Travel advisor Ellen Goldman traded crowded summer beaches for windswept archipelagos and forgotten settlements on an expedition voyage from Dublin to Reykjavik that has permanently reshaped the way she thinks about luxury, cruising, and the power of going north.
At a Glance
Iceland expedition sailing via the Seabourn Venture combines luxury accommodations with remote exploration, visiting St. Kilda, the Shetland Islands, and the UK's western coast. The small-ship experience offers refined dining and high-quality entertainment alongside intimate access to rarely visited landscapes, appealing to travelers seeking adventure without sacrificing comfort.
There are summer holidays, and then there are the ones that change your perspective entirely. For travel advisor Ellen Goldman, a recent sailing aboard the Seabourn Venture, an expedition vessel in the Seabourn fleet, delivered exactly that kind of shift. Tracing a route from Dublin to Reykjavik, Iceland, the voyage carved through some of the lesser-traveled stretches of the western coast of the United Kingdom, including the Isle of Noss, the Shetland Islands, and the remote, hauntingly beautiful St. Kilda. What Goldman brought home was not just a collection of photographs, but a renewed conviction about what luxury travel can look like when it trades the predictable for the profound.
A Different Kind of Luxury at Sea
From the moment Goldman stepped aboard, it became clear that the Seabourn Venture defied easy categorization. The ship operates as a true expedition vessel, purpose-built for navigating remote waters, yet it carries the hallmarks of high-end ocean cruising. Every stateroom is a suite. The dining is refined. The entertainment, Goldman notes, was genuinely impressive. She describes the caliber of performers brought on board as "very high quality cabaret performers, some of the best entertainment I've had on a cruise ship." For a vessel designed to push into the edges of the known world, that level of polish came as a welcome and meaningful surprise.
The atmosphere on board was equally notable. Goldman recalls that "the crew and guests were incredibly relaxed and so thrilled to get to know one another," creating a sense of warmth that felt less like a cruise ship and more like an intimate gathering of curious, like-minded travelers. With only a few hundred passengers, the Seabourn Venture fostered exactly the kind of connection that larger ships rarely allow.
St. Kilda: A Place That Stays With You
Among all the stops on the itinerary, it was St. Kilda that left the deepest impression. Goldman admits she had little prior knowledge of the destination before sailing. What she encountered was a settlement inhabited for several hundred years before its last residents requested evacuation in 1930, leaving behind a landscape that is both achingly beautiful and quietly haunting. "Its remoteness was incredible," Goldman says, "especially thinking that people lived there their entire lives."
The group was fortunate. St. Kilda's notoriously unpredictable weather means that many expedition vessels arrive but never manage to put passengers ashore. Goldman's sailing caught a rare sunny day, and the group disembarked to walk the abandoned village and take in views that stretched across some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in the British Isles. It is the kind of moment, she acknowledges, that simply cannot be replicated by reading a destination guide or scrolling through photographs. You have to be there, standing in the silence of a place where an entire community once made its life, to truly understand it.
Rethinking the Summer Escape
Goldman is no stranger to unconventional itineraries, but this voyage crystallized something she has observed across many years of travel. The instinct to head south for summer sun, she argues, is worth questioning. "A lot of people think that summer is all about roasting and baking in the hot sun," she says, "but I found it much more invigorating to be someplace where there's a breeze and there is natural cooling." Her advice to clients is direct: think beyond the familiar. Even travelers who are reluctant to leave sun-drenched destinations during the summer months should consider going north for a different kind of experience.
It is a reframe that speaks to a broader philosophy Goldman brings to her work. Flexibility, openness, and a willingness to let go of rigid expectations consistently lead to richer experiences. She applies this to her own travel planning as much as to her clients'. Asked about her wish list, Goldman is characteristically pragmatic. "My travel pattern is really to go wherever a good opportunity presents itself," she explains. "The more flexible I can be and the less I have expectations about what I'm going to do, the more I enjoy the experience."
Who This Voyage Is Really For
Goldman is candid about who will thrive on a trip like this and who may want to look elsewhere. The ideal passenger is social, comfortable in casual settings, and genuinely energized by nature and the outdoors. This is not a voyage for travelers who pack formal eveningwear or crave the structured elegance of a traditional luxury cruise. Goldman is clear on that point: the experience is "definitely all about being casual and relaxed," and that ethos runs from the dress code to the daily rhythm of excursions ashore.
For the cruise-averse traveler, however, this kind of expedition sailing may represent a meaningful bridge. Goldman has found that many clients dismiss cruising altogether because they picture enormous ships carrying thousands of passengers. The Seabourn Venture, she emphasizes, operates nothing like that. The vessel "acted like a home away from home," she says, and the significant time spent exploring on land further distances the experience from the stereotypical cruise itinerary.
Raising the Bar for Expedition Travel
Perhaps the most significant professional takeaway from this voyage is what it revealed about the expedition cruising category as a whole. Goldman has traveled on several expedition vessels over the years and has encountered more than a few that leaned toward the spartan end of the comfort spectrum. The Seabourn Venture challenged that assumption entirely, demonstrating that "gracious and delicious dining and suite-type cabins" are not incompatible with genuine expedition travel. For Goldman, that discovery has direct implications for how she advises clients who want adventure without sacrificing comfort.
With Morocco on her horizon in the coming months, Goldman shows no signs of slowing her pace. But it is the windswept shores of St. Kilda and the easy warmth of the Seabourn Venture that she expects to keep reaching for when a client asks what a truly memorable journey looks like. "I find the more flexible I can be," she reflects, "the more I enjoy the experience." For the travelers lucky enough to work with her, that hard-won wisdom is exactly where the best adventures begin.
