Celebrate with us in the Mediterranean!

There are birthdays, and then there are birthdays that call for something a little bigger.

In January 2028, Huckleberry Travel co-founder Tom Carpenter is celebrating a milestone birthday, and we’re marking the occasion the best way we know how: by getting on a ship and going somewhere interesting. We’ll be sailing aboard Azamara Journey for a nine-night voyage from Málaga to Athens, and we’re inviting our friends, family and clients to come celebrate with us.

And when we saw this itinerary, we knew we’d found the trip.

This isn’t your standard Mediterranean cruise. In just nine nights, we’ll visit Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Italy and Greece, including ports that even frequent Mediterranean travelers may never have visited. We’ll explore Algiers and Tunis, spend a long day in Valletta, visit ancient Siracusa in Sicily, and finish with an overnight aboard the ship in Athens.

Even better, we’ve locked in special group pricing and some added amenities for those who join us through Huckleberry Travel.

A Mediterranean Itinerary That's Anything but Ordinary

We start in Málaga, Spain, on January 29, 2028, before heading to Cartagena, a historic Spanish port where Roman ruins sit alongside a lively modern city.

From there, things get particularly interesting.

Our next stop is Algiers, Algeria, the whitewashed capital overlooking the Mediterranean. Its historic Casbah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a maze of narrow streets and centuries of Ottoman, Arab, Berber and French influence. Algeria isn't a place that appears on many Mediterranean cruise itineraries, and the opportunity to experience Algiers was one of the things that immediately caught our attention about this sailing.

After a day at sea, we arrive in La Goulette, Tunisia, the port for Tunis and a jumping-off point for exploring both the Tunisian capital and the extraordinary ruins of ancient Carthage. In the space of just a few days, we'll have traveled from southern Spain to two very different destinations on the North African coast.

Then it's on to Valletta, Malta, where Azamara Journey doesn't depart until 10 p.m. Malta packs an almost absurd amount of history into a very small island, and the late departure gives us time to explore without having to rush back to the ship in the middle of the afternoon.

Next comes Siracusa, Sicily, another long port day, with the ship remaining until 8 p.m. Once one of the great powers of the ancient Mediterranean, Siracusa is filled with Greek and Roman history, while the island of Ortigia at its center is one of our favorite places to simply wander, eat and enjoy being in Sicily.

After another relaxing day at sea, we arrive in Athens, but the trip isn't quite over. Azamara Journey arrives on February 6 and stays overnight, so we'll have the opportunity to enjoy Athens into the evening before disembarking the following morning.

Why Azamara?

Azamara is a cruise line for people who are at least as interested in where the ship is going as they are in the ship itself.

Its four small ships carry no more than about 700 guests, creating a completely different experience from the enormous ships that increasingly dominate cruising. The smaller size also allows Azamara to visit ports and sail waterways that aren't practical for larger vessels.

But what really distinguishes Azamara is its focus on what it calls Destination Immersion. The idea is simple: give travelers more time in the places they've traveled all that way to see.

That means longer port calls, late-night departures and overnight stays instead of a schedule where you're racing back to the ship at 3:30 in the afternoon. On this trip, we'll have a 10-hour day in Algiers, stay in Valletta until 10 p.m., remain in Siracusa until 8 p.m., and spend our final night aboard the ship in Athens.

There are only two sea days during the entire nine-night voyage. That's exactly what we want from a Mediterranean cruise. The ship is our comfortable home base, but the destinations are the main event.

Small Ship, More Included

Azamara Journey carries up to 702 guests, small enough to feel intimate without sacrificing the comforts you'd expect onboard.

Azamara also includes quite a bit in the cruise fare. Meals in the ship's main dining venues, selected wines, beers and spirits, gratuities, self-service laundry and other amenities are included, along with Azamara's signature destination-focused programming.

It's an easygoing style of cruising that we think is particularly well suited to traveling with a group. We can explore independently during the day, meet up for drinks or dinner, and have the ship as our gathering place as we make our way across the Mediterranean.

Come Celebrate With Us!

We're putting together a group of friends, family and Huckleberry travelers to join us aboard Azamara Journey from January 29 through February 7, 2028, and we'd love to have you with us.

We’ve locked in special group pricing for this sailing, along with some added amenities exclusively for guests who book as part of our Huckleberry Travel group. We don’t think price should be the reason you choose a trip like this. The itinerary and experience are what sold us. But if you’re going to join us anyway, we’re happy to have secured some extra value for our group.

Yes, technically we're celebrating Tom's birthday. But you absolutely do not need to know Tom particularly well to come along. The birthday is really just our excuse to bring together a fun group of people for a fantastic trip.

If you've been looking for a Mediterranean itinerary that's a little different from the usual Barcelona-Rome-Greek-Islands circuit, this is it. Algeria, Tunisia and Malta on a single nine-night itinerary, combined with Spain, Sicily and an overnight in Athens, is the kind of routing that made us want to book the trip ourselves.

And that's usually a pretty good sign.

If you'd like to join us, get in touch with Huckleberry Travel. We'll be happy to talk through the itinerary, our special group pricing and amenities, available stateroom categories and the details of joining our group.

Come celebrate a milestone birthday with us. We can't promise that Tom will enjoy getting older, but we're going to make sure he has a pretty spectacular time doing it.