Low golden light across still water toward snow-covered Antarctic mountains

Cruises & custom travel · Planned for milestone occasions

Extraordinary journeys for life's defining moments.

Thoughtfully planned cruises and custom vacations shaped around your interests, your pace, and the occasion you want to celebrate.

A sculpted white iceberg under a clear blue sky, dark rock behind it — Antarctica. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

Planned for

Anniversaries
Retirement
Significant birthdays
Family celebrations
Long-imagined travel

From the travel journal

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Meet your advisor

Dana Wallace Cash

I began traveling internationally in 1973. In 1975, my husband and I took our parents to Israel, and I have been planning trips around the people and occasions that matter ever since — more than fifty years of travel, seven continents and more than 65 countries, many of them reached through a career in medicine.

I work with people marking something: an anniversary, a retirement, a birthday with a number attached, a trip that has been waiting a long time. The planning starts with a conversation, not a brochure.

— Dana

How the planning works

First

A conversation

What the occasion is, who is travelling, how you like to spend a day, and what you would rather avoid. No fee, now or later, and no obligation.

Then

A proposal built for you

Ship or itinerary, cabin or room category, the excursions worth taking and the ones worth skipping, and how the days actually fit together.

Throughout

Support while you travel

You’ll have your documents, your transfers, and my email if something shifts while you are away — a delayed flight, a changed port, a question about what comes next. I check email daily, though not around the clock. Anything urgent, including medical, goes to your operator’s 24-hour line, your travel insurer, or local emergency services.

Tell me what you are celebrating.

Send a short note about the occasion and roughly when you are thinking of travelling. I will come back to you personally.

The travel journal

Notes from the road, the ship, and the planning desk

Stories from places I have actually been, written to be useful as well as read. Where something changes — a ship, a lodge, an entry requirement — I say so rather than pretend otherwise.

Across the Years · Antarctica 65°S 62°W

The seventh continent, and what it asks of you

By Dana Wallace Cash Travelled recently Reading time 7 min

A long fractured glacier wall in soft light, brash ice scattered on the water below — Antarctica. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

My husband and I went to Antarctica for a reason that will sound trivial written down and did not feel trivial at all: it was the seventh continent. Six had accumulated over about thirty years, some for work and some for pleasure, and the seventh had stayed stubbornly theoretical. Booking it turned it into a date on a calendar, which is the only thing that ever really makes a trip happen.

What I did not expect was how much of the experience is decided before you leave. Antarctica is the clearest example I know of a trip where the operator, the ship and the itinerary matter more than the destination — because the destination is the same ice for everyone, and what differs is how close you get to it, how often, and in what company.

The Drake is the price of admission

Everyone asks about the crossing. The honest answer is that it varies enormously and nobody can promise you a calm one. We were fortunate. Plenty of people are not. If the possibility of two rough days at sea is going to dominate your thinking for the six months before departure, there are itineraries that fly across instead, at considerably greater cost and with their own weather risk.

The ice does not perform on schedule. Everything about the trip is built around that, and the ships that handle it best are the ones that treat the itinerary as a proposal.

What the small-ship difference actually buys

Landing regulations limit how many people can be ashore at one site at a time. That single rule shapes the entire experience. On a smaller vessel, more of your day is spent off the ship. On a larger one, more of it is spent waiting for your group to be called. Neither is wrong, but the difference is not a matter of luxury — it is a matter of hours.

An expedition ship at anchor among ice, with a penguin colony on a rocky outcrop in the foreground — Another expedition vessel at anchor, seen from a landing site. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

A single gentoo penguin standing on wet grey rocks — At a landing site. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

A large iceberg with dark rock behind it and brash ice scattered across still water — Brash ice and a grounded berg. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

Sun breaking through cloud over open water scattered with ice, mountains on the horizon — Antarctica. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

Who this trip genuinely suits

It suits people who are content to be outdoors in cold, damp conditions for several hours a day, who can manage a step down into a small boat with a hand from a crew member, and who will not be disappointed if a planned landing is replaced at short notice with a better one. It suits couples marking something. It suits solo travellers rather well, because the shared-expedition atmosphere does a lot of the work.

It suits less well anyone who wants a predictable schedule, a warm pool deck and a guaranteed set of ports. That is a different, perfectly good holiday, and I will happily plan you one.

Practical notes

Build in a night in the departure city before the sailing. Flight disruption to the tip of South America is not rare, and the ship will not wait.
Waterproof trousers matter more than a heavy coat. Most expedition operators lend a parka; very few lend the trousers.
Motion sickness medication is worth having whether or not you think you need it. Start it before the crossing, not during.
Photograph in short bursts and warm the camera gradually when you come inside.

Ships, operators, landing rules, prices and entry requirements change. Treat everything above as an account of one trip, not current booking advice — I confirm the details afresh for every client at the time of planning.

The seventh continent did not change my life. It did something more modest and more lasting: it gave my husband and me a week of days that were completely unlike any other days, which at a certain point is what you are actually buying.

