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WOW Experience: Sunrise Ceremony with Cambodian Monks

sun rise over the Tonle Sap Lake valley Cambodia

After our private ceremony with the temple's monk, we watched the sun rise over the Tonle Sap Lake valley. Photo: Billie Cohen

young monk prepares a water blessing at Phnom Krom Pagoda Cambodia

A young monk prepared a special water blessing for us at Phnom Krom Pagoda in Cambodia. Photo: Billie Cohen

beautiful pagoda at Phnom Krom outside Siem Reap Cambodia

Another beautiful pagoda at Phnom Krom. Photo: Billie Cohen

temple painting at Phnom Krom pagoda outside Siem Reap Cambodia

The pagoda was painted with intricate medallions. Photo: Billie Cohen

Phnom Krom temple ruins atop a small mountain outside Siem Reap Cambodia

The Phnom Krom temple ruins atop a small mountain outside Siem Reap are more than a thousand years old. Photo: Billie Cohen

The Phnom Krom mountaintop complex is dotted with statues and shrines. Photo: Billie Cohen

buddha statue with monks and a banyan tree at Phnom Krom temple in Cambodia

A statue of Buddha sits under a real-life banyan tree. Photo: Billie Cohen

tamarind juice and lotus yogurt breakfast in Cambodia

My favorite parts of our picnic breakfast: tamarind juice, lotus and bean yogurt, and croissants. Photo: Billie Cohen

pink lotus flower in a field near siem reap cambodia

Bright pink lotus flowers stood out in a field of green, outside Siem Reap. Photo: Billie Cohen

Travel often involves a lot of running around. In an almost compulsive effort to see, do, eat, and experience as much as we possibly can, we go all out, nonstop. But on one wonderful morning in Cambodia, I was reminded of the immeasurable value of sitting still. And, ironically, it took one of the most accomplished travel planners in Southeast Asia to make it happen. Sandy Ferguson has lived in Asia for most of his life and he’s been planning people’s trips throughout the region for more than four decades. Maybe that long-lived experience is what helps him think past the usual sightseeing checklists and identify the intangible wonders that his longtime home has to offer. It’s definitely what helps him know where to find them.

In this series of articles on “WOW Experiences,” we spotlight the special-access opportunities you can look forward to when you book a trip via a WOW List expert. If you’ve taken a trip arranged by Sandy, please add your review to help other travelers.

The What:

A sunrise meditation at Phnom Krom Pagoda in Siem Reap. The early-morning drive to the temple takes you through a lovely village, then up a winding road to a hilltop overlooking the Tonle Sap Lake and miles of fields. The temple complex includes pagodas, terraces, some working buildings used by the monks, several statues and artworks, and the preserved ruins of a ninth-century temple, similar to what you’d see in Angkor, but in a very different (and very tourist-free) context.

The Where and When:

Phnom Krom Pagoda is about a half-hour drive outside central Siem Reap. The experience is available year-round; since sunrise is generally the same no matter when you visit (around 6am), you’ll be picked up at your hotel at approximately 4:30am.

The WOW:

I am a frequent solo traveler. I like to explore by myself, at my own pace, and on my own schedule. But by no means am I a solitary traveler—I talk to everyone: The gentleman scooping my gelato in Locarno, the young woman running a wool shop in Lisbon, the ticket taker at the La Chaux-de-Fonds history museum, the playful little kids from Dubai in my train car, the Azerbaijani family on the funicular at the Reichenbach Falls. I’m a sponge, and my main goal (and joy) when I travel is to soak up everything else and everyone else.

So I admit I was a little nervous about the morning activity Sandy Ferguson recommended for me during my stay in Siem Reap: meditating with the monks of a historic temple at sunrise. He met the former abbot of this mountaintop temple back in 1989, very soon after tourists were first even allowed into Cambodia, and it’s one of the exclusive experiences he’s able to offer as a result of such relationships (which he’s developed extensively in Asia over the years, in addition to all his family and friends). His excitement was contagious, but nevertheless I was daunted. Sure, watching the sun come up over the valley of the Tonle Sap Lake after a morning of meditation sounded lovely in theory, but I was already feeling my legs twitch and my restlessness get the better of me. How long would I have to be silent for? What if I couldn’t sit still for the whole time? And I have to wake up when?

Despite my trepidation about our 4:30am pick-up time, I ended up feeling wide awake as the car drove through the pre-dawn darkness. Around us, Siem Reap was silent and unmoving; it was such a rare view of a destination that is usually buzzing with people and activity.

When we arrived at the hilltop complex, the early morning was still dark, and inside the pagoda, all was quiet. A young monk was already kneeling on a rug in front of a giant golden Buddha statue, waiting for us next to a pile of fresh flower petals and a bowl of water. The scene was beautiful, serene, and also a little thrilling. The world hadn’t woken yet, but here we were on top of a mountain. We settled ourselves on the rug and, through our guide’s translation, learned some background about the monks’ lifestyle and traditions, how to sit for meditation, and about the upcoming water blessing ceremony, meant for purification and good fortune. And then it was time. The monk showed us a few options for how to arrange ourselves comfortably and what to do with our arms and legs, and we began.

You know those times during a trip when you’re hyper-aware that this is a moment and you know you should try to imprint every detail on your brain so you can remember it forever? That’s what was going through my mind as we crossed our legs and closed our eyes and tried to concentrate on our breathing. Of course, the pressure of the moment was exactly what kept popping my eyes open; I was so eager to look around, to take in the murals on the painted walls and the shapes of the statues, to observe my fellow travelers, to watch the intriguing young monk who yawned once or twice himself. I had so many questions about what I was seeing that I spent the first few minutes just cataloging them in my brain so I could ask them afterward; there was so much to see and learn that shutting my eyes seemed (to the reporter in me) like a waste of an opportunity. And then my guide caught me with my eyes open, and I felt like a kid who’d disobeyed the teacher. He smiled knowingly (he must see this stubbornness in so many of his guests) and gently motioned for me to try again.

So I did. Honestly, my compliance was more out of duty and respect than anything else, but as my eyes finally relaxed and breath finally steadied, I became more and more surprised by what I’d been missing:

I heard the roosters crowing outside.

I sensed the growing lightness in the room as the sun rose.

I heard the shuffling of my fellow meditators as they too struggled, and I felt a kinship with them.

I felt the stillness of our leader who despite his very young age had so much more practice at this.

I felt my head clear and my breath even out, and for a brief second, I allowed myself to let go of the constant pressure to experience everything. A pressure I didn’t even realize I was putting on myself so heavily.

When I opened my eyes, I was refreshed—and no one was more dumbstruck than I. Because somewhere in that pre-dawn temple, as the sun rose through the windows, I realized the gift I’d just been given: the opportunity to simply stop. On a trip where I’d done nothing of the sort for weeks on end, this was a pretty powerful revelation—a reminder to experience the destination around me, rather than trying to wring an experience from it. I laughed to myself, because obviously Sandy knew this.

Once we completed the meditation, I sat in wonder as the monk intoned a blessing, sprinkled each of us with water and flowers and tied a string around our wrist while he chanted in Pali, the language of Cambodia’s Theravada Buddhism. The string, which is traditional throughout the region, is a way to take the monk’s blessing with you, to remind you of it no matter where you are. “Everything that comes out of the temple is designed to be a blessing,” Sandy explained to me later. “Whether they’re feeding people or teaching people, that’s the prime drive.”

The sun had started to come up, and we strolled outside and around the complex to watch the sun rise and enjoy a picnic breakfast next to thousand-year-old temple ruins. From the hilltop we could see all the way to the horizon—field after field after field, dotted with villages that were now waking up below us.

As we drove back through the now-bustling village, we saw residents preparing food and decorations for a wedding, and we stopped at a lotus field to admire its hot pink flowers. That afternoon, we returned to our more active pace of sightseeing, but the peacefulness of the morning never left me. I’d been given an uncommon glimpse into a key part of Cambodian culture, and a reminder to slow down enough to truly experience it.

How to Make it Happen:

This experience is organized exclusively by Sandy Ferguson, who is one of our Trusted Travel Experts for Southeast Asia; you can read his Insider Guides to Southeast Asia, to Bangkok, and to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and the Best Beaches, and read reviews by travelers who’ve used him to understand the caliber of trips he arranges. To be marked as a WendyPerrin.com VIP traveler and get priority attention and special benefits, request your trip here.

Be a smarter traveler: Read real travelers’s reviews of Wendy’s WOW List and use it to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter @wendyperrin, and Instagram @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

This Traveler Has Used The WOW List to Plan 15 Trips: How and Why

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What sort of traveler uses The WOW List? You might assume it’s travelers who can’t plan their own trips, but you’d be wrong. It’s people who have planned so many trips so well that they have an exhaustive grasp of just how much you miss out on when you don’t utilize the best local expertise and connections—and a deep appreciation of just how much time and effort such meticulous planning takes.

Jeff Bernfield, for instance. He’s a physician from the Chicago area who has used Wendy’s recommended Trusted Travel Experts (TTEs) more than anyone else—a whopping 15 times. With his wife, and sometimes with the rest of his family, he’s been all over the globe on trips arranged by these destination specialists, including Italy, Africa, England, Japan, Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, Norway, even Disney World. As you’d expect, he’s got a lot of tips to share when it comes to collaborating with travel specialists. So, in a phone call after a trip to Florence, Italy (where Wendy surprised him with a WOW Moment loyalty reward), we asked Dr. Bernfield to share his advice for how to get the best trip possible.

You’re more than capable of arranging your own travel. Why do you use The WOW List?

I could plan each trip myself—I’m a voracious researcher—but it’s so much easier to let one of these experts plan the whole thing for you and not worry about what could go wrong and what you’d do if something went wrong. I never ever have to worry because, even if something might go wrong, they fix it. They always fix it. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s like having an insurance policy.

How do you choose which travel specialist to use for each trip?

What I usually do, I email Wendy. Wendy knows me by now, so I tell her where we’re going, and she’ll recommend the right one for me.

Do you read the reviews posted about each travel specialist on WendyPerrin.com?

I read all of the TTE’s reviews on Wendy’s site before contacting that TTE. I want to find out what that travel expert has planned and whether they’ve done something special—like, say, getting a traveler into Downton Abbey. I’ve never been able to get that; my wife is an obsessed Downtown Abbey fan but I couldn’t pull it off. My point is: If I read something in a review, that might tip my hand.

What’s most important to you in a travel planner?

I’m pretty big on communication and being accessible. Some Trusted Travel Experts are just incredible and if you shoot them an email, you get a response in ten minutes.

Do you prefer email or phone?

I definitely like the phone call. I always like to talk to somebody and know who I’m dealing with before I do business with them. And I like to have a back-and-forth discussion. I’m not the kind of person who says give me an itinerary for Southeast Asia and then I just do that itinerary. That’s not my nature. I like to pick people’s brains. I ask them: Why are you recommending this over this? I do a lot of reading, so maybe I’m on somebody’s dartboard somewhere [Laughs], but I like to have discussions about the itinerary.

In that first phone call, what should a traveler tell the Trusted Travel Expert?

I’ll tell them from the start what I’m looking for, and I’ll ask what are some of the things you offer, and then I’ll listen. I also ask about private experiences, since we like to dig into the culture and history. I always tell the TTEs: Let’s do something different, something that other people won’t do, don’t know to do. When we planned our trip to Japan, the Trusted Travel Expert sent us a list of 20 private experiences and told me to pick from them. I picked them all. I’m not saying everyone can or should do that, but I think if you like doing things different, that’s one of the advantages of having these experts plan your itinerary. So you’re not just going to the Louvre, not just doing the things any travelers can do; you’re going to someone’s home, taking a cooking lesson, taking a samurai sword lesson, meeting a priest at a high temple. In Italy we got to go to a dairy farm and see how they make Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. If you like doing different cultural experiences, there are a lot of assets that people on Wendy’s list have that I would try to find out about.

