How to cruise like an oligarch

Crystal Cruises has won a string of awards for its butlers, fine dining and the general fabulousness of its two big, luxurious ships. And we mean big: the larger of the two, Crystal Serenity, carries 1,080 passengers.

Now Crystal is courting affluent adventure travellers, which requires something altogether more nippy. So the line has bought a 25-year-old yacht, gutted it and relaunched it as Crystal Esprit, carrying just 62 passengers to explore the Seychelles in winter and the Adriatic in summer.

I was intrigued. Could the famous Crystal experience be replicated on a ship this small? Because the itinerary — from…