What happens when a former law partner ditches the courtroom for cruise decks—and turns travel into a full-blown LGBTQ+ mission?

You get Jonathan Geen, founder of Purple Light Vacations, one of the most seasoned, passionate, and fabulously informed LGBTQ+ travel advisors in the business.

In this episode of Pride Nomad Unleashed, Jonathan joins Ken for a lively, globe-hopping convo about:

• His pivot from litigation to luxury LGBTQ+ travel (trial by cruise, literally)

• How Purple Light helps queer travelers explore the world safely, joyfully, and often for less than you’d pay solo

• The real scoop on all-gay vs. gay-friendly cruises (hint: there’s a LOT more than just Atlantis)

• Insider perks, destination secrets, and why custom-curated experiences > cookie-cutter trips

• How travel is about belonging, not just checking off countries

• Plus: Why you should never trust a travel advisor who doesn’t pronounce “Antarctica” correctly
  
  

🚢 Whether you’re a digital nomad, vacation queen, or finally ready to plan your gay safari, Jonathan’s got tips, insights, and possibly some dramamine for the Drake Passage.

🌍 Mention “Pride Nomad” for a special bonus when you book with Jonathan! Details in the show notes.

Contact Jonathan:

• Email

• Website

Watch the Episode here

Listen to the Podcast here

From Courtrooms To Cruise Ships: Jonathan Geen And The Business Of Fabulous Queer Travel

“Welcome to The Late Show. I'm your host, Stephen Colbert, all of our hearts.”

I got you.

Ken, can you hear me?

I can hear you.

Wonderful.

There is a miracle. What I want to try and do is get you to look at the camera. Right now, we have a beautiful view of your neck and your chin.

Okay, let me move it a little bit down there. Let's see.

You have a camera that's disconnected from your computer. It's not in front of your screen.

Yeah. I’m trying to find it.

If you can put it in front of your screen so that when you look at the screen. Right now, you can get it in front of you. There are other options where you’re just looking straight into the camera. Now, you're looking at your screen.

Don’t cue a lot of this.

I know. I can tell. It's okay. I understand. I teach this stuff. Right now, we have the camera. I want to do this right for you. I want this to be as good as we can get it, because the camera is looking up. I've got your ceiling fan light being kind of messing it up. It's okay. We've got some time. If we can get the camera behind your monitor or right next to your monitor, perhaps.

Okay, next to the monitor.

When you talk to someone on Zoom, you want to be able to see them. We're getting better. It’s looking better already.

 I need to get that out of the way.

It's definitely looking better. We got our branding on. That's good.

Maybe about this.

It's definitely better. What I'm going to suggest that you do, which will be very unsettling for you, is to not look at me, but to look into the camera.

Okay.

That's great. Now I'm seeing you talking to me, and that works because otherwise, it's bizarre. It's like you're doing this. For a Johnny, I think with Apple, it looks good every now and then. Yes, we designed it with this, and that's cued for a few minutes, but then it's like, “Okay, Johnny, talk to the fucking camera.”

If you can do that uncomfortable twist, it's the same thing for me on my Mac, and if I'm looking at the green light, I see you through peripheral vision. If I look down this way, I get a better shot at you. It's that way. I'm doing this right now in my mom's condo in Miami. When I've been back at my studio in Sydney, I have a camera with a teleprompter, and I'm looking through mirrors into the camera lens. You're right there, and I can see you. Now it's the same kind. It's just uncomfortable, but you've got to do it.

Right.

Before we get started with everything, is there any special offer or insider thing that you want to offer to the Pride Nomad community?

We can offer an additional $25 shipboard credit on any cruise that they book.

I'm going to leave that as a nebulous number just in case something changes. We'll just say, “Come to the show notes and you'll see a surprise,” whatever that may be.

Okay.

We'll do that. Awesome. Let me get the show on the road. I will start us off. I just want to make sure we have that in advance because every now and then it's like, “What are you doing as special?” and then you go, “We didn't think about that.” “Shit. Advanced work didn't get done.” We don't like that. We like to make sure that everyone is comfy. Let me go to my intro. We'll get this baby started. I promise to make it painless, better than a dental appointment.

