Southeast Asia · Gulf of Thailand to South China Sea
Crystal's legendary grand suites and world-class dining on a thirteen-night voyage through the jewels of Southeast Asia — from Laem Chabang (Bangkok) through Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines to the electric harbour of Hong Kong.
About This Voyage
“Crystal Cruises was revived because its guests demanded it. What they remembered — the space, the service, the sense that this ship was built for them — had not aged a day.”
Crystal Cruises relaunched in 2022 after a period of restructuring and returned to service with a clarity of purpose: to be the cruise line that UHNW guests choose not because it is the newest but because it is the finest. Crystal Serenity carries 848 guests in an unusually large average suite size — 270 square metres for the Crystal Penthouse — and operates with a service philosophy that involves remembering the name of your drink, your preferred pillow firmness and whether you like the blinds drawn at departure. These are small things. They add up.
The Laem Chabang to Hong Kong route charts a course through some of the most diverse waters in Southeast Asia: departing from the Gulf of Thailand gateway port of Laem Chabang (Bangkok), the voyage moves through the tropical islands of the Thai coast before crossing into Vietnamese waters and following the length of the Vietnamese coastline to the South China Sea. From there, calls at Brunei and the Philippines complete a passage that covers five countries and thirteen nights of extraordinary variety. This is Southeast Asia as a connected whole — not a series of flights and hotels, but a single continuous journey.
Departing April 10, 2027. Available through Martins Travel with Crystal Penthouse priority and pre/post voyage arrangements in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
What Is Included
Port by Port
Each port of call has been chosen to reveal a different facet of the journey — arriving by sea as travellers once did, and departing enriched, never hurried.
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand
Crystal Serenity berths at Laem Chabang — the deep-water port serving Bangkok, 130 kilometres south of the capital on the Gulf of Thailand. Martins Travel has arranged a private car from Bangkok city centre (2 hours) or from Suvarnabhumi Airport (45 minutes). For guests arriving the day before: a pre-voyage night at the Capella Bangkok — the riverside property that best represents the city's new luxury aspirations — is included. Embarkation in the afternoon. Crystal Serenity is a ship of conspicuous size — 51,000 tonnes, eleven decks — and conspicuous understatement: no waterslides, no casino floor the size of Wembley, no nightclub. A library, a Nobu restaurant, a concert grand piano in the main atrium, and a wine cellar stocked with 30,000 bottles. The Welcome Dinner by the ship's executive chef. The lights of the Gulf of Thailand coast fade astern.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Laem Chabang (Bangkok)Ko Kut, Thailand
Ko Kut — Koh Kood — is the least developed of the major Thai islands, a forested landscape of waterfalls and palm-fringed beaches at the far eastern edge of the Gulf of Thailand, close to the Cambodian border. Crystal Serenity anchors in the bay at Ao Ngamkho. The ship's private tender delivers you to the beach: white sand, warm water and a complete absence of the resort infrastructure that has transformed Ko Samui and Ko Phangan beyond recognition. A private speedboat excursion to the Klong Chao waterfall — freshwater cascading into a river pool surrounded by jungle canopy, 40 metres from the coast. Snorkelling equipment provided for the reef gardens off the south cape. A lunch from the ship's galley, served on the beach under a palm. Return to Crystal Serenity in the late afternoon as the island's profile disappears into the Gulf evening.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Ko KutPhu Quoc, Vietnam
Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam and the fastest developing — a place that was jungle and fishing villages twenty years ago and is now a resort destination of considerable ambition, while retaining, in its northern reaches, the forest cover and unpeopled beaches that made it extraordinary in the first place. Crystal Serenity anchors off the long beach of Bai Truong on the island's west coast. A private excursion to the Phu Quoc National Park in the north: primary tropical forest, a private guided walk through the canopy with the island's naturalist, hornbills in the upper branches. Lunch at a seafood restaurant in the town of Duong Dong — the fish brought to the table by the fishermen who caught it that morning. The afternoon: a private boat to the Sao Beach on the east coast, a kilometre of sand without development, the sea extraordinary in colour.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Phu QuocHo Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Saigon — the name the city still uses — is the most dynamically changing city in Southeast Asia. Day 4: the Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum (confronting, essential, historically significant), the French colonial quarter of District 1 — the Opera House, the Hotel Continental, the Continental Shelf restaurant that Graham Greene used as his personal address during the writing of The Quiet American. Lunch at a family restaurant in Ben Thanh market that has been serving pho since 1956. The Jade Emperor Pagoda in the late afternoon — Taoist, incense-filled, genuinely ancient in spirit if not entirely in structure. Day 5: the Cu Chi Tunnels excursion north of the city — the 250-kilometre tunnel network used by the Viet Cong during the American war, explored by private guide with the depth of a historian. Return to Crystal Serenity by 3pm. Dinner at Nobu at Sea as the city's lights recede.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Ho Chi Minh CityMuara, Brunei
