Lighthouses & Labyrinths – Venice, Crete & Alexandria

About this cruise

You won't run out of things to do on a trip this long, but you also won't feel like you have to do any of them. 11 nights from Split on December 16, 2026, visiting Venice, Katakolon and Heraklion, with additional stops along the Eastern Mediterranean. The ports come early and the voyage wraps with sea days. A good way to decompress before heading home. The route threads through 4 countries along the Eastern Mediterranean coast: Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. Most ports give you about 10 hours, so you can do more than just tick off the main sights. As for the ship itself, MSC Lirica has 5 restaurants on board, which means you could eat somewhere different nearly every night. By night three you start recognising faces; by night ten you're swapping numbers. That's the magic of a longer sailing. The timing adds to it: swapping cold weather for sunshine and sea air is the whole pitch for a winter cruise. 11 nights of not thinking about anything except where to eat next. That's the pitch.