A dark rock peak rising above a smooth snow dome, dark water in the foreground — Antarctica. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

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Across the Years · Peru 13°09′S 72°32′W

Machu Picchu with two generations

By Dana Wallace Cash Travelled recently Reading time 9 min

Four travellers on the viewpoint above Machu Picchu, Huayna Picchu wrapped in cloud behind them — Machu Picchu. My husband, my son, his wife and me.

There were four of us: my husband and me, my son and his wife. Two generations, two very different ideas of what a good day looks like, and one destination that everybody had agreed on without much discussion. Machu Picchu is like that. It is one of the few places where nobody in the group needs persuading.

What nobody warns you about is that the citadel is the easy part of the plan. The hard part is everything around it — the altitude, the transfers, the question of how much country you try to see on either side, and the quiet arithmetic of whether four adults with different stamina can enjoy the same itinerary.

Altitude sets the shape of the trip

Here is the thing most people have backwards. Cusco sits at roughly 3,400 metres. Machu Picchu is at about 2,430. You do not climb up to the citadel — you come down to it. Which means the demanding part of your trip is the city you fly into, not the ruin you came for.

We built extra time into the front of the itinerary before going higher, and I would do it again. Whether that is the right approach for you is a question for your own physician, not for me — I plan the days, not the medicine. But I will say that every family group I have since talked to about Peru has been glad of the buffer, and the ones who skipped it spent their first day indoors.

You do not climb up to Machu Picchu. You come down to it. Plan the trip around Cusco's altitude, not the citadel's.

The Sacred Valley is not a transit day

Most itineraries treat the valley as the corridor between Cusco and the train. That is a waste, and it is also lower than Cusco, which makes it a more comfortable place to spend the early part of the trip.

Moray is the one that stopped all four of us. Concentric stone terraces cut into a bowl in the ground, each ring a slightly different microclimate — an agricultural experiment built at a scale you cannot really photograph. And the salt pans at Maras are thousands of shallow evaporation ponds stepped down a ravine, still worked by the families who hold the rights to them. Neither takes long. Both are the kind of thing people remember longer than the famous stop.

Concentric circular agricultural terraces set into a natural bowl at Moray — Moray, Sacred Valley.

Thousands of shallow white salt-evaporation ponds stepped down a ravine at Maras — The salt pans at Maras.

There is also terracing everywhere you look that is not on anybody's list — hillsides stepped by hand centuries ago and still holding. Ask your guide to stop. The unscheduled ten minutes are often the good ones.

Wind-rippled sand dunes stretching to distant hills under a pale overcast sky — The desert coast, southern Peru.

The coast, before the mountains

This is the part of Peru people skip, and it is the reason our trip worked. The coast is at sea level. Spending the first days there — Lima, then south to the desert and the offshore islands — gives a family group time to adjust to the time zone before adding altitude to the list of things their bodies are dealing with.

It also happens to be interesting. The islands off the coast are dense with seabirds and sea lions, reached by a fast boat on cold Pacific water. The dunes inland are enormous, and you can go out onto them in a buggy, which is either the highlight of the trip or the thing you politely sit out — worth knowing which you are before you book it.

A guano-streaked rock island with seabirds wheeling above it over grey Pacific water — Seabird islands off the Peruvian coast.

Ancient agricultural terraces stepped down a green hillside below high mountains — Terracing in the Sacred Valley.

A group of travellers standing beside dune buggies on a broad sand slope — Out on the dunes. Not compulsory, and worth deciding in advance.

Time it for something happening

We were in both Lima and Cusco while there was something on in the plaza — costume, procession, a crowd that was local rather than assembled for visitors. None of that was luck. Peru's calendar is full, particularly around the middle of the year, and building the trip around a date rather than around availability changes what the days feel like.

Dancers in full skirts of green, orange and blue performing in a colonial plaza in Lima — Dancers in the plaza, Lima.

A procession in costume filling a stone plaza in Cusco, crowds watching from all sides — A procession in Cusco.

Eat properly

Peru is one of the genuinely great food countries, and this is the easiest place for a family group to find common ground. The cooking runs from serious restaurant kitchens down to a fruit stall where somebody hands you something you have never seen before and waits to see your face. Both are worth your time. Build at least one unhurried meal into each day rather than treating food as refuelling between sites.

Two travellers tasting fresh fruit at a covered market stall stacked with tropical produce — A market stall in Lima, and something new to try.

A plated dish of gnocchi in cream sauce with grilled meat and edible flowers — Dinner in Cusco. Peru takes its restaurants seriously.

Who this trip suits

Family groups, strongly — which is not true of every headline destination. There is enough range that a party of mixed ages and mixed enthusiasm can each get a day they wanted, and enough shared scale that you are all impressed by the same thing at least once. It suits people who will walk on uneven stone for a few hours and who are relaxed about weather, because the cloud does what it likes and the photographs are better for it.

It suits less well anyone who wants to arrive, see the citadel, and leave. That trip exists. It is expensive for what it is, and it spends the whole budget on the one thing everybody has already seen photographs of.

