MSC World Europa - Leeward Islands from Guadeloupe

Where this cruise calls, day by day

7 ports and 1 sea day over 7 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Pointe-a-Pitre

   GuadeloupeDepart

   Guadeloupe is a French département shaped like a butterfly, and Pointe-à-Pitre sits at the hinge. The city is a workaday commercial port rather than a pretty one, with one real exception: the Mémorial ACTe, a serious museum of slavery and the slave trade built on an old sugar refinery site. The interesting halves are outside it — rainforest and volcano west, beaches east.

   • Mémorial ACTe
   • La Soufrière volcano and the Carbet Falls on Basse-Terre
   • Marché Saint-Antoine spice market
   • The beaches at Sainte-Anne on Grande-Terre

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Centre St-John Perse terminal in the city center, five minutes from the market, but Basse-Terre's sights are an hour or more by road.

   Best months

   Jan-Apr dry season; Jul-Nov is wetter with hurricane risk

2. Day 2

   St. John's

   Antigua and BarbudaPort

   Antigua sells itself on beaches — the local line is 365 of them — and St. John's is a working town with two restored quays of shops right at the dock. The thing genuinely worth the day is Nelson's Dockyard at English Harbour, a Georgian naval yard from the age of sail that still operates as a marina, with the Shirley Heights lookout on the ridge above it.

   • Nelson's Dockyard and Shirley Heights
   • Dickenson Bay
   • Valley Church Beach on the west coast
   • Stingray City Antigua

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Heritage Quay in the middle of town; English Harbour is about 40 minutes by taxi across the island.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Antigua is drier than most of its neighbors. Aug-Oct is hurricane season

3. Day 3

   Philipsburg

   St. MaartenPort

   A one-street town on Great Bay: Front Street for duty-free liquor and jewelry, Back Street behind it, and a boardwalk of bars on the sand. The island's real draw is elsewhere — Maho Beach at the end of the Princess Juliana runway, where arriving jets pass a few dozen feet overhead, and the French side at Marigot and Grand Case for lunch.

   • Maho Beach plane spotting
   • Great Bay boardwalk and Front Street
   • Orient Bay on the French side
   • Loterie Farm zip line and hiking on Pic Paradis

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the A.C. Wathey pier; town is a 20-25 minute walk around the bay or a few dollars each way by water taxi.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Sep-Oct is the hurricane peak, and damage from Irma in 2017 is still visible in places

4. Day 4

   Basseterre

   St. Kitts and NevisPort

   The pier lands you at Port Zante in the middle of Basseterre, a working Caribbean capital rather than a mall. What sets St. Kitts apart is the scenic railway: a narrow-gauge line built to haul sugar cane, now running double-decker cars around the north of the island for about three hours. Expect firm sales pressure from photo vendors with vervet monkeys at the scenic overlooks.

   • St. Kitts Scenic Railway
   • Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park (UNESCO)
   • Timothy Hill overlook across the Narrows
   • South Friars Bay and Cockleshell Bay on the southeast peninsula

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Port Zante with Basseterre at the gate; the southeast peninsula beaches are 20-30 minutes by taxi and the Nevis ferry takes about 45 minutes.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Roseau

   DominicaPort

   Dominica is the anomaly of the Eastern Caribbean: it has very few good beaches, and that is rather the point. The island is volcanic, steep and covered in rainforest, with hot springs, gorges and a boiling lake in the interior. Roseau is small, tin-roofed and a bit ragged, and the pier is right in it. Wrong island for a beach day; the best one in the chain if you want to be in a river by ten.

   • Trafalgar Falls and the hot springs above Roseau
   • Titou Gorge
   • Emerald Pool
   • Champagne Reef, snorkeling over volcanic vents

   Getting ashore

   Docked on the Roseau bayfront in town, with most sites 20-40 minutes inland by taxi; some ships instead use the Cabrits berth at Portsmouth, an hour north.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr is drier, but Dominica is wet in any month; Aug-Oct is hurricane season and the island took a direct hit in 2017

7. Day 7

   Fort-de-France

   MartiniquePort

   Martinique is France — euros, French road signs, real bakeries, and prices to match. Fort-de-France is a proper city with Fort Saint-Louis on the point and the Bibliothèque Schoelcher, a Byzantine-looking iron building shipped over from the 1889 Paris exposition. The swimming beaches are across the bay, and the small ferry over is the cheapest good decision of the day.

   • Bibliothèque Schoelcher and the Saint-Louis Cathedral
   • Ferry across the bay to Pointe du Bout and Anse Mitan
   • Jardin de Balata
   • Habitation Clément rum estate

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock either at Pointe Simon in the city center or at the Tourelles terminal about 2km out, which needs a shuttle.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr (carême, the dry season); Jul-Nov is the wetter hivernage with hurricane risk

8. Day 8

   Pointe-a-Pitre

   GuadeloupeArrive

   Guadeloupe is a French département shaped like a butterfly, and Pointe-à-Pitre sits at the hinge. The city is a workaday commercial port rather than a pretty one, with one real exception: the Mémorial ACTe, a serious museum of slavery and the slave trade built on an old sugar refinery site. The interesting halves are outside it — rainforest and volcano west, beaches east.

   • Mémorial ACTe
   • La Soufrière volcano and the Carbet Falls on Basse-Terre
   • Marché Saint-Antoine spice market
   • The beaches at Sainte-Anne on Grande-Terre

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Centre St-John Perse terminal in the city center, five minutes from the market, but Basse-Terre's sights are an hour or more by road.

   Best months

   Jan-Apr dry season; Jul-Nov is wetter with hurricane risk