February 2, 2027 – February 23, 2027 · 20 nights · 17 stops
Explora's name for it: A Journey Across the Mediterranean’s Edge & Into the Atlantic
Twenty nights, seventeen stops, Rome to Lisbon, with almost a port every day. This is a one-way crossing that starts dense in the Mediterranean, swings down the North African coast, and finishes out in the Atlantic islands. The early run is classic and walkable: Naples drops you a ten-minute walk from the historic center, or onto the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii if you go straight there at opening. Palermo docks near a Norman, Arab, and Baroque core you cover on foot, where the move is to eat arancine and panelle standing up at the markets, not seated. Then the character shifts hard. La Goulette is your gateway to Carthage and Tunis, Tangier rewards a petit taxi up to the kasbah and a walk down through the medina, and Casablanca is essentially one extraordinary building, the Hassan II Mosque, which you can only see inside on a fixed tour slot. The Atlantic stretch closes it out: Lanzarote's Timanfaya lava fields, La Palma as the world's first Starlight Reserve, Funchal's cable car up to Monte and wicker toboggan down, and finally Lisbon, where you step off into the Alfama tangle.
This itinerary rewards a curious, port-driven traveler who wants range over depth and does not need a single beach week. The pace is relentless, with back-to-back calls and few real rest days, so if you want to slow down or settle into one region, pick a shorter sailing. North Africa adds friction worth knowing about: Algiers needs a visa and licensed-guide logistics confirmed with the ship well ahead, and several calls reward planning over wandering. If you like working out a city on foot and reading a coastline change under you, this is your route.
Explora II is all-suite and all-oceanfront.
The itinerary, port by port
17 calls over 20 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Lisbon. 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 Civitavecchia (Rome) (FCO) 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 →
Civitavecchia is Rome's deepwater port, a working harbor about 80 km northwest of the capital, and for most travelers it is the gateway rather than the destination. Port guide →
Naples is a dense, loud, deeply layered Italian city where the cruise terminal sits at the foot of the historic center rather than out in an industrial port. Port guide →
La Goulette is the port town at the mouth of the Lake of Tunis, and it is the gateway to ancient Carthage, the medina of Tunis, and the blue-and-white cliff village of Sidi Bou Said. Port guide →
Algiers is the white-tiered capital of Algeria, a city that stacks Ottoman-era alleys, French colonial boulevards, and a working Mediterranean harbor against steep hillsides. Port guide →
Cartagena is Colombia's old Caribbean fortress city, a UNESCO-listed walled town of balconied colonial houses, plazas, and the largest Spanish fort built in the Americas. Port guide →
Alicante is a working Costa Blanca city that puts a hilltop Moorish fortress, a marble seafront promenade, and a maze-like medieval quarter inside a single walkable radius from the cruise pier. Port guide →
Tarragona was Tarraco, capital of Roman Hispania, and it carries one of the densest concentrations of Roman remains in Spain, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. Port guide →
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 →
Tangier sits where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic at the Strait of Gibraltar, a Moroccan port city with a walled medina, a hilltop kasbah, and a long history as an international crossroads. Port guide →
Casablanca is Morocco's commercial capital, a big Atlantic port city whose case for the day rests almost entirely on one building: the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest in the world, with a minaret… Port guide →
Arrecife is the working capital of Lanzarote, the easternmost of the main Canary Islands, and the gateway to a volcanic landscape unlike anywhere else in Europe. Port guide →
San Sebastian is the small capital of La Gomera, the second-smallest Canary Island, and it is where Columbus took on water and supplies before the 1492 Atlantic crossing. Port guide →
15
Santa Cruz de La Palma
Santa Cruz de La Palma is the capital of the greenest, least developed of the main Canary Islands, founded in 1493 and once the third busiest port in Europe behind Antwerp and Seville.
Funchal is the capital of Madeira, a Portuguese volcanic island in the Atlantic, and the port sits a short walk from a working city built up a steep amphitheater of hills. Port guide →
Lisbon spreads over hills above the wide Tagus estuary, and the cruise terminal sits at the foot of Alfama, the city's oldest quarter. 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 II, 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.