American Coastal Explorer

Your voyage begins with a day at leisure in Seattle before you board tomorrow. Use the time well; the Pike Place Market is one of America’s great food markets, worth a proper wander. The waterfront is walkable and the views across Puget Sound towards the Olympic Mountains set the scene for the journey ahead. Seattle is an easy, rewarding city to explore on foot, and a fine way to start.

Few cities arrive with as much advance billing as Los Angeles, and few actually deliver. Spend the day in Venice or Santa Monica for the beach culture the city is famous for, or head inland to Beverly Hills and the storied streets of Hollywood. The Getty Center sits above the city with views as good as the art inside. Los Angeles rewards those who pick a neighbourhood and go deep rather than trying to cover everything.

San Diego is California at its most relaxed — a sun-drenched port city with some of the state’s best beaches and a compact, walkable downtown. The Gaslamp Quarter is the historic heart, lined with restaurants and bars in beautifully restored Victorian buildings. La Jolla’s coastal cliffs and coves are a short drive north and worth every minute. The San Diego Zoo, one of the finest in the world, is an easy full day if wildlife is your thing.

Perched at the very tip of the Baja California peninsula where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez, Cabo San Lucas is one of Mexico’s most dramatic port calls. The natural rock arch at Land’s End is the iconic image, best seen by water taxi from the marina. Beyond the beaches, Cabo is known for world-class sport fishing and a lively marina strip that comes alive in the afternoon. A worthwhile stop even for seasoned Mexico travellers.

Huatulco sits on Mexico’s Pacific coast where the Sierra Madre mountains meet the sea, and it’s a gentler, greener proposition than the Baja ports to the north. The bay system here; nine bays, thirty-six beaches, is largely protected national parkland, which keeps it uncrowded and genuinely beautiful. The town of La Crucecita has a relaxed market square and good local food. A snorkel or boat tour through the bays is the best way to spend the day.

One of the great experiences in travel. Your ship enters the canal from the Pacific side and is lifted through a series of lock chambers — each one flooding and draining to raise or lower the vessel as it crosses between two oceans. The engineering is extraordinary and the scale of it, watching from the deck as the lock walls close around the ship, is genuinely arresting. The rainforest presses right to the canal’s edge the entire way through. Set your alarm early — you won’t want to miss a moment of this.

Your transit continues as the ship completes its crossing and emerges into the Caribbean.

A second day in Colon gives you time to go further. The Emberá villages along the Chagres River offer a rare and genuine cultural encounter — reached by dugout canoe, these communities maintain traditions stretching back centuries. If you stayed close to the ship yesterday, today is the day for the rainforest. Gatun Lake’s eco-trails deliver wildlife sightings that rival anything in Central America. Colon rewards the curious traveller who ventures beyond the port gates.

Cartagena is one of the Caribbean’s most beautiful cities and one of the most photogenic port calls on this entire voyage. The walled old city; a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a maze of cobbled streets, bougainvillea-draped balconies and pastel colonial facades that have barely changed since the Spanish built them in the 1500s. The fortress of San Felipe de Barajas dominates the hill above the city and offers commanding views across the bay. Allow time to simply sit in one of the plazas with a coffee, Cartagena rewards those who slow down.

Miami is the perfect city to end a voyage of this scale. South Beach’s art deco strip along Ocean Drive is unlike anywhere else in America — colourful, glamorous and best explored on foot in the early morning before the heat builds. Wynwood’s outdoor murals make it one of the world’s great street art precincts. For something wilder, the Everglades are less than an hour west, an airboat through the sawgrass and mangroves is a fitting final chapter for a voyage that began in the Pacific Northwest three weeks ago.