Transatlantic

A transatlantic crossing is the original ocean voyage — the grand tradition of seafaring that connected the Old World to the New, and which gave rise to the golden age of ocean liners. Sailing from Southampton, Hamburg, or Lisbon westward to New York or Fort Lauderdale (or in reverse), a transatlantic passage offers several days of uninterrupted ocean — time to read, to dine, to use the ship's facilities at leisure, and to experience the pure pleasure of being at sea.

Transatlantic crossings are the domain of the great ocean liners — ships built for the open Atlantic rather than sheltered coastal waters. The crossing typically takes five to seven days, covering 3,000 nautical miles of deep ocean. The experience of watching the horizon from a wide promenade deck, with no land in sight in any direction, is one that few other forms of travel can replicate.

Many transatlantic voyages include calls at the Azores — Portugal's mid-Atlantic archipelago of volcanic islands with dramatic calderas and thermal springs — or at Madeira, Bermuda, or the Canary Islands, offering a break in the ocean passage and a taste of some of the Atlantic's most beautiful and least-visited destinations.