Sydney, capital of New South Wales and one of Australia’s largest cities, is best known for its harbourfront Sydney Opera House, with a distinctive sail-like design. Massive Darling Harbour and the smaller Circular Quay port are hubs of waterside life, with the arched Harbour Bridge and esteemed Royal Botanic Garden nearby. Sydney Tower’s outdoor platform, the Skywalk, offers 360-degree views of the city and suburbs.

Mare’, also spelled Marea, is a town in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. It is the largest town and administrative centre of the Mare’ nahiyah in the Azaz District. Located some 25 kilometers north of the city of Aleppo, the town has a population of 16,904 as per the 2004 census.

Lifou Island or Drehu in the local language is the largest, most populous and most important island of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. With a total area of 1,207 square kilometers Lifou is located east of Australia at 20.9°S 167.2°E.

Port Vila is the harborside capital and main hub of Vanuatu, on Efate island. Its small downtown is home to colorful market stalls selling produce and local handicrafts. The National Museum of Vanuatu, inside the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, displays artifacts such as slit-gong drums and outrigger canoes.

The capital of Milne Bay Province, Alotau is the easternmost town in Papua New Guinea, close to the volcanic D’Entrecasteaux islands in the Solomon Sea. Alotau’s recent past is inextricably linked to fighting between the Australian and Japanese during the Second World War, and it is still possible to see the battlefields and memorials like the Turnbull War Memorial Park or the stele dedicated to fallen Australian soldiers. On leaving your MSC cruise ship, you will discover that Alotau is just a small town situated at the foot of lush green hills, with less than 20,000 inhabitants. You will have the opportunity to take a trip up into the hills, from where you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the town and the immense Bay that gave its name to the province. The houses are low with tin roofs and the sand is dark because of its volcanic origin. The Massime Museum and the Cultural Centre house exhibitions dedicated to 400 years of Alotau’s history. During your MSC cruise you can enter in contact with the local population, visiting the places that are part of their daily lives and enjoying performances of traditional dances to the rhythm of Kundu drums or watching canoe races.

Cairns, considered the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is a city in tropical Far North Queensland. Its Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park tells the stories of indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with music and dance. Cairns Esplanade, lined with bars and restaurants, has a swimming lagoon. Northwest of the city, Daintree National Park spans mountainous rainforest, gorges and beaches.

Darwin is a young, lively and cosmopolitan city, as you will find in the busy bars along Mitchell Street and watching the runners and cyclists who enjoy the city’s tropical parks and waterfront districts, where your MSC cruise ship awaits you. Darwin exceeds all expectations: it is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia, with a population of over 136,000 inhabitants made up of a mixture of different ethnic groups. To appreciate it fully, visit its historic buildings and natural attractions, or try the excellent Southeast Asian-inspired cuisine. While enjoying your MSC World Cruise, you can take day trips from Darwin to Litchfield National Park, with its waterfalls and forests. Crocodylus Park, on the edge of the city, is perfect for a day outdoors, combined with the beautiful Territory Wildlife Park a little further away. The modern Parliament House is the perfect place to start your visit. It is by far the most impressive building in the Northern Territory, with an extremely imaginative design: the shape of the top of the exterior columns, reminiscent of a bomb, isin remembrance of the adversity Darwin suffered during the war. Once through the security control, the airy atrium is full of small references to the Northern Territory, from the original crest to the desert flower mosaic. Cyclones, air raids and termites have destroyed many of the old buildings in Darwin, but a few architectural gems have survived. Government House, not far from Parliament House, was restored in the 1970s, after the original residence was devoured by white ants. The cream corrugated roof and potted palms make it a fine example of an elegant tropical building, today the official residence of the Administrator of the Northern Territory.

Lombok is an Indonesian island east of Bali and west of Sumbawa, part of the Lesser Sunda Island chain. It’s known for beaches and surfing spots, particularly at Kuta and Banko Banko (in south Lombok). The motor-vehicle-free Gili Islands (Gili Trawangan, Gili Air and Gili Meno), off Lombok’s west coast, offer more beaches, reefs for diving and snorkeling, and a sea turtle hatchery.

