Aboard Azura with P&O Cruises
Cruise Overview
Malta's capital, the minicity of Valletta, has ornate palaces and museums protected by massive fortifications of honey-color limestone.
Houses along the narrow streets have overhanging wooden balconies for people-watching from indoors.
Generations ago they gave housebound women a window on the world of the street.
The main entrance to town is through the City Gate (where all bus routes end), which leads onto Triq Repubblika (Republic Street), the spine of the grid-pattern city and the main shopping street.
Triq Mercante (Merchant Street) parallels Repubblika to the east and is also good for strolling.
From these two streets, cross streets descend toward the water; some are stepped.
Valletta's compactness makes it ideal to explore on foot.
City Gate and the upper part of Valletta are experiencing vast redevelopment that includes a new Parliament Building and open-air performance venue.
The complex, completed mid-2013, has numerous pedestrian detours in place along with building noise and dust.
Before setting out along Republic Street, stop at the tourist information office on Merchant Street for maps and brochures.
A Mediterranean city and naval station located in the Region of Murcia, southeastern Spain, Cartagena’s sheltered bay has attracted sailors for centuries.
The Carthaginians founded the city in 223BC and named it Cartago Nova; it later became a prosperous Roman colony, and a Byzantine trading centre.
The city has been the main Spanish Mediterranean naval base since the reign of King Philip II, and is still surrounded by walls built during this period.
Cartagena’s importance grew with the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century, when the Navidad Fortress was constructed to protect the harbour.
In recent years, traces of the city’s fascinating past have been brought to light: a well-preserved Roman Theatre was discovered in 1988, and this has now been restored and opened to the public.
During your free time, you may like to take a mini-cruise around Cartagena's historic harbour: these operate several times a day, take approximately 40 minutes and do not need to be booked in advance.
Full details will be available at the port.
Since being designated a European Capital of Culture for 2013, with an estimated €660 million of funding in the bargain, Marseille has been in the throes of an extraordinary transformation, with no fewer than five major new arts centers, a beautifully refurbished port, revitalized neighborhoods, and a slew of new shops and restaurants.
Once the underdog, this time-burnished city is now welcoming an influx of weekend tourists who have colonized entire neighborhoods and transformed them into elegant pieds-à-terre (or should we say, mer).
The second-largest city in France, Marseille is one of Europe's most vibrant destinations.
Feisty and fond of broad gestures, it is also as complicated and as cosmopolitan now as it was when a band of Phoenician Greeks first sailed into the harbor that is today's Vieux Port in 600 BC.
Legend has it that on that same day a local chieftain's daughter, Gyptis, needed to choose a husband, and her wandering eyes settled on the Greeks' handsome commander Protis.
Her dowry brought land near the mouth of the Rhône, where the Greeks founded Massalia, the most important Continental shipping port in antiquity.
The port flourished for some 500 years as a typical Greek city, enjoying the full flush of classical culture, its gods, its democratic political system, its sports and theater, and its naval prowess.
Caesar changed all that, besieging the city in 49 BC and seizing most of its colonies.
In 1214 Marseille was seized again, this time by Charles d'Anjou, and was later annexed to France by Henri IV in 1481, but it was not until Louis XIV took the throne that the biggest transformations of the port began; he pulled down the city walls in 1666 and expanded the port to the Rive Neuve (New Riverbank).
The city was devastated by plague in 1720, losing more than half its population.
By the time of the Revolution, Marseille was on the rebound once again, with industries of soap manufacturing and oil processing flourishing, encouraging a wave of immigration from Provence and Italy.
With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Marseille became the greatest boomtown in 19th-century Europe.
With a large influx of immigrants from areas as exotic as Tangiers, the city quickly acquired the multicultural population it maintains to this day.
Houses along the narrow streets have overhanging wooden balconies for people-watching from indoors.
Generations ago they gave housebound women a window on the world of the street.
