“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. “Post-
Covid, 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 IMAG
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stabilisers — 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.
Cruising closer to home is, of course,
more sustainable — and that’s important for
adventure cruising today. Every new-build
ship pushes its eco credentials, whether that’s
using liquefied natural gas (LNG) for power, or
‘dynamic positioning systems’, which keep the
boat static without dropping anchor. They’re
going plastic-free, and ensuring they keep
close links with the remote communities they