Part of the attraction of cruises is their ability to let people visit different ports of call. When it comes to luxury cruises, they ferry their passengers to some very special places. Cruise-booking website cruisecompete.com compiles statistics every month on which destinations are the most popular with their customers. Here are their top 5 ports of call for luxury cruisers in September.

1. Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy
The capital of the Caribbean island of St. Barts is blessed with a tropical climate which kisses it with gentle trade winds. The city is home to a variety of high-end boutiques that attract big spenders from the cruise ships that visit. It also happens to be stunningly beautiful.

2. Bora Bora, French Polynesia
There are few names as evocative of tropical splendour than Bora Bora. Part of the Society Islands, it is surrounded by the impossibly blue waters of a lagoon formed by the barrier reef that circles the once volcanic island. Part of the reason it attracts luxury travellers is simply because they are the only ones who can afford to travel that far.

3. Kusadasi, Turkey
This resort town on Turkey’s Aegean coast has been a center for art and culture since antiquity, with many societies calling it home over the millennia. Today, people come to enjoy the beaches and explore the bars, restaurants and shops that line the streets of the old town.

4. Bar Harbor, Maine
This small New England town may not sound exotic compared to other ports of call, but it has long attracted the rich and famous as a summer retreat. Many U.S. presidents, industrialists and celebrities have flocked here over the years to escape their busy lives and they continue to come. Cruise passengers exploring the northeeastern U.S. and Atlantic Canada often stop through Bar Harbor.

5. Sydney, Australia
This Australian city is famous for its iconic opera house and harbour bridge which are the sights every cruise passenger will see as their ship steams off to exotic ports of call in the South Seas. Many of them stay a few extra days in Sydney, before or after their cruise, to enjoy all of the delights that the city has to offer.

Source: OCanada.com, Sept 2014

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