Gain an understanding of how local craftsmen make traditional Greek musical instruments and take in the island’s natural beauty. Pyrgos is known for its 13th-century Venetian castle, the classic Cycladic design of its homes and the panoramic views from its hilltop location. It will be an ideal setting to pause for a cup of coffee and a Greek sweet. Megalochori is equally picturesque, as you will discover while meandering the village’s atmospheric cobbled streets lined with neoclassical houses. The intriguing Museum of Musical Instruments honors the history of the instruments that make Greek music so recognizable. You will learn how classic instruments such as the bouzouki and laouto are handmade and have the chance to play some of them. Afterwards, you will visit the family-owned Gavalas Winery, which has been producing traditional wines such as Katsano and Nykteri since the 19th century. There you will sample wines indicative of Santorini’s terroir and snacks that pair perfectly with them.

HIGHLIGHTS:
• Pause for a snack and to revel in the village of Pyrgos’ classic Cycladic setting.
• Discover how some of the most recognizable Greek musical instruments are hand-crafted.
• Sample a selection of traditional wines and local delicacies at a family-owned winery.

You'll see the Eternal City on an orientation drive passing iconic structures which includes the Colosseum of ancient Rome where gladiators fought. In Vatican City admire the beauty of St. Peter’s Square, and view some of the treasures of the world’s largest church, St. Peter’s Basilica during your brief visit. The Vatican Museum is home to masterpieces spanning the centuries, marvel at the Sistine Chapel, topped by Michelangelo’s magnificent ceiling. Lunch is included.

OVERVIEW

Treat your inner adventurer to an exhilarating multi-transport survey of the Southern Alps high country by coach, offroad touring vehicle and jet boat. It all starts sedately enough, as you head out by motorcoach into the fertile earthen patchwork of the Canterbury Plains – where the island grows its wheat and grazes its cattle. But don’t get too comfortable; the scenery changes dramatically as you reach Rubicon Station on the banks of the spectacular Waimakariri river gorge and make the switch into rugged offroad touring mode. Piloted with skill around Mt Torlesse Station, bouncing heartily across a spectacular landscape framed by jagged Southern Alp peaks and gorges, you’re bound to fill your camera with social media friendly shots. A well-deserved stop for lunch provides a break from the action, but it won’t last. Soon enough, you’ll shift back into thrill gear as you board a lightning-fast jet boat capable of 360-degree spins and strap in for a ride up the steep-walled Waimakariri River gorge to Staircase Viaduct. Learn more about Kiwi Jetboating thanks to the persistence of Bill Hamilton in perfecting the water jet and providing a new way to explore parts of back country New Zealand at the Jet Boat World museum. After that little jaunt, the coach drive back to Lyttelton will feel like slow motion.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Experience adventure without exhaustion on a thrilling, multi-vehicle tour of the Southern Alps.
• Travel by coach across the fertile Canterbury Plains to the Springfield Adventure Centre and a switch into offroad mode.
• Buckle up for a rollicking drive through rugged high country terrain framed by mountains and gorges.
• Hold onto your hat again later as you zoom up the majestic Waimakariri river gorge on a jet boat nimble enough to make 360-degree spins.
• Enjoy lunch at midday and return back to port with spectacular photos and memories.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Wear weather-appropriate clothing including a water-resistant jacket.
• Flat, comfortable walking shoes are recommended.
• Bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen as needed.

Walk through Lungotevere, one of the oldest sections of Rome, and sample a multitude of classic Italian treats. Your culinary immersion will begin at Campo de Fiori, where you will meander a bustling outdoor marketplace with stalls full of colorful produce, aromatic spices and classic Italian condiments. Crudites will be offered, allowing you to see just how tasty raw vegetables can be, especially when dipped in seasoned fresh-pressed olive oil. You will then walk to a bakery for a pizza tasting, on to a chocolate shop to sample confections and then to Sant’ Eustachio, a coffee shop that makes its espresso with water from an ancient aqueduct. The proprietors will explain how they ensure the freshest ingredients and highest quality. A refreshing dessert follows at Giolitti, which may be Rome’s oldest, if not finest, gelato shop. You will then enjoy free time around Navona Square, a wonderfully atmospheric area built over a stadium from the 1st century.

HIGHLIGHTS:
• Taste an array of classic Italian treats in one of the Rome’s oldest sections.
• Expect to sample crudites, pizza, chocolate confections, coffee and gelato.
• Spend free time exploring atmospheric Navona Square.

