of four at

the 4H Centara Resortin Phuket from £599ppwith Cheapflights. Theprice is based on roomonly with flights fromLondon via Beijing. Seecheapflights.co.uk

HOTSPOT

TRAVEL

rant. Catering for just 350 pas-sengers as opposed to 3,000-plus on the bigger ships, thecrew really get to know thepassengers (and vice versa) fora truly attentive, bespoke ser-vice — another tick in the boxof small ship cruising. By theend of the week, I knew mysteward, bar and restaurantstaff like good friends.

Perhaps that’s why theAegean Odyssey has one of thehighest rates of returning cus-tomers in the cruising industry.

That’s no mean feat giventhe sheer number of sailing

options out there. And no onecruise with Voyages to Antiq-uity is the same. As theaward-winning company onlyhas the one vessel, it meanssailing into port in differentplaces all year round.

After a day of relaxation andluxuriating at sea, we madeour first port of call at Fal-mouth. Boasting the thirddeepest natural harbour in theworld (behind Sydney and Riode Janeiro) it’s other claim tofame is being where Olympichero Ben Ainslie learned tosail. Falmouth was also a US

naval base during the SecondWorld War where some of theD-Day landings started outfrom. But what I was mostexcited about was the shoreexcursion to the Eden Project.

I’d heard lots about it butnever had the opportunity tovisit — until now.

Nestled in a huge crater thesize of 30 football pitches, thelarge biomes looked like how Iimagine future human settle-ments on Mars will be.

The world’s biggest green-house transports visitors to thesteamy Malaysian rainforest inone biome (I saw bananasgrowing — in Cornwall!), whilethe Mediterranean biomewhisks you away to the dryheat and herbal smells of ruralItaly or Greece.

I’ve never experienced any-thing quite like it. One thingI’ve learned about cruising isthat it’s as much about explor-ing new places ashore as

GOING/GETTING THERE: Voyages to Antiquity’s 15-day Iberia, Franceand England cruise costs from £2,495pp.

The cruise departs from Seville calling at Lisbon, Oporto, Vigo, Bor-deaux, Falmouth, Dartmouth and Honfleur. The price includes returnflights, transfers, gratuities, guest speakers plus onboard and shoreexcursions. For more information see voyagestoantiquity.com or callthem on 01865 302550.

Sthe aturday

SET SAIL ONA MAIDENVOYAGE OFDISCOVERY

Sea-ing

GO: VOYAGESTOANTIQUITY

DRAWING backthe curtains, itwasn’t a huge sur-prise to begreeted by haar. Areal pea souper —the kind you onlyfind when you’reby the sea.

Somewhere out in thedense grey blanket of mistwas Falmouth harbour andthe first UK landfall of thevoyage.

As this was my very firstcruise, I wasn’t sure what toexpect but fog at some pointwas predictable — and thank-fully short-lived.

Before long, the sun hadburned it off, revealing clustersof small masts and lush greenheadlands.

That day was a landmarkday for Voyages to Antiquity. Itwas the first time they haddocked in the UK on theirinaugural cruise from Sevilleto London.

Cruising has never beenmore popular with ever largerships — some like floating cit-ies — taking to the world’swaves. On the high seas, sizereally does matter. Luckily forme, my first cruising experi-ence was on a small ship.

The sun lazily slippedbelow the horizon

Not only did it ease a novicelike me into cruising life butthere are also a great manyadvantages to being onboard asmaller vessel.

For one thing, it means youcan dock in places larger shipssimply can’t reach — like theheart of Bordeaux.

The wine capital of theworld was in the grip of Euro2016 fever when I joined theAegean Odyssey for the startof my week’s voyage.

Perching for my first beer ofthe week at the outdoor Lidodeck bar, I could hear thebuzz of the fanzone just metresaway as Spaniards and Croa-tians draped in flags milledaround chanting and singing.

The Place de la Bourse, oneof the focal points of the city’swaterfront with its mesmeri-sing miroir d’eau water feature,was within touching distancefrom our berth on the Gironderiver, the sandstone of theUnesco city’s 18th centurybuildings gleaming in the bak-ing sun. Bliss.

With the rest of the passen-gers back onboard from theirexcursion to the Bordelaisvineyards, we raised anchorand cruised up the Gironde asthe sun lazily slipped belowthe horizon.

With perfect weather andsurroundings, I soaked up thelast of the day’s rays with agin and tonic aperitif beforeheading down for an al frescodinner at The Terrace restau-

SHIP SHAPE. . . cruise

novice Davidwas wowed by

his break,which took inFalmouth and

Bordeaux

PREMIER INN, NORTHTERMINAL, LONDON

GATWICKWHAT’S IT LIKE? The per-fect stopover if you are fly-ing from Gatwick. From themoment we arrived therewere plenty of friendly, eff-icient staff on hand to helpwith everything. Customerservice was faultless and itset the tone for ourstay.ROOMS ANYGOOD? Sheetswere crisp andfresh and theroom was spot-less — we felt likewe were the first peo-ple to use it. All rooms haveFreeview TV, free Wi-Fi andtea and coffee-makingfacilities.EAT HERE ORGRAB APIZZA? The hotel’s ownbar and grill, Thyme, offersa great range of dishesincluding Ribeye steak,cod and chips, pizza andmacaroni. We plumped for

tasty burgers — spicedchicken and BBQ — whilethe kids tucked into bang-ers and mash. The deli-cious breakfast buffet thefollowing morning hadeverything from a full Scot-tish to freshly-baked crois-sants and pastries, yoghurtand fruit. It is open from5am and the restaurantdoesn’t close until 10.30pm

— really handy for hun-gry travellers.WHAT ELSE? Thereis a Costa coffee barand a businesslounge. Overnight

parking is available.SO YOU’D GO BACK?

