Black Sea Discovery / Bucharest to Budapest

Visit remarkable Belgrade and Bucharest. Stop in Kalocsa, sail past the Petrovaradin Fortress, and pass through the dramatic Iron Gates Gorge. Enjoy full-day excursions to Veliko Târnovo, Arbanassi and Varna.

A topographer will tell you that The Black Sea formed many millions of years ago in an elliptical depression between Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

An historian would say that in the 5th Century, the Greeks referred to it as the 'Inhospitable Sea' because notoriously belligerent tribes lived along its coast. But later, after subduing the locals (particularly the ferocious Scythians, who used the skulls of unwanted visitors as wine goblets), they dropped the 'in' and called it the Hospitable Sea instead.

And a marine scientist would propose that its modern name derives from unusual micro-organisms which inhabit its waters and ink them with black sediment.

Contemporary travellers probably only need to hear the answer to the question -- is the Black Sea worth exploring by cruise ship? And the answer to that is that it most certainly is -- and you should go there soon before the modern plague of commercialism starts to erode its unique characteristics.

The Black Sea is one of cruising's best-kept secrets, a perfect antidote if you've had enough of the increasingly overcrowded and overtrodden Mediterranean. It offers every bit as much history and culture, alongside fabulous blond beaches and increasingly sophisticated cities, as better known Mediterranean counterparts. You can look forward to a wide variety of experiences on a Black Sea cruise -- one day soaking up the sun on the honey-sanded beaches of Varna in Bulgaria, the next exploring the cobbled medieval streets of nearby Nessebur.

You could find yourself discovering the magnificent parks and fine architecture of Odessa, the region's most sophisticated city. Or drinking in the history of Sevastopol -- where the Light Brigade made its legendary Crimean War charge. There's Yalta, where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill gathered to redraw the map of Europe at the end of World War II.