Q – Like a fair number of your followers, my wife and I are each anticipating retirement in about a year if Elon does not get to us before then! We are talking to agents here in Dallas but we are getting conflicting answers. We are not that well traveled, we will be in our mid-sixties in excellent shape, and we are, I suppose more adventurous than most. Cost is not really a factor. And here’s our dilemma and where we are getting confusing information:
We understand all of the advantages of cruising but there is no way we would ever board anything that carried more than a few hundred guests. We would want to travel to some really fascinating places – not London or Paris – and we would want to do some hiking, perhaps biking off the boat. We’d love to travel with a brand that stood for excellent service with fellow guests with enough energy to want to truly explore some exotic destinations.
That all said, is there one cruise product that your team feels comes closest to potentially meeting and exceeding our expectations? Please just give me your first choice – we’re not interested in second or third. The agents I have talked to keep throwing Silversea and Viking at me. Thanks and very much enjoy the hardcore info on your site.
A – When it comes to the sailing experience we are convinced that “size” is the critical component. You should look first at Aqua Expeditions. They are, we believe, the best in the small ship expedition field. Their vessels never carry more than 350 guests and some of their smaller ships carry far less. They are best known for operating exploration journeys of quality in Peru on the Amazon, the Mekong (Cambodia and Vietnam) along with coastal yacht voyages to Komodo National Park and the Spice Islands.
Aqua’s newest yacht, the Aqua Mare, is based in the Galapagos Islands and carries up to 16 guests.
Please let us know how this all turns out and give all of the Dallas agents our warmest regards.
