The prestigious World Travel Awards  has announced that Royal Caribbean International cruise line has won the title of Africa's Leading Cruise Line of 2010. Executives of Royal Caribbean were attending in London to receive this outstanding award for 2010. The World Travel Awards are the most comprehensive and prestigious awards program in the tourism industry today.

On contacting the awards organization, I was told: " World Travel Awards is the most prestigious, comprehensive and sought after awards programme in the global travel and tourism industry. To be voted a World Travel Award by a process involving 183,000 travel tourism and hospitality professionals across the globe is the highest accolade a company can receive."

Royal Caribbean sails to Africa via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. The port of Alexandria, Egypt is a modern, bustling city with an astounding past: think of Caesar and Cleopatra, the Ptolemies, and Marc Antony - the history of ancient Egypt comes alive for you when you visit. As you approach Alexandria, you can see the modern and ancient interwoven in front of you, increasing the thrill of your luxurious travel aboard ship. Museums and sites abound in this city, and day tours into the desert beyond are common. We recommend you focus on museums and cuisine - some of the finest in the world on both counts!

Leaving Alexandria and sailing through the Suez Canal, surrounded by desert and lush oases, your enormous luxury liner sails through the canal and into the Red Sea like a vision from mythology. The canal was opened in 1869, built mostly by French and British companies but using huge numbers of slave labourers. The British government opposed the construction of the canalfro this very reason, during the ten years it took to build. Today the desert is interspersed with lush tropical scenery, farms and villages, and locals farm and trade, just as it must have been along many rivers in Egypt 4,000 years ago!