Sounds good.

Cool. Hang on. Here we go.

A little pain can be fun at times.

A little TMI, but okay.

You’re like me, too.

It's all good. This is all about being fun, unleashed. Let me go find your intro. Let's get this puppy started. Where the hell did I put it? Here we go.

Jonathan Geen's Fabulous Travel Vision

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jonathan Geen, the UN school kid who grew up and decided to make the whole world more fabulous one voyage at a time. As President of Purple Light Vacations, he spent twelve-plus years proving that being an LGBTQ+ travel expert isn't just about knowing the hotspots. It's about creating safe, affirming adventures that don't cost a penny more than mainstream travel.

Armed with elite cruise certifications and a passport that's seen more stamps than a post office, Jonathan has turned Purple Light into a one-stop shop for everything from custom queer getaways to full-blown LGBTQ charter cruises. This is Pride Nomad Unleashed with Jonathan Geen, where international education meets travel expertise, where every journey starts with two simple words, “Welcome home.” Hey, Jonathan.

It’s good to see you, Ken. How are you?

I'm great. I'm glad we got this baby working.

You're in one of my favorite Caribbean islands, aren't you? You're in Puerto Rico.

It's interesting, my phone number is from Puerto Rico. I used to live in St. Croix in the USVI for a lot of years. I moved there in ‘88.

Another wonderful island. I was there for the first time in 2024. I had been to all the Virgin Islands but St. Croix, I liked it.

I moved there in 1988, opened up a mortgage company with my now ex. He’s still there running a mortgage company. I was there for eight years or so, and then went all over the place. My phone number is Puerto Rico because there's a great tax deal in PR. If you're a Puerto Rican resident and run your business from there, you pay a 10% tax. It's crazy, it's a good deal. I left the States in 2009 and moved to Bangkok as an expat, and then I was commuting back and forth to Puerto Rico to keep my residency working there. It was too much of a hassle.

There were far too many stories. It was easy. The sales pitch was, “This is no problem because you're an expat. It will be okay, no big deal.” Every time I went back, there was a different, “You should be here more,” and I was like, “No, I'm very happy in Thailand.” PR is nice, and the Virgin Islands is much better to me because I lived there for so long. I had a house on St. John, and my mom lived and worked on St. Thomas for us. There's a lot of USVI love in place. It's a cool place, but a very different way to live.

I have a question for you. We'll get into everything you want to talk about, but since you're on the Virgin Islands, do you think there's any chance they're going to rebuild St. John specifically, the beautiful resort that got devastated by the hurricane? Their website keeps saying they're trying to get funding for it and all of that.

Which one?

One reason to use a travel advisor is that they can tell you which cruise line is right for you.

The most famous resort on St. John.

I haven't been back to St. John in years, so I don't know. I'm going to have to look it up.

It's a five-star hotel. What was the five-star hotel on St. John?

I think it's Caneel Bay, pretty sure. That's devastating. Back in ‘88, I was living in St. Croix when Hugo hit. It was horrifying because the homes that I had financed that Friday night were gone. It was pretty amazing, and that changed everything, but it was a great deal for me because I was buying up houses that had central air, no roof, and my house in St. John was one of those houses. It had never been finished, no roof, just walls, and we bought it for a song. I've sold it since, and it was a landmark house over there. We would go over there. My ex and I would fly over every weekend. We'd work on the house with our contractor, we'd go to Cruz Bay, and we'd go to, at that point, it was called Pusser's. It was a place in the port, and we would have chicken wings and painkillers.

That was a lot of fun, and the plan was to commute back and forth by seaplane. We'd have the house in St. John. We'd have the office in St. Croix, and we would go back and forth. The seaplane never works. We didn't recover for years. Different company now, and it never happened, but that was the idea. We'd have the house on the island and go back to the main office on the other island, but now, the world is a playground. I haven't been back there in forever, so I am due.

I read an article about it because they keep saying they're trying to get the support of the island and, specifically, environmental authorities to rebuild. It’s an uphill battle.

