2024 Venice Simplon-Orient-Express & Silversea Cruise Offer

2024 Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Cruise Itinerary

Day 1 – Eurostar & Venice Simplon-Orient-Express – Sunday 5th May 2024

Board your morning Eurostar service in London, destination Paris. On arrival, transfer to the carriages of Venice Simplon-Orient-Express for boarding. Settle into your comfortable private cabin before enjoying a sumptuous dinner in one of the magnificent dining cars. Later, let your hair down in the bar car and sip freshly shaken cocktails as our resident pianist plays your requests on the baby grand piano. Then when ready, retire to the comfort of your private cabin.

Day 2 – Venice Simplon-Orient-Express & Arrival in Venice – Monday 6th May 2024

You awake to the magnificent mountains and countryside of France, as breakfast is served to your cabin. Spend the morning relaxing over petit fours, or in the Bar Car striking conversation with fellow guests, before a leisurely three-course lunch is served in one of our opulent restaurant cars. Then while away the afternoon admiring the Venetian Lagoon with aperitifs in hand. All too soon it will be time to disembark as we arrive into Santa Lucia station. A Venice Simplon-Orient-Express water taxi will be waiting outside the station to take you to your hotel, Sina Centurion Palace, where you will spend the next three days at leisure.

Day 3 – Venice, Italy – Tuesday 7th May 2024

Venice at leisure – includes breakfast at your hotel. Losing none of its allure over the years, this floating city of canals, bridges and masks is a place of eternal beauty and enduring elegance. Navigate Venice’s sparkling waterways by romantic gondola, or on cruises along wide canal boulevards. Span the Grand Canal over its iconic original crossing, the Rialto Bridge, which – with its parade of tiny shops – gives some of the city’s most endearing views.

Day 4 – Venice, Italy, – Wednesday 8th May 2024

Venice at leisure – includes breakfast at your hotel. Hurry to Piazza San Marco to be immersed in Venice’s elegant glory. Basilica San Marco transports you back to the wealthy days of the Doges, who ruled for over 1,000 years. Initially their private chapel, it’s now decorated with beautiful Byzantine mosaics. Nearby the Campanile di San Marco bell tower offers views over the higgledy-piggledy rooftops of times gone by.

Day 5 – Venice, Italy – Thursday 9th May 2024

Venice at leisure – includes breakfast at your hotel.

Day 6 – Venice, Italy – Friday 10th May 2024

Morning at leisure – includes breakfast at your hotel. Around midday, a private water taxi will collect you from your hotel to take you to Venice, Fusina port to board the Silver Whisper.

Day 7 – Rab, Croatia – Saturday 11th May 2024

Known by the Romans for its happy outlook, see the lighter side of life on the beautiful Adriatic island of Rab. A highlight of the Kvarner Gulf, Rab is decorated with a spectacular contrast of cliffs, sandbars, dunes and pine forests, and the island is a protected geopark offering thrilling scenery for every taste. Characterful villages throw lavish fishing festivals and medieval celebrations, illuminating the island with summer feasts and cultural flavour. Dozens of beaches fringe this long thin island, whether you want shallow sand shelves or wild, bouldered coves.

Day 8 – Split, Croatia – Sunday 12th May 2024

Split is a city of romantic beauty, built around an extraordinary – still beating – historical heart. While immensely historic, Split hasn’t been afraid to move with the times, and the stone walls encasing the streets are alive with buzzy bars and quiet nooks, where bottles of red wine are uncorked and delicious meals devoured. With a natural backdrop of dramatic limestone mountains, and Croatia’s trademark scenic wonders all around, Split is a true heavyweight of the Adriatic.

Day 9 – Kotor, Montonegro – Monday 13th May 2024

Squeezing in through the tight Bay of Kotor is a daunting and impressive approach in itself, as you arrive via one of Europe’s most stunning waterways. A pearl of Montenegro and the Adriatic, Kotor’s warren-like streets drip with history and authenticity. Under Venetian influence for four centuries, the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Site old town invites you to wander amid atmospheric stone-clad streets, overlooked by a sea of terracotta roofs and the double towers of the cathedral.

Day 10 – Sarande, Albania – Tuesday 14th May 2024

Overlooking the turquoise blue Ionian Sea, Albania’s most southerly harbour is a short 20-minute boat ride from Corfu, and bathes in the glow of more than 300 sunny days each year. Revel in Albania’s best beach life, or explore historic ancient cities and fortresses embedded with immense archaeological interest. Clear turquoise waters lap the city’s beaches, and there’s always something to see along the lively Boulevard Hasan Tahsini – which traces the seafront and is stacked with bars, restaurants and shops.

Day 11 – Gallipoli, Italy – Wednesday 15th May 2024

Taking its name from the Greek translation of ‘beautiful city’, Gallipoli has a big reputation to live up to. A gorgeous gem of the Ionian, this is an elegant city with water running through its veins. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, wander between the fish market, where tables groan below hauls of fresh seashells, and the harbour where little boats come and go all day long. Scooters weave along the old town’s tight streets, dodge them while enjoying atmospheric strolls below the dangling flowerpot-laced balconies. Enclosed by 14th-century sea walls – and linked to the mainland by a 16th-century bridge – the island is dominated by Castello Angioino di Gallipoli, with its thick walls and imposing waterfront setting glaring out to sea.

Day 12 – Giardini Naxos (Sicily), Italy – Thursday 16th May 2024

Hugging a long, sweeping bay, Giardini Naxos welcomes you ashore to some of Sicily’s most scenic and historic sites. Naxos was the first Greek settlement on Sicily, and it is surrounded by remarkable remains and swirling mythology. With a long arc of sun-soaked golden sand, you can kick back by the waves – and cool off with a dip into the sea’s refreshing embrace. Up above the seaside revelry, the spectacular Taormina hillside town perches – containing rich Roman and Greek history. Visit to encounter one of Sicily’s best views, as you look down over the rejuvenating blue of the sea, and the looming backdrop of Mount Etna rising in the distance.

Day 13 – Salerno, Italy – Friday 17th May 2024

Salerno is situated at the northern end of the Gulf of Salerno. The old town, rising up the slopes of the hill on the site of the ancient Salernum, still bears evidence of its great days during the medieval period. Today, Salerno’s main attraction is an imposing Romanesque cathedral, built in 1085 and remodeled in the late 18th century. A flight of steps leads up to an atrium with 28 columns from Paestum and fourteen ancient sarcophagi. The magnificent bronze doors were made in Constantinople in 1099. Inside is the ornate tomb of Margaret of Anjou and the tomb of Pope Gregory VII, who died in Salerno in 1085. In the richly decorated crypt under the alter lie the remains of the Evangelist Matthew, brought here from Paestum.

Day 14 – Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

This is the final day of your Venice Simplon-Orient-Express & Silversea Cruise itinerary. Disembark the Silver Whisper after an incredible 9 nights on board and a private car will be waiting to take you to Rome Fiumicino Airport. Flight is included from Rome Fiumicino to London Gatwick (regional airports also available). X

Sina Centurion Palace, Venice

Once Palazzo Genovese, today Sina Centurion Palace, a 5 star luxury hotel located on the Grand Canal with stunning views of both the Grand Canal and the traditional venetian internal garden. There are 50 rooms and suites with contemporary interiors, either overlooking the Grand Canal or the private internal garden. The hotel’s Antinoo’s Lounge & Restaurant is the ideal location for a romantic dining experience in Venice, thanks to the wide windows and private outdoor decking overlooking the Grand Canal. X