Sailing nerds and slow-travel fans, take note: Star Clippers has four seven-night Riviera voyages on the calendar for 2027, all running round trip from Nice aboard genuine tall ships — the 227-guest Royal Clipper and the 166-passenger Star Clipper.
These aren't themed cruise ships pretending to be sailing vessels. Guests can actually get hands-on: learning to tie nautical knots, climbing up toward the crow's nest, or stretching out in the bowsprit net while the crew works the sails overhead. When you're done playing sailor, there are teak decks, swimming pools, a piano lounge and open, relaxed dining to retreat to.
The itineraries split neatly into two flavors. The Corsica & French Riviera sailing departs April 24, 2027, opening with a call at Portofino before hopping to Propriano and Calvi on Corsica, then Alghero in Sardinia, with St. Tropez and the fishing harbor of Sanary-sur-Mer on the way home. It's a coastlin-and-medieval-streets kind of trip.
The Ligurian Sea departure on May 1, 2027 leans into history: Porto Venere, with its clifftop Church of San Pietro; Portoferraio on Elba, where Napoleon was exiled; Bonifacio on Corsica's shattered limestone southern tip; Alghero again; then Ajaccio and Menton near the French border. Both routes loop back to Nice, leaving time for the Promenade des Anglais, the markets of Vieux Nice, or an extra night on the Côte d'Azur.
Star Clips' sales and marketing VP Terri Haas puts the appeal plainly: these are coastlines best seen from the water, and sailing in means villages and headlands come into view the way they did centuries ago — then you step ashore and explore them.
For travellers, the pitch is a smaller-ship Mediterranean without mega-resort crowds. Under 230 guests means ports like Portofino and Bonifacio that swamp big cruise liners remain manageable. The April and May departures dodge peak summer heat and prices, and the tall-ship angle — actual sails, actual rigging, actual crew who might teach you a bowline — is something you won't find on a 5,000-passenger vessel. If you've ever wanted the romance of an Age of Sail passage but with a pool and a bar, 2027 is your window.
