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EXPLORA I · Grand Journeys

18 nights, Miami to Manaus

January 29, 2027 – February 17, 2027 · 18 nights · 14 stops

Explora's name for it: An Extended Journey of Caribbean Charms & Amazonian Wonders

Eighteen nights, fourteen calls, one direction: Miami down through the Caribbean and then a thousand miles up the Amazon to Manaus. The first stretch is a dense island run with little idle time. San Juan ties up in the old quarter itself, so the forts and plazas start a few steps from the gangway. St. Barths and the Saintes both anchor and tender, small French harbors that keep big ships out, walkable in an afternoon. Saint-Pierre is the somber standout, a black-sand bay of stone ruins under Mont Pelee, the volcano that killed roughly 30,000 people in 1902. Then the route shifts character entirely: Port of Spain is a real working city of doubles and Carnival roots, not a port set piece, and from there the ship clears into Brazil and the river takes over. Santarem's Meeting of the Waters, Boca da Valeria's village of seventy-five people who turn out to meet the ship, and Manaus with its rubber-boom opera house set down in the rainforest.

This rewards a traveler who wants range over rest and treats the Amazon leg as the point, not a coda. It is long, it is one-way, and the river ports are candid rather than polished: Boca da Valeria runs on small tips, Macapá's immigration can take five hours or more. If you want a tidy Caribbean week of beaches, pick a shorter loop. This is for the patient.

The ship is all-suite, all-oceanfront.

Miami (open port guide)MiamiPuerto Plata (open port guide)Philipsburg (open port guide)Terre-de-Haut (Îles des Saintes) (open port guide)Basseterre (open port guide)San Juan (open port guide)Gustavia (open port guide)Saint-Pierre (open port guide)Bridgetown (open port guide)Port of Spain (Trinidad)Macapá (open port guide)Santarem (Pará) (open port guide)Boca da Valeria (open port guide)Manaus (open port guide)Manaus

The itinerary, port by port

14 calls over 18 nights, Miami to Manaus. Open any port for my full day-ashore guide, what to see, when to go, and how the day actually runs.

Getting there: Flights to Miami (MIA) are already bookable for these dates. I watch the fare for booked clients so you book at the right moment. When to book your flights →

  1. Embark
    Miami

    Miami is the busiest cruise port in the United States, set on Dodge Island in Biscayne Bay a mile or two off downtown. Port guide →

  2. 2
    Puerto Plata

    Puerto Plata is the Dominican Republic's north-coast amber capital, a town of faded Victorian gingerbread houses sitting under the green wall of Mount Isabel de Torres. Port guide →

  3. 3
    Philipsburg

    Philipsburg is the Dutch-side capital of Sint Maarten, a narrow strip of town wedged between Great Bay and a salt pond. Port guide →

  4. 4
    Terre-de-Haut (Îles des Saintes)

    Terre-de-Haut is the main inhabited island of the Saintes, a small archipelago off Guadeloupe's south coast, settled by Breton and Norman fishing families whose descendants still run the place. Port guide →

  5. 5
    Basseterre

    Basseterre is the Georgian-era capital of St Kitts, a small twin-island Caribbean nation where the cruise pier puts you a five-minute walk from a colonial town center built around a circular junction… Port guide →

  6. 6
    San Juan

    San Juan's old quarter is a walled Spanish colonial town on a headland, founded in the early 1500s, with two stone forts run by the U.S. Port guide →

  7. 7
    Gustavia

    Gustavia is the harbor capital of St Barths, a small French island that has deliberately kept large cruise ships out, so only luxury lines anchor offshore and tender in. Port guide →

  8. 8
    Saint-Pierre

    Saint-Pierre was Martinique's cultural capital, the Paris of the Caribbean, until Mont Pelee erupted on May 8, 1902 and a pyroclastic flow killed roughly 30,000 people in minutes. Port guide →

  9. 9
    Bridgetown

    Barbados's capital is a UNESCO-listed Georgian port town wrapped around a careenage, with British colonial bones, a Parliament still in session, and a turtle-filled bay a short taxi away. Port guide →

  10. 10
    Port of Spain (Trinidad)

    Port of Spain is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, a genuine working Caribbean city rather than a cruise-built one, with a multicultural street life that shows in its food, its architecture, and its…

  11. 11
    Macapá

    Macapá is the capital of Amapá state, sitting directly on the equator at the northern mouth of the Amazon, where the line literally runs through the city's Marco Zero monument and even through the midfield… Port guide →

  12. 12
    Santarem (Pará)

    Santarem sits where the clear blue-green Tapajos River meets the silt-brown Amazon, a port city founded by the Portuguese in 1661 and one of the oldest in the Brazilian Amazon. Port guide →

  13. 13
    Boca da Valeria

    Boca da Valeria is a tiny riverside village of roughly 75 people at the mouth of the Valeria River, about 850 miles up the Amazon near the Pará-Amazonas border. Port guide →

  14. Disembark
    Manaus

    Manaus is the million-person Amazonian capital that grew rich on the rubber boom of the 1890s to 1910s and spent that money on European architecture set down in the middle of the rainforest, a thousand… Port guide →

Fares on this departure, decoded

Reading the fare fine print is the job. Here's what this sailing currently carries:

Invitation to Discover More
Explora's discovery fare, available across most of the calendar. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
Founders Fare
A founding-era fare on a selected set of sailings. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
Air-Inclusive Fare
A fare that folds airfare into the voyage price on a smaller set of sailings.

The ship and your suite

This sailing is aboard EXPLORA I, all-suite, every suite with a private ocean-front terrace. Suites run from the entry Ocean Terrace to the Owner's Residence; the right tier depends on how you travel. Compare suites → · What's included →


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