It's hard to imagine that there is feverish activity below decks, while you are more or less inert, abovedeck, sunning languorously poolside, with a frothy, umbrella-adorned beverage in hand. Such is "the life" on deck 11, on an at-sea day on Regent Seven Seas Cruise Line's stunningly appointed Explorer, with its exquisite décor—punctuated by its extensive, on-board art collection, valued at some $6 million. 

When my 15-year-old granddaughter, Talya, asked me what my favorite destination was, I had to take a minute. After 35 years as a travel writer, my usual answer to that question is wherever I’ve been last, but I felt she deserved more than my usual flippant reply.

The Skeleton Coast is one of the most appropriately named stretches of land in the world, a place where many hapless sailors of centuries past have mingled their bones with whale ribs and shipwrecks.