Discover... Share... Explore Join Travel Post today and take part in our Explorer’s competition for your chance to win a cruise for two aboard the MS Caledonian Sky.

Over recent years we have seen a dramatic change in the world of travel, largely influenced by the internet, and a phenomenal growth in the number of our clients who are now online. It is due to this change that we have been developing our own community travel website; the Travel Post.

Travel Post aims to bring past and future passengers of Noble Caledonia, and those interested in small ship cruising together, enabling members to reminisce over past trips taken, meet fellow travellers, browse our extensive array of inspiring travel articles, share and discuss travel advice, keep up to date with blogs from our Captains and Expert Field Staff, and even share photos and videos.

Enter our launch competition for the chance to win a cabin for two aboard the MS Caledonian Sky’s ‘Passage North’ cruise; a fascinating voyage of discovery from London to Iceland including the Orkney & Faroe Islands. We will also be giving away £100 worth of Noble Caledonia gift vouchers for the top 50 runners up!

Please click here to visit the Travel Post site

The magazine of discovery from Noble Caledonia - Spring and Summer 2011
Link: Click here to download the latest Odyssey magazine

Thirty celebrities share their memories of their favourite seas, rivers and oceans in this beautifully presented large-format book. Each memory is illustrated with fabulous photography. Joan Whitfield, Ranulph Fiennes, Anna Ford and many other famous names from the stage and screen, the military and show business, are featured. Anecdotes include Johnny Ball struggling manfully with French canal bridges; Ann Widdecombe taking an impromptu swim during a gale-force storm in the Arctic; Michael Palin crossing the Bay of Bengal in the engine room of a battered old freighter; and Frederick Forsyth’s close – and rather enlightening – encounter with a shark.

Additionally, there are treasured extracts from the greatest river and sea adventure stories of all time, by Jules Verne, Herman Melville and other literary greats.

This fascinating collection of images and anecdotes has been put together by Noble Caledonia to celebrate 20 years of offering a striking and unusual range of cruises aimed at the more seasoned and adventurous traveller, and closes with an insight into the past present and future of Noble Caledonia.

Andrew Cochrane, the founder and managing director of Noble Caledonia, says, "The charity Just a Drop has found a place in the hearts of many worldwide travel and tourism organisations for its work in water aid projects, and it is to this noble endeavour that we dedicate My Passion for Water." Noble Caledonia is delighted to give the proceeds to Just a Drop, the charity which helps to provide water to undeveloped charities. Indeed a minimum of £1 per copy sold will be given to the charity. Just a Drop has undertaken over 65 water aid projects and helped over 1 million children and their families in 29 countries. It raises money to build wells, install boreholes and hand pumps.

Highlights
“I tried to turn, and was doing well, until the current overtook us and the boat slammed – more than a little violently – against the bridge.” Johnny Ball
“David and I rushed as quickly as we could to our little bum-boat and headed towards the schooner. We managed to clamber aboard despite the churning sea, and then became aware that the whole of Istanbul was in complete darkness.” Peter Bowles
“At the point when we seemed to be heading straight for a concrete post set in the water, I think I screamed. He swerved at the last moment. ‘You American,’ he said as I disembarked. ‘Like go fast.’” Philip Hook
“I had to have a different evening dress for every night. It really was the most glamorous time. My Dad had provided me with a first class ticket. He felt that I had missed out on travel because of the war and wanted to make up for it.” Joan Whitfield
“Though dissolving glaciers were all around, this seemed like the beginning of the world, not its end. These were Narnia days; the best of times.” Andrew Marr

How To Order
Contact Dovetail on 01795 592893
£14.99 (inc postage & packaging)

Noble Caledonia are pleased to announce that we have been awarded ‘Best Shore Excursions’ in the 2011 Cruise Critics Awards. The winners of the Cruise Critic Awards were selected by their team of editors, headed up by Editor in Chief, Carolyn Spencer Brown. With 25 different categories, a wide range of cruise companies were considered. Cruise Critic said of Noble Caledonia’s Best Shore Excursions award: ‘A cruise on Noble Caledonia's boutique ship, Island Sky, includes virtually all shore excursions, and, in many cases, offers a choice. Tours are intelligently delivered, often including superb lunch in a local restaurant, and in the many unusual destinations visited by the ship, present an immersive and seamless introduction to the local culture.’