It's funny. I was back in St. Croix a few years ago. I was on a cruise ship to St. Thomas, and I was surprising my ex. As soon as the ship landed, I was the first person off the ship, got to the seaplane terminal, flew over to St. Croix, and surprised my ex. When I got to St. Croix, it was early in the morning, and the place looked like a wasteland. Everything was closed. There was no energy. It seemed very depressing. I was devastated because it looked so shuttered. It looked like it had been stripped and raped. It was terrible for me. I don't think it's that bad.

I was told that as the day goes on, it wakes up, but I'd never seen that before. When I lived there, it was a very different situation. We'll see where things go. Being in an island situation, especially in the Caribbean, you're at risk of the weather. Being in the travel business, for sure, doing a cruise during hurricane season, that's risky. Tell me, as we talk about travel, what got you started in this whole situation?

From Lawyer To LGBTQ Travel Expert: The Purple Light Story

The company started thirteen years ago. At the time, I was a lawyer, which I did for a number of years. I was a partner in a law firm with ten offices. We sent people all over the country, mostly to visit insurance companies. They had a travel agency, and I found them not to be very good. One of my law partners, when I would find better deals, better routes, and everything else, said, “You would make a good travel agent if you ever wanted to change careers.” More specifically, at the time, there had been an LGBT travel agent in San Diego who had retired.

I thought there was an opening in Southern California for a good travel agency, and one that would be able to cater to the LGBT community, be knowledgeable about LGBT-friendly spaces, and things like that. The name Purple Light Vacations is a very gay name, to begin with. I'm the theater queen in my family, but my husband picked the name for our company. The name Purple Light comes from a song by Cole Porter from the show Anything Goes. In that, people are saying to each other, “You're the top and everything that's great.”

One of the lines is, “You're the purple light of a summer night in Spain.” Porter was very clever and bisexual. That innuendo is that in the 1930s, the gay bars in Spain would identify themselves with a purple light. It was not some common knowledge. You had to be in the know about it. That was the idea of our travel agency. We want people to travel with added information and destination insight. About ten years ago, we trademarked our slogan, which is, “Travel in the know wherever you go,” which goes with that Cole Porter thing of being in the know of where the gay bars are.

Travel in the know, wherever you go.

That makes a lot of sense. I love it. What was the journey like? When you got this whole thing started, how did you build the business?

We started thirteen years ago, and I was still practicing law at the time. We had two women who were in the travel industry. One was in the concierge business. The other was in the hotel industry, running the business during the day. I would address things on nights and weekends. Business was taking off enough, and they weren't providing the level of service and time that I thought our clients deserved. Over time, my husband and I took over the full management of the business, which has been like that for over 11 or 12 years now.

We're building our business every year. We made it through COVID. Of all times, that was the time I decided to go full-time on travel and retire from practicing law at the beginning of 2020. One of the first things I had to do as a full-time travel advisor was to get two clients out of China during COVID. This was in February of 2020. They had been in mainland China, and we had them going to Nepal, Bhutan, and then Cambodia. From Cambodia, we had them going to Hong Kong and back to the US, but Hong Kong had closed down to travelers, including US citizens.

I had to find a clever way to get them home, and I did, through Taiwan at the time. It was a little bit of trial by fire on that, but things have gone well. We do quite well with referrals. We have clients now who have been with us for twelve years and book all their travel through us. That's an ideal client.

Top LGBTQ Travel Destinations: Europe, Asia & Beyond

You know what they want. They know how to work with you. That's pretty awesome. What's your most in-demand destination?

In the past couple of years, it's been Europe, in general, because the prices have been so good. Some people were traveling during COVID to places like Provincetown, which is one of my husband's and my favorite places. We have a vacation rental there. I always promote Provincetown. A lot of during COVID, we're spending time in Provincetown. Now, I can go to Europe for the same price. Part of Asia, of course, as always, is quite inexpensive. We do get a lot of clients interested in Thailand. I saw a Pride Nomad email this week about Chiang Mai being a new destination. In your case, you're talking about people living there. We sent a lot of clients there to get a sense of the real Thailand because it is a very cultural and special place. Wonderful, among other things, elephant sanctuary.

I lived there for ten years, taking eight years on the ground and ten years calling it residence. I've got a lot of history there. It's a fabulous place. It's super cheap to live. It's so different than other parts of the world.