Practical notes

Give the coast or the Sacred Valley the front of your itinerary. Both are lower than Cusco.
Altitude is a medical question. Talk to your own doctor well before you travel — not the week you leave.
Entry to the citadel is timed and capped, and the permits go early. This is the booking that sets your dates, not your flights.
Uneven stone, steep steps, no handrails in most places. Footwear matters more than it sounds like it should.
Weather in the valley changes within the hour. Layers, and a rain shell that packs small.

Permit rules, timed-entry systems, train services, prices and opening arrangements change regularly in Peru. Treat everything above as an account of one family's trip, not current booking advice — I confirm the details afresh for every client at the time of planning.

The photograph at the top of this page has all four of us in it, taken by a stranger, in cloud thick enough that you can barely see what we came for. It is still the one I keep. That is usually how it goes: the trip you remember is the one you took with the people, not the one in the brochure.

Four travellers standing above the terraces of Machu Picchu with the cloud lifted — Machu Picchu, later the same morning, once the cloud lifted.

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Across the Years · Tanzania 6°22′S 34°53′E

The safari we still measure others against

By Dana Wallace Cash Reading time 8 min

A line of elephants crossing golden grassland below baobabs and a heavy sky — Tanzania. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

Three of us went: my husband, a close friend, and me. We have been on safari since, in other countries and at other prices, and none of them has displaced this one. That is worth examining, because the reasons have almost nothing to do with luck and almost everything to do with decisions made months earlier.

People imagine a safari is about what you see. It is really about how many hours you spend in a position to see it, who is sitting beside you explaining what you are looking at, and whether your vehicle can stay out when the light turns good.

The guide is the trip

If you take one thing from this: the single largest variable in a safari is not the camp, the country or the season. It is the person driving.

A good guide reads the ground — a disturbance in the grass, the direction the vultures are circling, which way a herd is drifting and why. A less good one drives to where the radio says something already is, along with everyone else. The difference across a week is enormous, and it rarely appears in a brochure. It is the thing I ask about first when a client tells me they want to do this.

The largest variable is not the camp, the country or the season. It is the person driving.

A full lion pride resting in the shade of a tree — two adult males, lionesses and cubs — An entire pride in the shade. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

What you actually see, and what you might not

We were fortunate. A full pride resting through the heat of the day, two males among them. A leopard on a rock in open light, which is the one most people go home without. A cheetah crossing in front of the vehicle. Elephant, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, and more birds than anyone expects to care about until they are looking at them.

But being fortunate is the right word, and I use it deliberately. Nobody can promise you a leopard. What a well-planned trip does is maximise the number of chances you get, which is a different thing from a guarantee — and any advisor who tells you otherwise is selling rather than planning.

A leopard lying on a rock against a clear blue sky — The one most people go home without.

A cheetah walking across dry grass, body in full stride — A cheetah, crossing.

A large elephant standing in tall golden grass among scrub — Close enough, and no closer.

A giraffe standing beside an acacia in unusually green bush — Giraffe in green bush.

Camp is not a compromise

"Tented camp" alarms people who have not seen one. It should not. A proper camp is canvas over a permanent floor, a real bed, hot water, and a dining tent lit by lanterns where the whole camp eats together and compares the day. It is quieter than a lodge, closer to the animals, and considerably more memorable.

What it is not is soundproof. You will hear things at night. Most people discover this is the part they talk about afterwards.

The interior of a tented camp dining room, lantern-lit, with laid tables under canvas — Dinner under canvas. This is what "tented camp" actually means.

A word about the village visit

Most Tanzania itineraries include a stop at a Maasai village. Ours did. It is worth being straightforward about what that is, because the brochures rarely are.

The village we visited is set up for visitors. People come from the surrounding area, the singing and the dancing and the craft stalls are arranged, you pay, and you are told you may photograph as much as you like. It is a transaction, and everyone in it knows that. What it is not is a window into how anybody actually lives that afternoon.

I do not say that to be sour about it. The money is real and it goes somewhere useful, the people we met were welcoming, and I am glad we went. I say it because I would rather you booked it knowing what it is than felt faintly cheated afterwards, which is what happens to people who were sold it as something else.

Dana Wallace Cash standing with two Maasai women in beaded dress at the visitor village — At the village arranged for visitors.

A Maasai man in a red checked shuka standing beneath an acacia tree — Under the acacia.

If genuine cultural contact matters to you rather than the photograph of it, say so when we plan. There are arrangements — a day with a guide from the community, a stay at a camp that is actually owned locally — that cost more, take longer, and deliver something the standard stop does not. Neither choice is wrong. They are different purchases, and you should know which one you are making.

The crater is a separate trip inside the trip

Descending into Ngorongoro is unlike the rest of it. You drop several hundred metres down the wall into an enclosed floor of grassland, soda lake and marsh, ringed by the rim the whole way round. The density of animals is extraordinary because most of them never leave. It feels less like looking for wildlife than arriving somewhere wildlife already is.

Wetland on the crater floor with hippos in shallow water and the crater wall behind — The crater floor.