More information: Cruise Critic

Discover more about Noble Caledonia’s off-the-beaten- track experiences at the Telegraph Adventure Travel Show. The event, which is bursting with inspirational ideas and travel advice, will be held at Olympia, London, from 28-29 January 2012.

For discounted tickets of £4, saving £6, quote'NOBLE CALEDONIA' when calling 0871 230 7159 or booking at www.adventureshow.com

Start planning your next voyage with a visit to the Telegraph Cruise Show, where Noble Caledonia staff will be on hand with advice on everything from no-fly cruising to choosing a cabin. There will also be informative talks on river cruising and latin American small ship cruising. The event takes place at Olympia, London, from 24-25 March 2012.

To receive free tickets quote ‘NOBLE CALEDONIA’ when calling 0871 620 4024 or booking at www.cruisingshow.com.

Earlier this year the Telegraph polled 23,000 Telegraph readers about their favourite travel companies. This week, those companies were awarded during a ceremony at London's St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
Categories included Favourite Tour Operator, Favourite Specialist Independent Tour Operator, Favourite Small Cruise Line , Favourite Large Cruise Line.

When Noble Caledonia launched 20 years ago, the first Gulf War was at its height, travel was at a standstill, and it was hard to imagine the company had a future. Twenty years on, this niche cruise operator, winner of Telegraph Travel’s award for small cruise line, is the undoubted leader in the field when it comes to educational cruising – not just in terms of the guest lecturers invited on board, but also the places its ships visit.
Cruises on the Mississippi, voyages to Russia’s White Sea, and sailings from Ghana to Cape Town and around Chile and Peru are among an extensive selection of exotic voyages lined up for 2012, along with cultural journeys around the Aegean Sea and Black Sea.

Noble Caledonia’s cruises are not for everyone. Its ships are small, usually holding no more than 180 passengers, with lectures and classical music recitals instead of costumed cabaret shows. But it’s those small ships with their stylish décor and educational cruising that make Noble Caledonia a winner with discerning travellers – people who want to visit new places in the company of others with similar interests, be they history, culture, birdwatching or music. The very British atmosphere on board its charters is an added bonus.

Our MS Island Sky was the first cruise ship ever to dock in Alderney this spring. Click on the link before for the full article and video footage
Link: www.channelonline.tv

MS Island Sky will be spreading its wings in 2012 as it takes its fi rst cruises along the coast of South America, from January through to April. From the Falkland Islands and the tip of Patagonia at Cape Horn, all the way up the Atlantic Coast to Central America, these voyages will enable guests to witness all kinds of fantastic landscapes and cultures from the dramatic wildernesses of Chile to the ancient ruins of Peru and some of the most diverse terrains on the planet, including towering fjords and glacier-cloaked mountains to barren deserts and jungles abundant with exotic wildlife.

For a real immersion in the native culture guests can take cruises back-to-back, which could allow you to travel from the far south and the Falkland Islands to Peru, or all the way along the Chilean coast and beyond to Costa Rica. And extensions are also available to destinations such as the Galapagos, Easter Island, into the heart of Peru and further still to Costa Rica or Cuba. In 2011 it is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru (above), and you can visit this spectacular site while on the MS Island Sky Passage of the Condor cruise – a very special highlight. A brochure with full details of all the trips to South America is available at MS Island Sky - South America

Anyone who has travelled with Noble Caledonia knows what a treat it is. And now there’s a way to club together on the cost – or perhaps help someone else share the experience.

Noble Caledonia has come up with a great gift idea. A choice of holiday vouchers, available in £50 and £100 denominations, can be put towards any Noble Caledonia cruise or holiday – or even be used to pay for the whole thing. So you can ask loved ones to contribute vouchers towards your next cruise, or you can help give someone else the trip of a lifetime that they deserve by giving them vouchers.

Vouchers can be purchased by telephone on 0207 752 0000 or through info@noble-caledonia.co.uk