MSC Grand Voyages from Funchal

As you arrive in Funchal on an MSC cruise, your ship will cast anchor in a bay protected by mountains rising straight up behind the port. The name, Funchal, derives from that of the fennel plant, the funcho still used today in the traditional sweets known as rebuçados de funcho, that one can find anywhere on the island of Madeira.

An excursion will take you around the town centre, to visit historic churches, from the A Sé Cathedral, with its inlaid ceiling, to the majestic Church of the Incarnation, to the church of Carmo without a vault.
Another MSC excursion will take you up to the village of Monte, from where one can admire a spectacular view of the Funchal bay. You can visit its 18th century church and the tomb of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I, and stroll around the magnificent botanic gardens. But if you like heights, there’s nothing more impressive than the Cabo Girão and its 589 metre tall cliffs, amongst the highest in the world, at the foot of which lie the cultivated lands known as Fajãs do Cabo Girão.
If you’re looking for an equipped beach during your MSC cruise, another excursion will take you to Machico. Founded in the 15th century, it hosts the oldest religious building on the island, the Capela dos Milagres, and the fortresses of São João Baptista and Nossa Senhora do Amparo built in the beginning of the 16th century.
The more lively tourist attraction is instead in Calheta, on the south-west coast. Splendid yachts cruising across the Atlantic are moored in the port and if you want to go for a swim there are two beautiful beaches of golden sand; in spite of the modern structures Calheta dates back to the mid-15th century. This is where they make the “Aguardente”, the best white rhum, and fundamental ingredient of Madeira’s typical drink, the “Poncha” .

Arriving to the Port of Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands on an MSC cruise ship is an incredible feeling. The city was founded inside the Calderata, an ancient volcanic crater that rises to a height of 1800 metres, protecting the sailing vessels of the past, and the cruise ships of today, from the wind.
The history of Santa Cruz de la Palma, once an important stop on the trading route to the East Indies, has enriched it with fortifications, such as Castillo de Santa Catalina and Castillo de Santa Cruz del Barrio, constructed in the second half of the 16th century to defend Santa Cruz de la Palma from attacks by pirates.

However, the historical heritage of the city centre, which is encountered at practically every corner, dates back to the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods. It will be worth your while to loose yourselves among the streets, if for nothing else, than to simply admire their unique balconies, such as the one in Avenida Maritima.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the port capital of Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s seven Canary Islands. The city showcases incredible sights such as the Plaza de Espana, the church of St. Francis of Assisi, and the soaring white wave auditorium, the Auditorio de Tenerife. This quintessential Canary Island’s town is a colourful MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination where you can soak up the sun, dine in style, or take a dip in glittering waters.

High above the enormous bay of Todos os Santos (All Saints), where your MSC cruise ship awaits your return, Salvador de Bahia has an electric feel from the moment you arrive.
This is the great cultural and historical centre of Brazil, where Afro-Brazilian heritage is strongest and where capoeira, candomblé and samba de roda were created.
MSC South America cruises offer excursions to the centro histórico of this magical place, a melange of narrow cobbled streets, peeling purple walls, grand Baroque churches, kids kicking footballs, rastas, locals sipping bottled beer on plastic chairs, the wafting aroma of herbs and the almost constant beating of drums, especially as the sun sets. Beyond the old town Salvador is a vast, sprawling city, with a vibrant beach life, modern skyscrapers and plenty of favelas.
The centro histórico is the traditional heart of Salvador; it’s built around the craggy, 70m-high bluff that dominates the eastern side of the bay, and is split into upper and lower sections. Cidade Alta (or simply “Centro”) is strung along its top, linked to the less interesting Cidade Baixa (the old commercial centre, aka “Comércio”) by precipitous streets and the towering Art Deco lift-shaft of the Elevador Lacerda. Cidade Alta is the cultural centre of the city, and the section known as the Pelourinho is the groovy old district with colourful and hilly winding streets, its most vibrant and beguiling neighbourhood.
The best spot to begin a walking tour of the city is at the Praça Municipal, the square dominated by the impressive Palácio do Rio Branco, the old governor’s palace which was in use until 1979. The fine interior is a blend of Rococo plasterwork, polished wooden floors and painted walls and ceilings.