A grey crowned crane standing in grass, crest raised — A grey crowned crane.

Dana Wallace Cash and her husband standing on the crater rim with the crater stretching behind them — On the rim, before going down.

Who this trip suits

Anyone who can sit in a vehicle on rough ground for long stretches and stay interested. That is the real requirement, and it is not a small one — the good hours are early and late, the middle of the day is hot and quiet, and the drives are long. People who need a schedule and a swimming pool find it tiring. People who like watching find it unmatched.

It suits couples, it suits friends travelling together, and it suits a milestone — a retirement, a significant birthday — because it is genuinely unlike anything else you will do that year. It suits families with older children well and younger ones less well, for the same reason: the hours.

Practical notes

Ask who your guide will be, by name, before you book. If nobody can tell you, that is your answer about the operator.
A private vehicle rather than a shared one changes the week more than any upgrade in accommodation. If the budget must stretch in one direction, stretch it here.
Bring binoculars each. One pair between two people means one person waiting.
Soft-sided bags — light aircraft between camps have strict weight and shape limits.
Mornings are genuinely cold before the sun is up, whatever the daytime temperature. Layers.
Health requirements, vaccination rules and any medication for the region are a conversation with your own doctor, well before you travel.

Camps, operators, guides, park fees, vehicle rules and entry requirements all change. Treat this as an account of one trip, not current booking advice — I confirm the details afresh for every client at the time of planning.

What stays with me is not a particular animal. It is the last hour of the day, when the light goes long and gold and the whole plain seems to exhale, and nobody in the vehicle says anything for a while.

Sunset over the plain, banded cloud above a dark horizon — Last light.

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Ports & Excursions · Cape Town 33°55′S 18°25′E

Three days at the Cape, and what to do with them

By Dana Wallace Cash Travelled recently Reading time 8 min

A bay below a long ridge of mountains, town spread along the shore in late light — Cape Town. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

This trip was built around work. I had three days of touring and not an hour more, which is the position a great many people find themselves in — Cape Town bolted onto a conference, a stopover, or the front of a longer itinerary somewhere else.

Three days is not enough for Cape Town. It is, however, enough to have a genuinely good time there if you accept that in advance and plan for compression rather than coverage. What follows is what I would do with three days, and what I would leave out without regret.

The mistake is trying to see everything

Cape Town rewards depth over breadth, and the distances are longer than the map suggests. Pick three things you actually want and do them properly. Everything on a standard five-day list that you skip will still be there.

My three were a game reserve, the peninsula, and the winelands. You could substitute Robben Island, or the mountain, or simply the city itself, and be equally right — the discipline matters more than the choice.

Three days is not enough for Cape Town. It is enough to have a very good time there, if you plan for compression rather than coverage.

Table Mountain lit at night above the glittering lights of the city — The mountain at night. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

You can go on safari from Cape Town

Most people do not realise this, and it is the single most useful thing in this article. A few hours inland from the city, in the Karoo, there are private reserves with the big animals. We went to one of them.

Be clear about what it is and is not. This is not the Serengeti, and it is not Kruger. It is a managed reserve in semi-desert scrub, and the experience is shorter, closer and more controlled. What it is, is a real game drive with lion, rhino, elephant and buffalo, reachable and returnable inside a couple of days, in a part of the country whose own scenery — pale scrub against hard mountains — looks like nowhere else.

For someone with three days, or someone whose companion has always wanted to see a lion and will not get a fortnight in East Africa, it does something no other add-on can.

A male lion with a full dark mane sitting upright among yellow flowering scrub — Karoo lion, among the flowering scrub.

A white rhinoceros walking through low grey-green scrub — White rhino.

Elephant, with the mountains behind.

A giraffe walking through pale Karoo scrub under an overcast sky — A giraffe in the Karoo — not the picture most people carry.

The antelope are worth as much attention as the predators, and almost nobody gives them any. A kudu bull's horns are among the more extraordinary things in nature, and a springbok in good light is a small masterpiece of design.

A kudu bull with long spiral horns standing among thorn scrub — Kudu bull.

A springbok standing alert in grey-green scrub, flank stripe sharp — Springbok.

The peninsula is one day, and it should be a long one

Driving south to the Cape of Good Hope takes the better part of a day if you do it properly, and doing it properly means stopping. The point itself is a headland with a sign on it, and the sign is not why you go — the drive along the coast is why you go.

On the way there are penguins on a beach, which sounds like a novelty item and is not. They live there, on white sand between granite boulders in turquoise water, and the setting would be worth the stop even without them.

Two African penguins standing on white sand, one looking up — They live there.

A rocky island covered with basking seals — A seal colony offshore.

Turquoise water and granite boulders at a Cape beach, penguins on the white sand — The beach the penguins chose.

Dana Wallace Cash and her husband beside the Cape of Good Hope sign on the rocky headland — The sign at the Cape of Good Hope. Everyone takes this photograph, and so did we.