What are some of the questions travelers should ask?

I start with: What do you offer that’s different from the average tourist things? What cultural experiences can you access? Example: My wife is a picky eater. It so happens that she loves pizza, but in northern Italy pizza is not as common as in southern Italy. I told our Italy travel specialist, Maria, that my wife loves pizza, and would it be possible to take a pizza-making lesson? At first she said, “Huh, I don’t know, pizza’s not that popular in northern Italy.” But she called me back a couple hours later and she said, “I got it!” She had arranged for us to meet a chef who would give us a pizza lesson. I asked the question, I didn’t know what kind of answer I would get, but if you have something specific in mind, ask for it—because even if they don’t normally do it, unless you ask for something impossible, they’re going to try really hard to accommodate your request. That’s important.

What else is important to communicate to your Trusted Travel Expert?

You have to know what you are and what you want. We don’t like beaches. We don’t like to sit around and do nothing. Some travel specialists will schedule you starting at 11am, but we get up at 7am. So you need to know what you want and ask the questions. Then we can figure out if they can handle my needs. It’s like anything else: You talk to somebody. Some are easier to talk to, more communicative, have an easy-going personality—but you figure that out quickly. That’s why a phone call is so important.

Thinking about reaching out to a WOW List travel specialist? Wendy’s got key advice for you too: How To Get The Best Possible Trip.

Italy WOW Moment: A Private Michelin-Star Dinner with Fireworks

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Michelin-starred restaurant La Leggenda dei Frati in Florence, Italy

The view overlooking Florence from the restaurant rooftop where our traveler enjoyed his WOW Moment. Photo: Georgio Magini

Photo: Giorgio Magini

How do you impress a traveler who’s been everywhere and done everything? That’s our challenge with a lot of our readers. You are a very well-traveled and discerning bunch! Even those of you finding The WOW List for the first time arrive with very high expectations—and we love that about you.

But it does create a challenge for us—and for the Trusted Travel Experts on Wendy’s WOW List—to dazzle you with something new and unexpected. Yet that’s exactly what Wendy aims to do with her WOW Moments. She personally adds a complimentary insider-access experience to your itinerary on your third trip with a WOW List–recommended travel specialist. It’s a thank-you for trying our new WOW trip-planning system and helping us test and fine-tune it.

The best WOW Moments come as a complete surprise. And that’s why we are thrilled with the response Jeff Bernfield had to his WOW Moment in Florence, Italy, last month. Dr. Bernfield, a physician in the Chicago area, is a special case: He’s used 15 of Wendy’s recommended travel specialists over the years.

“I could plan each trip myself, but it’s so much easier to use one of these people and let them plan the whole thing for you,” he told us over the phone after his trip to Italy arranged by Maria Gabriella Landers and Brian Dore. “I never ever worry about things that can go wrong because even if something might go wrong, they fix it. They always fix it. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s like having an insurance policy.”

Knowing that Dr. Bernfield and his wife would be in Florence during the June Feast of San Giovanni—celebrated with historical parades, music, and fireworks over the Arno—Wendy worked with Maria and Brian to come up with something very special. Maria suggested dinner at La Leggenda dei Frati—a restaurant located in the Bardini Gardens—on the Terrazzo dei Limoni, an exclusive part of the restaurant with only five tables of two and fantastic views of the fireworks at night. Maria explained that, while there is another, larger terrace at the famed Michelin-starred restaurant, the Terrazzo dei Limoni would be more atmospheric and exclusive. Wendy agreed it sounded perfect, so Maria set it up, and we waited to hear the Bernfields’ reaction. Dr. Bernfield emailed Wendy right after they got home from their dinner, and then we followed up on the phone to hear all the fun details. This what he had to say:

Q: Did you have any clue what was being planned?

A: We knew something was up because I’m a voracious reader and researcher. Even with these travel experts, if they make a recommendation, I read about it and make sure it fits—I’m not good at just accepting things. For this, we got an itinerary, and I kept noticing that Saturday night was empty, and I kept questioning Maria about it. We had originally planned to go to the festival of St. John because Maria told us it was a great event in Florence—we scheduled our whole trip around being in Florence that day. And then there was nothing written on the itinerary for that evening. Our itinerary said, “Meet your guide at 3pm and she’ll show you around and then you’ll be left for the evening.” I had a feeling something was up, but I couldn’t find out what it was. Back at our hotel, we were told someone would meet us in our hotel lobby at 8.

Q: Sneaky. Who was it?

A: We went down to the lobby and, to our surprise, Maria and Brian were there! That to me was the highlight. For me, it’s always about the people. I don’t care what museum or what church or what holy site or any activity that we do. For us, travel is always 100 percent about the people, and I thought that was one of the nicest things she could have done. Even though that technically wasn’t our WOW Moment, for us that was it.

Q: But of course it wasn’t! What had they arranged for you?

A: They had arranged a taxi to take us to a beautiful Michelin-starred restaurant overlooking the Arno River, La Leggenda dei Frati, where we didn’t just have dinner—they took us to an open-air roof on top of the restaurant that we had to ourselves, and they hired an Italian opera singer to serenade us. That was incredible. There was also a harp player, and a private photographer taking pictures of us.

Q: This restaurant was special because of the Feast of San Giovanni. What was the location like?

A: We had basically a private viewing of the fireworks over the river. In fact, other people sitting on the lower level of the restaurant could not see the fireworks because the trees blocked it. We’ve been sent the photos since then and they are great—much better than what we did with my iPhone. [Laughs]

After the fireworks, the chef introduced himself, took us into the kitchen, and took us to the separate private museum roof overlay, which had all kinds of art. It was outrageous. If I had tried to plan the most romantic evening I could for my wife, I would have fallen short of what Wendy and Maria and Brian planned for us. It could not have gone any better. For that, I thank her. I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but we are very appreciative. It was the highlight of our trip. We’ve had amazing experiences all over the globe, but this ranks number one.

Q: You’ve used travel specialists on Wendy’s WOW List more than a dozen times. How did you originally find Wendy’s list of travel specialists?

A: To make a long story short, I used to use a local boutique luxury travel agent here in the Chicago area, and my wife got sick and we were off the grid for a couple years. We couldn’t really travel, waiting to see if she got better, and she did, thankfully. When she got better, we decided that tomorrow isn’t promised, so to speak, and we’re going to live each day to the fullest. and we’re going to go out and see the world. So I called this travel agent, and she didn’t want to offer her services because we hadn’t used her in the past six months. And when I explained why, she still didn’t want to offer her services. I didn’t really know what to do. I’d told my wife that when she got better she could pick her bucket-list trip as long as I could pick mine. She picked Greece, and I picked Africa. And then kind of out of the blue, I reached out to Wendy, who was at Condé Nast Traveler magazine at the time, and I think I sent Wendy a tweet or an email, I don’t remember. I was not expecting a response—but she answered! [Laughs] I was stunned, because I didn’t know her and took a shot in the dark and she answered. I was looking for help and advice on how to do this and I didn’t have anybody local and one thing led to another. I think I’ve used about 15 WOW List people over the past few years, and in her nice way, Wendy reciprocated—she didn’t have to—with this WOW Moment.

Honestly, I think it was the nicest, most enjoyable evening the two of us have ever been lucky enough to spend. Apart from my son’s wedding five weeks ago, this ranks right up there with one of the unexpected enjoyable evenings.

Wendy Wants To Amp Up Your Trip!

On every third qualifying trip, Wendy will add to your itinerary a surprise WOW Moment. A WOW Moment is an exclusive insider experience that helps make a trip extraordinary. Each WOW Moment is totally different. They vary depending on a huge range of factors, including the country you’re headed to, the timing of your trip, logistics, availability, and more. You can read a sampling of the more over-the-top WOW Moments (those most conducive to editorial coverage) here. Learn which trips qualify, and how the process works, here: Wendy Wants To Amp Up Your Trip!

Every Tourism Board Should Be Doing This

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Figuring out how to stay connected while you’re traveling abroad is always kind of stressful. Will there be Wi-Fi? Will it be safe? If I have to rely on roaming data, how much will I use and what will it cost? Sure, you can arrange for some sort of international plan with your home carrier before you leave, but it’s never cheap and it’s never simple.

To alleviate that problem, Switzerland Tourism has partnered with Travelers Wifi to offer a very handy little solution, the Travelers Wifi hot spot, which provides 4G/LTE service for up to ten devices at a time with no data limits. The hot spot is small, thin and light; I’d compare it to a stack of ten credit cards and weighs 75g, which is less than a deck of cards.

travelers wifi portable wifi hot spot device for switzerland

The Travelers Wifi hot spot fits in your hand and weighs 2.6 ounces. Photo: Billie Cohen

For me, it was a no brainer to rent one and test it out. I work while I travel, so having uninterrupted Internet access for both my phone and my laptop was invaluable. Plus, with this, I never have to be on shared public Wi-Fi. I’m able to pull out my laptop on any train, at any coffee shop, in any hotel room or Airbnb, and work not only with a strong Wi-Fi connection, but on a private, secure one for which only I have the password.

You can rent the hot spot for however long you’re going to be in the country (it works only in Switzerland), and the cost is between $6 to $8 per day (the per diem cost gets cheaper as the rental period increases). If this sounds like a lot, consider two things:

First, you can connect up to ten devices on your network and it will not slow down the signal. If you’re a family or a couple traveling together, that alone makes it a good deal. For business travelers or remote workers, the value is even more obvious.

Second, you will be surprised how much you will use your devices, particularly a phone or tablet, once you don’t have to worry about racking up data charges. I found a million productive uses for my phone that both enhanced and eased my travel experience and that I know I wouldn’t have dared to use if data charges were an issue. I downloaded local train and bus apps to check schedules and buy tickets; I streamed audio guides for scenic drives and museums; I looked up unfamiliar foods on menus and in markets; I learned how to say “gluten-free” in three languages; I was able to use Google Maps discreetly instead of unfolding giant paper maps in the middle of the street; I was able to use Google Translate to hold quality conversations with my German-speaking Airbnb host (about her family, her camping vacation, and our mutual appreciation of Swiss architects); I was able to pull up videos of a Ticino-based artist as my B&B owner offered an impromptu local art lesson; I streamed Netflix shows in French and German to get a feel for the language (and, okay, I also watched reruns of Gilmore Girls); I edited stories, emailed with Wendy, and did other WendyPerrin.com work on my laptop a few hours every day; I used Wi-Fi calling to conduct interviews, hold meetings, and talk to my mom on Mother’s Day; and, of course, I posted a ton of photos on social media and a few stories on my blog.

I checked with the Travelers Wifi service, and I’ve been using about 1.4G per day, across my phone and my laptop. See how much you can eat up when you’re not careful? And I definitely wasn’t—which was incredibly freeing. So how much would I be paying for this without Travelers Wifi?

My regular phone service is Google Project Fi, which has a pretty good international coverage plan to begin with. It’s $10 per gigabyte no matter where in the world I am; there’s no additional fee (or throttling of speed) if I use that gig of data in Cambodia or at home in New York. I’m happy with the service, but even with that decent rate, if I’d been using all that data here in Switzerland, I would still be paying a little more than $10 per day. I’m here for 29 days, so that would’ve been $290. The Travelers Wifi for 29 days cost me $209. The savings are comparable for shorter trips, and the value goes up the more people you’re traveling with.

