MAKING WAVES

WITH AN ARRAY OF DESTINATIONS, SHIPS AND PRICES, AN ADVENTURE CRUISE OFFERS THE CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE A LOCATION FROM A NEW PERSPECTIVE, IN THE COMPANY OF EXPERTS.

- JULIA BUCKLEY

"To me, adventure cruising is at the core of travel itself," says Mary Curry, small ships specialist at tour operator Adventure Life.

"At its core, travel is about discovery, whether that's of people and cultures, wildlife or places. Adventure travel allows you to feel like an explorer - you go out there and find out something in a way that you can't from a luxury hotel or a large ship, where you're more isolated from what you're trying to discover. It goes back to the original reasons for why people travel."

But while adventure cruising's core values remain, the cruise experience is very different. Today's adventure cruises are increasingly luxury and hi-tech and have powerful eco-credentials. And while the industry used to be centred round the earth's two poles, it's now branching out closer to home. You can even take an adventure cruise around Scotland.

Part of that reason is the pandemic. "PostCovid, people seem to want that break away from the norm - I think they value what we have in the UK, but want to do something out of the ordinary," says Paul Sharman. Hebridean Adventures, where he's the business development manager, launched in 2019 with a repurposed fishing boat to take people around uninhabited Scottish islands. Although 2022 will be their first full year, business is booming to such an extent that they've acquired another operator: the Oban-based Northern Light Cruising Company, which owns a former Norwegian search and rescue vessel with in-built stabilizers to make the crossings easier, especially while heading into the Atlantic to St Kilda. Elsewhere in Europe, what's dubbed 'the world's tiniest cruise' launched in Denmark this year: three days and three remote islands on a sea ranger rib boat. The post-pandemic vibe, it seems, is micro, not macro.