ports of call

Noun

port of call (plural ports of call)

1. Any port (except its home port) being visited by a ship, especially to load or unload cargo or passengers or to take on supplies.
   • Serving the flat and fertile south-eastern part of Co. Cork is the railway that runs from Glanmire Road Station in Cork City to the popular seaside resort of Youghal (pronounced "Yawl") and the town of Cobh (pronounced "Cove"), which is Ireland's port of call for transatlantic liners.1955 May, Walter McGrath and Colm Creedon, “The Cork-Youghal-Cobh Section of C.I.E.”, in Railway Magazine, page 308
2. (figuratively) A place visited.
   • My first port of call was the home of an old friend of my mother's, an American woman who'd married a French man.2002, Phil Cousineau, Robert A Johnson, Coincidence Or Destiny?: Stories of Synchronicity That Illuminate Our Lives