Mens Journal 6 best adventure cruises

Found a nice little article on mensjournal.com ranking the 6 best small ship adventure cruises in the world! Anyone done any of these? I've done the PNG one, and also a cruise on Delfin II on Amazon which was great. What about you - what are your favourite small ship adventure cruises? Looking for recommendations of what to do next. :)

LINK

1. Marquesas - Aranui Cruises

2. Tierra De Fuego - Australis

3. Spitsbergen - Hurtigruten

4. Galapogas - Andean Discovery

5. Antarctica - Compagnie Du Ponant

6. Papua New Guinea - Coral Princess Cruises

Charles

I did a small ship Galapagos tour, but it was not a luxury cruise. There were 14 passengers and 5 crew, plus a guide on a 100 foot motor sailor......it was a wonderful trip, however, and I'd recommend it highly.

We are looking at the Amazonas, Antarctica, and PNG cruises of the Hanseatic (or maybe the Bremen). They have a few other really interesting routes but those are the ones that are on top of our list.

Thanks for your tips! the Galapagos ones sound great, although its pretty time consuming to get there from Australia - we should have done it when we did the Delfin on the Amazon but we were a bit short of time then.

The PNG one we did was great too, highly recommended. That ship was a bit smaller then some of the other cruises in PNG, only around 70 passengers on board - it definitely wasn't the big ship they have in the photo in the mens Journal article (I presume that is the "big" Coral Princess). Being on the smaller ship we were able to cruise up the Sepik River which was a big highlight, but I think only a couple of operators with the smaller ships can do that.

Hope to hear some more tips, recommendations, suggestions for luxury adventure cruising!

...and loved them all. Our first was Spitzbergen on the Silversea PAII (now named the Silver Explorer) in June of 2010. That spectacular trip hooked us on expedition cruising. In May of 2011 we took the Celebrity Xpedition in the Galapagos with a pre and post in Quito. In December of 2011 we sailed a 10-night to Antarctica on the then brand new (6 months old) L'Austral (Ponant).

I posted full reviews of all three cruises and would recommend all of them. From a personal standpoint, our recent experience on the Silver Explorer was sub-par in May 2013 and we would look to Ponant (direct or on an A&K or Tauck charter) for the Antarctic or Arctic. Celebrity was outstanding and, while not a luxury cruise (pretty inclusive, however), and we would highly recommend the experience they provided.

Thanks Michael, soudns like some great trips you've had. Quesiton, on Ponant what was the mix of travellers, mainly French? Was English widely used on board (our high school French is a bit rusty). Thanks or your response.

Thanks Michael, soudns like some great trips you've had. Quesiton, on Ponant what was the mix of travellers, mainly French? Was English widely used on board (our high school French is a bit rusty). Thanks or your response.

Now that I have exhausted most of my non-menu related French vocabularity, I will say that probably 60-70% of the passengers were French. The balance were mainly from the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa, Australia, and other parts of Europe. English was spoken by the ship's crew and officers and the Expedition staff. Fluency in English? From excellent to somewhat broken, but all vastly superior to my (or my girlfriend's) French.

Multicultural cruises always are interesting for us. The Arctic cruise on the Silver Explorer was probably 50% German speakers (German and Austrian) and 50% English speakers (from Hong Kong, Canadian, English, Scottish, Japanese, Australian, and from other countries in Europe).

If you go with a Tauck or A&K charter, you will be in a large group and, if like our Antarctic cruise, may dine as a group in a separate area with a custom menu. I don't think we would like that. We really enjoyed dining either on our own or with friends we had made on the trip. The matre 'd on the L'Austral could always accommodate our wishes.

Thanks very much Michael - sounds like Ponant warrants some extra research, particularly as they are doing more in our region in the South Pacific soon. thanks agan

yachts that take individual reservations with either >

- helicopter (have seen it include heli-skiing)

- arctic/antarctic diving :eek: (have seen it for antarctic)