FOLLOW THE UNTRODDEN PATH

• Raffles
• Onboard
• Ashore
• Financial
• Donald Starkey Designs
• Exploration
• FAQ
• Technical
• Press
• Contact

• Going ashore
• Starting out
• Reaching out
• Apartment in every port
• No organised activities
• Leaving

Going ashore, a new meaning

Ashore or going ashore are terms, on Raffles which have a whole new meaning and might include:

• Stepping off Raffles onto the cobbled quay in St. Petersburg where the Russian revolution began with the renowned Winter Palace but a stone’s throw away.
• Leaving Raffles parked 2,000 miles up the Amazon River and driving a waterjet RIB another 200 miles to a beach that has perhaps only ever been seen by an indigenous Indian before
• Paddling yourself in a rubber ring 100 meters or so, towing your picnic basket, to a silver sand South Seas Island beach from your Raffles home anchored offshore in 20ft of crystal clear water.
  or
• Taking Raffles RIB water taxi across the River Thames to step ashore in the heart of the city near the Tower of London’s famed Traitors Gate.

In other words Raffles offers an entirely different world to that which we are accustomed to seeing. 10,000 tourist passengers fighting to get ashore from as many as 4 mass cruise vessels, all parked for 8 hours on a beautiful Caribbean Island and hopelessly outnumbering its 2,000 indigenous inhabitants. Seeing no-one but other tourists while they are bussed to a beach for a quick swim because their ship sails at 5pm so that they can be rapidly fed and decanted into the casinos!

Instead Raffles slips quietly into unspoilt ports, typically small, often no more than a village, usually in the early morning and merges into the background. Or it quietly anchors a few hundred meters off of a deserted tropical island as the sun rises. And no one in the world even know its there!

Picture yourself waking up in your luxurious home strolling to the balcony for a first cup of coffee, taking in the new scenery, contemplating the adventures awaiting you ashore in a new town or on a tropical island a few meters away.

Raffles is different too, because of its unique operating capabilities, which render it virtually self sufficient, allowing it to safely reach places no other vessel possibly can, but certainly not mass cruise ships and very few “adventure” cruise ships or even mega yachts.