The first time we were there, it was right after Obama had been elected. People were so enthralled with Americans. They were chanting Obama's name. Not sure what names they're chanting right now, but we probably shouldn't go there.

It's interesting. Having lived there, I got to meet the US Ambassador, Christy Kenny, who was wonderful. She was amazing. Being an expat, I discovered that, first of all, a lot of the ambassadors are gay. I won't out people, but I was at events with ambassadors of major countries in the Foreign Service. The Foreign Service is very gay. I didn't realize that. Anyway, very cool and lovely people. I'm at this event, and it's a Thai fundraising event. The US Ambassador is on stage performing with the Thai kids in Thai. That was incredible. I did a photo op in front of the US banner or whatever was behind her. She was like, “What can we do for you? We're here to help. Anything you need, let me know.” She had amazing energy and was cool.

I was very much disenfranchised of the United States, more so, not as much as I am now. I'm incredibly disenfranchised now, as so many of us are. I was proud. It felt good to have someone who wanted to serve and wanted to be of assistance. What I learned is that these ambassadors' job is to sell the country for trade. It's not about anything diplomatic, necessarily. They want business. They're trying to get trade business back and forth. That's their job. The politics of it is the window dressing. I thought that was fascinating to learn, just amazing. Unfortunately, the administration changed. She got left, and some other person came in her place.

This guy, after being installed for a month or two, was making comments that were inappropriate for the position, because he hadn't earned the right to say that. They were true. You can't talk about the monarchy. If you’re going to go to jail, you'll probably never come out. He was making comments about that, which he had not earned the right to do. Chrissy could have pulled it off, having been in the community for so long, but still, that wouldn't have been appropriate. This guy was saying what we thought, but stupid, and caught so much shit for it, and rightly so. It's a shame. Sometimes, we see incredible levels of stupidity.

The thing for us that I think is important that you do, Jonathan, is that you give people the ability to see the world in ways that they wouldn't otherwise. You're not giving them notches on the bedpost. You have a day here, a day there. You're giving them something that's more deeply seated. Tell us about how that goes together. How do you build something for somebody that gives them a real experience?

Crafting Custom Travel Experiences: Beyond The Tourist Trail

We've been doing custom trips ever since day one. We do both the LGBT charters, and that is worth talking about because there are so many options with that. From day one, we've done custom trips. What we do as part of that process is sit down with the clients and find out what interests them. For example, we had a couple who went to Italy, and they had no desire to see any of the usual sites. They went to Vatican City in Rome, but they only wanted to see the gardens. Their interest was Italian produce, the Italian food production industry. They wanted to know about the production of olive oil. They were interested in the production of Italian wine. They wanted to have hands-on tours of making in private, making pizza crust, and things like that.

We came up with a very custom tour for them. One of the things that we have done over the past thirteen years is develop some local contacts, obviously not everywhere, but in many places. People who either live in destinations full-time or go there regularly a few times a year can give us ideas on where the locals go. Where do the locals go to have a beer, where you're not going to be sitting around with a bunch of tourists? Where do the locals go to get the local delicacy, but inexpensive, at a family-owned restaurant?

We started out doing cruises. We call them our port overviews, but they're made for anybody who goes to a destination, whether by ship, plane, train, etc. That's what we do. It’s a combination of talking to the clients and trying to find tours and experiences that are tailored to them and their goals and needs, and then giving them the destination insight, including some tips from locals.

I can tell you that that's worth a ton. I was on a fam trip, a trip that the local tour board will take you on, so you get familiar with the area and you can talk about how great it is. It worked well for me because they took us to a winery. This was in Osaka, and they took us to this winery. As we're getting to this place, it's in a residential neighborhood. “Where the hell are you taking us? This is not the Napa Valley. This is Nastyville.” They bring us into this little driveway, like a commercial warehouse-type of building. I'm like, “What is this?” We meet the owner of it, who's been in the family for over 100 years. That's cool. He walks us through this back door, and then we walk into paradise, where we're looking up the hill at this vineyard.