In efficient Swiss fashion, pick-up and drop-off of the Travelers Wifi is simple: You can book it ahead of time online and then pick it up at convenient spots including Zurich airport, your hotel, one of 1,500 post offices, or any Swiss address. Or you can rent one once you arrive, like I did, at Zurich airport, or at the tourism offices located in the Zurich, Bern, and Geneva main train stations. To return it, just drop it in any Swiss mailbox with the provided packaging, or bring it to a post office or one of the rental locations.

I don’t know why every tourism board isn’t partnering with a local provider to do something like this. But maybe some will be soon. In June, Travelers Wifi will launch a European product that will cover 40 countries and can be ordered and returned to anywhere in Europe. There’s no info available on the pricing or locations for that one yet, but I’m looking forward to taking a long European vacation to test it out.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter @wendyperrin, and Instagram @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Switzerland Is More Than Chocolate, Cheese, and Mountains

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Switzerland is an increasingly popular destination for our readers—so much so that I’m spending a few weeks traveling the country to get to know it better and to test different Switzerland travel specialists for potential inclusion on The WOW List in the future. Each Switzerland specialist has different strengths and offers different insider experiences, so if you’re looking for a WOW trip to Switzerland, click over to Ask Wendy to get her recommendation for the right trip designer for your needs. In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here are key things you need to see, taste, and know about traveling in Switzerland—beyond the usual and expected draws (though those are pretty good too).

Follow more of my trip on Instagram @billietravels and at billietravels.com.

Don’t call them macarons.

A post shared by Billie Cohen (@billietravels) on May 9, 2017 at 4:58am PDT

Zurich confectionary Sprüngli has its own branded version of the colorful almond-flour sandwich cookies. They’re called Luxemburgerli, and they are a little smaller and lighter than classic macarons. Sample the always-available flavors including raspberry, hazelnut, champagne, caramel, and chocolate, but don’t miss the seasonal Luxemburgerli. May’s specials were mango and strawberry-rhubarb.

Wear thick-soled shoes even if you don’t plan on hiking.

Old Town Piazza Grande Locarno Ticino Switzerland

The old town areas of Swiss cities, like this one in Locarno, are charming—but the uneven stone surfaces can be tough on your feet. Photo: Billie Cohen

You might think you only need solid footwear if you’re going to be trekking in the mountains, but the cobblestone streets of an old town (and every Swiss city has one) will quickly lead to tired, painful feet if you’re wearing thin sneakers or sandals.

The hype is true: The trains are spectacular.

A post shared by Billie Cohen (@billietravels) on May 19, 2017 at 8:13am PDT

The famed panoramic Glacier Express and Bernina Express live up to their reputation as gorgeous scenic experiences but, honestly, a lot of the regular train rides throughout the country offer equally stunning views. Switzerland Tourism sells a few varieties of train passes to make system-wide travel easier and more economical (you can purchase consecutive-day or flex passes for 3, 4, 8, or 15 days). Since I’m here for about a month, I chose the half-fare travel card; it gave me discounted tickets on long-distance, panoramic trains and local transportation, including buses, trams, and many scenic cable cars and even some local taxi services. I also tested an eight-consecutive-day, first-class Swiss Travel pass, courtesy of Switzerland Tourism, to see what that kind of freedom feels like and to experience first class. The Travel Pass covers all of the above, plus gives you free admission to more than 500 museums and attractions. There is plenty of info on myswitzerland.com to find the right one for your trip.

Second class is really nice.

comparison of first and second class seats on Glacier Express train in Switzerland

On the Glacier Express, first-class seats (the red) are a bit roomier than the blue second-class section, and there are fewer seats in each car. But second class is still quite comfortable, even on regular trains. Photo: Billie Cohen

When traveling on trains or buying your Travel Pass, you’ll have a choice between first and second class. As you’d expect, first class is more spacious, the seats are bigger, the tables are bigger, and there are fewer people in each car, but second class is really nice too. This is no coach vs. business class dichotomy here—second class is very comfortable and the seats are roomy. In many cars, if I was sitting in a foursome (two seats facing another two seats with a little table between), I had enough room to keep my roller bag at my feet without crowding the person opposite me. I also found outlets in several second-class cars during my travels. Where I really appreciated first class was on my seven-hour Glacier Express trip. Since I was on that train for so long, it felt luxurious to have room to stretch out, a big table so I could spread out my maps and my laptop, and a less-crowded car.

But trains are not the most scenic way to travel.

That is not to say Switzerland’s trains are not spectacular. They absolutely are. I’ve criss-crossed the country on long-distance routes, inter-city expresses, regional connections, the famed panoramic Glacier Express, and even a 125-year-old cog railway that chugged to the summit of Monte Generoso at 1,704 meters. And I loved every second of every ride. Whether you travel first or second class, trains are comfortable, roomy, clean, and even the most basic local carriages have big windows. So I am not saying you should skip train travel. If you don’t travel by train in Switzerland, you are missing out. But I really shocked myself to find that after a month in this country, my personal favorite way to see it is by bus. Granted, it is slower, but that’s why I prefer it. Buses can also go where trains can’t. (Renting a car and driving introduces complications such as navigating scary roads, not being able to gawk at the scenery and drive at the same time, and not being able to have a local beer or glass of wine with your meal.) I rode the most amazing route in the Ticino region to see the famed Church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, by Swiss architect Mario Botta. We started out winding through charming tiny villages (where our driver knew everyone who waved to him from the streets because he’s been driving this route for 28 years) and then graduated to a series of steep hairpin turns that led up a mountain with sheer cliffs on one side and eye-popping views of the valley. I also really enjoyed the fact that we drove through many towns and villages. Yes, this meant a slower ride with more stops, but it also meant I had the chance to see where people lived and get a better sense of how the various villages are connected.

Long-distance routes like this one are run by the PostBus company, which, as its name implies, got its start as a service for delivering mail. It’s still part of the Swiss postal system, but it’s grown into a far-reaching, easy-to-use, and affordable public transportation network that’s also covered by the Swiss Travel Passes. You’ll recognize it by its bright yellow buses. The app even offers downloadable audio guides that point out sights and history along some of the routes.

Don’t miss the toilets on the trains.

funny design wallpaper in a bathroom on a Swiss train

The bathrooms on Swiss trains are much cleaner and more whimsical than you’d expect. Most of them have some kind of funny wallpaper to make you feel like you’re anywhere but in a train toilet. Photo: Billie Cohen

For one thing, this is practical advice, since bathrooms at train stations often cost a franc, while the toilets on the trains themselves are free. For another, the train toilets (look for the WC sign) are not only clean, they’re adorable. Yeah, I know, that’s not a word anyone would normally use to describe a bathroom, but just look at this picture! Most of the WCs on inter-city routes have whimsical wallpaper that’ll make you feel like you’re somewhere else: a homey powder room, in an under-the-sea submarine looking out a fake porthole, in an airplane flying through the clouds— and I never saw the same design twice. When the bathrooms are this nice, you know trains are a valued, respected, and well-maintained mode of transportation.

Don’t be a hero; take your Dramamine.

Hairpin turn on road in Ticino Switzerland

One unfortunate consequence of all those beautiful Swiss mountains: very, very, very sharp turns to get up them. Photo: Billie Cohen

The roads in the mountains can be very sinuous—ideal for causing discomfort to those of us who suffer from motion sickness. Even some of the trains rock side to side and may take some windy routes. And then there’s the buses, which can navigate even more serpentine roads and do a lot more stopping and starting. Also keep in mind that all modes of transportation here have front- and back-facing seats, and you may not always get your first choice, so you’ll have that additional trigger to worry about. So do yourself a favor and don’t try to tough it out. You’ll end up feeling too sick to look out the window; take whatever aid helps you feel better. If it makes you tired, you can always pep up with a coffee and a piece of chocolate!

There are gems of modern architecture, but some of them are hidden.

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Mario Botta has several structures around Switzerland that are worth visiting. In addition to the San Giovanni Battista church, there’s La Chiesa Santa Maria degli Angeli at Monte Teramo and the Fiore di Pietra at the top of Monte Generoso (both in the Ticino region). Pritzker Prize-winning Peter Zumthor is another Swiss architect worth seeking out. In addition to the Therme Vals (in Vals), he designed a shelter for Roman archeological finds in Chur, Switzerland’s oldest city. That one is way off the main streets; although it’s not widely publicized, you can ask for a key at the tourist information center to access it. If you make the effort, you’ll be rewarded. I had the place entirely to myself when I visited, and I loved the contrast between the way the open-air structure incorporates light and shadow, which are always changing from minute to minute, and the ancient artifacts, which haven’t changed in 2,000 years. Another architectural gem that’s not obvious from the street is in Zurich: Santiago Calatrava’s law library at the University of Zurich is inside another building, so unless you know it’s there, you won’t notice it. The library is free and open to the public and worth the trip. There are so many other gems of modern architecture throughout Switzerland, so be sure to seek them out: the last building Le Corbusier ever designed is in Zurich; creations by Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and other starchitects are gathered at the Vitra Campus outside Basel; and Renzo Piano designed the undulating Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.

It’s very easy to accommodate food allergies and preferences here.

I’m a vegetarian with many food issues, none of which were a problem here. Not only does everyone understand “vegetarian” and “vegan,” but I saw many menus that noted those options as well as gluten-free offerings. In grocery stores, packages mark these things too. Some stores have separate gluten-free sections. And I love to visit grocery stores. The two main ones you’ll see around Switzerland are Coop and Migros; the larger locations have inexpensive buffet-style restaurants and sections of housewares and even clothing.

Try all the Swiss cheese. There’s more than you think.

Variety of Appenzeller cheeses in switzerland

There a so many kinds of cheeses to taste in Switzerland, try them all. This selection is from the Appenzeller dairy. Photo: Billie Cohen

There are myriad varieties of cheese here beyond the familiar hole-pocked slices we picture when someone says Swiss cheese: There’s Emmental, Gruyère, Appenzeller, and many that are local to each region. Be sure to try them all and seek out opportunities to see it made. In Appenzell, I visited the Appenzeller show dairy and tasted several varieties. You can also visit the Gruyère factory and Emmentaler show dairy, and a well-connected Switzerland travel specialist can arrange more personal cheese experiences

There’s a rosti for every region and you should taste them all.

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If you want to get very basic about it, rosti is just a big hash brown. But that’s really oversimplifying it. When done well, a big fat plate of browned and crispy rosti is exactly what your belly needs after a day of touring or hiking or shopping or whatever it is you did that day. What’s cool is that different regions in German Switzerland have their signature versions: In Appenzell, the rosti is served with a fried egg and Appenzeller cheese. The Bern version has bacon. Ask about it and try them all.

There are also regional desserts. Try those too.

biberli cookie dessert from Appenzell Switzerland

Every region of Switzerland has specialty desserts. This biberli, a gingerbread cookie filled with nut cream, is popular in Appenzell. Photo: Billie Cohen

Keep your eye open for cakes, cookies, and treats in each area you visit. In Zurich and Appenzell, you’ll see a lot of small round mini cakes called biberli, which are soft gingerbread on the outside and filled with a nut cream. In Chur, I was introduced to Bündner Nusstorte (Bündner indicates it’s from the Canton of Graubünden, of which Chur is the capital), which is more like a walnut pie. Birnenbrot, also from Graubünden translates to pear bread. It’s a log of pear filling wrapped in a thin pastry.

