Latest news with #AquaExpeditions
Travel Weekly
4 days ago
- Travel Weekly
Aqua Expeditions names Seychelles ship the Aqua Lares
Aqua Expeditions' sixth ship will be called the Aqua Lares and debut on Feb. 8 with East Africa itineraries of five to 11 nights. The 253-foot ship will have a 30-guest capacity and 33 crew members, which will include three naturalist guides. There will be six decks, 12 suites and three twin cabins. The accommodations range from 140 to 710 square feet. The five-night itineraries will focus on the Seychelles' inner islands. Nine-night trips will travel to the outer islands, including Aldabra Atoll, which has the world's largest population of giant tortoises, according to UNESCO. The longest itineraries of 10 and 11 nights will include the Seychelles and visits to the Zanzibar archipelago and Tanzania. The Aqua Lares will sail the region annually from November to April, said Aqua Expeditions. Offline bookings are open; online bookings open Sept. 1. The base rate for a five-night voyage is $9,000 per person, while 5-night private charters start at $385,000. Communal spaces and amenities onboard will include a sundeck with a bar and lounge, spa, movie theater, gym and saloon. There will be an indoor and outdoor dining area. The ship will be equipped with seven tenders and three zodiacs as well as recreational equipment like paddleboards, kayaks and mountain bikes. Ponant Explorations Group acquired Aqua Expeditions in January.
TTG
24-07-2025
- Business
- TTG
Finalists revealed for first-ever Top 20 Luxury Travel Agencies
'We received almost 100 entries for the inaugural Top 20 Luxury Travel Agencies, which shows how keen these fantastic companies are to share their hard work, and contribute to creating a luxury travel community built on excellence,' said April Hutchinson, editor and publisher of TTG Luxury. 'We thank and respect everyone who took part in this process in its fledgling year, and the hard work continues now, as our shortlisted agencies will enter into the next judging phase, which includes a video interview.' All entrants will also receive a copy of the new Top 20 Luxury Travel Agencies Insight Report, offering unprecedented industry benchmarking and showcasing impactful trends among leading luxury agents. This new initiative sits under Day of Luxury, a dual event that combines TTG Media's successful one-to-one meetings event Luxpo during the day, followed by the networking and celebration elements of the Top 20 Luxury Travel Agencies in the evening. During Luxpo, agents will be able to meet a host of luxury suppliers, including Aqua Expeditions, Explora Journeys, Grecotel, ITC Travel Group, Lujo Hotel Bodrum, Oman Tourism, Visit Portugal and a collection of Luxury Ireland partners with Tourism Ireland, with many more to be announced. 'Shortlisted Top 20 agencies will be our priority guests for Luxpo, giving a range of luxury partners the chance to meet with the very best companies in the business,' added Hutchinson. 'All attendees will have the opportunity to mutually-match for their meetings too, giving them the opportunity to shape the day as they see fit.'
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Travel + Leisure
08-07-2025
- Travel + Leisure
This Is the Best Intimate-ship Cruise Line for 2025—and Travelers Say Its 16-passenger Galapagos Sailing Is 'Life-changing'
Just like a small box that holds a very special gift, these intimate cruise ships deliver a considerable treat, said Travel + Leisure readers. Some readers applauded them as floating safaris, with destination very much a focus. Others enjoyed the experience of R&R in floating boutique resorts, some quite fancy. All the top 10 brands with ships with 150 or fewer cabins received impressive grades in our 'World's Best Awards' survey for 2025. Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe—to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 180,000 T+L readers completed the 2025 survey. A total of more than 657,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.). For the cruise category, respondents were asked to rate individual ships; the results were combined to generate scores for cruise lines in different categories based on number of cabins. Ships were specifically rated on the criteria below: Cabins/facilities Food Service Itineraries/destinations Excursions/activities Value For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses. All the intimate ships in this category received high praise from readers, who enjoyed having a ship practically to themselves. In the No. 2 spot is Aqua Expeditions, with intimate ships in the Galapagos, Indonesia, and soon-to-launch in East Africa. Overseas Adventure Travel (No. 3) was cited by fans for its intimate ambience and, as one reader wrote, 'comprehensive, learning-focused tours.' Quasar Expeditions, best known for adventures in the Galapagos, landed the No. 1 spot. Rounding out the top five are expedition-favorite National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions (No. 4) and the pair of casually luxurious 56-cabin yachts of SeaDream Yacht Club. Quasar Expeditions Interior of the Grace Kelly Suite on the Monaco Deck of Quasar Expeditions M/V Grace. T+L readers, some first-time cruisers, praised Quasar Expeditions, with its historic 16-passenger yacht Grace and 32-passenger Evolution, as offering a vacation of a lifetime. 