He brings us into the vineyard, and we're tasting the grapes. He's walking us through different grapes. It was the coolest thing ever. I'd never experienced that. I've been to all the Napa Valley things, the Sonoma vineyards, all that, which is all a very touristy zone. This was the guy, and we met his daughter, who'll take over the vineyard after he passes. He's telling us, “I don't like this. I can't stand this, but it's my family's destiny. I have to run it. I'd rather travel.” We're saying to the girl, “Take over your father's business.” It was the coolest thing. You had said this in a video on your website, PurpleLightVacations.com. In your video, you said, “Working with us costs you no more. In fact, in many cases, it costs you less than if you did it yourself.” How is that possible?

Travel Savings Secrets: How Purple Light Vacations Saves You Money

We have access to the same deals that people see on the internet. Certainly, you're not going to pay more because you're booking through us. One of the reasons that we have access to better deals is that we're a member of Travel Leaders, which is a travel consortium. It's like a union for travel agents, and they have a lot of bargaining power. Travel Leaders goes to particularly the larger hotel chains, the larger cruise lines, tour operators, etc., and says, “We can bring you all this business. Will you give our clients an exclusive discount or an exclusive perk?” For example, Marriott owns a lot of hotels at different price points. We often get better pricing or added perks thrown in because of our membership with Travel Leaders.

The same thing with the cruise lines. We always give our clients a thank-you gift, which for a cruise is usually in the form of a shipboard credit. Sometimes, we can't do that with the LGBT charters because the charters have restrictions, but we send them a check after the cruise. For all cruises, we give some kind of a gift. For a mainstream cruise, many cruises are called amenity departures through Travel Leaders. We will find that Travel Leaders has a special group that has discounts below anything you will see on the internet. You get a shipboard credit because of our membership in that travel consortium. It does end up being a win-win experience.

That makes all sense because I don't think people want to pay more. Although paying a travel consultant who's going to give you the best experience, I would pay more for that because of the value of the trip. Especially for those who are not necessarily digital nomads but are taking their two-week holiday a year, and they've saved up a whole year for something special, to have that be vanilla as opposed to Heavenly Hash. Rather than a vanilla trip, we want something that's going to be more fun.

You gave me a thought. There's a guy online, and I don't know his name, who's doing a year on cruise ships. He's going from one ship to another, not living on shore. I was talking with a friend of mine. She and I were talking about doing, and we could travel together. She was totally cool living on a ship for a month or two. Virgin did a month overseas, and it was a nomad trip. I haven't heard if they've continued it this year or not.

They did. We promoted it. I was on one of the inaugural Virgin Voyages cruises. I'll tell you something about Virgin Voyages. There are so many different cruise lines. That's one of the reasons to use a travel advisor because a travel advisor can tell you which cruise line is meant for you. I happen to be one of the few ECCs, which stands for Elite Cruise Counselor, in Southern California. Virgin Voyages, I was on one of their inaugural cruises. They are probably the gayest cruise line. Of course, they have a drag queen monitoring their ice cream parlor, which is called Lick Me Till Ice Cream, which I called something else. That's my wicked sense of humor.

Their entertainment is, I'm old enough to remember, Roseannadanna. Do you remember the routine she did about Studio 54 when she said, “You have men dancing with men and men dancing with women that look like dogs, dogs dancing with women?” Anyway, that's what Virgin Voyages and entertainment are like. It is diverse in terms of race, body type, sexual orientation, gender identity, and all of that. They're doing a wonderful job with that.

Being with the LGBT community, having people that are open-minded, fun, and just want to be with us—that's very gratifying.

Another, if people are interested in mainstream cruises, Celebrity, year after year, is doing wonderful things for the LGBT community. Usually, I do a lot of continuing education for travel. I'm usually at the Cruise Line International Association, CLIA, annual conference. We usually have presidents and vice presidents of the cruise lines getting up and saying a few words. Every single year, the vice president of Celebrity has mentioned the LGBT community in her speech. The others, for the most part, have not. Celebrity has made a real attempt to reach out to our community. They do some good cruises.