Ilhéus is a city on the banks of the Cachoeira and Almada Rivers, in the eastern Brazilian state of Bahia. It’s known for its colonial architecture and beaches, including Millionaires Beach in the south, lined with palm trees and food stalls. A Christ statue watches over central Christ Beach. Praia da Avenida beach skirts the center, offering views toward the striking spires of 20th-century St. Sebastian Cathedral.

As you’ll be able to appreciate when you cruise the Atlantic Ocean with MSC Cruises, in its position on the southern shore of the magnificent Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro has, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most stunning settings in the world.

Extending for 20km along an alluvial strip, between an azure sea and forest-clad mountains, the city’s streets and buildings have been moulded around the foothills of the mountain range that provides its backdrop, while out in the bay there are many rocky islands fringed with white sand.
The aerial views over Rio are breathtaking, and even the concrete skyscrapers that dominate the city’s skyline add to the attraction. As the former capital of Brazil and now its second-largest city, Rio has a remarkable architectural heritage, some of the country’s best museums and galleries, superb restaurants and a vibrant nightlife – in addition to its legendary beaches. A shore excursion on your MSC South America cruise can be the opportunity to visit the Pão de Açúcar.
The Sugar Loaf Mountain rises where Guanabara Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. Its name may simply reflect a resemblance to the moulded loaves in which sugar was once commonly sold. Alternatively, it may be a corruption of the indigenous Tamoya word Pau-nh-Açuquá, meaning “high, pointed or isolated hill”. On the top of Corcoavado Mountain instead the Art Deco statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), arms outstretched in welcome, stands 30m high and weighs over 1000 tonnes. It was supposed to be completed for Brazil’s centenary independence celebrations in 1922, but wasn’t actually finished until 1931.
In clear weather, fear no anticlimax: climbing to the statue is a stunning experience, with the whole of Rio and Guanabara Bay laid out before you.

Santos, one of Portugal’s first New World settlements, was founded in 1535.

Today your MSC ship will be docking in Latin America’s largest port, through which passes a large proportion of the world’s coffee, sugar and oranges.
The city stands partly on São Vicente island, its docking facilities and old town facing landwards, with ships approaching by a narrow, but deep, channel. Its compact centre retains a certain charm that’s massively popular with local tourists, and there is a good deal of historical and maritime interest around the city. On an MSC South America cruise excursion to the city centre you’ll find the ruins of some of Santos’s most distinguished buildings along Rua do Comércio.
Although sometimes only the facades remain, some of the nineteenth-century former merchants’ houses that line the street are gradually being restored, the elaborate tiling and wrought-iron balconies offering a hint of the old town’s lost grandeur. MSC South America cruises also offer excursions to the local Santos Futebol Clube. It’s best known as the club for which the great Pelé
played for most of his professional life (from 1956 to 1974); their stadium, the Vila Belmiro, is open to the public when there’s no game on.
In addition to honouring Pelé at the club’s small museum, you can take an hour-long guided tour including the players’ bar and dressing rooms. Santos’s beaches are across town from Centro on the south side of the island. The beaches are huge, stretching around the Atlantic-facing Baía de Santos, and popular in summer.

Next stop: Brazil! An MSC cruise will have you discovery this colorful Country, by docking in its second port located between Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo: Itajaí, in the state of Santa Catarina.
Founded by the Portuguese coming from Madeira and the Azores, the city is located on the banks of the rio Itajaí-Açú and, being an important export trade point, it is a strategic hub of Brazilian economy. Itajai is also a city full of history, as you will see by walking through its historic center, rich in traditions thanks to the old fish market, and visiting the imposing church of the Santissimo Sacramento.