'Visiting the Galapagos was indeed a life-changing experience, and a significant part of that was thanks to Quasar's impeccable organization, logistics and exceptional service,' wrote one fan. Another praised the line's 'commitment to sustainability' in the Galapagos. One reader applauded the naturalists both for their overall knowledge and ability to relate to guests whether age 10 or age 80. Food was cited too, one reader specifically mentioning the fresh juices and 'morning omelets.' Visiting the Galapagos was indeed a life-changing experience, and a significant part of that was thanks to Quasar's impeccable organization, logistics and exceptional service. — T+L Reader 1. Quasar Expeditions Reader Score: 98.41 2. Aqua Expeditions Reader Score: 97.02 3. Overseas Adventure Travel Reader Score: 96.96 4. National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions Reader Score: 93.93 5. SeaDream Yacht Club Reader Score: 93.56 6. Windstar Cruises WBA Hall of Fame honoree. Reader Score: 92.90 7. Ponant Reader Score: 91.82 8. Atlas Ocean Voyages Reader Score: 91.72 9. Variety Cruises Reader Score: 91.67 10. The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection Reader Score: 90.70
The Age
24-06-2025
- The Age
A beautiful region so quiet and pristine, it freaked me out
Adding to the atmosphere are the people onboard. We're a band of 20 or so across 15 cabins and everyone, even the high-net-worth guests, are attracted to Aqua Expeditions – and this cruise in particular – because they're interested in the world away from the obvious. With shared interests, we soon become like an extended family. Maluku Province, which lies just north of Timor-Leste and west of Papua New Guinea, was termed the Spice Islands because it was where Europeans found cloves and nutmeg in the 16th century. The name alone is enough to conjure up James A Michener-style imaginings. The reality is even dreamier. We are in the easterly reaches of the Ring of Fire, a place of sparsely populated islands covered in lush greenery with many active (and inactive) volcanoes, orographic clouds gathered around their peaks regardless of the weather. The sea, sometimes plunging more than seven kilometres, has a clarity that puts crystal to shame. Large coral reefs fringe the land, adding brilliant turquoise to the sea's deep blues and jade green. The many beaches of powdery white sand are mostly people-free. Frigatebirds and boobies hover lackadaisically overhead, with seemingly no fear of humans – or anything, other than having to give up a fish to another bird (it's always a frigatebird bullying a boobie for its catch). These days, island life moves at a peaceful pace and villagers go about their daily business in traditional ways, except with motor scooters, air-conditioning and Wi-Fi. The region's history is littered with conflict and genocide (and even recent times have seen intense unrest between Muslims and Christians), as a major chapter in global development played out. When spices were discovered by Europeans, these islands were the only place in the known world where they grew and thus became highly valued for their preservative and medicinal qualities. With high-value scarce resources comes power struggles. Various colonists left their marks across the region, before the currency of the spices began to decline when the British planted trees elsewhere in the 1800s. The biggest influences evident today are from the Portuguese who arrived in the early 1500s and introduced enduring Christianity, and the Dutch in the form of the mighty Dutch East India Company, which in the 1600s and 1700s operated as a quasi-government entity, colonising, waging wars, enslaving, policing and imprisoning at will. Relics from its reign are everywhere, but not in ways you might expect. It's confronting but also a thing of strange beauty to see buildings representative of times and events that changed the course of both Western and Asian history sitting quietly crumbling in the heat and humidity, goats feasting on the weeds that grow in the cracks, cows resting in the shade they provide, birds nesting in paneless window frames. We see these sights during land excursions, as we wander narrow village streets lined with brightly coloured houses festooned with plants. The decaying edifices, bearing the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) hallmark that translates to the Dutch East India Company, punctuate the quotidian. Despite this, several in our group do get a bit frustrated with the land component of the cruise. There's a sameness to most of our shore excursions. For me, the least favourite aspect of excursions are the somewhat treacherous landings. Slippery stairs leading from the sea are often narrow, uneven and deep, requiring assistance for even the agile. But it's a testament to how untouristed these places are that they've not been modified for the needs of mass tourism, and that what we see is the un-Disneyfied everyday – a vastly different everyday to what any of us experience. But then, the people who think this way are primarily onboard for the snorkelling and diving and impatient for it – and I soon realise why. It's dazzling out there. Roughly, the daily routine is: wake up early, eat, explore on land, eat again, snorkel/dive in the afternoon, eat some more, sleep, and repeat. Though I love our daily island visits, I find myself