12 Night Cruise sailing from New York to Southampton aboard Silver Whisper.

With Silver Whisper, Silversea has taken its award-winning concept of elegant, all-suite ultra-luxury ships to the next level by incorporating technological innovations and guest suggestions to create this extraordinary vessel designed to carry Silversea's tradition of all-inclusive luxury and style into the new millennium.The ships have the highest space-to-passenger ratio in the industry at 74, providing more space per passenger than any other cruise ship. Space ratio is derived by dividing a vessel's gross tonnage, which is a volume measurement of its interior space, by its lower berth capacity.

Silversea's service is simply the world's best. It is a philosophy, an attitude - complemented by distinctive European style and inherent in all that we do. Achieving perfection is driven by our desire to please. To see you smile. It begins the moment you step aboard with a warm welcome and a flute of champagne, and follows throughout your voyage with an unspoken anticipation of your needs. Sailing on Silversea's intimate ships is like visiting a friend's home; you're greeted by name and your personal preferences are always remembered.

Highlights of this cruise:

New York
New York is a superlative place. Ask a resident about life in the city and you'll hear words like hardest, priciest, and best again and again. After all, New Yorkers pride themselves on being number one or, failing that, spending the most money in pursuit of that goal. Gothamites are caricatured as pushy and outspoken, but considering their environment, it's really the only way to be noticed amid all the striving. The search for the biggest and best encapsulates life in the city today, and makes New York one of the most enjoyable, frustrating, exhilarating, and exhausting cities in the world.

Halifax
Halifax is an intimate city that retains the ease of a small town. From harborfront life to Victorian public gardens, it is large enough to have the trappings of a capital city, yet small enough that many of its sights can be seen on a pleasant walk downtown. It's on the second-largest natural harbor in the world and was once the point of entry to Canada for refugees and immigrants. The port remains a busy shipping center, with a flow of container ships and tugboats. Pleasure boats and yachts tie up alongside weathered schooners at the Historic Properties Wharf. Pubs, shops, museums, and parks welcome visitors and locals. In summer, jazz concerts and buskers, music festivals and sports events enliven the outdoor atmosphere. Art on exhibit, crafts sales, live theater, and fine food bring people here in all seasons.

Cobh
The major metropolis of the South, Cork is Ireland's second-largest city-but it runs a distant second, with a population of 119,400, roughly a tenth the size of Dublin. Cork is a spirited place, with a formidable pub culture, a lively traditional music scene, a respected and progressive university, attractive art galleries, and offbeat cafes. The city received a major boost in 2005 when it was named a Capital of Culture by the EU-the smallest city ever to receive the designation. The result was a burst in development; one of the lasting legacies is a striking but controversial redesign of the city center (Patrick Street and Grand Parade) by Barcelona-based architect Beth Gali. Outside the city, the rolling countryside gives way to rugged coastline hosting tiny villages, each with their own piece of history. Many set sail for the New World from here; some were destined not to arrive.

Southampton
Southampton may not be in every tourist brochure, but this inland city and its environs hold all kinds of attractions-and not a few quiet pleasures. Two important cathedrals, Winchester and Salisbury (pronounced sawls-bree), are found in Hampshire, the county that contains Southampton, as are intriguing market towns, and hundreds of haunting prehistoric remains; Stonehenge, the most famous in nearby Wiltshire, should not be missed. However, these are just the tourist brochure superlatives. Like those who migrate here from every corner of the country in search of upward mobility, anyone spending time in the South of England should rent a car and set out to discover the back-road villages not found in brochures. After a drink in the village pub and a look at the cricket game on the village green, stretch out in a field for a nap.