Today’s cruise passengers expect more from a day ashore than a bus tour of the city. Like other travelers, they look forward to experiences in the places they visit and relish the chance to step into another culture and explore its cuisine, history and natural environment.

In response, cruise lines have upped their game in seeking out unique experiences, local experts and cultural opportunities to allow visitors to engage and participate in local life at each port of call. Shore excursions can spotlight unique places and ways of seeing the local attractions.

EXCEPTIONAL PLACES
Few travelers have a chance to explore inside an 8,000-year-old lava tube extending 656 feet, 115 feet below Earth’s surface. This Jules Verne-worthy adventure through the surreal lava formations beneath Snaefellsjokull glacier is available to passengers on Atlas Ocean Voyages in Iceland.

Millions of tourists admire sculptures by Michelangelo each year, but few have visited the quarries where he personally selected the marble for his work. Royal Caribbean guests can visit the quarries on a Jeep tour into the mountains above Italy’s Ligurian coast.

PHOTO:
© CLAFFRA
| DREAMSTIME.COM

Perhaps the most exceptional place to step ashore is on the remote island of St Kilda, 120 miles off the west coast of Scotland. Hebridean Princess from Hebridean Island Cruises calls here calls here a few times each year, where passengers can walk among the ruined stone homes. The abandonment of these homes in the 1930s ended 5,000 years of human settlement on this remote rocky crag, now inhabited only by thousands of sea birds.

UNIQUE ANGLES
Sometimes how you see it is as important as what you see, and several unique shore excursions offer new perspectives on everything from volcanoes to icebergs. Passengers on Princess Cruises in Alaska can fly over Mount McKinley and land for a walk on Ruth Glacier. Or on a Hawai‘i cruise, passengers can tour Hana by helicopter for aerial views of waterfalls hidden deep in the rainforest.

Seabourn Cruise Line guests can get up close and personal with icebergs on a kayak tour in Alaska, and Norwegian Cruise Line passengers can join a snorkeling expedition from Hawai‘i’s Big Island to explore a submerged volcanic crater.

PHOTO: © VLADIMIR SELIVERSTOV | DREAMSTIME

WILDLIFE EXPERIENCES
Helicopters also make exceptional wildlife encounters possible. Guests on Eclipse, from Scenic Luxury Cruises, in Antarctica land on ice in the Weddell Sea to view a colony of more than 4,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins, while passengers on Atlas cruises between September and April can walk among the burrows of Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo.

Stopping in the islands of Cabo Verde off Africa’s west coast, Atlas passengers can join a marine biologist to swim with sea turtles. Several lines even offer swimming with sea rays experiences, a favorite with kids.

ACTION SPORTS
While in port at Dubrovnik, Royal Caribbean’s Adriatic cruisers can join a kayak race along the coast, while more leisurely kayak tours reveal beautiful views of the old city walls and coast.

In the Greek islands, RC passengers can indulge their inner 007 in the Mediterranean region’s only BondRider underwater scooter. This day adventure begins with a scenic catamaran ride to an island resort where sports include cliff jumping, kayaking and snorkeling with an Easybreath mask.

Windstar cruisers on select Caribbean itineraries to St. Maarten can skim across the waves on a multimillion- dollar America’s Cup racing boat. Choices may include Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup-winning Stars & Stripes, True North IVor Canada II; and after learning some sailing skills from the crew, guests join in a sailing race with other America’s Cup vessels.

CULTURAL IMMERSION
Uniworld’s Highlights of Eastern Europe cruise on the Danube includes a Village Day, when guests share meals with local families; and on Azamara’s Local Introductions excursions, guests spend time with local families, artists and others in their homes and workplaces.

Many lines offer immersive experiences with little-known cuisines. In Riga, Latvia, Regent Seven Seas Cruises passengers can meet a local chef for a tour of the Central Market, one of Europe’s largest, selecting ingredients for a Latvian cooking class. In Catania, Sicily, Regent offers a market tour and lesson in making cannoli with a Sicilian pastry master.

ART AND HISTORICAL INSIGHTS
Viking travelers headed for the Nile can add a pre-cruise crash course in Egyptology with special access to Egyptian treasures in London and Oxford, England. This includes a behind-the-scenes visit to the private archives of Howard Carter, who unearthed Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Select Uniworld sailings of the Remarkable Rhine and Historic Holland cruise include a Jewish Heritage Program, exploring Europe’s Jewish legacy with visits to memorials, synagogues and museums.

Designed for those fascinated by architecture, Oceania Cruises’ Beyond Blueprints Tours offer rare, behind-the-scenes explorations of iconic architectural landmarks. Specialist guides reveal the inspiration behind the designs and unique talents of the buildings’ creators.