The winelands need half a day and deserve two

Under an hour from the city there are valleys of vineyard running up to bare grey mountains, and estates that have been making wine for three centuries. With three days you get an afternoon. Take it anyway.

A tasting here is unlike a tasting anywhere else I have been, mostly because of the setting — you are sitting outdoors looking at the reason the wine tastes the way it does. If you can only fit one estate, pick one with a view and stay longer rather than racing between three.

Rows of vineyard on a valley floor below jagged grey mountains — The winelands.

Dana Wallace Cash raising a glass of red wine on a terrace above vineyards — An afternoon well spent.

And the city itself

Bo-Kaap, the old quarter on the slope below Signal Hill, is the one walk I would not skip even on a compressed schedule. Houses painted in flat saturated colour, steep cobbled streets, and the mountain appearing at the end of them.

A steep street of brightly painted houses in pink, green and yellow under low cloud — Bo-Kaap.

Dana Wallace Cash at the waterfront, framed against the harbour with Table Mountain behind — The harbour, with the mountain behind.

Who this trip suits

Almost everybody, which is not something I say often. Cape Town is unusually good at accommodating different appetites in one party — somebody wants wildlife, somebody wants wine, somebody wants to walk a city, and all three can be satisfied within an hour's drive of the same hotel.

It suits a short add-on particularly well, which is how most people first go. It also rewards a much longer stay, and almost everybody who goes for three days says afterwards that they should have taken a week.

Practical notes

Distances take longer than they look. Build in more driving time than the map suggests, particularly on the peninsula.
The weather on the peninsula can be entirely different from the weather in the city, on the same afternoon. Take a layer whatever the forecast says.
The mountain closes in high wind without much notice. If seeing it matters, plan it for your first clear morning rather than saving it for the last day.
A driver-guide for the peninsula day is worth more than it costs. The stopping is the point, and it is hard to stop when you are the one driving.
Seasons are reversed. The Southern Hemisphere summer runs from roughly November to March.

Reserves, estates, access arrangements, opening hours and entry requirements change. Treat this as an account of one short trip, not current booking advice — I confirm the details afresh for every client at the time of planning.

Three days was not enough, and I knew it would not be before I went. It was still one of the better short trips I have taken, which is the argument for going anyway rather than waiting for the fortnight that never quite arrives.

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Meet your advisor

Dana Wallace Cash

More than fifty years of international travel, seven continents, more than 65 countries — and a physician’s eye for the details.

In 1975, my husband and I took our parents to Israel. Since then I have planned trips for my family to Mexico, Peru, Africa, Antarctica and a great many places between, and on most of them I was the one holding the itinerary. What stayed constant was the planning: the research before a trip, the small adjustments during it, and the running mental list of what I would do differently.

Much of my travel came through medicine. As a physician and allergist, I served on the World Allergy Organization Board of Directors and as president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. For more than a decade I have organised and taught World Allergy Organization training programmes for local doctors — nineteen programmes in fifteen countries, from Zimbabwe and Tanzania to Mongolia, Georgia and Paraguay. Working beside physicians in each country gave me a close view of local health care, daily life, and the people behind the sights.

That background shapes how I plan for older travellers and travellers with special needs: how far the walk is from the tender to the town, what altitude does on the first day, which cabins and hotels are truly accessible, how to carry medications across borders, how to manage food allergies at sea, and which travel insurance covers pre-existing conditions. I do not give medical advice about your trip; that stays with your own doctor. What I bring is a plan that answers those questions before you leave.

I am new to working as a travel advisor, but not to planning travel. I work independently, which means I am not steering you toward whatever a particular company needs to sell this quarter. I am steering you toward the trip that fits the occasion, the group, and the pace you actually want.

What I plan

Cruises and grand voyages, custom vacations, pre- and post-cruise stays, shore excursions and private touring, transfers, and help with documentation.

It begins with a conversation, and a long one. What the occasion is and who is coming. The places you have been meaning to see for years, and the ones you would happily return to. Whether you want a ship large enough to have a theatre or small enough to reach a harbour the big ones cannot. How you like a day to feel — out early and back late, or a slow morning, a good lunch, and one thing done properly in the afternoon.

Then the particulars, because they are what you will remember. Where the cabin or the room sits, and what you see when you open the curtains. How you like to eat: the chef’s table and the tasting menu, or the market stall and the plate you cannot identify. Whether the wine matters. Which celebrations should be quietly arranged and which should be a surprise. Who in the party walks slowly, who wants to be up at dawn, and what everyone would rather avoid.

I take all of that away and come back with a proposal built around it — the itinerary, the ship or the hotel, the rooms worth the difference in price and the ones that are not, the excursions I would take and the ones I would skip. We adjust it until it is right. Then I handle the booking, the documents, and the small arrangements you would otherwise be making yourself at eleven at night.

While you travel

While you are away, you will have my email if something shifts — a delayed flight, a changed port, a question about what comes next. I check email daily, though not around the clock. Anything urgent, including medical, goes to your cruise line, hotel or tour operator’s 24-hour line, your travel insurer, or local emergency services.