See the innovative solar and wind installations on Tilos that made it the first island in the Mediterranean to be fully powered by green energy. A ferry will bring you to the island, where you will see the hybrid power station that stores the renewable energy in batteries. Although Tilos is small with only about 500 residents, it has made a huge impact in encouraging other places to follow its lead in sustainable energy. You will meet the mayor and other officials that supported the project from the beginning and learn how they ensured its success. Tilos once bought its oil-based electricity from the nearby island of Kos; it now plans to sell its excess green energy back to Kos. Being completely powered by renewable energy has allowed Tilos to become more self-sufficient, have greater stability and make a smaller ecological footprint.

HIGHLIGHTS
• See how Tilos became the first island in the Mediterranean fully powered by green energy.
• Visit the solar and wind power station that supplies the island’s renewable energy.
• Talk to the mayor and other officials that helped Tilos develop its sustainable energy plan.

HELPFUL HINTS
• Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
• Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.

OVERVIEW

Experience the joys of a simpler rural life at a wilderness center at the edge of the most extensive highlands in Northern Europe. Even the journey there will be spectacularly scenic, as you will drive through a mountainous terrain of dense forests, thundering waterfalls and an enormous lake that a glacier created long ago. Upon reaching the Wilderness Center, you will browse exhibits that showcase the struggles of life on the farm where the center now stands. The museum dioramas are especially insightful, as they accurately depict the challenges of the area’s earliest settlers, who embraced the natural world rather than trying to control it. As you meander about, you may see adventurers returning from hiking through the wilderness and horseback riding and others simply enjoying the pristine setting. Later, you will pass through Iceland’s largest national forest, which contains indigenous trees and exotics brought from more than 175 locations around the world.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Browse a wilderness center that depicts the challenges that Iceland’s rural settlers faced.
• Enjoy delicious homemade refreshments in a unique countryside setting
• Drive through Iceland’s largest national forest, a protected natural wonderland.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
• Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.

Combine all the highlights of West Maui on this comprehensive excursion: Iao Valley, Maui Tropical Plantation and the Maui Ocean Center. You'll start with a visit to the most well-known and beautiful gorge on the ‘Valley Isle,’ the Iao Valley. Here, you'll visit one of Maui's most striking sights, the Iao Needle, a 2,250-foot cinder cone pinnacle that pierces through the clouds and dominates its lush surroundings. Next, stop at Maui Tropical Plantation, where you'll enjoy a fully narrated 40-minute tram tour through macadamia nut orchards, agricultural villages, sugar cane fields and flower gardens. Then at the Maui Ocean Center, experience the underwater journey that gives you an up-close look at some of the beautiful creatures only found in Hawaii's waters.

OVERVIEW

Explore some of the Big Island’s most dramatic landscapes and come away with a deep appreciation of its volcanic formation. After pausing at America’s southernmost bake shop, where you might try a mango malasada treat, you will travel to the Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. The jet-black sand is made of volcanic materials and lava fragments and is quite the sight, especially if you spot a green sea turtle basking on the beach. Symbols of wisdom and good luck, they are the only sea turtles known to sunbathe. The wonders of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will be even more extraordinary. The terrain and natural diversity there are so unique that UNESCO deemed the park both a World Biosphere site and a World Heritage site. You will see volcanic craters, the active volcano Kilauea and hot water vapor rising from countless steam vents.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Admire the volcanically formed black sand beach at Punalu’u and perhaps see a green sea turtle.
• Drive through stunning Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• View an active volcano, craters and steam vents releasing hot water vapor into the air.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
• Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.

OVERVIEW

Enter the world of the Humpback, Minke and Orca on a whale-spotting expedition off Iceland’s northern coast. Coupled with an informative whale museum visit, lunch at a local eatery and a stop to marvel at thunderous Godafoss falls, this has the makings of an exhilarating day indeed. You’ll travel from Akureyri pier by coach to the town of Husavik. There, you’ll head out by boat into Skjálfandi Bay, where hungry cetaceans like to feed on the abundant krill, plankton and fish. For the next three hours, all eyes will be fixed on the water – waiting to spot the next fluke, tail, blowhole or full-tilt breach. Entertaining you as you wait, harbor porpoises and white-beaked dolphins will likely be seen cavorting in the waves. Once back on dry land, it’s time for lunch and an interval spent soaking up the fascinating info on display at Husavik Whale Museum. Enroute back to Akureyri, you’ll stop to take in the roar of Godafoss, its waters plunging over a huge horseshoe-shaped rim to form one of Iceland’s most impressive natural wonders. But then, nothing quite compares to the sight of a giant Blue Whale or leaping Humpback.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Take in the Iceland countryside by coach as you head for a tiny town on the northern coast.
• Spend three exciting hours on a whale-watching cruise in the krill-rich feeding grounds off Husavik.
• Tour an award-winning museum where ecology of whales and history of whaling is vividly presented.
• Visit the mighty “Waterfall of the Gods” – Godafoss – thundering over its wide horseshoe cliff.
• Enjoy lunch in a local Icelandic restaurant.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Wear warm, weather-appropriate clothing including a water/wind proof jacket.
• Comfortable, flat walking shoes with a non-slip sole are recommended.
• Bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen as needed.

