October 21, 2028 – November 11, 2028 · 20 nights · 17 stops
Explora's name for it: A Grand Journey of Historic European Landmarks & Arabian Wonders
The itinerary, port by port
17 calls over 20 nights, Barcelona to Jeddah. 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 Barcelona (BCN) open around November 2027, about 11 months before you sail. I track that window for booked clients and flag it the moment it is worth booking. When to book your flights →
Barcelona packs Gaudí's modernisme, a 2,000-year-old Roman and medieval core, and a working Mediterranean waterfront into a single dense, walkable city. Port guide →
Palma is the capital of Mallorca and the largest city in the Balearics, built in warm honey-colored sandstone around a sandstone Gothic cathedral that rises straight off the seafront. Port guide →
Valletta is the fortified 16th-century capital the Knights of St John built on a peninsula above Grand Harbour, one of the deepest natural harbors in the Mediterranean. Port guide →
Syracuse was once the most powerful Greek city in the western Mediterranean, a rival to Athens, and the day splits cleanly between its two halves: the ancient Neapolis park on the mainland, with a Greek… Port guide →
Gallipoli is a fortified old town on its own small island in the Ionian Sea, tied to the modern town and the Salento mainland by a short bridge in the province of Lecce. Port guide →
Kotor is a fortified medieval town wedged at the head of the Bay of Kotor, with stone lanes, Venetian churches, and a mountain wall climbing the cliff behind it. Port guide →
Ravenna was the capital of the late Western Roman Empire and then a Byzantine outpost, and it kept the receipts: eight UNESCO-listed early Christian monuments whose mosaics are the finest of their kind… Port guide →
Koper is Slovenia's port town on a short stretch of Adriatic coast, a former Venetian island settlement whose medieval core sits steps from the cruise quay. Port guide →
Fusina is a cruise terminal on the mainland edge of the Venetian Lagoon, about three miles west of Venice across the water, opened in fall 2024 as ships moved out of the historic city. Port guide →
Split is built inside and around the walls of Diocletian's Palace, a Roman emperor's seafront retirement complex from around 300 AD that never became a ruin because people simply kept living in it. Port guide →
Dubrovnik is a walled stone city on the Adriatic whose intact medieval ramparts and marble main street make it one of the most complete fortified ports in Europe. Port guide →
Heraklion is Crete's working capital, a Venetian-walled port city that holds the keys to the Minoan world: the restored palace of Knossos 5 km inland and the artifacts pulled from it. Port guide →
Port Said sits at the Mediterranean mouth of the Suez Canal, a planned 19th-century canal town laid out by French and Italian engineers and still lined with timber-balconied apartment blocks and arcaded… Port guide →
14
Crossing the Suez Canal
A sea-level cut between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, opened in 1869, that lets your ship skip the long haul around Africa.
Sharm El-Sheikh sits at the southern tip of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where desert meets the Red Sea over some of the richest coral reefs on earth. Port guide →
Aqaba is Jordan's only seaport, a Red Sea resort town that exists on the cruise map for one reason: it is the closest harbor to Petra, the Nabataean rock city carved into rose-colored sandstone. Port guide →
Jeddah is the Red Sea's historic gateway to Mecca, and its draw is Al-Balad, the UNESCO-listed old town of coral-stone merchant houses with carved wooden lattice balconies. 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.
Early Booking Benefit
A fare for booking far enough ahead of departure. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
Founders Fare
A founding-era fare on a selected set of sailings. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
The ship and your suite
This sailing is aboard EXPLORA IV, 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 →
Send me the dates and the suite tier you have in mind and I'll come back with a confirmed live number and my read on the sailing within two hours. Best available price, and I make it worth more.