Even the grocery stores sell good chocolate.

Swiss chocolate bars in grocery store in Switzerland

Every grocery store sells a large selection of chocolate at very affordable prices—and it’s good. Photo: Billie Cohen

You will likely want to try the fancy and famous chocolatiers of Switzerland, including Sprüngli in Zurich, Merz in Chur, and my favorite, Chocolat Stella in Bellinzona. And, of course, you should—they’re famous for a reason. But the quality of Swiss chocolate is so high that, as a rule, even the bars you buy in regular grocery stores are delicious. You’ll find large selections including Lindt aplenty, as well as Maison Callier and in-house lines. And whereas bite-size pralines from an upscale shop can cost 1.50 francs, standard chocolate bars are 100g (about twice the size of an American bar) and usually not more than two to three Swiss francs. The Migros grocery store’s house-brand milk chocolate bar is at the inexpensive end, and even that is creamier and more indulgent than any 80-cent chocolate bar has a right to be. Ask a local for his or her favorite brand, and you’ll get a different recommendation every time.

There are villages in the Ticino region where people still live without electricity—by choice.

Valle Bavona stone village Ticino Switzerland

The valleys of Switzerland’s southern Ticino region are dotted with ancient stone villages still in use today. Photo: Billie Cohen

The Ticino region of southern Switzerland is a varied landscape of steep cliffs and verdant valleys. And in those valleys, you can drive right up to—and walk respectfully through—miniscule villages of stone houses that date back hundreds of years. In the Valle Bavona outside the city of Locarno, for example, some families spend their summers in rustic homes, eschewing electricity and modern plumbing in exchange for being surrounded by nature. You can visit these on your own, but a local guide who knows the area, the history, the context, and some of the residents, will make a big difference since there are no signs to give you info on what you’re looking at, how the houses were built, or what daily life here is like. For example, my guide Anna, who still spends summer weekends in a mountain home in the area, shared anecdotes about residents she knew personally and how they handle basic tasks like laundry and gardening, as well as insider stories such as why the locals here chose to refuse electricity (it had to do with taxes in the 1970s), and how those who live in high-up mountain crevices get their supplies (hint: look for ground-level posts topped with orange balls, they mark the beginning of pulley wires that ascend to the heights). Anna also led me through an off-road trail dotted with ancient cave grottos still in use by today’s residents—I never would have found that on my own, or even known to look.

Quick and Easy Weekend Getaways for the Summer

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How is it that summer sneaks up on us every year? It was just winter, and then all of a sudden the warm weather is upon us and we’re scrambling to plan some quick-and-easy summer getaways. The good news is it’s never too late. Here are eight ideas for short, fun road trips and big-city escapes that work just as well for families as for solo travelers.

Find Your Inner Writer

You’ll have plenty of time this summer to spend reading on the beach (we hope!) but for now, get your book fix by road tripping through our nation’s literary past in New England. Wendy, who majored in History and Literature at Harvard, has designed this two-day itinerary, starting and ending in Boston, that takes you through Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, and Edith Wharton country.

Find Your Inner Food Critic

Put your GPS and your stomach to good use on a road trip focused on your favorite regional foods. For a Southern barbecue and soul food feast, for example, you could start with hickory-smoked ribs in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and continue sampling the country’s best barbecue on this itinerary through Nashville all the way to Kansas City. Or rate lobster rolls along the Northeastern coast, from Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock in New London, Connecticut, to Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, Maine. Find a few lauded spots with the TripAdvisor or LocalEats apps and you’re good to go. Of course, you could also just eat your way through the nearest State Fair.

See Spectacular Coastline

Drive Route 1 to Black Sands Beach on the Lost Coast in Humboldt, CA. Photo: Visit California

“One of my all-time favorite adventures along the northern California coast is to drive the one-lane, unpaved road off Route 1, just west of Leggett, to Sinkyone Wilderness State Park,” says Sheri Doyle, an expert planner of California road trips. “It’s a white-knuckle trip that will have you praying you won’t meet anyone coming the other way, and you’ll need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to do it, but the reward at the end—a black-sand beach out in the middle of nowhere—is fantastic. If that’s too daunting, the drive to the ‘Lost Coast’—the stretch of coastline from Ferndale to the Avenue of the Giants, just south of Eureka—is paved and not quite as difficult, but also leads to fantastic beach views that you’ll share with more cows than people.”

Discover Geological Wonders

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah

Utah’s Highway 12, which runs alongside the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, is a spectacular drive, but few take the time to do it.

Make one of Utah’s gorgeous national parks your goal for the weekend, and turn the drive into part of the experience by driving Highway 12, which runs between the Utah towns of Tropic and Torrey alongside the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. It’s one of the world’s most spectacular drives, yet few people know about it. Learn more about Highway 12 in The American West You Don’t Know About, But Should and bookmark our calendar guide to the best national parks for every month of the year.

Delve Into the Heartland

Mississippi River runs through Minneapolis Minnesota

Mississippi River runs through Minneapolis. Photo: Billie Cohen

America’s Great River Road runs along the Mississippi, all the way from Canada to the Gulf Coast, passing through country dotted with historic villages, wineries, wildlife, and sweeping vistas. Wendy recommends this two- to three-day itinerary that takes you along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, starting in Minneapolis and ending in Madison, Wisconsin.

Pursue Your Passion

world's largest pumpkin roadside attraction

Pumpkins, petrified trees, yo-yos, balls of twine—the world’s largest anything is worth a stop, just for the sheer goofiness of it. Photo: Flickr/Loozrboy

Remember that you don’t need a bucket-list destination to make a road trip memorable. Just think of something you love and string together a few spots related to it. Are your kids die-hard baseball fans? Plan a route that connects minor-league stadiums. Do you swoon over lighthouses? Maine and North Carolina are just two states for you. If botanical gardens are more your thing, set your course for the Southwest and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Or go all-out quirky and seek out three of the world’s largest anything—apps such as Roadside America and Along the Way will help you track them down.

See How It’s Made

The Jelly Belly factory has a free sampling station where you can try three choices of jellybeans. Photo: Tim Baker

Many candy, ice cream, and food companies offer kid-friendly tours of their facilities—but you definitely don’t need to be a kid to enjoy them. In most cases you’ll get to see some behind-the-scenes manufacturing, learn about the company and the product, and (best part) get to taste the final product. Hershey’s Chocolate World in Pennsylvania and Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont are pretty well-known, but you can find more unusual ones like Tabasco Pepper Sauce in Louisiana and the Celestial Seasonings Tea factory in Colorado. Wendy’s husband, Tim, took the boys to the Jelly Belly jellybeans factory in California one year.

Find Peace in a Big City

little red lighthouse in fort washington park new york city

Try something different in New York City: a picnic near the city’s only remaining light house, known as the Little Red Lighthouse, at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. Photo: Malcolm Pinckney, NYC Parks

You won’t be the only person thinking about hitting a big city on a summer weekend, but that doesn’t mean you can’t avoid the crowds. Washington, D.C. is beautiful in the spring, before the summer heat and humidity roll in. While everyone else is piling into the various Smithsonian museums, head away from the Mall to Dumbarton Oaks, an eclectic museum with gardens tucked away in a residential neighborhood, a mile and a half from the closest Metro stop. Owned by Harvard, the former mansion features world-class pre-Columbian and Byzantine art and artifacts, impressive architecture designed by Philip Johnson, and a beautiful 27-acre garden and park. It’s rarely crowded, and as a bonus, it’s a short stroll away from an outstanding small museum, Tudor Place, as well as the Georgetown commercial district. In New York, leave the sunbathing hordes of Central Park behind and instead spend the weekend exploring the city’s other parks. Plan a picnic in Fort Washington Park, near the city’s only remaining beacon Jeffrey’s Hook Light House (also known as the Little Red Lighthouse) at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. Or head to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, to climb Lookout Hill, the highest point in Brooklyn with views of the second park designed by Olmsted & Vaux (famous for creating Manhattan’s Central Park; legend has it they said Prospect was the design they liked better).

WOW Moment: A Helicopter Ride Over The Great Wall of China

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We take our jobs very seriously here at WendyPerrin.com—to report on and recommend the best travel solutions and trip-planning help out there. After all, if we’re wrong about anything, we must answer to you—an audience of the most experienced and discerning travelers around. That’s why the review process is such an integral part of Wendy’s Trip Support System. In fact, it’s the main reason we ask all of you who use The WOW List to use the black CONTACT buttons on it when you contact a Trusted Travel Expert. That way, we can stay in touch with you and, after your trip, find out how everything went. Your feedback is enormously helpful to your fellow travelers—and, in turn, their reviews are enormously helpful to you, when you come back to use The WOW List again.

But don’t listen to us when we tell you the benefits of using Wendy’s WOW system to plan your trips. Listen to Lisa and Scott Dettmer, frequent travelers from the Silicon Valley area who’ve been using Wendy’s travel specialists for years. They recently returned from their latest adventure, arranged by Mei Zhang, Wendy’s Trusted Travel Expert for China. Since this was the Dettmers’ third trip using the WOW system, they earned something special: a surprise insider experience curated by Wendy and added to their itinerary for free. We call these WOW Moments, and anyone who uses our trip-planning system can earn one if they simply use our WOW List buttons and review their Trusted Travel Expert after their trip. (Here’s more info on how to get your own WOW Moment).

We’re not sure all of you have heard about WOW Moments yet, so we called up Lisa and Scott to let them share, in their own words, their experience working with Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts, and what they thought of their WOW Moment surprise.

Q: How often do you two travel?

Lisa: We do one significant trip each year—like a two-week, far-away trip—and then we do quite a few smaller trips throughout the year. Our first trip [using one of Wendy’s travel specialists] was to Africa when Wendy was at Condé Nast Traveler. The planning worked so well, and the trip was so tailored to our needs, that I’ve continued to use her specialists throughout the last four or five years. Every single time we’ve had just wonderful experiences. I wouldn’t plan a trip without doing it that way—because it works.

Q: You recently returned from China. Was this a special trip?

Scott: We wanted to approach it a little differently. We didn’t want a traditional tourist approach to China, and it was nice that [Mei and her team] were able to do something we thought was unique and customized to our preferences.

Q: Can you give an example?

Scott: We like to hike and be outdoors, and we like animals, and a lot of travelers would not think you would go to China to have those experiences. Most think it’s going to be an urban experience: You’ll see the Great Wall, the terra-cotta warriors, and the Forbidden City, and that’s it. But WildChina delivered. Lisa’s experience of being up close and personal with a panda made the trip for her, and the other was being able to hike out into the forest in the southwestern area of China to find the endangered snub-nosed monkeys and hang out for hours watching them play around in the trees. They did a nice job of giving us the urban experience and the rural experience.

Q: Walk me through your WOW Moment: What happened?

Scott: It was a ton of fun and a great surprise, and the lead-up to it was amusing. We were in Beijing and had already gone out to one portion of the Great Wall, at Mutianyu, and had a great visit there. The next day I was supposed to visit my office in Beijing, but when our tour guide found out that I wasn’t going in, he started making a bunch of texts and phone calls. Then he said, “Since you’re not going to the office, we would really like to take you to another portion of the Great Wall.” We thought, “Well, we’ve already seen the Great Wall.” I should back up and explain that our guide was such a gentle and accommodating guy—really nice—but now he was like, “No, I think you should go to this other section of the Great Wall.” So we said, [adopts a skeptical voice] “Okay…I guess we’ll follow your good judgment.” [Laughs]

Lisa: That morning I started to put on my tennis shoes, thinking we’re going to hike, and our guide gets this big smile on his face and says, “Oh, you won’t be needing your tennis shoes.” And as soon as he told us that, he told us this was our WOW Moment.