On this full-day excursion, you’ll have the opportunity to explore both Petra, the ancient Nabataean caravan-city ideally situated between the Red and Dead Seas, and Wadi Rum, a nature lover's paradise.

Inhabited since prehistoric times, this area was an important crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. The Nabataeans transformed the forbidding desert into a bustling metropolis with magnificent buildings carved directly into the rose-hued sandstone hills. Camel caravans passed through, loaded with spices, textiles and incense from distant regions, and the city of Petra flourished, until a massive earthquake left the structures of Petra in ruins.

You’ll travel deep within the desert for approximately two hours, to Wadi Musa, the gateway to Petra. Upon arrival, walk to the impressive entrance to Petra, a narrow gorge formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks. Your first view is of its most elaborate ruin and achievement, the Treasury. Used as a backdrop in the movie, Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, enjoy time to explore the Treasury and the Outer Siq, leading to immense tombs, facades and doorways.

Enjoy a late buffet style lunch at a local hotel. Transfer to yorur off-road vehicles and begin a journey through the starkly beautiful Wadi Rum, with its sheer granite and sandstone cliffs, and uniquely shaped mountains. The stunning scenery, of the towering cliffs, ancient riverbeds and mauve-colored stretches of sand will amaze you, as you drive through the desert, en route to a Bedouin camp. Upon arrival, indulge in a buffet dinner served under Bedouin tents before your return to Aqaba and your ship.

OVERVIEW

Spend a day immersed in the magnificence of Rangitata Valley and the Southern Alps, making picturesque stops and exploring a historic high-country sheep station. For pure scenic splendor, few locales on Earth compare to this one – so visually stunning it served as a backdrop for several Lord of the Rings films. Some highlights from your journey to the alps will include a short walk into the virgin woodlands of Peel Forest, alive with birdlife and towering podocarp trees that have stood for hundreds of years, spared from lumbering. Your ultimate destination is Mesopotamia Station, named in 1860 for its position between two rivers – much like the ancient Mesopotamia. During your time here in this amazing high-country outpost, you’ll learn about its intrepid early settlers and the challenges of living at the station even today. Refreshments will be served, and you’ll have plenty of time for a leisurely walk, some photography, or just sit back and in awe at the views. A stop in artsy, artisanal Geraldine for a light lunch and free time follows. Finally, you will visit a small farm where a world-class shearer will give a shearing and sheep dog demonstration while you enjoy a glass of beer or wine before you return to the ship.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Travel by panoramic coach from Timaru into a natural setting so stunning it’s starred in Tolkien movies.
• Tour the high-country sheep station known as Mesopotamia, settled in 1860 and still plenty rustic.
• Visit the arts enclave of Geraldine on the way back, admired especially for its cheeses and preserves.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Wear weather-appropriate clothing; include a light jacket.
• Flat, sturdy walking shoes are recommended.
• Bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen as needed.

Sit back and appreciate all the sights along the famed Hana Highway without having to navigate the curves yourself. Travel over one-lane bridges and along the winding Road to Hana in the air-conditioned comfort of an exclusive 8-passenger luxury Limo-Van, featuring all Captain's chair seating.

Relax and take in the incredible scenery of lava cliffs, sparkling waterfalls, lush hillsides of feathery ferns, and trees laden with tropical fruit. You'll have plenty of photo opportunities and time to explore, with many stops made along this spectacular coastal drive.

Experience the Ke'anae Peninsula, one of the last enclaves of native Hawaiians, offering splendid tranquil taro fields and a stop for a light morning snack. It's also the perfect place for you to learn about the native Hawaiian people, their culture, and the land they call home. See Waikani Falls, a cascade of fresh mountain rainwater. These are just some of the many sights for you to enjoy.

This full-day tour includes an alfresco picnic-style lunch at a Hana beach park. After lunch, guests delight in discovering Wai'anapanapa State Park, with numerous unique scenic features. Stroll on the black sand beach, photograph lava sea arches, or view beautiful lava formations. The return journey offers an optional swim to take a dip in a freshwater pool under a cascading waterfall, so bring your swimsuit underneath your clothes and a towel for - a perfect "Heavenly Hana" experience. An opportunity to swim at either Pua'a Ka'a ( waterfall ) or Waianapanapa ( black sand beach ) but not both, is offered to guests. The optional swimming opportunity is determined based on safety conditions.