The Evergreen Story

In 1980, Evergreen Cruises & Tours (then known as Evergreen Tours) started in Victoria, Australia with tours to Tasmania and other parts of Australia.

In 1988, Evergreen was purchased by the Scenic Group. This opened up the world to more touring destinations and gave Evergreen greater buying strength and the ability to pass on greater value to guests.

In 2000, Evergreen started touring in Canada & Alaska and now is one of the most successful companies taking Australians to Canada. 

In 2008, Evergreen chartered ships on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers in Europe with independent ship partners. 

Our clients wanted to venture further in the world so Evergreen started touring in South America and Africa in 2010. 

As we listened to our guests’ feedback on our chartered ships in Europe we started designing a better river cruise ship to include a pool and cinema. And thus, Emerald Waterways was born in 2014, with two custom built new Star-Ships, Emerald Sky and Emerald Star.

These ships were so good they were awarded by Cruise Critic “Best new river ships for 2014” on the first year of sailing. Testament to this fantastic design and increasing demand, three more Star-Ships were built: the Emerald Sun, Dawn and Destiny. In 2017 Emerald Liberte and Emerald Radiance were custom-designed to sail the waterways of France and Portugal respectively. 

In 2019, Emerald Harmony - Emerald Waterways first Star-Ship outside Europe - launched with the unique ability to sail right into the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.

In 2020, the Emerald Yacht Cruises brand was announced, offering a new luxury superyacht cruising concept on board Emerald Azzurra, a brand new custom-designed 100 guest yacht. The new ship will welcome her first guests in January 2022. 

In March 2021, Emerald Waterways and Emerald Yacht Cruises became known as Emerald Cruises, now a standalone sister brand to Evergreen. Evergreen continues to offer exception value touring in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and beyond. 

Evergreen is one of the oldest leading Australian owned cruise and touring companies helping over 80,000 Australians to Discover the World for the past 40 years.