Announcing its final 2025-2026 itineraries, Swan Hellenic has revealed that its exclusive cultural expedition cruises will be exploring a full 34 off-the-beaten-track destinations, many not reached even by other expedition cruise lines.
Just one example is Hermanus in South Africa, a fascinating town southeast of Cape Town that has never been visited by any cruise company to date. Swan Hellenic’s SH Dianawill be making her maiden call here in November 2025 and returning in 2026, enabling her lucky guests to explore deep into its breathtaking landscapes, vibrant marine life, historic fishing village and old harbor.
The expeditions offered include the Fernkloof Nature Reserve in the Kleinrivier Mountains, famed for its flora, and a 12 km cliffside pathway with views of seasonal whale migrations and bustling penguin colonies.
The announcement of these out-of-the-ordinary destinations came as SH Vega reached Brazil, where it will be exploring the unique beauties of Trancoso, Itacaré, Morro de São Paulo and the Abrolhos Archipelago for the very first time. The uninhabited Abrolhos Archipelago stands out as an extraordinary natural paradise with an unparalleled marine ecosystem and lush vegetation rich in many endemic and typically tropical species.
These unmissable gems will be visited again in 2025, with more unique destinations on the Brazilian coast to follow in 2026.
But we’re not just talking Brazil and South Africa.
Thanks to the compact dimensions of the luxury, ice-class expedition ships SH Diana and SH Vega, the list of desirable destinations spans the globe. That’s in no small part also due to the intrepid determination of Swan Hellenic’s experts to take their guests to the most extraordinary places on earth. As a result, there are eight more fascinating destinations in its 2025-2026 itineraries that are simply not visited by any other cruise company. These stretch from Vaeroy (Lofoten, Norway), the Donana National Park (Spain) and Elmina (Ghana) to Baie des Tortues, Loango National Park and Mayumba (all 3 in Gabon), and Ilha Baia dos Tigres (Angola).
Highlights of Swan Hellenic’s lesser-visited destinations include Kalso (the Faroe Islands), Kinsale (Ireland), Batz-sur-Mer (France), Pantelleria island (Italy), Datça (Turkey), the Bijagos Archipelago (Guinea Bissau), the Aldabara Atoll (the Seychelles), Kilwa Kivinje (Tanzania), Nosy Vao island (Madagascar), Niebla (Chile), Guanaja Island (Honduras), Georgetown (Guyana), and – last but definitely not least – the Cajari and Aquiqui rivers and Gurupa ecoregion on the Amazon.
About Swan Hellenic
Swan Hellenic was relaunched in July 2020 to proudly advance the spirit of cultural expedition cruising the company pioneered in the 1950s. Building on its British roots, the new company has a distinctly cosmopolitan culture dedicated to providing guests with global opportunities to see what others don’t.
Swan Hellenic's purpose-built boutique ships feature elegant Scandi-design interiors, extensive outdoor spaces and dedicated expedition facilities. SH Minerva and SH Vega, two 5-star Polar Code PC 5 expedition cruise ships with ice-strengthened hulls, launched in December 2021 and July 2022. Both accommodate 152 guests in 76 spacious suites and staterooms, the majority with large balconies. A slightly larger PC 6 ice-class vessel, SH Diana, accommodating 192 guests in the same distinctive comfort and style in 96 staterooms and suites, was launched in April 2023.
While sharing the unique design features of her sister ships, SH Diana also introduces certain key enhancements, including a dedicated presentation and lecture theatre overlooking the lounge, and on-board Tender boats to take guests ashore in addition to and in greater comfort than the customary expedition Zodiacs. Like her siblings, SH Diana features a state-of-the-art gym, spa, panoramic sauna, club room and swimming pool with poolside grill.
All three ships feature three dining venues – the Swan Restaurant, Club Lounge and Pool Bar & Grill – and are built in full compliance with SOLAS Safe Return to Port requirements. Dedicated to guests with a passion for adventure and cultural exploration, the company’s meticulously planned itineraries explore the wild landscapes, wildlife, peoples and cultures of the world’s less travelled and most historic regions.
The crews each include a team of 12 seasoned expedition guides, expert speakers and lecturers, for a total complement of 120 and 140 persons respectively, offering outstanding staff-to-guest ratios to deliver the highest standards of attentive personal service.
Swan Hellenic’s cultural expedition cruises have always been distinguished by the company, guidance and expert lectures of famous explorers, seasoned expedition guides and leading authorities in their fields. Now, many of the cruises are also enriched by partnerships with unique organizations to bring very different experts on board in the same way, including JRE-Jeunes Restaurateurs, Chopra and the SETI Institute.
Maris Culinary Discovery at Sea brings a different JRE gourmet chef aboard each in a series of exclusive cruises which take guests on a parallel voyage of gastronomic discovery. ChopraExplore & Restore well-being voyages pair inward journeys with outward exploration, resulting in a deeply enriching, healing experience with impacts that last long after the voyage has concluded. While the SETI Explore Space at Sea Series brings a different world-renowned scientist from the SETI Institute aboard each cruise to provide guests with expert insights into the history and latest discoveries in astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology and planetary science, as well as the quest to find other forms of life within and beyond our solar system.
On many cruises, guests can also participate in Swan Hellenic’s Citizen Science partnerships, contributing valuable data obtained during their expeditions and on board, reporting cloud data with NASA, recording whale sightings with Happywhale, monitoring phytoplankton with the Secchi Disk Study, and Antarctic seabird numbers with Stony Brook University.Headquartered in Cyprus with offices in London (serving the UK and Ireland), Dusseldorf (serving Continental Europe), Monaco, Fort Lauderdale (serving the North American market), Hong Kong (serving Greater China, India and South-East Asia), and Sydney (serving Australia-New Zealand), together with a partnership serving Japan, Swan Hellenic supports the travel trade with local specialist partners to provide customers with expert personal service worldwide.