I am not able to provide emergency or medical services; I recommend travel insurance for every trip, and we will walk through the options while we plan.

There are no planning or service fees

You won't pay me to plan your trip — not for our first conversation, not for the itinerary, and not for the changes we make along the way. When you book, you pay the cruise line, hotel or tour operator directly, at their price. I am compensated through commissions paid by those travel companies, never by you.

Where I have been

Seven continents and more than 65 countries. In Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Morocco and Egypt. In Asia and the Pacific: Japan, China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, India, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Bali, Australia and New Zealand. In the Middle East and the Caucasus: Israel, Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the Americas: Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Most of Europe, from Portugal to Finland. And Antarctica. Having been somewhere is not the same as having current advice about it — for anything operational, I confirm afresh at the time of planning.

Training and certifications

Cruise lines train the advisors who sell them, and I have completed their programs so the advice you get reflects how each ship and company works today.

Silversea Certified — Silversea Experience Certificate, Silversea Academy, October 2026.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises — RSSC University Associate Degree, October 2026.
Virgin Voyages — Seacademy, Violet level (First Mate), October 2026.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises, RSSC University Associate

Virgin Voyages Certified First Mate, Violet level

Dana Wallace Cash, smiling, a soft dawn sky behind her — Dana Wallace Cash.

At a glance

Physician and allergist
More than fifty years of international travel
Seven continents, more than 65 countries
Milestone occasions a speciality
Silversea Certified advisor
Regent Seven Seas Cruises University Associate
Virgin Voyages Seacademy, Violet level
No planning or service fees
Independent Seller of Travel
An Independent affiliate of KHM Travel Group
Based in Florida

Practical

Privacy

What we collect, why, and what we will never do with it. Last updated 25 September 2026.

This website is operated by Premier Milestone Travel LLC, Hollywood, Florida (“Premier Milestone Travel,” “we,” “us”). Dana Wallace Cash is the owner and your travel advisor. This notice explains how we handle the information you share through this site and in planning your travel.

What we collect

We collect only what you choose to send us:

Inquiry form: your name, email address, phone number (optional), the occasion, destinations of interest, approximate dates, party size, budget basis, anything you tell us about what would make the trip meaningful, and whether you would like travel journal updates.
Reader-note form: the name you would like shown, your email address, your note, and your publishing preferences.
Email and phone: anything you send us directly.

This site does not use advertising cookies, analytics, or tracking tools. Our hosting provider, Netlify, keeps standard technical logs (such as IP address and browser type) to operate and secure the site.

Please do not send passport numbers, payment card details, or medical information through the website forms. When a booking requires them, we will arrange a secure way to provide them.

How we use it

To reply to your inquiry and plan and book your travel.
To send travel journal updates, only if you ask for them.
To review reader notes and, only with your permission, publish them.
To keep the business records the law requires.

Who we share it with

We never sell or rent your personal information. We share it only as needed to serve you:

Travel suppliers (cruise lines, hotels, tour operators, airlines, and insurers) when you ask us to book or quote travel. Their own privacy policies then apply.
KHM Travel Group, our host agency, which processes bookings and commissions.
Netlify, which hosts this website and stores form submissions for us.
Authorities, when the law requires it.

Travel journal updates

Updates are optional and separate from any inquiry. Every email includes a way to unsubscribe, or you can simply reply and ask to be removed.

Reader notes

Notes are reviewed before anything appears on the site. Nothing is published without your permission, and we will show initials only if you ask. Your email address is never published.

How long we keep it

We keep inquiry and booking information for as long as needed to plan and support your travel and to meet tax, legal, and host-agency record requirements. Information from inquiries that do not lead to travel is deleted on request, or when no longer needed.

Your choices

You may ask to see, correct, or delete the information we hold about you, or to stop receiving email. Write to dana@premiermilestonetravel.com. Some records may need to be kept after a booking for legal reasons; we will tell you if so.

Security

The site is served over an encrypted connection, and access to form submissions is limited to the advisor. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, which is one reason we ask you not to send sensitive details through the forms.

Children

This site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information through it. Details about children travelling in your party are collected from a parent or guardian, only for booking.

Changes and contact

If this notice changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. Questions: Premier Milestone Travel LLC, Hollywood, Florida · dana@premiermilestonetravel.com · 754.270.8656.

Practical

Terms

How this website and our planning services work. Last updated 25 September 2026.

These terms apply to your use of this website and to travel planning services from Premier Milestone Travel LLC (“Premier Milestone Travel,” “we,” “us”). By using the site or our services, you agree to them.

Who we are

Premier Milestone Travel, an Independent affiliate of KHM Travel Group. Dana Wallace Cash is an Independent Seller of Travel and an independent contractor affiliated with KHM Travel Group. KHM Travel Group is registered with the State of Florida as a Seller of Travel. Registration No. ST37113. Fla. Seller of Travel Reg. No. ST37113.

Bookings are made through KHM Travel Group, our host agency, so some confirmations and documents you receive may show its name.

