Winter Warmth of Spain & Portugal

Southampton offers fast and efficient check-in areas, spacious departure lounges with seating areas, café-bars and smart washrooms. If you wish to travel by car and park for the duration of your cruise, you can pay for and reserve parking in advance directly with the relevant company. Alternatively, if being dropped off or collected by taxi or private car, they can drive right up alongside the terminal building.

It was from historic Lisbon, built on seven low hills beside the wide Tagus estuary, that some of Europe's greatest explorers set sail in pursuit of the riches that built Portugal's former global empire in the New World, Africa and the Indies. Memories of that glorious past linger amid the grand avenues and elegant squares of the attractive capital's 18th century lower town - a vivid contrast with the colourful honeycomb of cobbled streets in the old Moorish Alfama quarter and the bohemian mood of the hilly Bairro Alto.

The picturesque whitewashed capital of this mountainous Portuguese island, 350 miles off the coast of Africa, has a timeless charm, delightfully enhanced by a benign climate that fills this ‘floating garden' with the year round colours and perfumes of subtropical flowers and fruit. Much painted by Sir Winston Churchill, Madeira has been offering the British visitor a warm welcome for three centuries, its famous wine the perfect aid to total relaxation!

The picturesque whitewashed capital of this mountainous Portuguese island, 350 miles off the coast of Africa, has a timeless charm, delightfully enhanced by a benign climate that fills this ‘floating garden' with the year round colours and perfumes of subtropical flowers and fruit. Much painted by Sir Winston Churchill, Madeira has been offering the British visitor a warm welcome for three centuries, its famous wine the perfect aid to total relaxation!

One of Western Europe's most ancient cities, founded 3,000 years ago by Phoenician merchants, Cadiz hugs Andalucia's sunlit Atlantic coast. It's a historic and intriguing seaport-from which Spain's galleons once sailed in quest of New World treasure - characterised by palm trees, look out towers and weathered old buildings. From here you can visit Jerez de la Frontera, centre of Spain's sherry production, and put to the test the creations of its many bodegas!

Dominated by ‘the Rock', a towering 1, 396 ft sentinel that guards the Straits, the Arabs' Gebel el Tarik or Tarik's Rock is today simply ‘Gib'. Resolutely British for nearly 300 years, its unique setting unites the oddly familiar - from the helmeted policemen to Marks & Spencer - with an extrovert Mediterranean mood. Test the shops and pubs in Main Street and Irish Town, take a cable-car ride to enjoy the grandstand views to a nearby Africa, and of course make a call on those Barbary apes!

It is hard to believe that in 1702, amid the calm setting of Vigo's fjord-like harbour, an English and Dutch force once fought and defeated the French and Spanish fleets anchored here. A major port city of Galicia, renowned for its seafood, Vigo has an appealing old town with a labyrinth of steep and winding narrow streets and shaded squares. Nearby is Santiago de Compostela, Christendom's third most holy pilgrimage shrine, in whose vast Gothic cathedral lays the body of St James.

At the north western tip of Spain, La Coruna is Galicia's largest city - from where in 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed to its fate. It's the port of call for nearby Santiago de Compostela, in whose ornate 11th century cathedral rests the body of St James. With Jerusalem and Rome, it remains one of Christendom's most holy places - to which in the middle ages up to two million pilgrims came each year.

Southampton offers fast and efficient check-in areas, spacious departure lounges with seating areas, café-bars and smart washrooms. If you wish to travel by car and park for the duration of your cruise, you can pay for and reserve parking in advance directly with the relevant company. Alternatively, if being dropped off or collected by taxi or private car, they can drive right up alongside the terminal building.