They had, at least in terms of the US, the first female captain, as I recall. I was on her ship. She was on Celebrity Beyond a few months ago. She's awesome. She's hysterical. She is so cool. Hopefully, I'll see her again. I'm going to be on the Beyond again this fall. The ship is amazing. It's amazing. What I was thinking is, for our community, which is a community of digital nomads and those who want to live a nomadic life, how cool would it be for us to craft, like what Virgin did, a month at sea, or however that works out, back-to-backs.

Beyond is a big ship. I think there were 250+ families on that ship that were doing back-to-backs, meaning that they finished one cruise, they got off the ship, they came back on again, and they continued, including one gay couple. That's how I knew about it, because they were from the UK, and they were friends of Dorothy. Those were always very lame, but at least they were nice guys.They were there with their family. It was cool. It would be neat to craft something that, obviously, in remnant space that's inexpensive, and take it from there, because that'd be so much fun.

LGBTQ Charter Cruises & Group Travel: Finding Your Community At Sea

There are certainly options for that. One of the tour operators that we work with does a lot of cruises during the year because they specialize in gay groups on mainstream cruises. They have enough cruises that you can do several during the year, back-to-back. If people are interested in that, please contact me. I'm happy to tell you about some of the options.

I'd love to do a story about that. I think that would be fun. Right now, I won't date this. Atlantis does its own thing with its own cruises and its own universe, but there are others that have 20, 30, 50 cabins, and it's a group on the big ship. It's a very different experience.

As I mentioned earlier, I do want to touch on that a little bit because I think that's very important. One of our functions as an LGBT-owned and operated travel agency is to know all of the options out there for LGBT travel. As you mentioned, Atlantis, and before them, RSVP, which is now defunct, were the only options. Now, there are so many options. I don't want to be with all gay people or members of the LGBT community. I want to be with everybody in the mainstream. As I mentioned, we're familiar with those options, but there are so many options now for LGBT charters. It doesn't have to be a big ship.

If it's talking about a cruise, it doesn't need to be a party ship. We have cruises for the LGBT community that specialize in cultural awareness and small cruises. River cruises are very popular, both mainstream and LGBT charters. They have a totally different feeling and so many different options for LGBT groups traveling on land vacations, where you have groups going to see some of the world's most exotic, interesting experiences in an all-LGBT group.

My husband and I went with one of our favorite companies that does these kinds of vacations to South Africa, which included a luxury safari in South Africa and seeing all of the sites that Cape Town has to offer. Cape Town is an amazing city, and the country is great, but the continent of Africa, unfortunately, with a few exceptions, is not very LGBT-friendly to this day. Being able to support the country of South Africa, going to Angel Falls in Zimbabwe, an amazing vacation with an entire LGBT group. I can tell you we're still in touch with some of the people from that trip. It's bonding.

I think it's important. I'll tell you what has made me feel this way so emphatically. A number of years ago, my mom and I did a bus trip through Ireland. It was a great deal. Mom loves a good deal. We get on this bus. It's a full bus. People are nice. The tour guide happens to be gay. She's a lesbian. She was cool, but the rest of the bus was not gay. They were not LGBTQ+, any alphabet. They were S, straight. They were B, boring. It was a lovely trip, but it was boring as hell. I thought, “This is dumb. What we need to do is we need to have gay guys and their moms on a bus, and that would be a hoot. That would be off the charts.”

We couldn't monetize it, because I'd rather be on the trip than run the trip. It would have taken too much time. It didn't ever came off. All my friends were like, “Can we do that? My mom's dead, but can I come anyway? I'm not gay, but you guys are fun. Can I come anyway?” Sure, you can. If you're cool, you come. We'll have a blast. It never came off, but that would be so much fun. It’s taking a tour where it's not about getting laid, although that would be a nice bonus. It's the experience that is remarkable.

Straight But Not Narrow: Welcoming All An LGBTQ+ Tours

Since you had asked about how our business developed, when we started out, I thought our clientele was going to be mostly, if not all, members of the LGBT community. We have developed from referrals. People, as you said, are straight, but know that being with the LGBT community, having people who are open-minded and fun, they want to be with us. That's very gratifying. We have a hold of our website, “Straight but not narrow.” A lot of our clients are straight but not narrow.

We're happy to be a resource for travelers, whether they're looking for custom trips or help navigating LGBTQ+ charter options.