The main entrance to town is through the City Gate (where all bus routes end), which leads onto Triq Repubblika (Republic Street), the spine of the grid-pattern city and the main shopping street.
Triq Mercante (Merchant Street) parallels Repubblika to the east and is also good for strolling.
From these two streets, cross streets descend toward the water; some are stepped.
Valletta's compactness makes it ideal to explore on foot.
City Gate and the upper part of Valletta are experiencing vast redevelopment that includes a new Parliament Building and open-air performance venue.
The complex, completed mid-2013, has numerous pedestrian detours in place along with building noise and dust.
Before setting out along Republic Street, stop at the tourist information office on Merchant Street for maps and brochures.
A Mediterranean city and naval station located in the Region of Murcia, southeastern Spain, Cartagena’s sheltered bay has attracted sailors for centuries.
The Carthaginians founded the city in 223BC and named it Cartago Nova; it later became a prosperous Roman colony, and a Byzantine trading centre.
The city has been the main Spanish Mediterranean naval base since the reign of King Philip II, and is still surrounded by walls built during this period.
Cartagena’s importance grew with the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century, when the Navidad Fortress was constructed to protect the harbour.
In recent years, traces of the city’s fascinating past have been brought to light: a well-preserved Roman Theatre was discovered in 1988, and this has now been restored and opened to the public.
During your free time, you may like to take a mini-cruise around Cartagena's historic harbour: these operate several times a day, take approximately 40 minutes and do not need to be booked in advance.
Full details will be available at the port.
Since being designated a European Capital of Culture for 2013, with an estimated €660 million of funding in the bargain, Marseille has been in the throes of an extraordinary transformation, with no fewer than five major new arts centers, a beautifully refurbished port, revitalized neighborhoods, and a slew of new shops and restaurants.
Once the underdog, this time-burnished city is now welcoming an influx of weekend tourists who have colonized entire neighborhoods and transformed them into elegant pieds-à-terre (or should we say, mer).
The second-largest city in France, Marseille is one of Europe's most vibrant destinations.
Feisty and fond of broad gestures, it is also as complicated and as cosmopolitan now as it was when a band of Phoenician Greeks first sailed into the harbor that is today's Vieux Port in 600 BC.
Legend has it that on that same day a local chieftain's daughter, Gyptis, needed to choose a husband, and her wandering eyes settled on the Greeks' handsome commander Protis.
Her dowry brought land near the mouth of the Rhône, where the Greeks founded Massalia, the most important Continental shipping port in antiquity.
The port flourished for some 500 years as a typical Greek city, enjoying the full flush of classical culture, its gods, its democratic political system, its sports and theater, and its naval prowess.
Caesar changed all that, besieging the city in 49 BC and seizing most of its colonies.
In 1214 Marseille was seized again, this time by Charles d'Anjou, and was later annexed to France by Henri IV in 1481, but it was not until Louis XIV took the throne that the biggest transformations of the port began; he pulled down the city walls in 1666 and expanded the port to the Rive Neuve (New Riverbank).
The city was devastated by plague in 1720, losing more than half its population.
By the time of the Revolution, Marseille was on the rebound once again, with industries of soap manufacturing and oil processing flourishing, encouraging a wave of immigration from Provence and Italy.
With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Marseille became the greatest boomtown in 19th-century Europe.
With a large influx of immigrants from areas as exotic as Tangiers, the city quickly acquired the multicultural population it maintains to this day.
Cruise Itinerary
Aboard Azura
Launch Year: 2010 Length: 290 Width: 36 Currency: GBP Capacity: 3100 Crew Count: 1250 Deck Count: 14 Cabin Count: 1557
Family friendly - Azura offers the perfect balance, bringing the opportunity to enjoy quality time together as well as time separately. From hassle-free meal times to carefree days out, we really have got it all covered.
Azura Facilities
Azura Includes
Cabin Details
There's plenty of choice with P&O Cruises wide range of accommodation