Planning, fees and payment

We do not charge planning or service fees.
Payment for travel is made directly to the cruise line, hotel, tour operator, or other supplier. We do not collect payment for travel ourselves.
We are paid by commission from the suppliers you book with.
An inquiry through this site is not a booking and commits you to nothing.

Supplier terms control your booking

When you book, the supplier’s terms and conditions apply, including deposits, final payment dates, cancellation penalties, changes, and refunds. We will provide those terms, and the written terms you receive at booking control over anything on this website. Prices, availability, and promotions are not guaranteed until the supplier confirms your booking and payment.

Our role

We act as an agent for the suppliers who provide your travel. We do not own or operate ships, airlines, hotels, or tours, and we are not responsible for the acts, omissions, delays, or failures of suppliers, or for events outside our control such as weather, illness, strikes, government action, or natural disasters. To the extent the law allows, our responsibility is limited to our own professional services.

Travel insurance

We strongly recommend comprehensive travel insurance for every trip, including coverage for cancellation, interruption, and medical emergencies abroad. If you choose not to buy it, we may ask you to confirm that decision in writing.

Your responsibilities

Passports, visas, entry and health requirements. Many countries require a passport valid for six months beyond travel.
Checking that names on bookings exactly match your travel documents.
Reviewing confirmations promptly and telling us of any error.
Your own health and fitness for the trip, including any vaccinations or medical advice you may need.

Website content

The travel journal describes personal experiences and opinions. It is general information, not a promise that your trip will be the same, and conditions change. Photographs and writing on this site are © Dana Wallace Cash or used with permission, and may not be copied without written consent.

Reader contributions

If you send a note, you confirm that it is your own and that any photographs are yours to share. If you give permission to publish, you allow us to publish it on this site, lightly edited for length and clarity, with your name or initials as you choose. We may decline to publish any note.

Links

Links to other websites are provided for convenience. We are not responsible for their content or practices.

Law and changes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, and any dispute will be brought in Broward County, Florida. We may update these terms; the version posted here, with its date, applies.

Contact

Premier Milestone Travel LLC, Hollywood, Florida · dana@premiermilestonetravel.com · 754.270.8656.

Ships & Life Aboard · New York to Bermuda 32°18′N 64°47′W

Five days to Bermuda that felt like two weeks

By Dana Wallace Cash Aboard Valiant Lady Sailed 2–7 October 2026 Reading time 5 min

Virgin Voyages ship Valiant Lady, with its red funnel, docked behind trees at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda — *Valiant Lady* docked at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

In early October I sailed from New York to Bermuda and back on Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady: five nights, part work and part pleasure. Two days went to an artificial intelligence conference organized by the WOC STEM Conference and STEM City Travel, with two group dinners and a cocktail party. The rest was vacation. I came home feeling I had been away for two weeks.

The people

The passengers were the most varied group I have met at sea: every adult age (Virgin sails adults only), many nationalities and languages, every kind of profession and background. Common ground was easy to find — a short chat in the lounge, banter at the comedy club, a shared table at dinner, and a pool dance party, which I started.

I came home with more than 40 new friends from the conference. A couple from Pennsylvania who sail Virgin two or three times a year, always in the Massive Suite (about 200 square meters), invited us to dinner at The Wake; their butler walked us there from the evening show. A young couple from New Zealand, sailing back-to-back Bermuda trips, gave me a small gift from home. A New York woman at the next table in Razzle Dazzle was on her fifth Virgin cruise, after the Caribbean, Alaska and Spain; sometimes she travels with friends and sometimes she prefers to go alone. The repeat guests all said the same thing: once you sail Virgin, you come back for the fun, the comfort and the value.

Dana Wallace Cash standing on the pier beside the hull of Valiant Lady, with Virgin Voyages lettered on the ship — On the pier beside *Valiant Lady*. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

Dinner every night somewhere new

Virgin has no main dining room. Instead there are restaurants of different styles, booked in the ship’s app, and I ate at a different one each night: Gunbae for Korean barbecue at a shared grill table, which is the easiest way to meet people on the ship; The Wake; Pink Agave for Mexican; Extra Virgin for Italian; and the Test Kitchen, a four-course experimental menu.

A day aboard

I went to at least three live shows a day. My favorite performer was Diva, a drag artist and a fine singer, who performed both in a small solo venue and on the two-level Red Room stage with a nine-member dance troupe. On Scarlet Night everyone dresses in red, and the deck party with a DJ, couples, solo dancers and a conga line runs well past midnight.

Mornings are the quiet part. At 8 a.m. you can have the upper-deck hot tub almost to yourself, or try the adult tire swings and seesaw. I exercised in the fitness complex, with views of the ocean and the pool, and spent sunny afternoons by the pool.

The limestone Clocktower building with its two clock towers at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda, under a blue sky — The Clocktower building at the Royal Naval Dockyard, a short walk from the ship. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

My Bermuda tip: take the public bus

Skip the tour coach and ride the public bus from the Dockyard, at the island’s western tip, to Hamilton, the capital. The buses are modern, clean and air-conditioned, and with local stops the trip takes 45 minutes to an hour — long enough to see how Bermudians live. One main road runs the length of the island, narrow in places, with ocean on both sides. Inland, the hills are covered with blue, pink, lavender, yellow and green houses.