At the end of the day, that's what we all want. Certainly, it's good to know that if you see a hot guy, and you're single, you know that you've got a chance as opposed to no, he's straight, married with two kids, and not interested. You don't embarrass yourself. There's always that level of issue. Short of that, in my view, as long as people respect who I am and are not going to be standing in judgment of who I am, life's good. I was at an event recently, with 400 people in a business room, and there were three of us that are gay. Now, 3 out of 400, that was troublesome for me. This is typical in the business community, at least in the digital marketing community. One of them said, “Ken, don't ever leave this group because I need you to be part of me.”

There were people in the room who were wearing MAGA clothing. I don't understand that, of course. Everyone was cool. There was no closet. It was a completely affirming space. Even that person wearing the shirt was icky. It's that feeling. Being on a tour, where people who get us, love us, and want to be with us, both know that there are people who prefer going to gay bars because they're more fun than straight bars. I think that makes a whole bunch of sense. When you have time, I would love to see an article or something that you could throw into the Pride Nomad letter about some of the cruise opportunities and things that present themselves.

I think from the nomadic side, how cool would it be if I said I wanted to spend a month in Europe, wherever that may be? You're like, “You're going to be here during this time, take a river cruise for one week out of that.” You can still do your business, but have that tour and get a sense of it that you wouldn't have had otherwise. That sounds like a great plan. Wouldn't it be cool to have a nomadic tour of Europe on river cruises, going from one place to the other? That would be remarkable.

We did a piece on a young teenager who is traveling through Germany on a first-class pass-through on German trains. The guy writes code. Sitting on the train, the train has Wi-Fi, he's doing code, going through Germany. He showers in the first-class lounges, and that's his life. He's been doing it for over a year. The kid is seventeen years old. That's a life that we want our people to be able to enjoy. You can still do your business, but be portable. Maybe some of the trips we want to be on are more luxurious and economically challenging, let's say. They don't have to be. We can still marry those in with the Airbnb, inexpensive apartment pension, or even a capsule hotel as part of the whole journey. It doesn't matter. I think what you do is important.

I like your idea about the article, maybe come up with an article with both mainstream and LGBT vacations or cruises back-to-back that people could do to see more of Europe, for example, rather than less. I don't know if you had a chance to see it. On our website, we have a pull-down that has LGBT vacations by date. We have all the vacations out there that we're allowed to publicize because we know about some that are only open to alumni for a while. It's by date. It's places all over the world. It's both cruises and land vacations. These are gay group cruises, as well as the charters.

As I mentioned, we're a resource to the community because there are over twelve different tour operators that do these LGBT charters. Each one is different. Each one caters to a slightly different clientele. The vibe is slightly different. Do check out our website, but please contact us if you want insight on which one might be right for you if you're looking for a fully LGBT trip or group.

By the way, you want to come to the show notes for this episode because Jonathan has something special for you when you book using the Pride Nomad name. Mention that you came through Pride Nomad, and Jonathan has something special. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You have to go check it out. Go to the show notes. It'll be there. Mention that you saw the interview. Tell Jonathan you loved how he danced naked. He'll know exactly what you're talking about. Your face was beautiful. What? You pass that on. Jonathan will laugh and go, “I did not,” and it’s okay. I think that's important.

You researched a lot about us, Ken. I'm surprised. You know more than many of our clients probably know.

It was the S&M tour that I saw you on. That was amazing. I do want to say something about tours and cruises because I think there's something romantic about that, aside from being a lovely, wonderful cruise, whether you're with your husband, or perhaps not. If you have a husband, which I do not at the moment, that's a hint for everybody I am interviewing. I have a couple of friends. One was living in New York. One was living in Fort Lauderdale. They both went on a cruise unbeknownst to me. As soon as the cruise came back to Miami, they both called me within 30 minutes of each other, “You'll never guess what happened on the ship. I met the love of my life on this ship.” It was the two of them. They're still together. This has been twenty years now.

The love boat exists.

