A Journey of Miami Magnetism and Lesser Antilles Allure

In the spirit of you-never-regret-an-indulgence, we call seductive islands adorned with alluring landscapes. Bathed in sun from day one with ten glorious nights aboard EXPLORA I, where everything sizzles a bit more. The pageantry of beach and city play out for us in Miami. Wholly glamorous, rakishly aplomb, and mythically fabled in literature and film, this seaside city lives more like a small global country with residents and guests from around the world. No passports are required in the last bolt hole of America as we glide into Key West where local characters are as colourful as the scenery. We depart while the setting sun is pitching slanted rays across Sunset Key and focus on the sumptuous offerings of our ship. For two languid days, time loses its tug and we learn that slow is not a speed but a tempo best marked according to massages at the Spa and well-crafted cocktails. Pristine Virgin Gorda greets us with a riot of dreamlike landscapes too vivid for words. See for yourself the marvel of cathedral-like grottos created by sky-high boulders and the offshore schools of silvery bonefish. Saint Barthélemy, named for the brother of Christopher Columbus, is now the pin-up poster boy of French swagger and yacht-set good looks. Temptations of joie de vivre continue in Deshaies where boulangeries dish-out coconut sorbet, waterfalls tumble into vast canyons and a jade mountain peers magnificently over an aquamarine bay. In style and en-vogue, Castries is the most haute with her gob smacking Pitons, hot mineral mud baths, banana plantations and a volcano we can actually drive into! We end our reverie in Bridgetown which has the high-tea reputation of being more British than the British! Cheers to a jolly good Journey.

Spidery tendrils of the coast are dotted with quiet coves and hidden harbours in sublime Saint John, the smallest of the US Virgin Islands. Tune in to island time on Trunk Bay, where turquoise waters caress powder-soft sands; this is what Caribbean dreams are made of. The motherly arms of Virgin Islands National Park embrace two-thirds of the isle, an emerald expanse of protected forest etched with mountain valleys, indigenous rock art and the ruins of old sugar plantations, crisscrossed by a web of scenic hiking trails. Kayak into the knotted mangroves around Hurricane Hole or plunge below the waves at Maho Bay, where turtles and rays sluice through crystal-clear waters.