Passport time!  Your International flight, departing from SYD/MEL, transports you to London.  Enjoy the inflight service, catch a movie or two and get some sleep so you will arrive in Great Britain ready to embark on your great travel adventure!

Upon arrival at London Heathrow Airport, you will be met and greeted by our representative and transfer to your hotel for a restful and leisurely day.

Hotel: Holiday Inn London or similar

After breakfast, you depart for Stonehenge, which is a ruin from the prehistoric period, a mystery in archaeology even until today. Later early afternoon, you will be heading out to Bath and visit the Roman Baths, dating from ancient Roman times. It’s one of the most beautiful City in UK. The Royal Crescent is the most imposing row of ancient buildings in Bath, with roads and houses all arranged in a crescent. It is known as the noblest street in England.

Hotel: Holiday Inn or similar

After breakfast, leaving for “the most beautiful English village” Bibury. You will have time to stroll around and take pictures. No matter from which angle you take the pictures, they will look like paintings. In the afternoon you will drive on to the palace of the British Royal Family – Windsor Castle. This castle has an impressive collection, including paintings from Da Vinci, Rubens, Rembrandt and other masters, as well as medieval furniture and decorations. Windsor Castle is also the place where the King or Queen gives titles to royals and lords. Travel back to London, presumed arrive in the evening.

Hotel: Holiday Inn or similar

After breakfast, you start a walking tour of London attractions: Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, St James’ Park, Buckingham Palace and River Thames. In the afternoon, you will visit the famous British Museum, enter St Paul’s Cathedral if you have enough time. You can also enjoy the scene of Tower Bridge and Tower of London while sitting in the coach. The Tower of London is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It has played a prominent role in English history and served variously as a palace, an armoury, a treasury, a prison, the home of the Royal Mint, the home of the Crown Jewels of England and has been the setting of many bloody battles among British Monarchs. You stay overnight in London, where you can experience the dazzling night scene, or head for a Thames Cruise or musical with a group of friends.

Hotel: Holiday Inn or similar

After breakfast, it is time to visit the nation’s acclaimed educational institution: Cambridge University. In addition to a strong academic atmosphere, Cambridge is where many luminaries started their dreams and hopes for the future with the sight of the pastoral landscapes, picturesque rivers and architecture. The University of Cambridge, a majestic old group of buildings including King’s College and Queens College, set among the most rural of bridges. You continue your journey to York, a true medieval melting pot of Roman, Saxon and Viking culture. The city is mostly intact from the middle ages and shows the rustic side of Britain. You visit York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. Then you will step up onto York city walls, dating back to Roman times. For those keen to discover little grass-roots shops, there will be time to wander around.

Hotel: Holiday Inn Darlington or similar

After breakfast, heading to Edinburgh is next on our places to visit. You are expected to arrive in Edinburgh in the afternoon. Edinburgh is Scotland’s compact, hilly capital. It represents the best in Scottish heritage. Wooden barrows of gold single malt whiskey, checked kilts and Scottish bagpipes will make you grow fond of this warm and lively nation of quirky characters. Upon arrival, you first visit Edinburgh Castle, set on a stunning volcanic rock, where you will admire the oldest royal crown and jewellery. You then continue this royal trail with a visit to Holyrood Palace and the City Hall. Optional is a visit to JK Rowling’s Ivory Café where Harry Potter was authored, to enjoy a cup of coffee. After enjoying in Edinburgh, the coach will proceed to the hotel directly.

Hotel: Days Inn Darlington or similar

After breakfast, drive straight to the Lake District, located in the west side of the north of England. On the way, you stop in Gretna Green, a village in the south of Scotland famous for ‘runaway marriages’, a custom which began in 1754. Due to its romantic wedding traditions dating back centuries, Gretna Green is one of the world’s most popular wedding locations. After that, continue your journey to the Lake District. The Lake District National Park is the most visited national park in the United Kingdom. Each year tens of thousands of visitors travel here to see the thousands of years old geological changes reflected in the natural beauty, lakes, valleys, mountains and waterfalls. You can choose our optional boat cruise of Lake Windermere, or hop off to the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction. From then onwards you drive to Manchester, a fashionable, social buzzing and dynamic city. This city is not only well-known for being a city of sport, the headquarters of Manchester United, but also as England’s most productive industrial city. Football fans can enjoy a pilgrimage to the Manchester United Old Trafford grounds or catch a training game. Food lovers can pick a scrumptious restaurant in the nearby Chinatown.

