Western Mediterranean 2026

There is something slightly different about this holiday – we’re trying out a new cruise line – all because our fabulous travel agent Yvonne “mentioned” a new line we might like, the rest is history!

MSC is the second biggest shipping company in the world, and although reasonably new to cruising it has rapidly become the third largest cruise line, although they only have mega ships so we’re not going to be sailing with them. However, recently MSC decided to branch out into the luxury market and created Explora Journeys. We decided to try one and ended up booking two!

We had the pleasure to sample Explora I recently, there’s a photo album here – Explora Journeys.

Map of the western and central Mediterranean showing red dotted travel routes connecting Barcelona, Marseille, Cannes, Nice, Portofino, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Capri, Sardinia’s Porto Cervo, Ajaccio and Calvi in Corsica, Mahón in Menorca, and the Balearic Islands.

Our itinerary is mostly repeat visits, but that’s fine – either we want to do that same walk as the last time, or we want to try something new, either way is great.