Benoa Harbour (Pelabuhan Benoa), 25km south of Denpasar, is the arrival and departure point for MSC Grand Voyages cruises to Indonesia. Benoa is a shelter for cruise ships sailing the Indian Ocean; it’s also a handy port for cruisers wanting to see Bali’s highlights. With pristine tropical beaches, elegantly sculpted rice paddies, volcanic peaks, and uncontaminated coastlines for world-class surf or sunbathing, Bali, with Lombok, is a tourist paradise; it has been attracting visitors for almost 100 years. An unmissable excursion during your MSC Grand Voyages cruise is Ubud, Bali’s cultural heartland, home to a huge number of temples, museums and art galleries, where Balinese dance shows are staged nightly, a wealth of craft studios provide absorbing shopping, and traditional ceremonies and rituals are observed daily. Once you get away from the main thoroughfares, Ubud’s lovely location is apparent, set amid lush, terraced paddies offering plenty of scope for hikes and bicycle rides, many of them with fine views up to the central mountains. Another MSC excursion can let you experience one of the greatest highlights of Bali and Indonesia: the Bali Safari and Marine Park. It draws several thousand visitors from all over the world who come to see animals from Indonesia, India and Africa (elephants, tigers, Komodo dragons and so on). There’s also a water park and theatrical shows.

Benoa Harbour (Pelabuhan Benoa), 25km south of Denpasar, is the arrival and departure point for MSC Grand Voyages cruises to Indonesia. Benoa is a shelter for cruise ships sailing the Indian Ocean; it’s also a handy port for cruisers wanting to see Bali’s highlights. With pristine tropical beaches, elegantly sculpted rice paddies, volcanic peaks, and uncontaminated coastlines for world-class surf or sunbathing, Bali, with Lombok, is a tourist paradise; it has been attracting visitors for almost 100 years. An unmissable excursion during your MSC Grand Voyages cruise is Ubud, Bali’s cultural heartland, home to a huge number of temples, museums and art galleries, where Balinese dance shows are staged nightly, a wealth of craft studios provide absorbing shopping, and traditional ceremonies and rituals are observed daily. Once you get away from the main thoroughfares, Ubud’s lovely location is apparent, set amid lush, terraced paddies offering plenty of scope for hikes and bicycle rides, many of them with fine views up to the central mountains. Another MSC excursion can let you experience one of the greatest highlights of Bali and Indonesia: the Bali Safari and Marine Park. It draws several thousand visitors from all over the world who come to see animals from Indonesia, India and Africa (elephants, tigers, Komodo dragons and so on). There’s also a water park and theatrical shows.

The Port of Singapore refers to the collective facilities and terminals that conduct maritime trade, and which handle Singapore’s harbours and shipping. It is ranked as the top maritime capital of the world since 2015.

Port Klang is a town and the main gateway by sea into Malaysia. Known during colonial times as Port Swettenham but renamed Port Klang in July 1972, it is the largest port in the country. It is located about 6 kilometres southwest of the town of Klang, and 38 kilometres southwest of Kuala Lumpur.

Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the city proper. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination.

Nowhere reinforces your sense of having arrived in Mumbai, with an MSC Grand Voyages cruise ship, quite as emphatically as the Gateway of India, the city’s defining landmark. Only a five-minute walk north, the Prince of Wales Museum should be next on your list of sightseeing priorities during your cruise to Mumbai, as much for its flamboyantly eclectic architecture as for the art treasures inside. The museum provides a foretaste of what lies in store just up the road, where the cream of Bartle Frere’s Bombay – the University and High Court – line up with the open maidans on one side, and the boulevards of Fort on the other. But for the fullest sense of why the city’s founding fathers declared it Urbs Prima in Indis, you should press further north still to visit the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the high-water mark of India’s Raj architecture. Beyond CST lie the crowded bazaars and Muslim neighbourhoods of central Mumbai, at their liveliest and most colourful around Crawford Market and Mohammed Ali Road. Possibilities for an MSC excursion include a trip out to Elephanta, a rock-cut cave on an island in Mumbai harbour containing a wealth of ancient art. Another great excursion is the Gateway of India. Commemorating the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, India’s own honey-coloured Arc de Triomphe, the Gateway of India, is Colaba’s principal monument and the landmark most iconic of Mumbai in the Indian imagination. The aforementioned Prince of Wales Museum of Western India ranks among the city’s most distinctive Raj-era constructions. It stands rather grandly in its own gardens off MG Road, crowned by a massive white Mughal-style dome, beneath which one of India’s finest collections of paintings and sculpture is arrayed on three floors.