being just as eager for the water. The shared excitement of jumping off the tenders into the fresh, clean Banda Sea to swim among vibrant coral and along deeply plunging shelves amid swarms of flamboyant fish deepens the camaraderie as yell variations of, 'Over here' to share our underwater sightings. We're with expert aquatic guides, but there's a real sense of looking out for each other as well; the excited chatter about the experience, as our boats return to the ship, ensures this is a bond sealed in salt water. These adventures are all the more special for the complete lack of other parties. This is nature at its most luminous and we are the only humans witnessing it. It's humbling. But we all agree there are some incredible highlights on land as well. With a population of about 6000, Banda Neira is a small place, but its history is writ large in the form of Fort Belgica, a well-preserved 17th-century citadel in which spices were protected, and which today is a hangout for town youth and families. As the sun sets on the fort which sits high on a hill overlooking a harbour, we're treated to a cocktail party provided by the ship's crew, with song and dance from costumed locals. During a visit to Banda Besar we go to some of the oldest spice plantations in the world and interact with the families still harvesting them by hand, drying the nuts in the sun on sheets in their front gardens. On a glimmering white-sand bank across a lagoon from a secluded beach, the crew sets up an afternoon party for us, with drinks, snacks, umbrellas, inflatables and stand-up paddleboards. Sitting on the sand, drinks in hand, we contemplate the fact that the island this beach belongs to is Run, the smallest of the Banda Islands, but one with a gargantuan backstory. It saw conflict between the English and the Dutch with monumental consequences. As well as resulting in the death and exile of many indigenous people and the destruction of their way of life, the island was traded by the British to the Dutch in exchange for the island of Manhattan in 1667, an agreement known as the 'Manhattan Transfer'. After this beach party, I sit alone on Aqua Blu's top deck contemplating the insane inequity of that swap. Then I notice the peace and the whole no-planes-and-ships thing gets me again. That's when an enormous pod of dolphins starts breaching around the vessel. No planes? No worries, they seem to say. They make me laugh, for joy, but also at my own silly thoughts – and at all human folly. In these islands, empires have come and gone while local life returned to its day to day business and Nature never stopped. And that is probably because since those European empires fell, the 'Spice Islands' became a place on the way to nowhere. Such places are to be cherished and relished. And hopefully protected. Long may their seas be quiet, and the skies above them devoid of traffic. The details Loading Cruise Aqua Expeditions runs several itineraries and multiple departures that include the Spice Islands. A seven-day Spice Islands and Coral Triangle Expedition departing in November 2026 costs from $16,430 a person. Since the writer went on this cruise, French cruise company Ponant Expedition Group has acquired a majority shareholding in Aqua Expeditions. See
Sydney Morning Herald
24-06-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
A beautiful region so quiet and pristine, it freaked me out
Adding to the atmosphere are the people onboard. We're a band of 20 or so across 15 cabins and everyone, even the high-net-worth guests, are attracted to Aqua Expeditions – and this cruise in particular – because they're interested in the world away from the obvious. With shared interests, we soon become like an extended family. Maluku Province, which lies just north of Timor-Leste and west of Papua New Guinea, was termed the Spice Islands because it was where Europeans found cloves and nutmeg in the 16th century. The name alone is enough to conjure up James A Michener-style imaginings. The reality is even dreamier. We are in the easterly reaches of the Ring of Fire, a place of sparsely populated islands covered in lush greenery with many active (and inactive) volcanoes, orographic clouds gathered around their peaks regardless of the weather. The sea, sometimes plunging more than seven kilometres, has a clarity that puts crystal to shame. Large coral reefs fringe the land, adding brilliant turquoise to the sea's deep blues and jade green. The many beaches of powdery white sand are mostly people-free. Frigatebirds and boobies hover lackadaisically overhead, with seemingly no fear of humans – or anything, other than having to give up a fish to another bird (it's always a frigatebird bullying a boobie for its catch). These days, island life moves at a peaceful pace and villagers go about their daily business in traditional ways, except with motor scooters, air-conditioning and Wi-Fi. The region's history is littered with conflict and genocide (and even recent times have seen intense unrest between Muslims and Christians), as a major chapter in global development played out. When spices were discovered by Europeans, these islands were the only place in the known world where they grew and thus became highly valued for their preservative and medicinal qualities. With high-value scarce resources comes power struggles. Various colonists left their marks across