Definitely. Our stay reallywas hassle-free and set usall up perfectly for a long-haul flight the next day.WHAT’S THE DAMAGE?Double rooms from £75per night including thatdelicious brekkie. Visitpremierinn.com or call0871 527 9354.

SAM LOVE

HOLOFFTOAFLIERATAIRPORTHOTEL

check incheck itout

THERE are beaches and there are beaches.And this looks like one of the latter – just lookat that sea!Renate Roberts, from Suffolk, had to go allthe way to Madagascar to find a sky so blue.She caught this perfect slice of paradise atthe Anjajavy Resort on the north of the island.Renate gets the £150 hotel.com voucher thisweek for making us jealous.Send us your best holiday snap, from homeor abroad, and we will choose our favouriteeach week. Send high-resolution pictures tosunsnaps@thesun.co.uk – and don’t forget totell us where youwere holidaying.

WIN£150

SunSNAPS!

1SM Saturday, September 3, 2016 ............... 49

HOP onboard Cunard’s lovely Queen Victoriafor a ten-night cruise from Rome calling atFlorence/Pisa, Toulon, Barcelona, Valenciaand Gibraltar before sailing back home toSouthampton. Costs from £769pp, flyingfrom Manchester on November 5 and get afree oceanview upgrade. See scotlandcruisecentre.co.uk or call 0800 197 8049.

lP&O Cruises has selected Oriana sail-ings in its “come cel-

ebrate with us”promotion with extra onboard spending moneyfor Select Price bookingsin an outside cabin orabove made by Septem-ber 30. Options include a16-night Christmas andNew Year cruises to theCanaries departingDecember 18(X624). Book aSelect Price out-side cabin for£2,099pp andreceive £350 onboard spending money percabin. A round-trip from South-ampton, ports of call include Madeira, above,La Gomera, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura,Lanzarote, Agadir, Lisbon and La Coruna. Seepocruises.com or call 0843 374 0111.

lPRINCESS Cruises is offering holiday-makers free balcony upgrades fromoceanview, on over 400 cruises. The

deal applies to selected voyages in 2017-2018for Europe, Alaska, Japan, South East Asiaand all Americas. Guests booking a balconystateroom between September 1 and Octo-

ber 18. A seven-night Spain and Francecruise, sailing roundtrip from Southamptonand calling at Guernsey, Bordeaux, Bilbaoand La Coruna, is from £799pp. See prin-cess.com/holiday or call 0843 374 2402.

lDISCOVER France & Spain with RoyalCaribbean on a six-night cruise holiday

from October 22-28 onboard Navigator of theSeas, sailing round-trip from Southampton.

Prices start at £559pp(based on two sharing aBalcony stateroom) call-ing at Le Havre for Paris,Bilbao, Gijon and back toSouthampton. See royal-caribbean.co.uk or call0844 493 4005.

lCRUISE the Carib-bean at an absolute

bargain price with a24-night cruise onboardP&O Aurora from£1,274pp (full board) sail-ing from Southampton onOctober 8. Includes stopoffs in La Coruna, Tortola,

Antigua, St Maarten, St Lucia, Barbados andThe Azores. See iglucruise.com or call themon 0203 696 9451.

lUNIWORLD Boutique River Cruise Col-lection has a Festive Rhine Markets

Christmas Cruise from £1,244pp. The eight-day sailing starts in Basel and ends inCologne with plenty of stops in between. Theprice includes all meals and unlimited bever-ages onboard, onshore excursions and trans-fers on arrival and departure days.

Departs December 19. See uniworld.comor call 0808 281 1125.

THERE’SNOPLACELIKEROME...

Edited by LISAMINOT&HEATHER LOWRIE

enjoying yourself on the ship, soit was back to the Aegean Odys-sey for a Cornish cream tea andto join new friends Ken andMarion — half of our formidablequiz team — for an afternoonG&T as we slipped out of Fal-mouth for The Channel.

The next morning I awoke tothe pip-pip whistles of steamengines trundling along thebanks of the River Dart. Thesmall harbour town of Dart-mouth had never seen any-thing like the AegeanOdyssey sailing in before.

Postcard-worthy views overbreakfast of small multicolourhouses and church steeplesdotted along the mouth of theestuary set me up for a dayof exploring the nooks andcrannies of the old harbour atBayard’s Cove. Retracing thevoyage of thousands of anx-ious soldiers and sailors boundfor the D-Day beaches 71 years

ago, we next sailed through thenight across the Channel toreach Honfleur. Artist ClaudeMonet had a soft spot for thenarrow lanes, crooked woodenhouses and fishing boats here.

I have always had a soft spotfor Normandy in general, with itscharming hamlets of timber-framed farmhouses and gites.Home of Calvados brandy, applecider and camembert, it is thegreenest part of France I’ve vis-

ited so far. It is also one of themost significant in modern his-tory. After a pitstop at the cele-brated Bayeux tapestry, we werespirited by coach through thecountryside to Arromanches onthe coast where the Allies builtthe famous Mulberry harbour.

These artificial harbours werevital in landing supplies andequipment for the Allied forcesto push further into France andultimately Germany.

The bone-like remains stillprotrude through the surf, apermanent reminder of theheroics and human sacrifice ofD-Day.

As it was the final day,sampling the cocktail menu ingood company in the Charles-ton Lounge was in order.

I wasn’t sure life on theopen sea would suit me butafter my first voyage, I coulddefinitely have carried oncruising.

DAVID WALSH

lthescottishsun.co.uk

isbelievingcruisenews

What costs what?

DoDon’t worry about your

waistline

— the food is just too good!

take advantage of the array of

shore excursions

Line-caught haddock and

chips at Rockfish in Dart-

mouth: £12.95