Secrets of the Adriatic - September 2011

Ever since fellow travelers reported back on how much they loved this tour, it had been on our "bucket list" of tours to make. I must say our expectations were surpassed. The country was beautiful and being on a brand new ship, the L'Austral added to the experience. Of course traveling with my sister and brother-in-law was a delight as always.

We started off with four nights in Venice before boarding the ship. While in Venice we visited the islands of Murano, famous for their glass, and Burano, famous for their needle work. These visits were especially welcome as they took us away from the crouds of Venice.

The cruise took us as far south as Montenegro. The waters were crystal clear and smooth which made for a great cruising experience. The highlights of our travels up and down the coast were Dubrovnik and Kotor, Montenegro.

Dubrovnik was totally repaired fromt he bombing in the 90s. The only negative was that a total of 5 cruise ships were in port bringing 7,000 tourists to a town of 2,000. It was a bit crowded. Add to this the fact that the region was suffering from its hottest summer on record put a slight damper on our experience. I still would go back.

In Kotor, we were the only cruise ship in town, probably due to the narrow channel to get in there. So there were no large crouds and we could more enjoy the old town.