First name / Good Sunday morning,

 

Tomorrow, something very exciting happens in the hotel and sailing world.

 

Arguably the world’s most beautiful vessel ever sets sail from Lisbon to the Caribbean for her inaugural Caribbean season. If you’ve ever told me you’re only a hotel person and are about to stop reading, stay with me…

 

She has three masts that stand 328 feet above the water (taller than the Statue of Liberty, pedestal and all), 54 suites, and two weeks of open Atlantic in front of her. Her name is The Corinthian, the world’s largest sailing yacht, and first on-water experience by Orient Express.

 

Think of her as a hotel. An Art Deco one, with butler service in every suite, a chef with a shelf of Michelin stars, a speakeasy, and a recording studio (in case the sea inspires an album).

 

For my hotel-only travelers, they’ve created shorter sailings specifically for you. Many are three or four nights, built for people who have spent their travel lives on land and for anyone with a long weekend and a full calendar.

 

Another major boon is the unique ports on her routes. Not everyone can afford a private yacht, and those can get bouncy anyway. This gives you the benefit of island and port hopping away from the big ship crowds. 

 

Corinthian reaches the same small harbors on 721 feet of steady ship and brings the spa, five restaurants, and a cinema along. On top of that, when you see this beaut from the shore, there’s no eyesore, only awe.

 

Spend the first part of your morning on your 161-square-foot terrace with a mug of your butler-delivered coffee, in a suite of leather, marble, and marquetry made by some 2,000 French artisans. She anchors off most of her ports so when it's time to head ashore for the day, you'll do so by limousine tender. Explore the destination with a special private guided experience or a wander on your own, a swim, and a long lunch by the water.

 

Come back to splash around off the marina with the sun overhead, swim laps under the sails, or hand the afternoon to the Guerlain spa (the first of its kind at sea). 

 

Enjoy a glass of Champagne at the seafood bar as the sun sets over the water, then sink into a velvet shell armchair under the Lalique lamps of Le Wagon, designer Maxime d’Angeac’s take on the Orient Express bar car. 

 

Evenings end with cocktails and conversation in the cabaret.

This sailing starts in Barbados and goes to Bequia (say BECK-way), seven square miles of boatbuilders and lobster on the beach. Next comes a night at anchor in Les Saintes, the French islets off Guadeloupe, followed by a marina day with the water toys out. Then it’s Gustavia for a day in Saint-Barth, and a 6am arrival at Virgin Gorda for the granite boulders and tide pools of the Baths.

 

I like this one for a couple who wants a different island every morning, with Saint-Barth as the dress-up day.

 

Saint-Barth is the small French island where the Caribbean dresses up, all red roofs, boutiques, and long lunches on the beach. This is the sailing built for my hotel people. 

 

She leaves Saint-Martin on Friday evening, anchors off Gustavia for all of Saturday and Sunday, and has you back by 8am Monday. That is two full days on the island with the yacht as your hotel in the harbor. It is a perfect addition to the back end of the Grenadines sailing above, so the two can stack into nine nights.

 

Istanbul to Athens, the long way. After a day at sea comes Alaçatı, on Turkey’s Aegean coast, a village of stone houses and windmills that Istanbul’s design crowd treats as its summer address. Then Samos, a Greek island a mile off the Turkish coast, for the Temple of Hera and 3,000 years of sweet Muscat.

 

Longtime readers know where I stand on Antiparos. This route gives you a night at anchor there and another off Naxos, the largest of the Cyclades. Two overnights is why I’d pick it. Evenings ashore are the best hours on these islands. Build it with three nights in Istanbul before and two in Athens after.

 

Tomorrow’s crossing has a return leg, and while it’s not what you might first think of when planning a cruise….it is the one I’m most excited about for whomever I put on it.

 

Orient Express built this route with Guerlain. Fourteen nights from the Caribbean to Lisbon, run as a wellness retreat around the spa, the hammam, the lap pool, and the library’s 1,500 books. At about $4,900 a night for two, it carries the lowest nightly rate on her calendar. This is the one for anyone who has been promising themselves two weeks to reset properly.

 

It’s going to be so, so good.

 

Every room on board is a suite, and the fare is all-inclusive. 

 

That covers the butler, every restaurant, wines and spirits, in-suite dining, laundry, the hammam and saunas, the water toys off the marina, and private transfers on arrival and departure days. Fares are set in euros per suite, taxes in, so the dollar figures here are today’s conversion.

 

The entry suite is the Suite Panoramique, 506 square feet behind a wall of glass. In the Caribbean this winter it runs about $6,100 a night for two, so three nights start around $18,300, four at $24,400, and six at $36,600.

 

For a like-for-like look at the top, take the six-night Grenadines sailing above. 

 

The Suite Panoramique is about $36,600, or $18,300 a person. 

 

The Mistral penthouse on the same dates is $81,400 for two, or $40,700 a person, and the difference buys 786 square feet, a dining area, and a 312-square-foot terrace up on Deck 7. 

 

The Meltem penthouse is $141,500 and sleeps four, or about $35,400 a person, with two bedrooms, a jacuzzi terrace, and an original 1920s train cabin from the Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express (a story in its own right!). Two couples sharing Meltem pay less a head than one couple in Mistral.

 

Treat these as ballparks. Fares move with the sailing, the exchange rate, and how many suites are left.

 

Fifty-four suites go fast, and six of them are penthouses. When I checked the December 5 sailing this week, two penthouses were already on request. Two of her April sailings show as on request across the board.

 

For this winter in the Caribbean, decide in the next few weeks. For spring 2027 in the Mediterranean, now is the window, while the entry suites are open.

 

She works best as the middle of a trip, with hotel nights on either side that I match to the ports. 

 

Her sister yacht, Orient Express Olympian, arrives in late spring 2027 and takes the same idea north that summer, to London, Edinburgh, Bergen, and Copenhagen. 

 

Select sailings carry a children’s program, and the whole yacht can be chartered, all 54 suites, for the birthday or wedding that you could only have imagined in your dreams until now.

 

She reaches Florida on November 4 and sails from Fort Lauderdale for Saint-Barth that day.

 

I can’t believe I’ll be in Miami that day and miss her. So close, and in meetings all day. The good news is that on November 6 I’m meeting the team at Orient Express Sailing Yachts to build relationships with the people who will make my clients’ experiences personal and extraordinary. I can’t wait.

 

If I’ve piqued your curiosity, whether you’re a land lover or you usually sail on bigger ships, let me answer your specific questions on a call. Click below and let’s get you on The Corinthian.

P.S. If you have a friend or family member who would love this email or who hasn't experienced the benefit of a travel advisor, please forward along. 🖤

Good Trips began with a simple belief: the right hotel can define an entire trip. 

 

Founded by Katy Hoogerwerf, the studio merges design sensibility, wellness insight, and years of hospitality experience to create journeys that feel grounded, beautiful, and human.

 

We design travel for people who care about the details but don’t want to sweat them. 

 

We build trips to meet your lifestyle needs, whether you're seeking rest, inspiration, memories with loved ones, community, or simply fun. It's beyond travel management, it's lifestyle management. The perks, priority access, and room upgrades we secure are just the icing on the cake for our travelers.