When the internet started its slow but constant attack on travel agents and all they had stood for for the past fifty years or so it became imperative that they either got with the programme or died. In Malta, where travel agencies are mostly about group tours full of slightly deranged people wielding imitation leather bags and cheap cruising, the writing was on the wall the moment any old guy with a keyboard could say ‘honey, I’ve shrunk the swimtrunks: let’s go on holiday’.

I personally stopped using agencies years ago. What, exactly, was their point? I knew about travel more than their staff did. I am well read. I know my hotels and follow the industry with hawk-like focus. I know which airlines have the best connections and what seat pitch I can get from Emirates vs BA. I did not need them.

Then I met Lilly Muscat. Lilly is the tiny powerhouse who runs Royal Travel in Iklin. She is obsessed with giving her customers a good product and a fantastic experience and, having booked an entire trip to Mauritius without her help and ending up paying a lot more than if I had done it through her agency, I decided to give her and her ladies my trust. Yes: her agency is entirely run and staffed by women.

This goes to show really: Royal Travel are probably the only agency in Malta which comes up with really original and very stylish ways to travel. They are well known with honeymooners as they have all the best resorts on their books yet from this year they will be broadening their horizons with cultural travel, starting with this totally enticing cruise.

The cruise will be ‘curated’ by none other than Professor Mario Buhagiar, Head and founder of the History of Art Department at the University of Malta and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He is Malta’s leading Art Historian and the academically respected author of numerous studies of art and archaeology. Accompanying him will be Charlene Vella, who is a prospect PhD candidate at University of Warwick and a Research Officer in the Department of History of Art at the University of Malta, Honorary Secretary of the Friends of the National Museum of Fine Arts, and resident Art Critic to The Sunday Times of Malta. Both historians will be lecturing and explaining on and off board.

We asked Charlene to talk to the readers of planetmona about this cruise, which, as far as we are aware, is the first of its kind for Malta.

These are luxury cruises especially intended for the tourist who loves to be pampered, and during the process, culturally enriched. The luxury aspect is an added bonus, not the primary concern. As their name implies, the raison d’etre is discovering historic sites, monuments and works of art, and understanding them an art historic dimension.

The learning dividend is therefore enormous. Art and architecture have an incredibly irresistible appeal, and once you get the bug, you cannot help but succumb to it. As you can imagine, both Profs Buhagiar and myself live and breathe art.

Travelling does not only provide a break from the ordinary, but is also an opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge of the large world we live in with its many diverse cultures.

In the words of Johnny Mercer in Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’, ‘There is such a lot of world to see’, and it is our intention to explore it.

Appropriately, in a search of artistic discovery, the first Cultural Cruise on board the newly refurbished Oceania Nautica will be to Greece – the cradle of Western civilisation.

We shall be visiting Rhodes - which is crucial to the understanding of the art and architecture of the Knights of St John of their early period in Malta - Athens, Epidaurus, Mycenae, Nauplion, Zakynthos, Corfu, Katakolon, Olypmpia, Mystras, Mount Taygetos, Knossos, Phaetos, Santorini, Oia, Fira, Delos, Mykonos, and Ephesus.

What many are perhaps still waiting to discover is that such a cruise package is good value for money where all meals, taxes and gratuities, transfers, cruise package, coach for excursions, entrance tickets to museums and sites, and on-board entertainment are included in the price. And you will also get $300 as spending money on board the ship.

What is one to expect of the Oceania Nautica? Plenty, and many requests and high expectations have been met. With a capacity of 684 guests, and a crew size of 400 (i.e. guest-to-staff ration of 1.71 to 1), and a luxurious spa and gym on board, you will be pampered from the second you set foot on the ship.

And as your readers at planetmona like to hear, the cuisine on board the ship is the finest to be found at sea. Lilly Muscat at Royal Travel knows well enough how important good food is on a cruise ship, because once on board, you have no choice but to eat what’s available for your entire stay. Hence her choice naturally fell on an Oceania ship.

The ship is endowed with all the little luxuries you can dream of (including a library housing more than 1000 books), and throughout the ship is a quality art collection to further jostle your museum-going vibe. The Oceania Nautica moreover has an extensive wine cellar, and on-board entertainment includes a daily string quartet playing during afternoon tea and pre-dinner drinks.

So, in one fell swoop, Lilly and Royal Travel have managed to annihilate all that we hate about cruising and group tours (the scramble for the food, the ignoramuses, the general hamallagni) by giving us the option of learning, relaxing and generally living the high life for a few days in the company of people like us. I’ll raise my welcome  glass of champagne to that.

Click on Royal Travel's website for more information and contact details.