Hungry for Travel
When Planning a Vacation is All about the Food
Los Angeles, CA – March 21, 2005 – Are you a foodie, driven to scour the globe for the best eats you can find? If the vacation planning focuses on selecting a destination for its Zagat-rated restaurants and fine wine list - or if you’re curious and hungry - then read on.
You are not alone, according to ALL-TRAVEL.com, the leading provider of full-service personalized travel management with offices serving Los Angeles, Santa Clarita Valley and the South Bay. In fact, the travel industry has headed straight for the kitchen and our stomachs by developing a menu of options for food-related adventures that are sure to whet your appetite. Hands-on gourmet cooking classes on luxury cruise ships, specialty food and wine cruise itineraries, bike rides through the vineyards of France, and more. Traveling has become a culinary experience that is educational while at the same time very romantic.
“If you’re looking for a special trip and some quality time with your partner, try dinner for two at the table of a leading chef while cruising on a luxury ship,” suggested Eric Maryanov, president of ALL-TRAVEL.com who also founded the popular travel firm 21 years ago. “Or, head down under and visit the ripe wine region of New Zealand’s South Island. This beautiful countryside is reminiscent of an undeveloped Napa Valley 30 years ago. Pack a picnic, visit the wineries and enjoy the warm hospitality of New Zealand. Now that’s romantic.”
Whether you prefer to be active in the food preparation process, or just an observer, there are a host of options worth raising your glasses and cheering. Learn to cook from a top-rated Italian master while you sail the coast of Italy, pick up the how-to on pairing wines with foods, reserve a spot in the kitchen of famed French culinary school to knead breads and stir sauces with your sweetie. Or check out an exciting food-show, brought live to passengers on high-end ships like Radisson Seven Seas, put on by a chef.
Here too the focus in on the food and the culinary exposure. Opening up the ship’s specialty dining room for a small, intimate setting of 50 or so of your closest fellow cruisers, the chef holds center stage as the curtain is pulled back. You are brought into the kitchen to watch the meal get prepared by Cordon Blue trained experts. The best part of this live show is anticipating the ending, when you get to taste these edible works of art.
So why all the big fuss on food? Travelers want it. This is great entertainment, relaxing, interactive, romantic, and certainly educational. Who really has the extra time to take a cooking class in regular life with the demands of work and family to juggle? But take us away from these pressures, put us on a cruise ship or in the kitchen or vineyards of Italy, France or New Zealand, and indulging in our passion for food and wine becomes pure delight.
“The world is a culinary masterpiece in itself. From exotic and ethnic to spicy and rich, food is a universal language that brings people together at the dinner table,” explained Maryanov, whose award-winning website, http://www.all-travel.com/, offers a host of choices for food-related travel. “Like travel, food offers us the chance to experience other cultures, flavors and distinct tastes. Travel provides the opportunity to visit different places, try the food, drink the wine and eat the desserts.”
Pick up any food-related magazine, and notice how many travel articles and ads are there. Our own local cuisine is delicious, but to truly understand the differences between pasta American-style, and pasta served in Italy, you’ve got to be sitting in Tuscany with a fork in your mouth to get it.
With many of us it may be hard to tell which comes first, the food or the travel. For others, and you foodies know who you are, there is no question. So pick-up your travel brochures and Zagat Restaurant Guide, and call your travel agent today to get a reservation at the best table you can find, on land or sea.
For more information
contact Nicole Stinson, Public Relations
(310) 312-3368
