Cruising Burma, Belize & the Galapagos Islands

By Andrea M. Rotondo
August 22, 2012

My very first cruise was a three-week voy­age from Alaska across the Bering Sea to Rus­sia and then down through the north­ern islands of Japan. It was a fan­tas­tic way to see so many places that I prob­a­bly would never go as part of a land-based trip. That one cruise sparked a life-long inter­est in that form of travel. Now I’m always on the look­out for new and inter­est­ing itin­er­aries that will take me some­where I’ve never been before. Here are a few new cruises that are on my radar:

Burma’s Irrawaddy River

I’m booked on my first ever river cruise this Decem­ber: a hol­i­day mar­kets cruise along the Danube River with Viking River Cruises aboard its new Long­ship, Viking Odin. I’ve heard great things about river cruises and hope that the expe­ri­ence launches a new facet of my love of travel by ship. If it does, I’d look toward a more exotic des­ti­na­tion for my sec­ond river cruise: Burma (also known as Myanmar).

This coun­try in South­east Asia is a bit of a mys­tery to me. Repres­sive gov­ern­ment regimes made travel their unpop­u­lar for years but soft­en­ing trends and some wins for the National League for Democ­racy has opened up the pos­si­bil­i­ties. It’s the land of pago­das and tem­ples and beau­ti­ful Bud­dhist shrines. And, the peo­ple are known to be wel­com­ing of vis­i­tors from all cor­ners of the globe.

The major play­ers when it comes to Burma cruises are…

Grand Cir­cle Cruise Line

Land/river tour includ­ing four nights in Bangkok, Thai­land; three nights in Yan­gon, Burma; and a seven-night cruise aboard RV Paukan.

Orient-Express

A vari­ety of multi-night cruises aboard the 82-passenger Road to Man­dalay can be paired with a stay at Orient-Express’ Governor’s Res­i­dence in Yangon.

Pan­daw River Cruises

Pandaw’s been sail­ing the Irrawaddy for years and offers sev­eral itin­er­aries aboard dif­fer­ent ves­sels, includ­ing its new RV Katha Pan­daw and RV Pan­daw II.

In and Around Belize

Every win­ter I check out travel options to Belize—it looks absolutely beautiful—but I’ve yet to pull the trig­ger on a trip. There just isn’t enough time to visit all the places on my “to do” list. A new cruise option might change that though. Adven­ture­Smith Explo­rations is char­ter­ing Trav­el­Dy­nam­ics’ 138-passenger expe­di­tion ship, York­town, for adven­tures around Belize start­ing in late Decem­ber 2012.

The seven-night voy­ages are dubbed “Ancient Sites, Rain Forests & Coral Reefs.” Onboard archae­ol­o­gists and nat­u­ral­ists will lead tours on land and in the water for swim­ming, snor­kel­ing, and div­ing. Much of the time will be spent in the water explor­ing Belize’s Bar­rier Reef Reserve Sys­tem, the Great Blue Hole, Laugh­ing Bird Caye, and South Water Caye. Land-based activ­i­ties include vis­its to ancient ruins dat­ing back to 700 AD as well as time spent at the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary.

A pre-cruise stay in Guatemala is also an option.

Com­ing Soon: Sil­versea in the Galapagos

While all of the above-mentioned cruises are book­able now, you’ll need to wait another year to sail with Sil­versea in the Gala­pa­gos Islands. The Ital­ian cruise line recently pur­chased Can­odros SA, an Ecuado­rian tourism com­pany that owns the expe­di­tion ship, Gala­pa­gos Explorer II. (The ship itself reminds me of Orion Expedition’s Orion.)

Sil­versea will devote mil­lions of dol­lars to a Sep­tem­ber 2013 ren­o­va­tion of the mega-yacht, which cur­rently boasts 50 ocean­view suites (24 with pri­vate balconies).

The cruise will draw on its expe­ri­ence in expe­di­tion cruis­ing in the Artic and Antarc­tica to bring a new, lux­ury cruise itin­er­ary to the Gala­pa­gos Islands. I, for one, can’t wait until I can sail with Sil­versea in Ecuador.