Why Venture Ashore exists
Most cruise shore excursions are built by people who’ve never run one. We’re the opposite. Our team has spent careers inside the cruise and travel industry — designing ships, running guest services on the open ocean, and building independent excursion companies — and along the way we kept noticing the same gap: the average cruiser pays too much, sees too little, and spends their port day worried about the clock.
So we built Venture Ashore to fix all three. Today we curate experiences in
How we work
We curate, we don’t aggregate.
The travel-marketplace approach — list every operator and let the customer figure it out — is exactly how cruisers end up overwhelmed and on the wrong tour. We do the opposite. Our catalog is built through years of operator relationships and a close referral network of trusted partners, with experiences sampled and reviewed wherever we can. The result is a shorter, sharper list — not every tour in every port, just the ones we’d recommend.
We bundle.
Most cruisers face four ports, eight tour options per port, and thirty-two decisions before they even pack.
Our
We know who to trust.
Every partner in our network has been vetted through years of direct relationships, referrals from trusted industry contacts, and wherever possible, on-the-ground sampling by our team. We know who shows up on time, who communicates when something changes, and who still delivers a great day when plans don’t go perfectly. We also know the clock. Everything we book is timed around your ship — because we’ve spent careers in cruise and we know exactly what it costs when something goes wrong at a port. You’re not taking a chance. You’re booking someone we’d put our name behind.
Two promises every excursion ships with
Back-to-Ship Guarantee
If we're ever the reason you miss your ship, we cover the cost to catch up at the next port. Applies to all transportation-included excursions — that's 95% of what we offer
Don’t Port, Don’t Pay
If your ship doesn’t make port — weather, mechanical, anything — your money comes back in full. No hassle. No fine print.
Meet the team behind the tours
Rinat has spent twenty five years in cruise and hospitality. She studied at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, then spent over a decade at Royal Caribbean International - first running guest services on Royal Caribbean ships, then on the corporate side as Head of Strategic Projects on the newbuilding team that designed and launched some of the largest cruise ships in the world, including Oasis of the Seas. She developed and shipped activities booking technology to serve cruisers in over 500 destinations and in 2021 she came on as a founding executive of Venture Ashore, and now leads the company's mission to give cruisers the kind of port day she'd want for her own family.
Simonne brings more than three decades in leisure travel and tourism. She joined Cruising Excursions at its founding in 2011 and spent twelve years building the company’s global operations, ultimately serving as Director and Chief Operating Officer. Before that she ran commercial operations at Seligo for nine years and managed reservations across the Canaries, Costa del Sol, and the Balearics for a decade at Apartments Abroad. Based in the United Kingdom, Simonne is always seeking new experiences to enhance our portfolio, building strong relationships with guides and tour operators while ensuring every tour runs smoothly across our global portfolio.
Corey has spent more than seven years designing and customizing group travel for every kind of occasion — milestone celebrations, LGBTQ+ gatherings, family get-togethers, and once-in-a-lifetime trips. Deep destination knowledge and a personal touch make Corey the teammate who turns “we want to do something special” into a day clients tell stories about.
Olivia brings more than eight years of group-travel expertise to the Venture Ashore team, with a specialty in family travel and ocean-based excursions across the Caribbean and Asia Pacific. She partners closely with travel advisors to coordinate seamless multi-guest itineraries where every detail has to land.
Triin specializes in group tours across Europe and Asia. Strong on local knowledge and unrelenting on the details, she designs days that make the most of every hour in every port — tailored to the group, smooth from pickup to dropoff.
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