Scott: I have a special affinity for helicopters because I started taking lessons in the past year—and we went up in one of the types I’ve flown, or kind of flown. [Laughs] And what a kick! Flying over different portions of the Great Wall! It certainly is a very different perspective. And to see the wall winding in its serpentine terrain across that mountainous terrain—it was gorgeous. The guide got to go up with us, and he’d never been up in a helicopter before. It was a ton of fun, and everyone had giant smiles.

Q: Lisa, you’re the one who worked with our Trusted Travel Expert to plan the trip. Did you have any idea what the WOW Moment was going to be?

Lisa: It was a total surprise, and that makes it really fun. I’d thought the WOW Moment was another thing that wasn’t in the original itinerary: WildChina had added in a sidecar ride through Shanghai. So, in my mind, since we’d never talked about what the WOW Moment would be, I assumed that’s what it was—I thought we’d already had it. So [the helicopter ride] was really a surprise, even though I was the planner of the trip!

Q: What’s your take on working with a Trusted Travel Expert to plan a trip? We’d like your honest opinion.

Lisa: It was neat that we felt like [Mei’s deputy] Jenny Zhao was constantly monitoring us throughout the trip and always knew where we were. She was our air-traffic controller on this trip. We also appreciated her on-the-spot analysis of our options: At one point, the weather was going to be pretty cold, and they were predicting snow in an area that was a significant drive away, and we thought maybe we should not do that portion. So we contacted Jenny to talk about alternatives, and she very quickly did the research to let us know what our options were. She encouraged us to go because if we canceled it we’d miss out on [a connecting portion] of the trip, and this way we could use the day to relax if the weather wasn’t that good. But it was a lovely day: We went on a hike with our guide, and we are so glad we didn’t make the changes. She encouraged us to stay the course, and that worked out really well.

Q: What should other travelers know about Wendy’s WOW system?

Scott: Our view is why wouldn’t everyone in the world do this? Using the sort of approach we do with your organization and with the local travel experts—why wouldn’t everyone do that? It makes so much sense. It really is terrific.

Lisa: For me, it was doing one trip and making a mistake before I found Wendy. One time we went to Belize, and I booked us at a resort that had just recently opened. It looked awesome on the website, but we got there and they had not worked out the kinks yet. It was an expensive trip, and it was really a bummer because that would never have happened with a Wendy specialist. I did a couple trips where it felt like we spent a lot of money and took time, and they were fine but they were not great. And then we did our first Wendy trip, and I was amazed. It’s not that it’s more expensive [to use one of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts]. I feel like it’s a great deal: the resources that the travel specialists provide and for what we spend on these trips. If I think about the total trip cost, it’s so worth it to have that guaranteed. Basically, it’s a guarantee that the trip is going to be successful, that the places we stay and the activities are going to be good. I feel like it’s an insurance policy for us.

Wendy Wants To Amp Up Your Trip!

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A Primer on Stress-Free Family Travel

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Thanks to years of traveling with her husband and two sons—on all kinds of trips, from affordable East Coast road trips to unconventional far-away spring breaks—Wendy has developed some worthwhile sanity-saving advice. Browse through her best tips below, along with some from her kids, and bookmark what you need for your next family vacation.

Decide on a destination

Wendy Perrin at the Eiffel Tower, france

Wendy has taken her boys all over the world.

Wendy and staff writer Brook Wilkinson, mom to a 5-year-old, wrote some of these stories after returning from specific holidays, but the ideas are applicable to many times of the year. Don’t forget that most destinations can be family-friendly if you work with the right travel planner to make it work for your specific group. So get someone to bring you a mimosa and spend some time dreaming your way through The WOW List for more ideas. If you’re torn between destinations, Ask Wendy.

How to Make Sophisticated Travel Destinations Fun for the Whole Family

Wendy’s Trip Photos from Morocco: An Unusual Spring Break Idea

Unexpected Spring Break Vacation Ideas

Unexpected Holiday Travel Ideas For Christmas and New Year’s

Rent A Villa In Italy For the Whole Family

Avoiding Crowds in National Parks—Even at the Busiest Times

Summer Vacation at a Ski Resort? Yes, and Here’s Why

This Beach Resort Figured Out How to Connect with Local Culture

Adventurous, Exotic Travel with Young Kids: It Is Possible

How to Find the Perfect Vacation Rental: Tips for Your First Time, or any Time

Five Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Kids in Vietnam

Uzbekistan Is the Family Vacation Idea You’ve Been Missing

5 European Cities that are Surprisingly Kid-Friendly

Best Activities for Children in Costa Rica

We Had the Best Family Trip in Whistler and We Never Put on Skis

Italy Vacation Ideas for Every Age

How to Transform a Disney Trip from Average to Extraordinary

4 Great Ideas for Graduation Trips

Remove the stress factors

Flying with the kids, especially small ones, doesn’t have to be torture. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

It’s true that every family is different, but it’s also true that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you plan a family vacation. The following advice will see you through some of the most challenging travel moments.

Watch: How to Make Family Trips Fun

10 Keys to a Peaceful Family Vacation

10 Easy Ways to Prevent Travel Headaches Just by Snapping Photos

What to Know Before Booking Your Family Cruise

How to Get Your Child to Try New Foods When Traveling

How to Save Time and Tantrums in Amusement Parks

How to Keep Your Kids Happy on a Cruise

Why You Should Sleep In a Museum

How to Have a Kid-Friendly River Cruise

Why My Most Relaxing Vacation Was a Disney Cruise

8 Secrets to a Stress-Free Flight With Toddlers

How to Ace Long-Haul Flights with Young Kids

How to Get the Best Private Guide For a Trip With Kids

What if it’s a road trip?

Nothing says summer vacation like a road trip. Photo: Unsplash/Pixabay

We’ve got a series of tips for how to minimize the backseat spats and maximize the fun:

The Keys to Planning the Perfect Road Trip

10 Apps That Will Improve Any Road Trip

Family Road Trips: How to Eliminate Stress and Bickering

Don’t Take a Road Trip Without Packing These

Three Things You Should Always Stop For

Be prepared

red case with red cross photo by peggy marco pixabay

When you prepare for a trip, it’s smart to prepare for an emergency too. Photo: Peggy Marco/Pixabay

Don’t let fear (of anything) stop you from getting the vacation you deserve. Wendy has written extensively about the importance of traveling at all ages, and how to arm yourself with the information and resources you need, whether you’re concerned about Zika, terrorism, health emergencies, or just losing your luggage. And don’t forget: the most essential tools you can have in your prep kit are a good travel planner who knows the terrain and an insurance plan. All of the Trusted Travel Experts on The WOW List have extensive networks on the ground and reliable staff watching out for you throughout your trip.

How to Buy Travel Insurance: What It Covers, When You Need It

How to Be Prepared for an Emergency When You Travel: 15 Simple Steps

The Real Things You Should Be Wary Of When Traveling Abroad (Hint: It’s Not Terrorism)

Watch: This Is How to Interpret Travel Warnings

7 Keys to Traveling Without Fear Despite Terrorist Attacks

Watch: How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus and Mosquito Bites

How to Avoid Food Poisoning When You Travel

This Is the Day in Bali You’ll Never Forget: A WOW Experience

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The small rural village of Pacut is about an hour and a half outside Ubud.

The drive into Pacut, the hometown of my guide Agung.

The central pavilion, or bale gede, of the traditional home where I spent the first part of the tour. It's surrounding by small enclosed buildings, including a kitchen and bedrooms.

Bright floral temple offerings are placed on sidewalks and in front of businesses and homes all over Bali. Now I got to make my own.

Ta da!

Lunch is served on a beautiful bamboo pedestal…

…and looks even more beautiful inside.

My own custom bamboo sunhat!

Agung goofing around with my hat on. That double basket he's carrying is incredibly heavy. I couldn't lift it at all!

You'll see these stepped rice fields all over Bali—and the view never gets old.

This is the real daily work for the farmers who live in Pacut, and I got to see it up close.

Guests are welcome to wade into the paddy and help push the oxen.

On the porch of his home, Agung plays the rindik for me.

Then I tried my hand with the village's gamelan orchestra.

The village's town hall/community center is also an outdoor pavilion. This one is called a bale banjar and it's where the orchestra performs.

The cymbals were the instrument I excelled at…because I only had to clang them together when my percussion team members nodded at me. The rindik was a lot more difficult.

These multitalented men played flute-like instruments for some songs, and then switched to percussion on others. They were my cymbal buddies.

We travelers are always looking for that holy grail of an “authentic” experience. We want to feel like we’re really connecting with a place we visit, not just looking through the glass at it. We want to experience those spark-filled moments when our eyes widen and we realize the person we’re talking to (or smiling and gesticulating wildly at) has just made that magical transformation from stranger to friend. Most of the time, those moments are random, impromptu; they can’t be planned or orchestrated. But the truth is, they can be nudged. That’s where the right travel planner comes in. Moreso than their connections at hotels, restaurants, and special events, it’s their connections to people that will end up making your trip memorable. And in Bali, where there’s no lack of natural beauty to gawk at and cultural activities to experience, seasoned travelers want to find a way beneath the surface, to get out of the lovely-but-touristy towns and connect to whatever it is that makes Bali so special. Spoiler: It’s the people. And Diane Embree’s village day tour is how you meet them.

In this series of articles on “WOW Experiences,” we spotlight the special-access opportunities you can look forward to when you book a trip via a WOW List expert. If you’ve taken a trip arranged by Diane, please add your review to help other travelers.

The What:

A personalized and personal-feeling day in a Balinese village, meeting the residents, learning about the culture, and trying your hand at the crafts, work, and traditions that fill their daily lives. If you’re interested, Diane can also arrange for a charitable opportunity like a visit to a school. “I never pressure people to donate,” she says, “but the information is on my website if people are interested.”

The Where and When:

The small rural village of Pacut, about an hour and a half outside Ubud. This experience is available any time of year, except during some holidays when the villagers will be busy with preparations.

The WOW:

Diane has cultivated an exclusive arrangement with the village of Pacut, which, she told me, “is so small it’s not even on the maps of Bali. I can guarantee that no other tourists will be in the village on the day you go there.” What makes it even more special is that Diane has a personal connection to Pacut. “My longtime colleague who runs the ground operation in Bali is originally from the village and still has very strong ties there. In fact, he is currently the head of the village (an elected position),” she says. “In addition, one of the guides [Agung] and all the drivers that I use are from the village.”

Throughout the day you’ll meet several of the town’s residents, who prepare you a homemade lunch of typical Balinese foods and give you hands-on lessons in two Balinese crafts: constructing the ubiquitous flower-filled temple offerings that are strewn on sidewalks all over Bali every day, and weaving a bamboo-leaf hat. You’ll appreciate the headgear even more later when you’re in the sun-drenched rice fields and have the chance to meet a local farmer and pull his oxen through a paddy. (Interestingly, on our walk through the rice field, I was surprised and delighted to see a man biking down the road wearing a bamboo hat like the one I’d just made. His was browned and worn with age, so I got the feeling he hadn’t made it that morning for my benefit.)

Lunch and crafts take place in the courtyard of one of Pacut’s traditional Balinese homes, which are not the single houses that we’re used to in the west but rather compounds of small buildings and outdoor pavilions called bale. Sitting in the shade of the central bale gede, you start to understand the shape and rhythms of real Balinese lives, without a tourist in sight. While the flower-offering and hat-making craft sessions are cute fun—and probably even better for families traveling with kids—the real highlights come after lunch.

