The 5 best destinations you can visit on an Azamara Cruises ship

For a line with just a few ships, Azamara Cruises offers a notably wide range of itineraries.

The Miami-based brand's four nearly identical vessels — Azamara Quest, Azamara Pursuit, Azamara Journey and Azamara Onward — are often on the move from continent to continent, operating an ever-changing array of sailings to many of the world's most famous destinations.

These include at least a few (and sometimes a lot of) voyages every year in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Azamara also occasionally offers unusually long and destination-packed world cruises that include stops on multiple continents.

Azamara has a particularly large footprint in Europe, with three of its four vessels spending at least some time each year in the region. Nearly half of all itineraries listed on Azamara's schedule are in the Mediterranean area, the Baltic region and Northern Europe.

The line also sends at least one of its ships every year to Asia and Australia for a multimonth stay, and it offers several cruises each year along the coasts of South America. Some years, it sends a ship around the coast of South Africa, too.

Azamara's offerings in North America have historically been pretty light, but it has been adding more North America departures of late, including (as of this year) its first Alaska sailings in seven years.

Azamara ships sail everything from short, five-night cruises to Spain's Balearic Islands to 100-plus-night voyages that circle the globe. But unlike mass-market lines, the company does not offer many sailings of six or fewer nights. Between now and June 2028, the line has only five such shorter voyages on its schedule.

With all of these itineraries, Azamara famously follows a take-it-slow approach that puts a premium on more longer stays and overnight stays in ports than is typical for cruise ships. The result is that passengers have the opportunity for a more in-depth exploration of the places the ships visit.

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Here are our picks for the five best Azamara cruise destinations.

The Mediterranean

The Mediterranean is a big focus for Azamara, accounting for about a third of all departures on its schedule.

Most of Azamara's Mediterranean trips range from seven to 21 nights, although it occasionally offers shorter or longer voyages. These itineraries include sailings focused specifically on the Western or Eastern Mediterranean and some that include stops across both.

Typical of the latter is the line's 11-night Best of the Mediterranean itinerary from Piraeus, Greece (the port for Athens), to Barcelona. The one-way sailing includes stops in Turkey, Greece, Italy, France and Spain.

Azamara is particularly known for offering Mediterranean sailings that focus on a single country. The line's nine-night Croatia Intensive Cruise, for instance, offers five calls in Croatia (Dubrovnik, Korcula, Sibenik, Zadar and Opatija), as well as a stop in nearby Montenegro.

In the Mediterranean, the line's main hubs are Piraeus; Civitavecchia, Italy; Istanbul; Fusina, Italy (near Venice); Barcelona; and Nice, France.

Related: Best Mediterranean cruises for every type of traveler

Northern and Western Europe

While not as big for Azamara as the Mediterranean, the overlapping regions of Northern Europe and Western Europe account for a not-insignificant portion of the line's sailings during the year.

Mostly offered during the summer months, the line's trips in the regions typically last from seven to 14 nights, though a few are longer. Azamara typically doesn't offer short cruises in these regions.

Some sailings focus on the Baltic region with stops in multiple countries, including the line's 15-night, one-way Baltic Intensive itinerary between Copenhagen and Portsmouth, England, which includes port calls in Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden.

But, as in the Mediterranean, Azamara is also known for sailings in Northern Europe and Western Europe that focus on a single country. The line offers an 11-night Scotland Intensive voyage, for instance, that visits six different destinations across Scotland. A seven-night Spain Intensive itinerary is similarly focused, with five port calls in Spain.

For Northern Europe and Western Europe cruises, Azamara uses a wide variety of ports as hubs, including Dublin; Southampton, England; Bordeaux, France; Amsterdam; and Oslo.

Alaska

After a seven-year hiatus, Azamara is bringing back Alaska sailings this year — and it plans to offer Alaska voyages in 2027, too.

For both years, the line is operating cruises to the destination during the summer months with a single ship (Azamara Pursuit) operating a mix of eight- to 11-night sailings.

All of the trips are one-way voyages between Whittier, Alaska, and Vancouver, British Columbia. They typically stop at a mix of both well-known Alaska port towns such as Ketchikan and Skagway, and smaller places such as Klawock and Valdez that bigger ships rarely visit.

Related: TPG's guide to Alaska cruisetours

Among other places the ship typically visits is Hubbard Glacier, known as one of the most spectacular tidewater glaciers in Alaska.

As part of returning to Alaska for the first time in seven years, Azamara is also offering cruisetours to Alaska that combine a cruise with several days of overland exploring with hotel stays. The land portion of such trips typically includes a visit to Denali National Park.

Asia, Australia and New Zealand

Azamara usually sends one of its four ships to Asia, Australia and New Zealand every winter for sailings out of such cities as Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney and Auckland.

The line also typically sends a second ship on an around-the-world cruise during the winter that includes segments in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, resulting in two of the line's ships sailing in the region. (See more on Azamara's world cruises below.)

In both cases, the vessels offer a relatively wide mix of itineraries, never staying in the same region for too many voyages in a row.

Typical of the Asia itineraries on the Azamara schedule for the next two years is a 15-night voyage between Hong Kong and Singapore with multiple stops in both Vietnam and Thailand.

Related: Guide to Azamara Cruises' Azamara Circle loyalty program

A typical Australia and New Zealand cruise is a 14- to 16-night trip focusing heavily on New Zealand. The line also offers a 15-night itinerary which includes stops at nine places in New Zealand: Dunedin, Timaru, Christchurch, Picton, Wellington, Napier, Gisborne, Tauranga and Auckland. A visit to New Zealand's Milford Sound is also on the schedule, as is a visit to the Australian island state of Tasmania and Eden, Australia.

Longer itineraries that combine port stops in Asia and Australia into a single sailing include a 27-night voyage from Sydney to Hong Kong. This sailing includes stops in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The world

Azamara typically offers one world cruise each year, and it's often one of the longest and most destination-intensive world cruises offered by any line.

For 2027, for instance, Azamara is sending its soon-to-be-renovated Azamara Quest on a truly epic, 188-night voyage that starts by circling the Pacific Ocean and stopping in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and French Polynesia before sailing through the Panama Canal to Europe.

In all, the world voyage will be more than 50 nights longer than the world cruises offered by many of Azamara's competitors.

In advance of the sailing, which will include stops in 37 countries, Azamara Quest will be getting an all-new Penthouse Deck with two categories of suites as well as other major upgrades. This is the beginning of a fleetwide upgrade program called Azamara Forward that will bring enhancements to all four Azamara ships over several years.

Azamara also plans a major, 175-night world cruise for 2028. Scheduled to take place on Azamara Onward, it will include a nearly full circling of the world, with visits to 40 countries on six continents.

Kicking off Jan. 5, 2028, in Miami, the world voyage brings a westbound routing that includes calls in North America, South America, Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe before ending June 9, 2028, in Barcelona.

Bottom line

Despite its small size, Azamara offers a diverse array of itineraries in cruise destinations around the world, from North America to Asia. You'll find the most choices among Azamara itineraries in Europe, followed by Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and South America. The line also offers some of the longest, most destination-intensive world cruises in the business.

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