The place are you able to go on a Windstar Cruises ship? A shocking variety of locations, given the road’s small measurement. Regardless of having simply six vessels, the upscale line operates voyages to a variety of locations world wide, from North America and Europe to French Polynesia.
Amongst all of the Windstar cruise locations, Europe could be the most well-liked. As is commonly the case with higher-end strains, Windstar has a very giant footprint on the subject of Europe itineraries. Almost half of the 534 voyages at the moment on its schedule for 2024 concentrate on both the Mediterranean or Northern Europe. In a typical 12 months, the road will deploy 5 of its six ships to Europe for a minimum of a part of the 12 months.
Windstar additionally usually deploys a minimum of one among its vessels year-round to Tahiti for sailings across the islands of French Polynesia. It is a explicit specialty of the road.
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Within the winter, a minimum of two and generally three Windstar vessels will transfer to the nice and cozy waters of the Caribbean, one other space of focus. Along with traditional Caribbean sailings, these vessels additionally usually do sailings by the Panama Canal, one other specialty of the road.
At the moment, Windstar’s itinerary lineup affords sailings as quick as six nights and so long as 55 nights. The corporate usually does not do quick sailings of simply three or 4 nights, in contrast to big-ship strains.
Right here, a have a look at TPG’s picks for the 5 finest locations you possibly can go to on a Windstar Cruises ship.
Mediterranean
Of all of the locations that Windstar ships sail, none will get as a lot focus from the road because the Mediterranean. As of the publishing of this story, a whopping 212 of the 534 voyages on the road’s schedule for the approaching 12 months included calls within the area. That is 40% of all Windstar itineraries.
The Mediterranean journeys provide a variety of port stops and range significantly in size. There may be every little thing from comparatively quick, seven-night sailings across the sunny Greek islands to 23-day voyages that span a very good chunk of the Mediterranean from Montenegro and Croatia to the far western coast of Spain.
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Windstar options voyages targeted particularly on the Western Mediterranean or the Jap portion and voyages that embody days touring past the sides of the Mediterranean to such locations because the Canary Islands.
Typical of the latter is the road’s epic, 18-night “Star Collector: Canaries, Casablanca and the Costa del Sol” routing. It is a one-way journey between Barcelona and the Canary Islands with a mixture of stops in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and the Canary Islands. It is a deep exploration into the western facet of Europe and North Africa.
Associated: The most effective Mediterranean cruise for each sort of traveler
A few of Windstar’s Mediterranean itineraries additionally embody a go to to Israel, though port stops in Israel have been canceled for the subsequent few months as a result of battle between Israel and Hamas. For now, Israel stays on itineraries scheduled to depart in April 2024 and past.
Typical of the road’s extra targeted, quickie Mediterranean itineraries are its eight-night “Myths and Marvels of the Aegean” routing out of Piraeus, Greece (the port for Athens) that concentrates on the islands of Greece and Turkey with seven stops within the international locations.
Within the Mediterranean, the road’s primary hubs are Piraeus, Civitavecchia (the port for Rome) and Barcelona.
Iceland
Windstar has been one of many leaders in a pattern that has swept the cruise world previously decade: cruises that focus solely on Iceland.
In 2016, Windstar turned the primary conventional cruise model to function full circumnavigations of the Kentucky-size island nation, becoming a member of a handful of expedition-style cruise operators resembling Lindblad Expeditions and Hurtigruten that have been beginning to add Iceland circlings.
And whereas different cruise manufacturers together with Ponant and Scenic Luxurious Cruises have since adopted Windstar in providing voyages that soak up each nook of Iceland, Windstar stays one of many largest gamers available in the market with common summer time sailings.
In a typical 12 months, Windstar will provide seven-night circlings of Iceland each week from June by late August.
The journeys start and finish in Reykjavik, Iceland’s primary metropolis and capital. The ship will sail in a counterclockwise course across the nation with stops at a few of Iceland’s most distant areas. It is an opportunity to see the complete vary of Iceland’s famously placing geothermal fields of geysers and fumaroles, mountains, glaciers, volcanoes and waterfalls with out having to navigate the ring highway that circles the nation. And it contains stops in a few of Iceland’s smallest and quirkiest cities.
In 2024, the 312-passenger Star Satisfaction will name on locations like Heimaey Island, the place passengers see the frozen-in-place lava flows of a well-known 1973 eruption that coated a 3rd of the city.
One other name at little-visited Grundarfjordur, alongside the distant Snæfellsnes Peninsula, affords the prospect to hike onto the glacier atop close by Snæfellsjökull volcano, the setting for Jules Verne’s Nineteenth-century traditional “Journey to the Middle of the Earth.”
Different stops embody Akureyri, the gateway to the geothermal fields of of Hverir and their effervescent mud pots and whistling steam vents.
