It’s a common problem: One of you wants to cruise and one of you would rather holiday on solid ground.
Thankfully, tour companies have taken this into account when tailoring new routes. Here are three of the best of the land-sea combos around.
For homebodies
New to Evergreen Tours is the 25-day New Zealand Explorer & Cruise. Departing Sydney on February 16, 2016, Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess will take you on a 15-day cruise to New Zealand via Melbourne and Hobart. When you’re done sailing, it’s time for a 10-day road trip through Auckland, Bay of Islands, Rotorua, Queenstown and Christchurch. Highlights include Milford Sound, a Cambridge farm stay, taking a gondola ride along Lake Rotorua, experiencing a cultural Maori concert and journeying through the Southern Alps on the TranzAlpine railway.
For history buffs
Prefer to cruise at the end of the trip? The Complete New England tour takes in the many historic sites of northeastern United States and southern Canada, including a 12-day guided tour, two days in a first-class Montreal hotel, then seven nights on Holland America Line’s luxurious ms Maasdem. Highlights include taking the Cog Railway (the world’s first mountain-climbing railway) to the top of Mt Washington, visiting the grand The Breakers mansion, taking a guided tour of Martha’s Vineyard and walking Boston’s Freedom Trail.
For patriotic souls
The 24-day Normandy/ANZAC Battlefields tour kicks off, fittingly, on a trip along the Normandy coast. After visiting Somme Valley (the home of Battle of the Somme, which claimed the lives of more than 150,000 soldiers in World War I), you’ll move on to the Australian Museum at Villers-Bretonneux. After a few days of mandatory sightseeing in Paris (Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre), a luxury river ship will pick you up in Amsterdam for a 14-night cruise, stopping at various places in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, ending in Budapest, Hungary – but the fun doesn’t end there! You’ll still have a few days in Prague to immerse yourself in the Czech Republic’s 1000-year-old history.
