Holland America Line's Volendam departed Boston in late June on a month-long, 28-night cruise taking in Canada, Iceland and Greenland. The sailing forms part of the line's Legendary Voyages series and calls at 15 ports across the three regions before the ship returns to Boston in late July.

A Route Built Around Remote Ports

Rather than sticking to the more familiar Nordic cruise stops, the itinerary leans into destinations that rarely appear on mainstream sailing schedules. Guests will call at Heimaey in Iceland's Westman Islands, the small Icelandic town of Djupivogur, and the French overseas territory of Saint Pierre et Miquelon off the Canadian coast.

Greenland features prominently too, with visits to the southern towns of Nanortalik and Qaqortoq. In Iceland, the Volendam also stops at Isafjord in the Westfjords, the northern hub of Akureyri, and the capital, Reykjavik. Rounding out the Canadian leg are calls at Portland, Sydney, St. John's, Corner Brook, Iles de la Madeleine and Halifax.

Three of these stops — St. John's, Reykjavik and Halifax — are overnight calls, giving passengers extra time ashore to explore beyond a typical day-trip window.

What "Legendary Voyages" Means Onboard

Holland America positions its Legendary Voyages as more than a point-to-point itinerary, building destination-led programming into the sailing itself. The line describes the format as pairing onboard ceremony with the scale of the journey, and the Volendam's schedule includes destination-themed parties, string ensemble performances and presentations tied to the ports being visited.

Where the Volendam Goes Next

Once the Iceland and Greenland voyage wraps up, the 1999-built ship moves into a summer season of shorter sailings around Canada and New England, with seven- to 14-night departures from Boston and Montreal running through the autumn.

From there, the Volendam repositions to New York in early October for another Legendary Voyage: a 45-night roundtrip crossing to the Mediterranean and Western Europe, with port calls planned in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Malta and Tunisia.

The ship's calendar continues into a month-long Amazon sailing and a 14-night Caribbean cruise, before it takes on Holland America's Grand World Voyage, a 129-night cruise sailing roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale in early January 2027, calling at ports across South America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and Africa.

Why This Itinerary Stands Out

For travellers weighing up a polar or Arctic-adjacent cruise, the Volendam's routing offers a mix of well-known capitals and genuinely off-the-beaten-path stops that are harder to reach independently. The overnight calls in particular give more flexibility for excursions, late dinners ashore, or simply a slower pace in ports that many ships only visit for a few hours.

Source: Cruise Industry News