First, since Pacut is where my guide Agung grew up and still lives, he personally knows everyone you’ll meet—and he’ll also invite you into his own home. I was welcomed like an old friend and got to sit with him and his wife as they showed me pictures of their teenage daughter, toured me around their home, offered some first-hand insight into the increasingly complex issues surrounding Balinese land ownership and farming, and then relaxed with me on the porch as Agung gave us an informal concert on his rindik, a kind of xylophone made from bamboo. Sitting on his porch, listening to his music, and talking about our different lives, I had one of those moments when you know you’re experiencing something incredibly special. This was the quote-unquote authentic experience we travelers are always searching for, and the reason it happens is because Diane and her colleagues have built friendships and working partnerships with real people who live in the real Bali.

Second, I got to sit in with the band. During your drive to Pacut and throughout the day, you’ll learn a ton about the way communities are set up in Bali, and their family and village traditions. For instance, some communities have a gamelan orchestra, which is called upon to provide the soundtrack to all kinds of community events: weddings, holidays…and in this case, a visit by one of Diane’s guests. The Pacut orchestra has an unusual backstory: Years ago, one of the locals found a discarded instrument. As Diane tells it in a blog post she wrote, “No one in the village—not even the oldest resident (who was in his 80s)—could remember the instrument ever being played, or even how it got there.” But determined to start their own orchestra, the men scraped together the money to fix it and to take lessons after they finished their workdays in the fields. Over the years, Diane has helped support the band, and your visit includes a donation so that the players can maintain their instruments and continue with their lessons.

Unbeknownst to me, while I’d been out in the fields, this amazing group of musicians had gathered at the al fresco town hall (called the bale banjar) with all their instruments and prepared to give me a private concert. The music is beautiful, rhythmic, and surprisingly easy to pick up. I know that for a fact because I was invited (as you will be) to try my hand at a few of the instruments: drums, a rindik, gongs, and cymbals. With the help of smiling musicians and the encouragement of other parents and children who’ll be drawn to the show, you will feel like part of the band in no time. Fair warning, you’ll probably be invited to dance too. Just go with it, though—this is exactly what you came to Bali for.

How to Make it Happen:

This experience can be tailored to your specific interests and is available through Diane Embree, our Trusted Travel Expert for Bali and Indonesia. See Diane’s Insider’s Guide to Bali and read reviews of Diane to understand the caliber of trips she arranges. To be marked as a WendyPerrin.com VIP traveler and get priority attention and special benefits, request your trip here.

The Ultimate Walking Guide to New York City

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Justin Davidson has X-ray vision. As the architecture critic for New York magazine, he is trained to examine and evaluate the design of the city’s ever-changing skyline. But it’s his interest in the stories inside those buildings that makes his work so compelling: who lived there, what kind of lives did they lead, and what ripple effect did those lives have on the city around them? These are the details that bring a place to life for Justin, and when he started sharing them in informal walking tours for the parents of children at his son’s school (as part of a benefit auction), he found that others were fascinated too. After a guest on one of those walks turned out to be a book publisher, an idea emerged to transform his strolls into a book. Hitting bookshelves this week, Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York is a collection of narrative walking tours that uncover exciting new views about the city and the secrets its architecture holds.

“I didn’t think of it as a tour book,” Justin told us over the phone. “I thought of it as a composite portrait of New York through the things that interest me: walking, history, art, and architecture. And I’ve spent a lot of time looking at its architecture. For me, the architecture is always so enmeshed with other aspects of the city.”

Justin himself is an interesting story: Born and raised in Rome, he moved to New York (where his parents were from) in 1988 to earn his doctorate in musical composition at Columbia, then went on to have a Pulitzer Prize-winning career as a cultural critic, covering both architecture and classical music.

We talked to Justin in advance of Magnetic City’s release this week, to learn more about how an architect sees beyond exteriors and structure—and how that perspective can help travelers get more out of their next trip to the Big Apple. He ended up not only giving us insight into the way his book stands apart from typical do-this-look-at-that guidebooks, but also revealing some of the hidden stories told by the architecture of NYC.

Are you a big fan of walking tours yourself?

I love walking tours, and when I visit a city I try to find the best books that offer them. The best to me are the kind that say something you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.

There are a lot of walking-tour books out there. What is different about Magnetic City?

For one thing, the book is light on the big sights and monuments. There are a lot of things I don’t hit because you can get those easily in other places. What I try to do is give people a sense of how the past and the present of the city are constantly intertwined, how wherever you’re standing you have a sense of everything that came before you and how it’s changing. Looking back and looking forward is such an intrinsic aspect of living in New York, and I wanted the book to get that across. It’s a partial biography of the city.

How did you decide what areas to include?

I picked neighborhoods where I felt I could tell the richest stories and where they had a fairly long chronological arc. That meant neighborhoods that have developed over time; I felt myself less interested in neighborhoods that popped up all at once because they were built by developers. But I wanted each one to say something about each part of the city.

What do you hope travelers get out of Magnetic City?

All I can offer is my way of understanding it and my way of presenting it and to do it with some depth. The tours are long—they take a while to do—and hopefully at the end of them you have a richer sense of why the city is the way it is in all its beauty and ugliness and excitement.

Four ways to see NYC in a new light

The Story of the Eccentric Upper West Side Intellectuals

I start the chapter about the Upper West Side at the corner of 89th Street and Riverside Drive. It’s a place you almost don’t notice, up stairs and behind trees, but to me it’s a tremendously evocative place in what it says about the Upper West Side in that moment in history and New York. It was built in 1905 and it’s one of the last surviving mansions on Riverside Drive; most were demolished and turned into apartment buildings. This one was built and lived in by Julia and Isaac Rice, who were an affluent Jewish couple. He had made money in various ventures including defense contracts and railroads. She had a medical degree. They were hyper-educated, cultivated, affluent, and had this unusual outlook on life. She was sensitive to what was then a tremendously noisy neighborhood from all the river traffic, so she founded the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noises, which sounds like a crank’s weekend project but which was actually fairly influential on what we would today call noise pollution. As a medical professional she felt noise had an ill effect on convalescing; she related that to the mental health of patients. He was really into chess. So he built himself a private chess room in the basement and retreated there. He became a chess celebrity and sponsored a competition to use the Rice Gambit, an opening gambit he invented. They lived in that house for several years before it became too expensive and they sold it and moved to the Ansonia [on Broadway and 73rd Street]. They had six kids and one of the daughters was an aviatrix and one sailed around the world. To me that house represents a number of different things: one is the Jewish bourgeoisie on the Upper West Side, which was developed as a largely Jewish neighborhood. The other is that they took this education and used their own interests to change the world in their own idiosyncratic ways. The third is their idiosyncratic approach to parenting and their kids’ education. That’s how much you can get out of one house, just walking by.

Joyce Kilmer Park on the Grand Concourse in the South Bronx, New York. Photo: Kate Glicksberg/NYC & Company

The Story of Two Neighborhoods with the Same Dream

New York is a place where different groups of people have hitched their dreams to different places in the city. I linked Sugar Hill [in Manhattan’s Harlem] to the South Bronx because the High Bridge had just opened when I started to work on the book. You never think those neighborhoods are close, but you can now walk from one to the other. Each of those neighborhoods, for different groups of people, was an area that embodies their collective aspirations. For Sugar Hill, it was the apex of the Harlem Renaissance and it was this vision of African-Americans being able to truly fulfill their potential in wider American society and achieve social justice through talent. Right across the Harlem River on the Grand Concourse [in the South Bronx], that’s where Jews from the Lower East Side went to become truly American, truly middle class. Both of those dreams kind of died but there’s something moving about those neighborhoods.

The New York Public Library.

A Very Different 42nd Street Story

One of the other chapters is about 42nd Street, starting at Bryant Park and going east. The theme of the chapter is idealism. It’s about building things that represent some really grand noble theme about how to make the world a better place in all these different spheres: The New York Public Library represents this great monument to literacy. Grand Central Terminal is the apex of the idea of speed and moving and knitting the whole country together and travel from one end to the other. We think of it as a commuter rail now, but it was the end point of a national rail network. The UN is a symbol of healing the world through diplomacy. So there are these institutions representing these high ideals and that’s not how we think of 42nd Street, but it is really the most noble vision of how to root these world problems in the city.

The Story of the Hudson River Waterfront

This is not an itinerary in the book, but if you were to walk, jog, or bike from the Battery up to about 57th Street, or even beyond, you would be going along Hudson River Park and along West Street, which is wide and trafficky and distracting. But if you look at the row of buildings along that whole way, you can basically trace almost the entire history of the city from the 19th century up to the present. There are amazing industrial buildings, new apartment buildings, basic useful buildings, and each step of the way there’s some really dramatic moment in New York. And to think about how cut off from that most New Yorkers were for so many years—because walking along the water was not something people could do. It was a dead zone. It’s now something people gravitate to, and they are richly rewarded. Think about what you see as you go up from Battery Park City: the World Trade Center, the Richard Meier glass-façade buildings at Charles and Perry Streets, the Superior Ink set of apartment buildings by Robert AM Stern [on West Street], the Spring Street Salt Shed for the Department of Sanitation, Frank Gehry’s IAC Building at 19th Street, the ventilation structure for the Lincoln Tunnel, right up to the new pyramidal building by Bjarke Ingels at West 57th Street.

Have Angkor Wat To Yourself: A Cambodia WOW Experience

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Angkor Wat is the most famous of Cambodia's temple—the park is named for it, after all—but it's usually the most crowded and, in my opinion, it's not even the most interesting. With ABOUTAsia, we got to see several temples off the beaten path. Photo: Billie Cohen

Barely another tourist was in sight when we began our day of temple visits. Photo: Billie Cohen

Ta Prohm—alone! Photo: Billie Cohen

We entered Ta Phrohm through this little-used gate, and avoided pretty much everyone else. Photo: Billie Cohen

Kanha helped us understand what we were looking at, which made us appreciate it that much more. Photo: Billie Cohen

Another tourist-free temple. Photo: Billie Cohen

We stopped for a picnic breakfast amid a garden. Photo: Billie Cohen

Fresh croissants, fruit, tea, and juices. Don't miss the tamarind juice—very refreshing in the heat. Photo: Billie Cohen

The view from the top of Ta Keo. That's Kanha in the tan shirt at the bottom, and just one other guide with a few visitors. Photo: Billie Cohen

Bayon Temple, one of my favorites. Photo: Billie Cohen

Pheakdey picked a fresh mango right off the tree for us. It was much juicier and sweeter than the ones we get in Brooklyn! Photo: Billie Cohen

Rice, beans, and coconut are baked inside a bamboo shoot. When it's done, you peel back the bamboo and enjoy! Photo: Billie Cohen

The journey to Villa Chandara, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The journey to Villa Chandara includes an oxcart ride and, when the weather cooperates, a boat trip. When I visited, the area was suffering unusual drought conditions, which meant I couldn't take the boat trip, but the oxcart was fun. Photo: ABOUTAsia Travel

Villa Chandara dining, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Thanks to all that open space, the sunset at Villa Chandara is stunning. The fields were pretty brown when we visited due to the drought, but this is what it usually looks like. Photo: Ethan Crowley, ABOUTAsia Travel

Villa Chandara private circus performance, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

In addition to a musical concert, your Villa Chandara experience might include a circus performance. Ours did not, but I was convinced to check out the Phare circus on another night and was blown away—do not skip it. Photo: ABOUTAsia Travel

Angkor Wat is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world, which also means it’s one of the most crowded. But you don’t have to battle your way through this bucket-list experience with the more than one million visitors who converge on it each year. There is a better way: One of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts for Cambodia has figured out how to avoid the worst crowds of the Angkor Archaeological Park. Now, that’s a bold claim but, as I found out when I tested this WOW Experience myself, it works like a charm.