Nowhere reinforces your sense of having arrived in Mumbai, with an MSC Grand Voyages cruise ship, quite as emphatically as the Gateway of India, the city’s defining landmark. Only a five-minute walk north, the Prince of Wales Museum should be next on your list of sightseeing priorities during your cruise to Mumbai, as much for its flamboyantly eclectic architecture as for the art treasures inside. The museum provides a foretaste of what lies in store just up the road, where the cream of Bartle Frere’s Bombay – the University and High Court – line up with the open maidans on one side, and the boulevards of Fort on the other. But for the fullest sense of why the city’s founding fathers declared it Urbs Prima in Indis, you should press further north still to visit the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the high-water mark of India’s Raj architecture. Beyond CST lie the crowded bazaars and Muslim neighbourhoods of central Mumbai, at their liveliest and most colourful around Crawford Market and Mohammed Ali Road. Possibilities for an MSC excursion include a trip out to Elephanta, a rock-cut cave on an island in Mumbai harbour containing a wealth of ancient art. Another great excursion is the Gateway of India. Commemorating the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, India’s own honey-coloured Arc de Triomphe, the Gateway of India, is Colaba’s principal monument and the landmark most iconic of Mumbai in the Indian imagination. The aforementioned Prince of Wales Museum of Western India ranks among the city’s most distinctive Raj-era constructions. It stands rather grandly in its own gardens off MG Road, crowned by a massive white Mughal-style dome, beneath which one of India’s finest collections of paintings and sculpture is arrayed on three floors.

Salalah is the capital of the Dhofar, the region in the southwest of the country. In the verdant surroundings of the city, still seasonally watered by the fine rain of the monsoons, you find coconut palms and Boswellia sacra tree, from which you make the most precious incense used since antiquity by the Egyptians. As you step off the ship in your visit to Salalah you will soon be amazed by its historic and artistic wealth. A short way away from Salalah, one can visit the Khor Rori archaeological site, with the ruins of the ancient city of Sumhuran where an excursion can offer the excitement of entering the summer palace of the Queen of Sheba. What today is one of the many sites of Oman to be protected under UNESCO as world heritage, was once the main port for the export of incense. And there is an abundance of UNESCO sites in this area: “the Archaeological site of al-Balid”; the archeological and rupestrian findings of Shisr/Ubar; and the wadi Dawkah which is about 25km north of Salalah, in the region of Najd, just to mention a few.

Aqaba is a popular seaside holiday destination with superb climate, whose shores have been inhabited for over 6000 years. Its warm and inviting waters are well suited for any type of water activity, but are especially famous for the excellent scuba diving given its unique coral reef and marine life off its shores.

Discover the culture and colour of Civitavecchia, an MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination. This Italian gem is an enjoyable flight from many European and non-European cities. Celebrated for its 16th-century Michelangelo Fort, ancient Taurine Baths, and marble Vanvitelli fountain, the port is a convenient starting point for visiting Rome, Italy’s regal and romantic capital.

Genoa is marvellously eclectic, vibrant and full of rough-edged style; it’s a great cruise excursion. Indeed “La Superba” (The Superb), as it was known at the height of its authority as a Mediterranean superpower, boasts more zest and intrigue than all the surrounding coastal resorts put together. During a holiday to Genoa you can explore its old town: a dense and fascinating warren of medieval alleyways home to large palazzi built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Genoa’s wealthy mercantile families and now transformed into museums and art galleries. You should seek out the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, the Palazzo Ducale, and the Renaissance palaces of Via Garibaldi which contain the cream of Genoa’s art collections, as well as furniture and decor from the grandest days of the city’s past, when its ships sailed to all corners of the Mediterranean Sea. The Acquario di Genova is the city’s pride and joy, parked like a giant ocean liner on the waterfront, with seventy tanks housing sea creatures from all the world’s major habitats, including the world’s biggest reconstruction of a Caribbean coral reef. It’s a great aquarium by any standards, the second largest in Europe by capacity, and boasts a fashionably ecology-conscious slant and excellent background information in Italian and English. Just 35 km south of Genoa, there’s no denying the appeal of Portofino, tucked into a protected inlet surrounded by lush cypress- and olive-clad slopes. It’s an A-list resort that has been attracting high-flying bankers, celebs and their hangers-on for years, as evidenced by the flotillas of giant yachts usually anchored just outside. It’s a tiny place that is attractive yet somehow off-putting at the same time, with a quota of fancy shops, bars and restaurants for a place twice its size.

MARSEILLE The second city of France and the capital of the Provence-Costa Azzurra region. Marseille lies on the southeastern coast of France. The strong mistral wind blows away all traces of pollution and thus provides a clarity of air so pure that many famous artists have been attracted to the city: Cézanne; Braque; Derain; Dufy and Marquet. Although Marseille is the economic and industrial capital of France, it manages to remain true to its own traditions and culture, reflected in the Marsillian way of life and its numerous museums, theatres and opera houses.