A capital venture

11:11am Saturday 1st November 2008

Peta King and her partner savour the style of the Riviera on a maiden season cruise on board P&O’s latest superliner, Ventura. THEY laid out the red carpet for us in Cannes. It may have been just up the steps from the jetty into the town, but it did lend an extra layer of glamour to the occasion.

But what’s not glamorous about arriving in this chic French resort beloved of the rich and the famous aboard P&O’s latest superliner, Ventura, the £300m mega-vessel which has maintained the company’s position as the cruise line of choice for the British holidaymaker?

Cannes is the fifth destination on Ventura’s Riviera Romance cruise from Southampton – only the third voyage of her maiden season – which takes in five countries, four capital cities and eight ports in a 14-night voyage. And the smart sophistication of this celebrated resort neatly sums up the essence of this delightful way to travel.

We disembark the ship’s tenders at the Quai Laubeuf, from where the dazzling flotilla of yachts, the uber-chic shops in the Rue d’Antibes and the celebrity status of the Promenade de la Croisette won’t fail to dazzle, but even they seem a little tired next to the splendour of P&O’s latest baby.

Her statistics are staggering. Ventura weights 116,000 tonnes, is as long as three football pitches and has the power of 190 Ferraris.

She has 1,546 passenger cabins, 880 of which have balconies, 11 places to eat, three places to dance, five places to shop, a two-tier theatre, five pools, six whirlpool spas, a nightclub, gym, art gallery, casino and library...

Her design is contemporary with an essentially British ambience – the company brought interior guru Nick Munro on board for the soft furnishings, glassware and tableware – and the cabins have the feel of a boutique hotel, with Villeroy and Boch bathrooms, white Egyptian cotton bedding and subtle lighting. Plus, they’ve really thought of everything – from all the usual essentials such as hairdryers and fluffy bathrobes, to binoculars for scanning the horizon, to an umbrella (well, some cruises do go to less sunny parts of the world).

Good food is an important part of any cruise and if Ventura’s three a la carte dining options aren’t enough, there’s Marco Pierre White’s signature White Room restaurant, the Pacific Rim-inspired East, a tapas bar, a pizzeria created by Marco Pierre and Frankie Dettori and two bright and breezy buffets with seaside chic – just right for families.

Of course, many people fear putting on the pounds when they go on a cruise. With this in mind, Ventura not only has a fully-equipped gym, exercise classes and personal trainers, but it also has devised an innovative Cruisetone programme, which includes detox treatments, holistic therapies, fun exercise classes and Pilates – you can even buy a pedometer to record your mileage and qualify for a cut-price massage in the Oasis Spa. All the menus in the ship’s main dining rooms have healthy options – and, remember, you can have that pudding if you take the stairs instead of the lift.

This is also a very family-oriented ship, with five age-related children’s clubs offering plenty of activities in safe and supervised areas.

Ventura is not only the biggest superliner ever built for the British market, she also houses one of the largest modern British art collections in the world.

P&O’s link with fine art dates from the late 1950s when the then director, Sir Colin Anderson, commissioned a series of works for Canberra from artists who went on to become icons of the art world – among them David Hockney, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Ventura is home to 7,000 works of art – costing £1m – from 43 British artists.

And, in a new partnership, experts from Tate Modern are hosting a series of talks and workshops.

So you can learn about artists as diverse as Picasso, Matisse and Andy Warhol and create your own masterpiece to take home.

While all this is going on, Ventura is taking you luxuriously and effortlessly to some of the most exciting destinations in the Med.

From Vigo, a bustling fishing port on the rugged and green north west coast of Spain, where you can reward your efforts from climbing to the fortress citadel of El Castro with a seafood lunch and some of the freshest oysters for which the area is renowned – at 15 euros for ten, probably some of the best value, too – to the colonial grandeur of Lisbon, where Ventura passes with seemingly only inches to spare beneath the huge span of the 25th April Bridge across the river Tagus.

Evidence of the country’s past wealth is everywhere in the city, with its classical buildings, spacious squares and beautiful tiled pavements.

And some of the best views of the lower town, the Baxia, are from the 100-year-old Elevador de Santa Justa, a lovingly preserved maghogany structure with concertina metal doors reminiscent of a 1950s department store.

Mallorca may be synonymous with package Brits abroad, but recently the capital, Palma, has become one of the most sophisticated destinations in the Mediterranean, with designer shops, top-class restaurants and a harbour packed with extravagant yachts.

Peter and I eschew the commercial glamour and escape on a tour which takes us through some of the island’s dramatic mountain scenery to a small family vineyard, where we sample some of the vintage with bread, cheese and olive oil. If you haven’t come across wine from Mallorca, don’t be surprised. The islanders consume all they produce and it’s so good, I don’t blame them.

Barcelona gives us the chance to spend a leisurely afternoon exploring La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s best-known building.

Begun in 1892 before Gaudi took over as its architect, this startling and dramatic cathedral may never be finished. Love it or loathe it, and even though the interior is like a building site, it can’t fail to impress.

Equally impressive, but from a totally different perspective, are the Vatican Museums in Rome, which are truly vast. Although the queues weren’t as prohibitive as we feared, the route to the Sistine Chapel was such a jawdropping excursion through classical frescoes and works of art that the chapel, and Michelangelo’s ceiling, were almost an anti-climax.

Ventura makes her penultimate port of call in Corsica, part of France but nearer Italy, where memories of its most famous son, Napoleon Bonaparte, are everywhere – we are escorted, somewhat disarmingly, into the capital, Ajaccio, by a drum-beating contingent of Napoleonic soldiers.

More reassuring, perhaps, for some Brits, is our final destination of Gibraltar, that little outpost of the UK that, for all its dusty shabbiness, holds a special place in our hearts. Here we can take the cable car to explore the Rock, meet the Apes and see the Second World War siege tunnels or, if you’re feeling particularly homesick, visit one of the many cafés serving British food and have a pint in an ‘English’ pub.

A taste of things to come, no doubt, as Ventura sails for home.

VENTURA TRAVEL FACTS

Peta King travelled on the Riviera Romance 14- night cruise, departing from and returning to Southampton. Prices started from £1,659pp for an outside cabin, or £2,129pp for a balcony cabin. All prices are per person and based on two adults sharing. They include a maximum 45 per cent early booking discount and are on a full-board basis.

For more information or to book call P&O Cruises on 0845-3555-333 or pocruises.co.uk P&O have announced an expanded cruise programme for 2009, with its fleet of six ships sailing to all of the classic cruise ports across the Mediterranean, Baltic, Norwegian fjords, Canary Islands and the Caribbean, as well as calls into the US, Mexico and South America.

The company has also launched a new website, pocruises.co.uk which features virtual ships tours, destination images and up-to-date prices and availability.

We began our journey by train with National Express East Coast: advance returns, booked online, from North-East stations to London start from £23 standard class or £75 first class.

Book via nationalexpress eastcoast.com, call 08457-225225 or visit any staffed station.

From London to Southampton we travelled with South West Trains, which runs regular services between London Waterloo and Southampton, Bournemouth, Weymouth and Portsmouth. Further information on 0845-6000- 650 or southwesttrains.co.uk Assisted travel 0800-52-82-100 (textphone 0800- 6920-792), business travel 023-8072-8158, group travel 023-8072-8162.

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