13 Night Cruise sailing from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires aboard Veendam.

Grandly proportioned and recently enhanced, the ms Veendam offers an onboard experience defined by spacious comfort and the latest Signature of Excellence features and amenities. Guests aboard the ms Veendam will not only enjoy elegant dining rooms, a $2 million art and antique collection, wide teak decks and spacious staterooms - many with private verandahs - but also new and exciting venues, stateroom options along with a complete update to all stateroom furnishings.

Highlights of this cruise:

Valparaiso
A lush, irresistible tangle of serpentine streets, steep hills and 15 ascensores - ingenious antique trams. Nearby is the seaside resort of Vina del Mar.

Puerto Montt
Gateway to the scenic Lake District, a series of fragrant eucalyptus and pine forests, icy lakes, Bavarian hamlets and luminous snowcapped volcanoes.

Punta Arenas
This remote town, pioneered by Yugoslav settlers and sheep ranchers, sits on rolling hills overlooking the Strait of Magellan.

Ushuaia
The southernmost town in the world, where dominating peaks loom on three sides; the fourth opens to the Beagle Channel, where sea lions bellow and king crab rules.

Port Stanley
Scotland under the Southern Cross: moorlands, pubs, red phone booths, sheep ranches, a "cuppa tea." Plus penguins of every type: gentoo, Magellanic, king.

Buenos Aires
The lone cowboy rides across the open prairie as he surveys the fertile land before him. Only this storyline isn't in West Texas. Rather, the cowboy, or gaucho as he is known, is in central Argentina, and the fertile lowlands before him are known as the pampas.

Buenos Aires is one of the cultural and commercial capitals of South America. Yet what distinguishes this 21st-century metropolis from other cities of the same ilk is its proximity to the country and, in turn, country living.