French Polynesia
Windstar has been a longtime chief in French Polynesia cruises, too, working within the area for 37 years. In actual fact, it is one among simply two conventional cruise strains that dominate the marketplace for French Polynesia voyages — the opposite being one-ship line Paul Gauguin Cruises.
Like Paul Gauguin Cruises, Windstar affords French Polynesia sailings year-round out of Papeete, Tahiti, the primary hub for the area. Starting from seven to 18 nights, the journeys soak up such iconic French Polynesian islands as Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahaa and Huahine. They enchantment closely to {couples} in search of a romantic getaway.
For a few years, Windstar has used one among its crusing ships, the 148-passenger Wind Spirit, for its French Polynesia sailings. However in early 2024, it changed that vessel within the area with one among its greater motor-powered vessels, the 312-passenger Star Breeze.
The redeployment greater than doubles Windstar’s capability within the area, an indication of simply how fashionable these journeys have turn into.
The voyages provide a considerable amount of time in every of the islands which are visited, due to the quick distances between them. Most often, the ship travels between the islands in a single day and ties up or anchors in a brand new beautiful bay every morning.
As is typical for French Polynesian journeys, whether or not on land or water, days are spent exploring sandy tropical seashores, swimming and snorkeling in ridiculously clear water and visiting cultural sights. You may have an opportunity to go to the websites the place locals harvest the aesthetic black pearls that account for greater than half of French Polynesia’s exports.
Diving can also be an enormous draw on these journeys. It is a prime tour throughout calls on the islands of Raiatea and Bora Bora. Snorkeling with stingrays and becoming a member of a marine biologist in the hunt for dolphins and whales are different fashionable excursions.
Caribbean
Like many upscale cruise manufacturers working smaller ships, Windstar does not concentrate on Caribbean cruises. The Caribbean is extra the area of such big-ship cruise giants as Carnival Cruise Line or Royal Caribbean. Nonetheless, Windstar usually sends a minimum of two of its six vessels to the Caribbean each winter to function warm-weather-focused getaways to lesser-visited Caribbean ports — often one among its motor-powered vessels and one among its wind-powered crusing vessels.
For 2024, Windstar’s two primary vessels within the Caribbean would be the 312-passenger Star Satisfaction, a motor-powered vessel, and the 342-passenger Wind Surf, a crusing vessel. One different Windstar crusing ship, the 148-passenger Wind Spirit, may also make an occasional look within the area.
For essentially the most half, WIndstar’s lineup of Caribbean cruises is targeted on round-trip, seven-night sailings out of St. Martin or Barbados.
When crusing out of St. Martin, the voyages usually embody stops in St. Barts, Antigua, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. When crusing out of Barbados, the ships will name at extra southerly Caribbean islands resembling St. Lucia and the Grenadines.
For 2024, many of the line’s sailings out of St. Martin will happen within the first a part of the 12 months, whereas the Barbados-based sailings will come on the finish of the 12 months.
Associated: The most effective Caribbean cruises for each sort of traveler
As well as, the road additionally generally affords Caribbean sailings out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, with calls in St. Maarten (the Dutch facet of the island of St. Martin), Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and the Grenadines.
At occasions, the road will run back-to-back seven-night sailings within the Caribbean with totally different itineraries. The 2 journeys may be paired to create an extended, 14-night voyage with few repeating ports.
Panama Canal
Along with Caribbean journeys, Windstar is understood for numerous sailings that start within the Caribbean and finish within the Pacific, or vice versa — voyages that contain a transit between the 2 areas by way of the Panama Canal.
Such journeys provide vacationers an opportunity to see the marvel of recent engineering that’s the 48-mile-long Panama Canal up shut. A complete day is spent touring by the canal, together with transits of the locks discovered at every finish.
As is the case with many Panama Canal cruises, passengers on Windstar canal cruises additionally get a second likelihood to expertise the canal the day earlier than or after the transit when their ship docks at one facet or the opposite of the canal. Shore excursions will take them to the locks for an up-close view of the lock chambers that their ship will navigate the subsequent day (or handed by the day prior to this).
In a typical 12 months, Windstar will provide as many as two departures per week by the Panama Canal from late November by the top of March. It usually has two of its six vessels working such journeys in winter — one crusing ship and one motor ship.
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The journeys all are one-way, beginning in both Aruba within the Caribbean or the port of Balboa on the Pacific facet of Panama.
Along with the expertise of touring by and visiting the canal, the Pacific-bound sailings go to Colombia, Costa Rica and the Caribbean facet of Panama.
The Caribbean-bound sailings deliver calls alongside the Pacific facet of Costa Rica and Panama.
Backside line
Windstar is a comparatively small cruise line with simply six ships, however its ships go to a big selection of cruise locations. The road is understood for commonly transferring its vessels world wide to supply a various lineup of itineraries in all places from North America and Europe to French Polynesia.
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