# Design your own Around-the-World Cruise **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411 "2015-03-19T18:49:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/1 "2015-03-19T18:49:33Z")
You have unlimited money and unlimited time, to take a leisurely cruise around the world. You are limited to 20 destinations, not including your point of departure, which you must return to at the end. The only stipulation is that each destination must be a port, or near one. Here’s mine: New York City Reykjavik Norway Fjords Lisbon Barcelona Venice Athens Istanbul Cairo/Suez Canal Dubai Cape Town Bangkok Hong Kong Shanghai Sydney Pape’ete Hawaii: Kauai Alaska Inside Passage Galapagos Islands Antarctica Buenos Aires New York City ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/2 "2015-03-19T19:38:20Z")
I’m not even going to try. I did a 4-week cruise of the British Isles, Norway, Iceland, then transatlantic, and we had 16 stops. I wouldn’t go around the world if I could only have 20 stops. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/3 "2015-03-20T00:23:34Z")
It’s not just the stops I would consider. Are there going to be young children underfoot? ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/4 "2015-03-20T00:48:59Z")
Oakland Inside Passage Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky Vladivostok Tokyo Shanghai Hong Kong Singapore Yangoon Colombo Karachi Muscat Aden Jeddah Port Sudan Beirut Istanbul Algiers Nouakchott Praia Cartagena Oakland Yes, I am weird… and yes, this is an honest answer. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/5 "2015-03-20T16:33:41Z")
I’m a lover of wildlife – especially birds, and venues in the “big-game” ballpark: my cruise would thus be to places good in themselves for that, or as setting-off points for locations inland (have been quite generous to self, re the latter). OP allows self Antarctica and the Galapagos as destinations in their own right among the 20, so I am following suit. Am in the UK, so it would seem to work well to leave from, and return to, a UK east coast port; have chosen Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Newcastle (1): Gdańsk – for the Białowieza Forest nature reserve (2) : Constanţa (Romania) – for the Danube delta – wonderful bird-life (3): Istanbul – for various destinations in Turkey (a birder’s paradise) Via Suez Canal to (4): Kolkata – Indian wildlife reserves, e.g. Kaziranga (N-E India), has tigers and rhinos (5): Padang (Sumatra, Indonesia) – Kerinci Seblat national park huge in size, with a fantastic wealth of wildlife (6): Darwin – tropical Australia – Kakadu National Park etc. (7): Galapagos Islands (8): Hobart – Tasmania has also been a total “must” for me (9): Melbourne – “regular” Australia; and hoping for platypuses (New Zealand, you have an enormous number of devotees already, so I’m sure you can live with my not being a very big fan, and – having only 20 “slots” worldwide – preferring Australia. NZ’s native wildlife has to a very large extent vanished under encroachment by introduced species.) (10): Dar-es-Salaam --for the Serengeti, etc. (11): Toamasina: chief port of Madagascar (island in a bad way environmentally, but the native fauna – such of it as survives – is unique and fascinating) (12): Durban – Kruger National Park, and things South African in general (13): Walvis Bay, coast of Namibia – desert-cum-swampland game reserves in Namibia and Botswana (14): Pointe Noire (Congo-Brazzaville) or Libreville (Gabon) – a look at tropical Africa (15): Antarctica (16): Bahia Blanca or Buenos Aires, Argentina – “Pampas” and adjoining regions (17): Manaus (800 miles up the Amazon, but ocean-going ships can get there) – Amazon forest (18): Colón (Panama) or Limón (Costa Rica) – wonderful birdlife (19): Portland, Maine – “northish-eastish” North America, generally (20): Reykjavik, Iceland Newcastle ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/6 "2015-03-20T19:42:16Z")
Easy. 20 rounds of the Formula One Championship this year. Hit the nearest port, rent a Ferrari for any ground transport needed. Watch every race. Done! Can you hurry up with the money? I’ve already missed the first round! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/7 "2015-03-21T03:15:30Z")
Pole to pole. Have to design a new ship for it, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/8 "2015-03-26T03:45:44Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > You have unlimited money and unlimited time, to take a leisurely cruise around the world. You are limited to 20 destinations, not including your point of departure, which you must return to at the end. The only stipulation is that each destination must be a port, or near one. > > Here’s mine: > > New York City > Reykjavik > Norway Fjords > Lisbon > Barcelona > Venice > Athens > Istanbul > Cairo/Suez Canal > Dubai > Cape Town > Bangkok > Hong Kong > Shanghai > Sydney > Pape’ete > Hawaii: Kauai > Alaska Inside Passage > Galapagos Islands > Antarctica > Buenos Aires > New York City Just to note: Bangkok is about 18 miles upriver. We don’t get any cruise ships here. I believe those all dock somewhere on our Eastern Seaboard, somewhere around Pattaya. But you could get to Bangkok from there in a couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/9 "2015-03-26T04:03:58Z")
1. San Diego, Ca 2. Juneau, Alaska 3. Honolulu, Hawaii 4. Pape’ete, Tahiti 5. Christchurch, New Zealand 6. Sydney, Australia 7. Perth, Australia 8. Port Louis, Mauritius 9. Toamasina, Madagascar 10. Cape Town, South Africa 11. Jamestown, St. Helena 12. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 13. Tenerife, Canary Islands 14. Valletta, Malta 15. Palermo, Sicily 16. London, England 17. Hamilton, Bermuda 18. Havana, Cuba 19. Speightstown, Barbados 20. Belize City, Belize 21. San Diego, CA ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/10 "2015-03-26T04:25:42Z")
New York Rio de Janeiro Buenos Aires Cape Town Mumbai Jakarta Hong Kong Tokyo Papeete Anchorage Panama Canal Dublin London Oslo Lisbon Rome Cairo Suez Canal Honolulu San Francisco ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/11 "2015-03-26T14:37:12Z")
1. Boston 2. Hamilton, Bermuda 3. Isabel Segunda, PR 4. Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI 5. Gustavia, St. Barts 6. Stanley, Falkland Islands (penguins) 7. Jamestown, St. Helena (remoteness) 8. Haulaf, Socotra, Yemen (crazy wildlife) 9. Pamban, Tamil Nadu, India (architecture) 10. Darwin, NT, Australia (back to something somewhat resembling urban life) 11. Pitcairn Island 12. Apia, Samoa 13. Molokai 14. Barrow, AK 15. St. John’s, NL 16. Belfast 17. Iona, Scotland 18. Glasgow 19. Torshavn, Faeroe Islands 20. Santorini, Greece 21. Istanbul (so much history) ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/design-your-own-around-the-world-cruise/715411/12 "2015-03-26T18:19:51Z")
**robert\_columbia** – just out of curiosity – do you see getting from your (13) to your (14) via the North-West Passage in midsummer; or back into the Pacific and then through the Panama Canal; or back into the Pacific and round Cape Horn?