World’s longest cruise set to visit 59 countries in 245 days
Fancy a world cruise that calls at 113 ports in 59 countries across six continents in 245 days?
That'll be $117,995 thanks. For the most basic room. Prefer to travel in the top-of-the-range owner's suite? If you had a spare $342,895 you would have been in with a chance but it's already taken.
Billing itself as the longest ever continuous world cruise, the Norwegian-owned Viking Sun embarks on the eight-month journey on August 31, 2019.
Departing from London's Greenwich, the 930-passenger vessel stops in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Faroe Islands and Norway before crossing the Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland.
From there, it makes its way around America to Los Angeles where it skips through the South Pacific to New Zealand, calling at several ports on both islands before heading to Australia.
Then it's up through Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa and southern Europe, eventually arriving back in London.
The price includes business class airfares, private car transfers to the ship, "virtually all drinks on board" and one excursion in each port.
The cheapest fare of $117,995 per person means a couple travelling together will pay $235,990, or $963 a day between them.
The cruise appears to be filling up fast, with only wait list spaces for the cheapest fares. There are spaces available in mid-range cabins.
Luxury touches aboard the 465-stateroom ship include a glass-backed infinity pool cantilevered off the stern, a Nordic spa with a "snow grotto" where snowflakes descend from the ceiling through chilled air, a winter garden and eight restaurants.
Viking chairman Torstein Hagen said the lines world cruises "offer guests the rare opportunity to unpack once and explore dozens of the best destinations on earth - at a value that is unprecedented in the travel industry".
If nearly A$117,995 is your idea of a value holiday that is.
Written by Lorna Thornber. Republished with permission of Stuff.co.nz.