13 Days Luxury British Isles Cruise - Lisbon to Belfast

Lisbon is one of Europe's most captivating capitals, built across seven hills above the Tagus estuary with a quality of light no other Atlantic city quite replicates. Alfama's cobbled streets, azulejo tile facades, and hilltop miradouros offer a layered, unhurried beauty, while the Tower of Belém and Jerónimos Monastery mark Portugal's Age of Discovery at the river's edge. The pastéis de nata and a glass of Ginjinha complete a portrait of a city that has been getting things quietly, confidently right for a very long time.

Days at sea are the perfect opportunity to relax, unwind, and pursue personal interests, whether visiting the gym, the spa, or simply watching for whales from deck. These blue sea days offer an ideal balance to busy days spent exploring ashore.

Days at sea are the perfect opportunity to relax, unwind, and pursue personal interests, whether visiting the gym, the spa, or simply watching for whales from deck. These blue sea days offer an ideal balance to busy days spent exploring ashore.

Tresco Abbey Garden, begun in the 1830s on the sheltered south-facing slopes of the Isles of Scilly, holds plants from 80 countries flourishing in the Gulf Stream's mild embrace. Species that would not survive winter on the English mainland grow year-round in this extraordinary walled garden. The Valhalla figurehead collection nearby preserves the carved prows of ships lost on the Scilly reefs.

St Mary's, the main island of the Isles of Scilly, lies 30 miles from Land's End in England's mildest climate. Its beaches and wildlife represent a concentrated version of everything exceptional about this extraordinary archipelago. Flower farms producing daffodils for the mainland, grey seals hauled out on offshore rocks, and a tight-knit community of 1,600 characterise an island that operates entirely on its own terms.

Port St Mary is a quiet harbour village at the southern tip of the Isle of Man. The island is a self-governing Crown dependency with its own parliament, language, and cultural heritage shaped by Gaelic and Norse traditions. The surrounding countryside leads past thatched cottages and Iron Age hill forts, and the island's TT motorcycle course passes through Manx landscapes of great character.

Islay, the southernmost of the Inner Hebrides, is Scotland's whisky island — home to nine working distilleries producing the peaty, maritime malts for which the island is famous worldwide. Port Ellen's charming beachfront of whitewashed houses leads to distilleries including Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg, all within easy reach along the island's southern shore.

St Kilda, 50 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, is the UK's only dual UNESCO World Heritage Site — recognised for both its natural and cultural values. The archipelago holds the UK's largest Atlantic puffin colony and the world's largest gannet colony on the island of Boreray, while the evacuated village of Hirta preserves the last record of a community that survived on these rocks for millennia.

Uninhabited since the last St Kilda residents departed in 1930, Boreray is the domain of vast seabird colonies including Northern Gannets, Northern Fulmars on the volcanic cliffs, and Atlantic Puffins darting in and out of burrows. The rare Boreray Sheep, unique to the island, graze on its hilly slopes. Boreray forms part of the St Kilda World Heritage Site, one of the few sites recognised for both outstanding natural and cultural values.

Kirkwall is the capital of the Orkney Islands, home to the sandstone St. Magnus Cathedral, begun in 1137 and completed over 300 years, known as the Light of the North for its stained-glass windows. The archipelago's prehistoric heritage includes Skara Brae, Europe's best-preserved Stone Age village and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. History-rich distilleries produce peaty single malts, and the dramatic meeting of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean defines the islands' seascapes.

The Shiant Islands, off the Outer Hebrides, are known for cliff faces of hexagonal basalt columns — volcanic intrusions exposed by millions of years of erosion, rising to 120 metres above the sea. The islands support one of Scotland's largest puffin colonies and are among the few Scottish sites where black rats — introduced by shipwreck — remain an established population.

Loch Ewe is the only north-facing loch in Scotland, used during World War II as a convoy gathering point protected by anti-aircraft guns, a boom net, and a mine defence system. The loch is a natural deep-water sea loch connected to the Atlantic through a narrow mouth. Nearby Inverewe Gardens thrive on the warm currents of the North Atlantic Drift, nurturing exotic plants from many countries on a latitude north of Moscow.

Tobermory is the colourful harbour capital of the Isle of Mull, its painted Victorian facades curving around one of Scotland's most photographed waterfronts. Below the waters of the bay lies the wreck of a Spanish Armada galleon, allegedly carrying a fortune in gold that has never been recovered. Mull's white-tailed eagles, otters, and dramatic landscapes extend far beyond the harbour.

Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull was originally built in the 13th century and became the ancestral home of the Clan Maclean. The castle fell to ruin before the Maclean clan repurchased and restored it in 1911. A Spanish Armada galleon rumored to carry gold bullion lies wrecked in Tobermory Bay, while Mull is known for European Otters and the White-tailed Sea Eagle, which successfully recolonised the island after a long absence.

Iona, just three miles long and one and a half miles wide, is home to an abbey built in 563 by Saint Columba, making the island the cradle of Christianity in Scotland. St. Martin's Cross, a 9th-century Celtic cross standing outside the abbey, is considered the finest example of a Celtic cross in the British Isles. The cemetery of Reilig Odhrain allegedly contains the remains of many Scottish kings.

Lunga is the largest island in the Treshnish archipelago off the Scottish coast, with remains of black houses from its human occupation until the 19th century. Atlantic puffins breed on the island's plateau from mid-April to early August, with abundant plant life and dramatic coastal scenery. Seals haul out on rocky shores and birds of prey are sometimes seen overhead.

Portrush sits on the North Antrim coast beside the ruins of Dunluce Castle. The medieval fortress clings dramatically to a basalt stack above the sea and served as a filming location for Game of Thrones. The Giant's Causeway — 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns formed 60 million years ago — is among the world's great geological wonders and lies minutes from the town.

Belfast carries its maritime heritage in the Titanic District, where the Titanic Museum brings to life the story of the ship built in the city's own shipyards, and SS Nomadic serves as a time capsule to that era. The Peace Lines, built during the Troubles, can be explored on black taxi tours explaining the history of the murals along the walls. The Cathedral Quarter's cobbled pubs and venues where music spills into the streets reveal the city's thriving creative present.

Itineraries are subject to change.