COUNTRIES WE WILL VISIT

LET’S NOT use the word “port” for our sojourns on land!

The cruise industry likes to keep its customers happy and spending money on its ships, and treats its brief visits to land as shallow entertainment. Semester at Sea takes almost the opposite approach: we make extended visits to countries to learn about their people and cultures. We spend a week or so learning about each country in formal classes before our visit. We stay for days rather than hours, and seek insight rather than tourist trinkets.

We’re not “doing ports.” We’re visiting countries to learn about them.

On our voyage, the Global Studies course will develop and present contextual content about each country we visit in advance of our arrival. We will also connect the country-specific content to our larger themes about climate justice and persistent legacies of the colonial past. I can’t capture the richness of that content in this blog, especially since I’m just a natural scientist!


Instead, here’s a bunch of curated links to good introductory reading and video material about each country on our Spring 2026 itinerary. This is WAY TOO MUCH material, but hopefully useful.

Thailand

Vietnam

Malaysia

India

Kenya

South Africa

Ghana

Morocco

Spain