The Sultanate of Brunei is the world's second wealthiest nation per capita, governed by the 29th Sultan of the same royal lineage since 1363. Crystal Serenity berths at Muara, Brunei's principal port. A private guide leads a visit to the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque — one of the finest examples of Islamic architecture in Southeast Asia, built in 1958 on an artificial lagoon — and the Kampong Ayer water village, 30,000 people living in houses built on stilts above the Brunei River, the largest water village in the world. Day 7: an excursion to the Ulu Temburong National Park — the pristine primary rainforest of the Temburong district, accessible only by longboat through the mangrove estuaries. A canopy walkway at 50 metres above the forest floor; the river below; the extraordinary silence of a forest that has been protected for decades.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Muara, BruneiKota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah, Malaysia, and the departure point for Gunung Kinabalu — the 4,095-metre granite peak that dominates northern Borneo and is visible from Crystal Serenity in the clear morning air as the ship enters the harbour. A private drive to the Kinabalu Park headquarters at 1,500 metres above sea level: the cloud forest, the extraordinary pitcher plants of the lower slopes, the view of the mountain's rock face from the entry trail. The Sabah State Museum in the afternoon — the finest collection of Bornean ethnographic material in existence, including the remarkable ceremonial arts of the Kadazan-Dusun people. Dinner aboard as the evening mist settles over the Kinabalu summit and the South China Sea opens ahead.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Kota KinabaluBoracay, Philippines
Boracay's White Beach is 4 kilometres of powdered coral sand — a beach so celebrated that the Philippine government closed the island entirely for six months in 2018 to rehabilitate it. It has recovered. The sand is still the colour of unbleached linen; the water is still the turquoise that has made it one of the most photographed beaches in Asia; and the sunset from the western shore — the sun descending into the Sibuyan Sea while the sky turns through orange, red and violet — remains among the most spectacular in the world. Crystal Serenity anchors off Boracay. Day 9: a morning on White Beach, private sunlounger arrangement, the ship's picnic delivered by tender. Day 10: a private island-hopping excursion by outrigger bangka to the diving sites of the surrounding waters — coral gardens, sea turtles, visibility of thirty metres in the clear Philippine Sea.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · BoracayManila, Philippines
Manila is the capital of the Philippines and one of the most densely populated cities in the world — a place of extraordinary historical layering, where the Spanish colonial city of Intramuros sits within its sixteenth-century walls, and the American colonial architecture of Luneta Park stands beside it, and the glass towers of Makati rise behind both. Crystal Serenity berths at the Manila International Cruise Terminal. A private car and guide for the Intramuros circuit: Fort Santiago, the San Agustin Church (the oldest stone church in the Philippines, built in 1571, survived the Second World War intact), the Cathedral. Lunch at the Barbara's restaurant inside the Intramuros walls, in a colonial courtyard of courtyard bougainvillaea. The National Museum of Natural History in the afternoon — housed in a magnificent neoclassical building on the Luneta, recently restored.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · ManilaHong Kong SAR, China
Crystal Serenity arrives in Victoria Harbour at dawn on Day 12 — the approach from the south, past Lamma Island and the Green Island lighthouse, until the skyline of Hong Kong Island appears: the International Finance Centre, the Bank of China tower, the Convention Centre on the water's edge, the Peak rising behind all of them. This is one of the great harbour arrivals in the world. Day 12: a private car and guide for the essential Hong Kong circuit — the Peak Tram, the Stanley Market, the Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan, the former police compound at Tai Kwun now converted into a cultural centre. Dinner at the Man Wah restaurant on the twenty-fifth floor of the Mandarin Oriental, with the best view of the harbour illumination in the city. Day 13: disembarkation from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal with private transfers to Hong Kong International Airport. The flight home, and the slow return to ordinary life.
Aboard Crystal Serenity · Hong Kong / DisembarkationThe Onboard Experience
The Vessel · South China Sea
Gulf of Thailand to Victoria Harbour
Crystal Serenity carries 848 guests — one of the most favourable space-to-guest ratios on the ocean. The Crystal Penthouse runs to 270 sqm. Six restaurants, including a Nobu licensed by the original chef-patron, are included in the fare. A concert grand piano occupies the main atrium. The ship has a full-size tennis court and a 550-seat theatre. It is a very large yacht.
Destination · Days 9–10
Philippines
Boracay's White Beach — 4 kilometres of powdered coral sand, closed and rehabilitated by the Philippine government in 2018, and now at its finest — is the defining beach of Southeast Asia. Crystal Serenity anchors offshore; the island is explored by private tender, outrigger excursion and the ship's own water sports team.
Destination · Days 12–13
Hong Kong SAR, China
The arrival at Victoria Harbour at dawn — the IFC tower, the Peak, the neon-lit waterfront of Tsim Sha Tsui across the water — is the most dramatic urban harbour arrival on earth. Crystal Serenity's position in the harbour puts the entire skyline at the angle it was designed to be seen from: not from above, not from a rooftop, but from the water's surface, at the level it was built for.
Private Enquiry
This voyage is presented as a point of departure. We will tailor the suite category, pre- and post-voyage arrangements, private shore excursions, and any special occasion wishes to your exact preferences. A Martins Travel cruise specialist will respond personally within 24 hours.