the region, before the currency of the spices began to decline when the British planted trees elsewhere in the 1800s. The biggest influences evident today are from the Portuguese who arrived in the early 1500s and introduced enduring Christianity, and the Dutch in the form of the mighty Dutch East India Company, which in the 1600s and 1700s operated as a quasi-government entity, colonising, waging wars, enslaving, policing and imprisoning at will. Relics from its reign are everywhere, but not in ways you might expect. It's confronting but also a thing of strange beauty to see buildings representative of times and events that changed the course of both Western and Asian history sitting quietly crumbling in the heat and humidity, goats feasting on the weeds that grow in the cracks, cows resting in the shade they provide, birds nesting in paneless window frames. We see these sights during land excursions, as we wander narrow village streets lined with brightly coloured houses festooned with plants. The decaying edifices, bearing the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) hallmark that translates to the Dutch East India Company, punctuate the quotidian. Despite this, several in our group do get a bit frustrated with the land component of the cruise. There's a sameness to most of our shore excursions. For me, the least favourite aspect of excursions are the somewhat treacherous landings. Slippery stairs leading from the sea are often narrow, uneven and deep, requiring assistance for even the agile. But it's a testament to how untouristed these places are that they've not been modified for the needs of mass tourism, and that what we see is the un-Disneyfied everyday – a vastly different everyday to what any of us experience. But then, the people who think this way are primarily onboard for the snorkelling and diving and impatient for it – and I soon realise why. It's dazzling out there. Roughly, the daily routine is: wake up early, eat, explore on land, eat again, snorkel/dive in the afternoon, eat some more, sleep, and repeat. Though I love our daily island visits, I find myself being just as eager for the water. The shared excitement of jumping off the tenders into the fresh, clean Banda Sea to swim among vibrant coral and along deeply plunging shelves amid swarms of flamboyant fish deepens the camaraderie as yell variations of, 'Over here' to share our underwater sightings. We're with expert aquatic guides, but there's a real sense of looking out for each other as well; the excited chatter about the experience, as our boats return to the ship, ensures this is a bond sealed in salt water. These adventures are all the more special for the complete lack of other parties. This is nature at its most luminous and we are the only humans witnessing it. It's humbling. But we all agree there are some incredible highlights on land as well. With a population of about 6000, Banda Neira is a small place, but its history is writ large in the form of Fort Belgica, a well-preserved 17th-century citadel in which spices were protected, and which today is a hangout for town youth and families. As the sun sets on the fort which sits high on a hill overlooking a harbour, we're treated to a cocktail party provided by the ship's crew, with song and dance from costumed locals. During a visit to Banda Besar we go to some of the oldest spice plantations in the world and interact with the families still harvesting them by hand, drying the nuts in the sun on sheets in their front gardens. On a glimmering white-sand bank across a lagoon from a secluded beach, the crew sets up an afternoon party for us, with drinks, snacks, umbrellas, inflatables and stand-up paddleboards. Sitting on the sand, drinks in hand, we contemplate the fact that the island this beach belongs to is Run, the smallest of the Banda Islands, but one with a gargantuan backstory. It saw conflict between the English and the Dutch with monumental consequences. As well as resulting in the death and exile of many indigenous people and the destruction of their way of life, the island was traded by the British to the Dutch in exchange for the island of Manhattan in 1667, an agreement known as the 'Manhattan Transfer'. After this beach party, I sit alone on Aqua Blu's top deck contemplating the insane inequity of that swap. Then I notice the peace and the whole no-planes-and-ships thing gets me again. That's when an enormous pod of dolphins starts breaching around the vessel. No planes? No worries, they seem to say. They make me laugh, for joy, but also at my own silly thoughts – and at all human folly. In these islands, empires have come and gone while local life returned to its day to day business and Nature never stopped. And that is probably because since those European empires fell, the 'Spice Islands' became a place on the way to nowhere. Such places are to be cherished and relished. And hopefully protected. Long may their seas be quiet, and the skies above them devoid of traffic. The details Loading Cruise Aqua Expeditions runs several itineraries and multiple departures that include the Spice Islands. A seven-day Spice Islands and Coral Triangle Expedition departing in November 2026 costs from $16,430 a person. Since the writer went on this cruise, French cruise company Ponant Expedition Group has acquired a majority shareholding in Aqua Expeditions. See
