For travelers who are in their element in the halls of museums and hushed theaters, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection offers a singular way to soak in the world’s cultural capitals—by sea. Its trio of modern, intimate vessels (Evrima, Ilma, and Luminara) deliver culture-loving travelers to stunning shores where creativity flourishes. Each yacht, designed to feel like a floating boutique resort, has no more than 452 guests, all-suite accommodations featuring private terraces, and signature experiences from Michelin-starred and James Beard Award–winning chefs.
When passengers on The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection pull themselves away from the AquaBanas (floating lounge spaces), multicourse tasting menus with no buffets in sight, and onboard art collections, they can enjoy ports in destinations that include Rome, Portofino, Gustavia, Monte Carlo, Saint-Tropez, Barcelona, Virgin Gorda, Tahiti, San Juan, and Sandy Ground in Anguilla. For those who appreciate fine art as much as fine wine, here are five places to find art and culture aboard a Ritz-Carlton Yacht for a trip filled with meaning and inspiration.
The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s Luminara
Courtesy of Luxury Group
See Barcelona’s Gaudí architecture
All three of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s vessels sail to Barcelona. Choose a mid-August itinerary to time a trip with Festa Major de Gràcia, a neighborhood-wide celebration where residents decorate 17 themed streets in a friendly competition culminating in fireworks.
Even when there isn’t an art-focused fiesta in town, Barcelona is perennially an open-air museum. It’s a city where the very bones are beautiful, where Antoni Gaudí’s genius bursts forth from façades, spires, and tiled benches. At Park Güell, his candy-colored wonderland, visitors can walk among ceramic lizards and gingerbread-like pavilions. The still-unfinished Sagrada Família inspires awe with its Gothic-meets-modernist majesty—and enduring century-long construction timeline.
Beyond Gaudí in the Catalan capital, Museu Picasso features one of the most extensive collections of the artist’s early work. Fundació Joan Miró invites art lovers into the world of one of Spain’s greatest surrealists, and its five-month exhibit celebrating Miró’s special relationship with American artists, including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, runs until February 2026.
Gallery hoppers will also find design showcases at the Museu del Disseny at Glòries and thought-provoking contemporary exhibitions at MACBA (The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona). To mark its 30th anniversary this year, MACBA has unveiled a collection exhibition celebrating three decades of boundary-pushing art and its evolving dialogue with today’s cultural landscape.
Cape Town’s Route 67 art trail
South Africa’s “Mother City” is a painter’s muse and a playground for art and design devotees, and passengers aboard Luminara’s Cape Town sailing—which calls at the Route 67 art trail honoring Nelson Mandela—can enjoy the best of it. Stroll the technicolor homes of Bo-Kaap or let the blooms at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden inspire you.
Art-drenched days should include a visit to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, a picturesque harbor front that’s home to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the world’s largest museum dedicated solely to contemporary African art. The building itself is a sculptural masterpiece, a transformed grain silo imagined by visionary British designer Thomas Heatherwick CBE. Inside, cylindrical spaces soar and swirl, showcasing bold, complex works from across Africa and the diaspora. The permanent collection includes more than 500 works, spanning sculpture, video, installation, and photography.
The Southern Guild hosts fairs and exhibits Tuesday to Friday, and First Thursdays give visitors the chance to explore open studios, installations, and live performances on foot in the city center. At the Norval Foundation, the exhibition “We, the People,” on view until November 2025, explores democracy not as a finished project, but as a living, creative act, with art serving as a medium for protest and belonging. In February, collectors and curators converge for Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Africa’s most significant contemporary art event.
The National Gallery and neon gardens in Singapore
The National Gallery Singapore
Courtesy of Luxury Group
In Singapore, the future leans on the past in the most elegant of ways. The art scene here embraces tradition while looking to tomorrow with futuristic trees lighting up the night and pre-war buildings reimagined as design studios, bakeries, and textile shops.
Those sailing aboard The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s 226-suite Luminara yacht can count Singapore as a spectacular port of call. The Civic District is a fitting place to begin. Previously the seat of colonial government, its stately buildings now house cultural institutions.
The National Gallery Singapore features the world’s most extensive collection of Southeast Asian modern art, and The Arts House is in the former Old Parliament House. At the National Gallery, you can gaze at stunning impressionist works from Degas, Renoir, Manet, and Monet during their Singapore debut from November 2025 until March 2026. Amble along the Jubilee Walk, a nearly five-mile, self-guided heritage trail that connects landmarks and public sculptures, telling the nation’s story from a fishing village to the futuristic powerhouse it is today.
Film lovers will appreciate how Singapore’s cinematic history lives on in spaces like Capitol Theatre and the Cathay Gallery, while contemporary photographers find inspiration and community at Objectifs: Centre for Photography and Film. Check out the domed greenhouses at Gardens by the Bay, as seen in the 2018 romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, and the dazzling array of outdoor sculptures that includes Marc Quinn’s levitating baby, Planet.
Galleries, murals, and movies in Cannes
Sailing into Cannes in May aboard Evrima or Ilma has a cinematic quality. Home to the world’s most celebrated film festival, this French Riviera town is synonymous with style, stardom, and standing ovations. But behind the flashbulbs and flowing gowns, Cannes also offers a quietly profound cultural scene, steeped in centuries of art and Provençal heritage.
Admire the limelight in the iconic La Croisette promenade, then head up the hill to Le Suquet, Cannes’ charming old quarter. At the summit, the Musée des Explorations du Monde (formerly the Musée de la Castre) presents a diverse collection of art and antiquities in a medieval monastery overlooking the Bay of Cannes and the Îles de Lérins. Until November 2025, the exhibition L’art de faire mouche spotlights West African slingshots as unexpected works of art, blending function with sculpture, humor, and symbolism.
From May to December, La Malmaison, a waterfront gallery, showcases exhibits that pay homage to 20th- and 21st-century artists, including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Stefan Szczesny, and Christine Boumeester. Hurtebrize Art Gallery is the place to peruse carefully curated works of French Abstraction on La Croisette. At the Royal Fort of Sainte-Marguerite, there’s mystery and intrigue courtesy of The Man in the Iron Mask’s cell. Simply wander the streets for public art. Large-scale painted walls in Cannes depict cinematic icons—a sultry Marilyn Monroe here, a broody Robert De Niro there.
Museums and opera in Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Courtesy of Luxury Group
There may be no port more tailored to a yacht than Monte Carlo, with its Grand Prix–watching residents, belle époque buildings, and art-filled palaces. At Palais Princier, hidden Italian Renaissance frescoes were uncovered within its historic walls—some 6,500 square feet of mythical scenes, including Hercules’ labors and the abduction of Europa, have been lovingly restored. Time your visit for 11:55 a.m. to witness the regal Changing of the Guard on the palace square. Moments from the palace, the Oceanographic Museum, founded by Prince Albert I and once curated by Jacques Cousteau, offers aquariums and maritime relics alongside ocean-inspired works of art.
At the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, which occupies two elegant villas, see graduates from the Princess Grace Academy perform at Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. Or enjoy the acoustics at Opéra de Monte-Carlo during a performance. C’est Magnifique by Roberto Alagna and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats are on the program until December 2025. Come for July’s Monaco Art Week to attend a gathering that attracts elite collectors and curators with the same magnetism as the famous casino that draws roulette players.
Whether aboard Evrima, Ilma, or Luminara, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s custom private excursions ensure that art and culture follow you from ship to shore and as far as the aesthete’s eye can see.