In this series of articles on “WOW Experiences,” we spotlight the special experiences you can look forward to when you book a trip via a WOW List expert. If you’ve taken a trip arranged by Andy, please add your review to help other travelers.

The What:

Touring Angkor temple complex without the usual onslaught of tour groups and noisy crowds that ruin the monument’s majesty, not to mention your photos.

The Where and When:

Angkor Archaeological Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located about 20 minutes outside of the small Cambodian city of Siem Reap. The 150-square-mile park includes the famed Angkor Wat temple, but also dozens more—dating from the 9th to 15th centuries—that are just as magnificent, and in varying states of preservation.

Our Trusted Travel Expert can accommodate you whenever you visit Siem Reap, but for the best chance to have some temples all to yourself, he recommends visiting between late May and early September, during the green season. As he explains in his Insider’s Guide: “Sure, it rains two days out of three, but the mornings are almost always sunny and bright, with rain clouds gathering toward the late afternoon; get out of bed early to explore when Cambodians are most active ahead of the midday heat, and you’ll enjoy far fewer crowds and vibrantly green rice paddies.”

To be fair, I road-tested this WOW Experience outside that recommended window, toward the beginning of May, which was still very hot as the rains had not yet started. The temperature inside our comfortable air-conditioned SUV was kept in the cool 70s, but the outside temperature was well above 100. As a result, my timing wound up as both the best and the worst for being in Siem Reap. It’s hot and sticky, but it’s much less crowded. Cold bottled water and icy washcloths kept us cool enough, and the occasional juicy mango picked fresh off a tree kept us energized.

The WOW:

Andy Booth is an Oxford-trained physicist who found an incredibly logical and fool-proof way to tackle the challenge of touring the megapopular Angkor complex: He used science. Andy founded ABOUTAsia, a travel firm that has earned a coveted spot on The WOW List, and his team periodically collects data on the number of tourists visiting each temple at various times of year in order to ensure that ABOUTAsia guests can find sweet spots of solitude and quiet. Those sweet spots are very rare things, considering that Angkor is one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions—so popular, in fact, that in 2017, authorities nearly doubled park admission prices in an attempt to control the crowds and imposed strict rules for dress codes and behavior (because the hordes of visitors wearing short shorts and carrying selfie sticks were taking too many liberties). You can therefore imagine the immeasurable value of spending your day with an experienced guide who knows exactly how to avoid all moment-spoiling bus groups.

Our guide to the temples, Ms. Kanha, was wonderful, warm, funny, and full of information—along with interesting personal stories. Private guides make the experience at Angkor Wat (yes, any tuk-tuk driver can take you around for about $25, but to transform the piles of ancient rocks into living history with connections to past kings and current events, you need a well-trained guide). Kanha smartly had us enter one of the most popular temples, Ta Prohm, first thing in the early morning (we got picked up at 6:30am), knowing that the crowds peak there later in the day—and she took us in via an alternate entrance so that even if we did encounter other people, we’d be touring the temple in the opposite direction. Astonishingly, we nabbed photos of the temple’s famous wall-straddling giant tree roots with no one else around, and we didn’t run into any group until we were more than halfway through that temple. From there, Kanha led us to various other beautiful temples, some literally off the beaten trail, where she illuminated artistic details and architectural themes that served to differentiate the structures from one another (all those ruins can blur together after a while) and to link them together into a story that reflected not just Cambodia’s history but the history of Southeast Asia too. At most sites we saw only a handful of other tourists, and at one little-visited monastery, Ta Nei—accessible by an offshoot path you have to know about to find—we had the place entirely to ourselves.

Even for Angkor Wat itself—the park’s main attraction, which we visited on our own on another day—Kanha had insider tips for us: what time to get there for sunrise, which side of the walkway to sit on for the best views, which direction to turn once we entered the temple so that we’d beat the queue to climb the central spire’s staircase, and what spots to view first so that we’d skirt most of the noisy tourist flock.

On the second day of our tour with AboutAsia, we saw an entirely different Cambodia. Leaving behind any other tourists and the usual sites you’d expect to see here, we were instead granted access into the local lives of the area’s farmers, out in the countryside not far from Siem Reap. We visited a family home where we sampled a tasty bamboo-rice-and-bean snack the kids were cooking in an outdoor oven; we ate juicy mangoes picked fresh off a tree; we bumped along in an oxcart through a farmer’s dusty field; and all the while, we got to know another excellent guide, Pheakdey, who grew up not far from there and could pepper the day with his own personal stories and experiences.

We ended the day feeling like royalty, watching the sunset at ABOUTAsia’s private villa Chandara, a traditional home overlooking green fields. Here, a private chef prepares a gourmet multicourse meal, while musicians serenade you with traditional Cambodian instruments. The dinner party can be enjoyed privately, ABOUTAsia’s general manager Ethan Crowley had told me earlier, but sometimes guests enjoy pairing up with other ABOUTAsia travelers. We dined alone due to scheduling, but it was easy to see how a slightly larger dinner party could be a fun and fulfilling end-of-trip experience: You’d get the chance to talk with other travelers about the amazing things you’d seen and done during the week, swapping stories and experiences over cocktails and good food—a little going-away soiree to send you back home in style.

How to Make it Happen:

Such experiences are customizable to your specific interests and are available through Andy Booth, one of our Trusted Travel Experts for Cambodia, whose trips start at $400 per day for two travelers. Read Andy’s Insider’s Guide to Angkor Wat and Siem Reap Without the Crowds. To be marked as a WendyPerrin.com VIP traveler and get special benefits, request your trip through our site.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Intoxicating Wine Travel Ideas for Wine Lovers

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Wine fans have plenty of places to choose from for vacation ideas: These days there is no shortage of eateries with impressive wine lists representing the world at large. But to truly experience the terroir of a bottle, there’s nothing like traveling to the source—and, ideally, unlocking access to some behind-the-scenes secrets of the area’s viticulture. Here are some ideal travel destinations for wine lovers, along with tips and experiences you should ask Wendy’s WOW List experts about when you start planning your next wine travel adventure.

Mendoza, Argentina

Vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina. Photo courtesy Cavas Wine Lodge

Get a firsthand lesson in winemaking in Argentina’s wine country. Depending on the season and your interests, Maita Barrenechea, one of Wendy’s Trusted Travel Experts for Argentina,
can arrange various types of hands-on training.

“In spring, you can help prune the vines, learning how to bend the canes and cut out the ones that won’t produce the proper grapes. If you come at the end of summer, you’ll be harvesting, checking each cluster and handpicking those that are at optimal ripeness. The viticulturalist will teach you how to test for a balance of sweetness and acidity, using both lab equipment and your own sense of taste. Or you can go inside the winery and put together your own blend of different varietals under the tutelage of a winemaker or sommelier (you’ll leave with a bottle of your unique concoction). For a bit of added glamour, tour the vineyards in a classic car (options range from a 1930s Chevrolet to a 1960s Mercedes, all carefully restored). At the end of your day, help prepare a gourmet barbecue with master chef Francis Mallmann, cooking over a fire as the gauchos do, in the wilderness of the Andes range.” —Maita Barrenechea. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Maita via Wendy’s trip request form.

Burgundy, France

Get inside an exclusive winery in Burgundy. Photo: Trufflepig.

Plan a trip to this famous French wine mecca for October. Yes, you can sip a quality glass at many times of year, but the fall is when in-the-know travelers make their pilgrimage.

“The chaos of harvest is over by October and the grapes are in, which means there’s still lots of activity in the wineries since the wines are fermenting and the vinification is in full throe, but the winemakers themselves have a little more time to spend with visitors. It’s also the prettiest time: The leaves on the vines turn yellow and gold, and you realize why they call it the Côte d’Or, the golden slopes. And beyond the wines, it’s the most interesting time for seasonal produce: Mushrooms and squashes complement wild game in the menus of the local restaurants.” —Michael Eloy. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Michael via Wendy’s trip request form.

Paarl and Franschhoek, South Africa

Restaurant in the garden of Spice Route wine estate, Cape Wine Route, Paarl, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Photo: South Africa Tourism

Cape Town is a fun city to visit on its own, thanks to a wide range of historical, cultural, and culinary draws, including the buzzed-about Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. But the nearby winelands are the perfect compliment to the buzz of city life: idyllic spreads in rolling hills lined with vineyards and destination restaurants.

“Don’t miss the village of Paarl. See the well-preserved Cape Dutch architecture in the town (the largest in the winelands, about 40 miles from Cape Town), and explore the wine estates around the village. In Franschhoek, make time for a meal at La Petite Ferme, a restaurant on a small family-run wine estate with two stunning views: Look down to see the vineyards in the valley below, and up for mountain vistas. The laid-back vibe lends itself to long, lazy lunches with a great bottle of wine and a dish I never forget: the slow-cooked lamb. If you’re interested, I can arrange a behind-the-scenes tour of the winery for before or after lunch. In summer, there’s nothing better than an al fresco lunch at Boschendal Wine Estate. Collect one of their pre-made picnic baskets—packed with pates, cold meats, salad, cheese, crackers, baguettes and chilled wine—and feast on tables and chairs set under lofty, fragrant pine trees between the vineyards.” —Julian Harrison. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Julian via Wendy’s trip request form.

Spello, Umbria

Italy is a no-brainer when it comes to good wine. But in Umbria, you can get a taste of the whole scene.

“For wine aficionados and collectors, a private wine tasting with owner Roberto at Spello’s Enoteca Properzio is a must; Roberto has personal relationships with the producers of many of the country’s finest wines, from famous names to tiny organic producers, so he can fill you in on all aspects of the Italian wine world. We can also arrange a private cooking class in a farmhouse so stunning that it’s been featured in several design magazines and where the owner—a great cook and hostess, not to mention a well-respected attorney—will teach you to use some of the region’s most humble ingredients to prepare an unforgettable meal.” —Maria Gabriella Landers. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Maria via Wendy’s trip request form.

Moravia, Czech Republic

Looking for a wine destination not yet overrun by American tourists? Look no further than the Czech Republic region of Moravia, where the local specialty is Riesling.

“Don’t miss the Moravian wine region and Mikulov, two to three hours outside Prague. The Europeans have found it, but Americans aren’t there yet. And within Moravia’s manicured green hills there’s something for everyone: The countryside is bisected by miles of bike routes; its vineyards produce good white and Riesling wines; and the town of Mikulov has streets lined in baroque and renaissance homes along with an interesting historical Jewish quarter. If nothing else, the Valtice and Lednice castle complex is the perfect place to stop off on the drive from Vienna to Prague—it’s home to two magnificent châteaus linked by a four-mile avenue of lime trees.” —Gwen Kozlowski. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Gwen via Wendy’s trip request form.

Porto, Portugal

Grape harvest in the Douro Valley, Portugal

Harvest in the Douro Valley, Portugal. Photo: Porto Tourism

The land where port was invented should be on any oenophile’s must-visit list. Happily, Porto is just one fascinating stop in a country full of delicious food, beautiful scenery, historic architecture, and charming towns. Just remember that port is strong stuff: often with more than 20 percent more alcohol than standard wines.

The best time to visit is September and early October, which is typically the time for the grape harvest in the Douro. You can participate by picking grapes (more fun than it sounds) or—better yet—stomping the fruit à la I Love Lucy with your own two feet and taking home a custom bottle.

