Laurie’s Cruise Lookout

When I worked on cruise ships, I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful Key West on many occasions.  I didn't make it off the ship very often though, as our morning stays coincided with my weekly Captain's meeting on board, but when I did, I always found it to…

Miami is undoubtedly the busiest cruise port in the World, but Fort Lauderdale isn't far behind, making the south-east coast of Florida the capital for cruise ship embarkation...and to think there's also Port Canaveral just up the coast a few hours, and Tampa over the other side of Florida! So…

  So, like many cruise holidaymakers, you have a day to spend in Barcelona?  I used to guide excursions around the city, sometimes even having to direct the driver where to go, so I'm your man for advise as to where to go and what to do! The tourist 'hop…

So you've been to Nassau or Grand Bahama, and you liked them, but you want something similar but different?  Well many of your favourite cruise lines can give you those gorgeous beaches and sparsely-inhabited islands in the shape of Grand Turk Island, or Providenciales (commonly referred to as 'Provo' for…

In this post I would like to concentrate on 3 popular island destinations in the Eastern Caribbean.....all of which are regular ports of call on Caribbean cruise itineraries.  As usual, I would like to focus on what you might want to do given a day in each port... Antigua is…

Cruising out of Florida, there aren't too many cruises that make it as far down as St Lucia, Grenada and Barbados, but those 3 islands are favourites with us Brits, who can benefit from direct flights to all 3 of these islands, and cruise companies such as P+O and Marella,…

Most people don't know what the ABC islands are...when you say the full names of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, people may have heard of the distinctive Blue drink that bears the name of  the third island, but may still struggle to pronounce it correctly! These islands are some of the…

Some people think of Hawaii as tropical islands gone wrong, with American commercialism and high-density urban areas such as Honolulu spoiling the overall atmosphere, but in fact the two go surprisingly well together...you can still go 'out there' into the wilderness, and there's an amazing array of activities to do,…

Visiting the twin-island nation of St Kitts and Nevis is like sampling how most of the Caribbean was 30 years ago....there's a very quiet, low-key atmosphere around the whole place, with just a few rum and beer shacks for entertainment, with the exception of a couple of international-brand hotels that…

San Juan and St Maarten are very different to each other, but are both two of the most-visited ports in the Eastern Caribbean.  So what makes them so different, and what should you do with a day in each? San Juan has Spanish colonial heritage, and boasts an impressive fort,…