Locals greeted me warmly. I talked with a young caregiver from the Philippines who has lived in Bermuda for seven years, working as a live-in aide for patients in their homes.

How to do it

Buy tokens at the Visitor Information Centre in the Dockyard, a short walk from the ship. A token for the full-length ride costs $4.50. Cash fare is $5 in exact change, coins only.
Routes 7 (along the South Shore beaches) and 8 (more direct, via Middle Road) run between the Dockyard and Hamilton.
The bus ends at the Hamilton bus terminal, where you catch a return bus. Check the last departure against your all-aboard time.

Palm trees and a waterfront promenade at the Dockyard, with a large Bermuda sign and pastel houses across the water — The waterfront at the Dockyard. Photograph by Dana Wallace Cash.

No lines

From embarkation to disembarkation I barely waited for anything. The app handles reservations and the daily schedule, and a braided wristband serves as room key and charge card.

Who this cruise suits

Couples and friends celebrating an occasion who want entertainment, good food and energy, without a long trip. From New York there are no flights.
Solo travelers. It is easy to meet people.
First-time cruisers who want to find out whether cruising suits them.

Who it may not suit: families with children, since the ship is adults only, and travelers who prefer a quiet, formal ship. This one is lively by design.

I will sail Virgin Voyages again. If you are weighing a short cruise for a birthday, an anniversary or a long weekend, tell me what you are celebrating.

Practical

Accessibility

Everyone should be able to read this site and reach me easily. Last updated 25 September 2026.

Premier Milestone Travel aims to make this website usable by as many people as possible, including people who use screen readers, magnification, or a keyboard instead of a mouse. We work toward the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA.

What we have done

Large body text and strong contrast between text and background.
Descriptive text for photographs, for readers who use screen readers.
Labelled form fields, and menus and links that work from the keyboard.
Pages that adapt to phones and tablets, and that respect your device’s zoom and reduced-motion settings.

If something does not work for you

If any part of this site is hard to use, please tell me. I will help you get the information you need another way, and fix the problem where I can.

You are always welcome to plan and book entirely by phone or email: 754.270.8656 · dana@premiermilestonetravel.com.

Accessible travel

If you or someone in your party has mobility, hearing, vision, dietary, or medical needs, tell me at the start of planning. Cruise lines, hotels, and tour operators vary widely in what they offer, and the right choices are much easier to make early.

Begin your journey

Tell me what you are celebrating.

A short note is enough to start. There is no fee for planning, and this form is not a booking — it commits you to nothing.

Your name

Phone — optional

Occasion

Destination or cruise interests

Approximate dates & flexibility

Party size

Budget Choosing a basis helps; a number is not required yet.

What would make this trip especially meaningful to you?

Send me the occasional travel journal update. Optional, and separate from this inquiry.

Please do not send passport, payment card or medical details through this form.

Thank you — your inquiry has been received. I reply personally to every inquiry within two business days.

Extraordinary journeys for life's defining moments.

From the travel journal

The seventh continent, and what it asks of you

Machu Picchu with two generations

The safari we still measure others against

Three days at the Cape: safari, wine, and the headland

Dana Wallace Cash

How the planning works

A conversation

A proposal built for you

Support while you travel

Tell me what you are celebrating.

Notes from the road, the ship, and the planning desk

Five days to Bermuda that felt like two weeks

The seventh continent, and what it asks of you

Machu Picchu with two generations

The safari we still measure others against

Three days at the Cape: safari, wine, and the headland

The seventh continent, and what it asks of you

The Drake is the price of admission

What the small-ship difference actually buys

Who this trip genuinely suits

Practical notes

Share a memory or tip

Machu Picchu with two generations

Altitude sets the shape of the trip

The Sacred Valley is not a transit day

The coast, before the mountains

Time it for something happening

Eat properly

Who this trip suits

Practical notes

Share a memory or tip

The safari we still measure others against

The guide is the trip

What you actually see, and what you might not

Camp is not a compromise

A word about the village visit

The crater is a separate trip inside the trip

Who this trip suits

Practical notes

Share a memory or tip

Three days at the Cape, and what to do with them

The mistake is trying to see everything

You can go on safari from Cape Town

The peninsula is one day, and it should be a long one

The winelands need half a day and deserve two

And the city itself

Who this trip suits

Practical notes

Share a memory or tip

Dana Wallace Cash

What I plan

While you travel

There are no planning or service fees

Where I have been

Training and certifications

At a glance

Privacy

What we collect

How we use it

Who we share it with

Travel journal updates

Reader notes

How long we keep it

Your choices

Security

Children

Changes and contact

Terms

Who we are

Planning, fees and payment

Supplier terms control your booking

Our role

Travel insurance

Your responsibilities

Website content

Reader contributions

Links

Law and changes