Three new cruise adventures

From a trip into the Australian wilderness to snorkelling alongside dolphins in the seas off Mexico, three unusual cruises.

King George River

Take a boat ride up the King George River with Kimberley Cruises

From a trip into the Australian wilderness to snorkelling alongside dolphins in the seas off Mexico.

The Kimberley is Western Australia's northernmost region. It is larger than three-quarters of the world's countries, and much of it is an "unreconstructed wilderness", says Wanderlust magazine. It features "rugged desert, tumescent boab trees, washboard mountains and bristly spinifex plains". Since the roads there are best enjoyed in "bone-juddering bursts", visiting by cruise ship makes perfect sense.

Trips tend to inch their way along the coast from Darwin to Broome, "past the gravity-defying Horizontal Falls and the shrinking tides of the Montgomery Reef". There's no shortage of things to do on land. Classic stops include Bigge Island, with its "first contact" rock art depicting the Wunambal people's initial encounters with European explorers; and Vansittart Bay, with its wreckage of a World War II transporter plane. Take a boat ride up the King George River and "teeter towards the thundering cascades" of the Horizontal Falls. (From A$10,695 per person until October for ten nights aboard the new Coral Adventurer. See kimberleycruises.com)

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Explore the Sea of Cortez

Fusion Render Node TIFF File

Hurtigruten's brand-new expedition ship, the 530-passenger Roald Amundsen (pictured), is named after the Norwegian explorer, and is kitted out with cool gadgets, says Sue Bryant in The Sunday Times. It comes equipped with underwater drones that beam images back to passengers wearing digital goggles, while in the science lab you can use microscopes and contribute to research projects. There's also an infinity pool and a sauna with a viewing window. As the world's first hybrid propulsion cruise ship, it claims to be eco-friendly and quiet a bonus when you're sailing on the Sea of Cortez, off Mexico, where "superpods" of dolphins are a common sight. Snorkelling, desert hikes and birdwatching can also be arranged as the ship sails from La Paz, Mexico, to San Diego in the US. (From £2,990 per person, including flights, excursions and drinks with dinner, hurtigruten.co.uk)

Must-see hotspots in Indonesia

Beautiful calm lagoon with small islands and turquoise water

(Image credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Aqua Expeditions has long set the bar for curated adventures on the Peruvian Amazon and the Mekong between Vietnam and Cambodia, says Maria Shollenbarger in the Financial Times. Now its owner has set his sights on exploring the ancient spice-trade routes that crossed Indonesia's Ceram and Banda seas. The vessel, Aqua Blu, is a long-range expedition-class yacht and the first such boat to be based in Indonesia with the power to move between the must-see hotspots of Raja Ampat (pictured) and the Komodo archipelago via Ambon and Banda Neira. "All this with a near one-to-one crew-to-guest ratio and top creature comforts." (From $7,525 per person for seven nights, aquaexpeditions.com)

Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.