Brazil is renown above all for its beaches. An excursion will take you to Praia Brava, between Itajaí and Balneário Camboriú. Known for its natural beauty and the clear sea, this beach is the ideal destination for relaxation, whether you just want to sunbathe or swim between the calm waves. A little further south is Balneário Camboriú. This is one of the capitals of tourism of Santa Caterina that during summer can reach even 1 million inhabitants. Av. Brazil is a vibrant shopping street, while Atlantic Avenue runs along the beach with its sidewalk in pavê like the one in Copacabana. Here, you can stop in a bar or restaurant to admire the sea and the island of Cabras, just offshore.

For nature lovers, the area around Itajai offers the Parque Unipraias Camboriu. An excursion will take you to the Barra Sul Station, where you can take the cable car to Morro de Aguada at 240 meters of height and to the Mata Atlântica station. There are various paths to take to immerse yourself in this forest and come in contact with the Brazilian flora and fauna or the youngest visitors can cross it on board a sledge. Downhill the destination is the beach of Praia das Laranjeiras, the ideal place to enjoy some free time.

When you’re cruising the Atlantic Ocean with MSC Cruises the Atlantic Ocean with MSC Cruises, Punta del Este is the port of call for you in Uruguay. Situated on a narrow peninsula 140km east of Montevideo, Punta del Este is a jungle of high-rise hotels, expensive restaurants, casinos and designer stores bordered by some of the finest beaches on the coast.
Exclusive and luxurious, between this and the nearby towns of La Barra and José Ignacio, this is the place to be seen for many South American celebrities in summer.
The best thing to do in Punta del Este is what everyone else does: go to the beach. Within striking distance and well worth the trip is the whitewashed Casapueblo, a remarkable villa and art gallery. The beaches are what attract most visitors to Punta del Este, and two of the best are on either side of the neck of the peninsula.
Playa Mansa on the bay side is a huge, arcing stretch of sand, with plenty of space for sunbathing and gentle waves, while Playa Brava on the eastern side is where you go if you’re serious about surfing, or simply to compare your height to the fingers of the uncanny Hand in the Sand sculpture, one of Uruguay’s most famous sights. The area’s best sight is Casapueblo, by Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, a vision just waiting to be seen on an MSC South America excursion.
He started the construction himself in the late 1950s, and today it’s an unwieldy yet strangely beautiful villa, restaurant, hotel and art gallery clinging to the side of a craggy peninsula 15km west of Punta del Este. Bright white and lacking any right angles, it’s well worth a visit to see Vilaró’s artwork.

Buenos Aires is a must-see on your MSC South America cruise to Argentina. Its heart is the spacious, palm-dotted Plaza de Mayo, the ideal place to begin a tour of the area and explore its historical and political connections; its mismatched medley of buildings includes the famous Casa Rosada, or government house.
An amble westwards from the plaza will take you along Avenida de Mayo, the city’s major boulevard, offering an impressive display of Art Nouveau and Art Decoarchitecture. At its western end, Avenida de Mayo opens onto the Plaza del Congreso, presided over by the Congreso Nacional building, the seat of the federal parliament.
Casa Rosada, a typically Argentine blend of French and Italian Renaissance styles, stands on the site of the city’s Spanish fort, begun in 1594 and converted in 1776 to the viceroy’s palace. In 1862, President Bartolomé Mitre moved the government ministries to the building, remodelling it once again.
The final touch was added in 1885, when the central arch was added, unifying the facade. Behind the Casa Rosada, the Plaza Colón features a gigantic Argentine flag and a Carrara marble statue of Christopher Columbus, looking out to the river and towards the Old World.
MSC South America cruises also offer excursions to the north of Buenos Aires, where the four residential barrios of most interest to visitors – Retiro, Recoleta, Palermo and Belgrano – each retain a distinctive character. Nearest to the centre, Retiro and Recoleta – known jointly as Barrio Norte – have chic streets lined with boutiques, art galleries and smart cafés. Recoleta is associated primarily with its magnificent cemetery where, among other national celebrities, Evita is buried.
Both barrios also share an extraordinary concentration of French-style palaces, tangible proof of the obsession of the city’s elite at the beginning of the twentieth century with established European cities