Hotel: Novotel MAN or similar

After breakfast, a breath-taking drive will take you to the famous English playwright and poet William Shakespeare’s hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. This is also where the acclaimed Hollywood blockbuster movie – ‘Shakespeare in Love’ was filmed. From the cobble-stoned streets to the drinking dens, theatres and road signs, everything is to do with Shakespeare. It is a heaven for those romantically inclined. Our big anticipated outing for today must be the now famous outlet shopping centre – Bicester Village. We dare you not to be persuaded by all these designer labels.

Hotel: Holiday Inn or similar

Transfer to Airport early morning to be departing to Rome, Italy. Upon arrival at Rome International Airport. You will be picked up and arranged to the Cruise Terminal to check-in and embark on the luxury MSC Grandiosa.

A fascinating, bustling, colourful port, Palermo yet holds an unrivalled display of Norman art and architecture and Baroque churches, combined with a warren of medieval streets and markets. The best thing to do here is just to wander as the fancy takes you, sifting through Palermo’s jumbled layers of crumbling architecture, along deserted back alleys, then suddenly emerging in the midst of an ebullient street market.

The UNESCO-protected port of Valletta, the capital of the island of Malta, is one of the must-see stops for Mediterranean cruise of merit. You can admire this port, constructed in the second half of the 16th century by the Frenchman Jean de la Valette and moulded by the religious and military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, from your MSC ship even before disembarking. The over 300 monuments rising in little more than half a square kilometre make this a place with one of the greatest density of historical attractions to visit during a cruise, not mentioning other attractions such as its beaches, seaside locales and restaurants.

Enjoy exclusive world-class shows performed in innovative venues like the Carousel Lounge and the multi-purpose karaoke bar, comedy club, TV studio & Bar. Younger guests can take advantage of the super-amusement park and sports centre to play sports and games during the daytime and party and dance in the evening. And the whole family can enjoy hours of fun in one of the most intricate and exciting water parks at sea.

Barcelona, the self-confident capital and port of Catalunya – vibrates with life, and there’s certainly not another city in the country to touch it for sheer style, looks or energy. A holiday in Barcelona can start with the Ramblas, and then dive straight into the medieval nucleus of the city, the Barri Gòtic. But there are plenty of other central old-town neighbourhoods to explore too, from La Ribera – home to the celebrated Museu Picasso – to funky El Raval, where cool bars, restaurants and boutiques have mushroomed in the wake of the striking contemporary art museum, MACBA. Even if you think you know these heavily touristed neighbourhoods well, there’s always something else to discover during an MSC excursion – tapas bars hidden down alleys little changed for a century or two, designer boutiques in renovated old-town quarters, bargain lunches in workers’ taverns, unmarked gourmet restaurants, craft outlets and workshops, fin-de-siècle cafés, restored medieval palaces and neighbourhood markets. On Passeig de Gràcia there is Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, designed for the industrialist Josep Batlló: the stone facade hangs in folds, like skin, while on the rooftop sprout the celebrated mosaic chimneys and a little tower topped with a three-dimensional cross.

When cruising southern France, you have to know that Marseille is the most renowned and populated metropolitan area in the country after Paris and Lyon. When you alight from your MSC cruise ship, the cafés around the Vieux Port, where glistening fish are sold straight off the boats on Quai des Belges, are wonderful spots to observe the city’s street life. Particularly good in the afternoon is the north (Le Panier) side, where the terraces are sunnier and the views better. The best view of the Vieux Port is from the Palais du Pharo, on the headland beyond Fort St-Nicolas, or, for a wider angle, from Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, the city’s Second Empire landmark atop the La Garde hill. To the north of the Vieux Port is the oldest part of Marseille, Le Panier, where, up until the last war, tiny streets, steep steps Mediterranean introduction and houses of every era formed a vieille ville typical of the Côte.

Genoa is marvellously eclectic, vibrant and full of rough-edged style; 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.

Now comes the end of your unforgettable holidays in Europe. After breakfast, disembark from the cruise, you will be arranged to transfer to Rome Airport to depart back to Sydney/Melbourne. Arrive in Australia on Day 18.