Ponant has announced a new schedule of cruises to Northern Europe and the Atlantic Islands. The cruises call at ports that only small ships, such as Ponant's L’Austral, Le Boréal and two new Explorer Ships called Le Champlain (new in 2018) and Le Dumont-d’Urville (new in 2019) can navigate. Itineraries range from seven to 10 nights.
Among the itineraries are two cruises from Ponant's new Quintessential Collection:
- The nine-day Green and Gentle Lands: Exploring Gardens and Historic Sites cruise aboard Le Boréal sails from England to Belgium with a visit to Bruges and into the North Sea to Bergen in Norway from May 14 to May 22, 2019 with stops at gardens and historic sites including a visit to the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.
- History, Art & Architecture along the North Sea, an art connoisseur’s dream aboard the new ship Le Dumont-d’Urville starting in Copenhagen with visits to top art museums in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Bruges en route to Honfleur in France from August 25 to September 1, 2019.
Other cruises include Celtic Shores, which sails from Portsmouth, England to Dublin, Ireland with visits to the Isle of Man, County Cork, Kinsale and the Isles of Scilly, aboard L’Austral from April 22 to April 29, 2019. Travelers can explore Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland. A second Celtic Shores cruise takes cruisers to similar stops from April 29 to May 6, 2019.
In 2020, both L’Austral and Le Dumont-d’Urville will cruise down Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, departing from Dakar in Senegal to Lisbon with a visit to Santiago in Cape Verde and Las Palmas aboard L’Austral from April 1 to April 11, 2020.
Note: Le Dumont-d’Urville, in addition to this European itinerary, will be sailing from Costa Rica to Panama over a 10-night/11-day cruise. The ship will sail from January 6-16, 2020, visiting three national parks and featuring a guest speaker who worked at Central American nature reserves.
The Essential Azores cruise out of Ponta Delgada aboard Le Champlain is a brand-new itinerary that will visit the volcanic archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic from April 5 to 12, 2020 and again from April 12 to 19, 2020. The ship will then sail out of Ponte Delgada on April 19, 2020 to Madeira and Porto Santo en route to Lisbon.
The Fifth Annual Piano Festival at Sea, from April 18 to April 28, 2020, is an eleven-day journey from Dakar to the Canary Islands ending in Lisbon in collaboration with Radio Classique. Also, out of Dakar from April 20 to 28, 2020 is Adventure in the Bijagos Archipelago, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, from October 8 to 16, 2019 and again from April 10 to 18, 2020.
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