It does. Kevin moved to Fort Lauderdale, and she and Todd are still together. God bless them. Stranger things can happen. The way I look at it, and the reason why we even created the whole Pride Nomad community, is that those of us who are of like mind that love to travel, that want to experience the world, that want to understand the cultural diversity that we have, that’s a unique person. It's like if you're going to go fishing, fish where the fish are. Don't go to the empty pond. Go where they are. I want to create a big pond where we can have fun and collaborate.

It's not about getting laid necessarily, although there's nothing wrong with that. Not always fun, but hopefully fun. Being together, hanging out together, and knowing that you're in a club where people understand each other is so important. The fact that you do that and you create that is important. Where is your favorite destination, Jonathan?

Jonathan's Favorite Global Destinations & Antarctica Dreams

I get asked that a lot. That's hard to answer because there are so many. As I mentioned, Dave is my husband. Dave’s and my happy place is Provincetown. In terms of international travel, some of my favorites are Argentina, Buenos Aires, and Prague, the Czech Republic. Stockholm is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. I loved our trip to Australia and New Zealand. That's a place I want to go back to. So many. I keep updating the list. I've been to 74 countries and tried to add to it every year. The one continent I have not been to is Antarctica. I'm planning to go there. It's like that old saying, “I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.”

That's the biggest challenge I have right now, too. I want to go to some place, but I don't want to be there for two days. I want to be there for a few weeks to get to know it. Now, I'm back in Miami at the moment, looking after my mom. She needs a bit of attention. I want to be in Medellín right now. What the hell am I doing in Miami? People desperately want to be here. I'm like, “No, I desperately want to be away from here.” It's interesting.

Having the ability to travel means a lot. Having that flexibility means a lot. For me, being able to talk to you about where I should go, you've got 72 countries under your belt. By the way, I do want to shout out to you. You pronounced Antarctica properly. There's a C in there that no one pronounces. I am so grateful that you know how to pronounce that continent. Even when it comes to the Arctic, they're like, “It is not the Artic, it's the Arctic.” Thank you so much for that. That means, ladies and gentlemen, this guy knows his shit.

The penguins are happy that we know how to pronounce it.

I've got some friends who came back from there. They did a couple of cruises there. I'm seeing all the videos, so it's on my agenda, too.

I sent so many clients there, and they've all loved it. I'm getting myself ready for the Drake Passage. For those of you who may not know, a cruise crossing through the Drake Passage can be rough. I did once. It was the cruise I mentioned between New Zealand and Australia. That was a gay charter. It was on a Holland America ship. It was a captain who had been with Holland America for over 30 years. He said it was the roughest crossing he had ever had. We had 30-foot waves and people being handed out Dramamine like aspirin. It was quite an experience. I don't usually get seasick, but I'm bracing for the Drake Passage. I owe it to the penguins.

I'm totally with you. It's on my list, too. We're exploring how that's going to happen because I totally want to go. I want to report on it. I want to write about it. We'll see how that goes. What do people need to know about you and Purple Light before we close off?

I hope they know that we're a resource for them. We’re happy to help them with their travels, however they like to do it. Whether it's a custom trip, sorting through the LGBT charter companies, or any of those, we're happy to help. I hope they'll use this as a resource. I’m happy to speak with people and answer questions.

Thanks for being with us. I hope you'll come back. I want to collaborate with you more. I love what you're doing. I'm inspired by what you're doing. I think it's exciting. Thanks for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me, Ken. I appreciate it. I love what you guys are doing.

Thank you.

Important Links

• Purple Light Vacations

• Jonathan Geen on LinkedIn

• Travel Leaders

• Virgin Voyages

• Celebrity Cruises

• Atlantis Events

• LGBT Vacations

About Jonathan Geen

Jonathan is the President of Purple Light Vacations, one of the country's few LGBT owned and operated travel agencies that concentrates on LGBT and LGBT-friendly travel. He is an ASTA (American Association of Travel Advisors) verified travel advisor and holds the highest certification of Elite Cruise Counselor ("ECC") from the Cruise Lines International Association. He has traveled and cruised around the world and credits his love of travel to attending the United Nations International School in Manhattan. Purple Light Vacations has been in business for over 12 years and provides clients nationwide with added value at no additional cost. It books everything from LGBT charter cruises and land vacations to custom trips and vacation rentals.