3 nights, Lisbon to Málaga

Three nights, four ports, and almost no time between them. This is a coastal sprint from the Tagus to the Costa del Sol, and the route earns its compactness: every call puts you off the ship and into the old town on foot. In Lisbon you step out at the foot of Alfama, the city's oldest quarter, a medieval tangle of staircases and tile-fronted houses, with the Baixa about a 10-minute walk the other way. Cádiz is one of the easiest days in the western Mediterranean, the ship tied up at the edge of a sea-ringed old town where a baroque cathedral, a Roman theatre, and a working market sit within walking distance. Tangier adds a Moroccan crossroads, a walled medina and hilltop kasbah you can loop on foot from the marina. Málaga finishes it with a Moorish fortress, a Roman theater, and the tapas counters of Mercado de Atarazanas.

Pick this if you want a fast, walkable sampler of three countries and you measure a trip by what your own feet cover, not by how far you can bus inland. Skip it if you came for Seville or the Jerez sherry bodegas. They're reachable from Cádiz, but a single port day trades most of the old town for time on the road. This is for travelers who'd rather climb to Portas do Sol than wait for a packed tram.

Explora II is all-suite, all-oceanfront.