Ask Wendy to find the right Trusted Travel Expert to plan your best possible trip.

Marzamemi, Sicily

Some of us would be content to travel to Sicily simply for the gelato, but thank the heavens above, you don’t have to compromise—you can have both wine and dessert.

“The southern tip of Sicily is a hidden gem, which some of the most pristine beaches on the island, and it also happens to be a great area for wine, melons, tomatoes, and fresh local seafood. One of my favorite spots for an evening stroll and dinner is the Marzamemi fishing village. It’s a great place to get a strong sense of what traditional Sicily is all about, especially in the summer when the streets are filled with local families and friends on their evening “passeggiata,” or leisurely stroll. It’s also one of the best spots for gelato in Sicily, so the evening walk is a great way to earn an extra scoop of a new flavor! Mt. Etna is another ideal base for wine lovers, with breathtaking views of volcanic landscapes, vineyards, and the Mediterranean Sea below. You can even stay in hotel bungalows dotted among the vineyards.” —Marcello Baglioni. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Marcello via Wendy’s trip request form.

Chianti, Tuscany

Tuscany, Italy. Photo: marissat1330/Pixabay

While spring is a beautiful time to visit Italy’s classic wine destination, our Trusted Travel Experts recommend September instead, when the region’s grapes are being harvested. “The rumble of small tractors rolling along the long rows of vines, the chattering of families and farm hands as they snip off individual clusters by hand, the tinkling of glasses and forks against plates as long tables are set up outdoors for everyone to take a break for lunch al fresco…these are the sights and sounds of autumn in Chianti, Montalcino, Montepulciano, and the rest of Tuscany’s wine country.” No wine fan wants to miss that.

“Many of Tuscany’s historic estates have been owned for centuries by successive generations of a single noble family, and are set around private castles or villas open only to a select number of guests for private visits. Our connections can gain you access to certain exclusive estates, where you’ll spend the day touring the property with the (invariably charming) owner, sampling their prestigious wines, and joining the family for a lavish lunch that shows home cooking at its finest. For a kind of meal worth splurging on, we recommend Osteria di Passignano. One of the most prestigious names in Tuscan wine is Antinori, a family who has been in the winemaking business since the late 1300s and who ushered in the Super Tuscan revolution a few decades ago. In 2000, the family opened this osteria at their estate surrounding the historic Badia di Passignano monastery in the heart of Chianti, where they produce Chianti Classico Riserva, aged in the cellars beneath the monastery. Here the food is sublimely Tuscan, and perfectly paired with their extensive list of Antinori wines.” —Maria Gabriella Landers. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Maria via Wendy’s trip request form.

Burgenland, Austria

Timing is everything for wine fans in Austria. In addition to several notable restaurants in Vienna, less-visited towns along the Danube are home to boutique hotels and small wineries and taverns you can only visit during the harvest.

“October is one of the best times to visit. It’s at the end of the peak season, there’s gorgeous fall scenery, and it’s harvest time in the vineyards, which means that the Heuriger (wine taverns) are especially fun and lively and you’ll probably get to try new wines. More important, especially for wine buffs, many of the smaller (and better) Heurigers aren’t open year-round, but they’re all open in October. Don’t miss Burgenland, Austria’s easternmost state. It’s full of tiny villages, cute inns, Michelin-star dining, and good wine (including the locally produced red Blaufrankisch). Here the Tavern Schandl is a particular local favorite and serves simple regional cuisine and wines from the owner’s vineyards.” —Gwen Kozlowski. To be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this, contact Gwen via Wendy’s trip request form.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Romantic Vacation Ideas, No Valentine’s Day Required

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Valentine’s Day isn’t the only time of year when travelers think about taking a romantic vacation (and pro tip: it shouldn’t be!). Nor does everyone picture a beach when they hear the word romance. To help all you dreamers out there plan for your next getaway, we’ve brainstormed some romantic destinations to explore with your loved ones.

The quintessential city getaway

paris vacation rental with view of eiffel tower France

There’s nothing more romantic than a view of the Eiffel Tower. Photo: Paris Perfect

Paris is a no-brainer and a wonderful city for l’amour. Share a private “wine tour” through the Louvre with a curator who’ll show you the most interesting wine-related works of art, followed by a tasting and dinner in the museum after hours, when it’s closed (see the “Bragging Rights” section of Paris with Perks). When you’re tipsy on romance, bundle back to your very own pied-a-terre for a nightcap overlooking the rooftops from your balcony (see Paris Apartment Rentals: Insider’s Guide to Getting It Right).

Your perfect beach

If you do love a beach getaway (and we’re not knocking it), the Caribbean is full of easy-to-get-to gems. The key to the whole thing, though, is the beach——so if you’re picturing a weekend spent lying on gorgeous stretches of sand, avoid Dominica, Saba, and Montserrat, which have plenty of charms of their own but are not known for their beaches. Here’s how to find your perfect Caribbean island resort.

Island escape

The terrace of the Ocean Pool House at Veela. Photo: Veela Private Island

The Maldives are a synonym for romance. Honeymooners flock here for stunning overwater villas, clear blue ocean, and private-island resorts, but the archipelago isn’t just for young couples. Whether you’re newlyweds or old hands at the whole marriage thing—heck, even if you want to bring the kids—you can find a magical way to spend a vacation in the Maldives. (See our Insider’s Guide to the Maldives.)

Exotic and unusual

private yacht floating in Tahiti French Polynesia

Charter your own private yacht in French Polynesia. Photo: Tahiti Yacht Charters

If you need an excuse for “forgetting” to arrange a Valentine’s Day getaway for you and your honey, how’s this one: French Polynesia is better in the late spring. In February, the weather is still rainy there, but come June, the “Trade Wind” season arrives and the weather is mild and dry. Choose from an overwater bungalow or charter your own yacht, with a staff devoted entirely to you. That’s something to look forward to, right? (See our Insider’s Guide to Bora Bora, Tahiti, and French Polynesia and How to Island-Hop Around French Polynesia.)

Home away from home

Villa Maria Serena, Lake Como, Italy villa rental

Villa Maria Serena, Lake Como, Italy. Photo: Home Base Abroad

One way to make a fantasy come true (we’re talking PG, people!) is to move into a mansion for the week. Sweep your spouse off to a villa on Lake Como, or a rambling stone farmhouse in a charming Italian village. Or maybe Spain’s mix of vibrant cities and lush countryside is calling to you. In France, choose among charming coastal towns. In England, you can even live like royalty and overnight at some castles and manor houses.

For adventure lovers

Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo: NPS/Tim Rains

If an adrenaline rush gets your heart racing in more ways than one, pack your partner off on an active adventure. Hardcore junkies may find their thrill hiking in Patagonia, or on an Antarctic cruise; while more mild-mannered nature lovers can get their fix from Costa Rica’s natural wonders, a guest ranch out West, skiing the Rockies, or visiting one of America’s 400-plus national parks. After all, there’s no bond quite like the bond that happens when you’re trying something new (just ask Wendy, who learned this first-hand in British Columbia .)

What do you think are the most romantic vacations? Share ideas with your fellow travelers in the comments.

Be a smarter traveler: Use Wendy’s WOW List to plan your next trip. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

A Sneak Peek at Windstar’s Plan to Improve Small-Ship Cruising

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Many years ago Windstar changed my view of what a cruise could be.

I was invited onboard as a guest lecturer, and I took my dad. We sailed to all these little Caribbean islands you’d normally never get to—Bequia, Ile des Saintes, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda…. What we loved most were the picture-postcard views as we sailed into and out of each harbor. In every port we were the only cruise ship. And what my dad really loved was that our bartender remembered his favorite drink from Day One and just automatically brought it to him, whenever he showed up.

Fast forward a few years. I was scheduled to be a guest lecturer again, and it was right after my wedding, so I took Tim, and it morphed into our honeymoon. Again we went to all these little unusual ports, this time in the Mediterranean: Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Monemvasia, Taormina, Corsica, Elba…. We even had the same bartender. His name was Danny. The fact that I even remember his name speaks volumes: Every time you’re back on Windstar, you’re back with family.

What I love most about Windstar is that it takes you to those hidden-gem places that would otherwise be too logistically difficult, time-consuming, or expensive to get to. That’s why Windstar changed my idea of what a cruise could be.

So I was honored when, a couple of years ago, Windstar named me godmother of its new ship Star Breeze. And I was happy to invite Windstar to sponsor the 2nd annual Wendy Perrin Global Travel Summit and to have president John Delaney share news about the company’s plans for 2017. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming:

Windstar president John Delaney speaks at the 2017 WendyPerrin.com Global Travel Summit. Photo: Tim Baker

Returning to an old favorite

I’m so proud of Windstar for being one of only a few cruise lines sailing to Turkey in 2017. The port of call is Kusadasi. “We truly struggled with our decision to cancel Turkey last year because people love it, and it delivers,” Delaney told us. “But clearly we’re never going to do something that isn’t safe. We couldn’t accept the level of risk in Istanbul. But Kusadasi was never in the warnings by the U.S. State Department; that part of Turkey wasn’t included. And [nearby] Ephesus is a bucket-list place.” To maintain a level of safety, he says, Windstar will continue to rely on State Department information and warnings.

Launching in new destinations

The line is adding new itineraries in new regions, most notably Alaska and Asia (with completely new trips to the Philippines, China, and Japan). “On every itinerary, there will be at least one port you physically can’t get into with a bigger ship,” Delaney said. In Alaska, for example, guests on the 212-passenger Star Legend will be able to float right into Misty Fjords and Kenai Fjords. “Our ship that is doing Asia is the largest that can go all the way up the river to Bangkok,” he added. “Seville is another great example: We can sail right into downtown Seville. And the Corinth Canal—being able to do that wonder of the world is an incredible experience.” In addition to introducing these new ports, Delaney says, Windstar will be extending port hours and adding more overnights on a variety of sailings across the board.

Introducing bespoke shore excursions

Delaney, who joined Windstar as president only seven months ago, shared what he described as his own personal focus for 2017: creating small, bespoke shore excursions open to only a handful of travelers at a time. “What I want to do is create regular offerings as part of our shore-excursion program that are the types of experiences WOW List travel specialists are able to put together: accessing ancient ruins before they open to the public, being in a local family home for a true cooking experience in Tuscany, etc. We’re trying to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences.” You can expect these to roll out on European sailings in the summer of 2018, though Delaney says he will be improving Windstar’s regular shore excursions along the way too. “We’ll make sure guests are seeing the best of the best,” he said. “We don’t plan shore excursions the way the big lines do—we don’t have to plan for thousands of passenger throughout. We’re small and different.”

Enhancing the onboard experience

Delaney says Windstar is also finding ways to improve the shipboard experience. Two new hires are going to help with that: Last week, Peter Tobler joined the small-ship cruise line as Director of Marine Hotel Operations, and back in November, cruise-industry veteran Christopher Prelog was brought on as Vice President of Fleet Operations. These may sound like bigwig positions that couldn’t possibly have any effect on your personal time onboard, but in reality they have quite an impact. Tobler has more than 30 years’ experience in the culinary side of cruising, and his new programs—which Delaney says will include changes such as locally inspired menus, special events, enhanced wine offerings, and new cocktail menus—will create the flavor of your foodie experiences onboard. Likewise, the arrival of Prelog suggests that Windstar is interested in finding ways to upgrade its ships with more luxurious and personal touches. As an example, Delaney mentioned a possible “sleeping program” that would let guests choose from a menu of scents, pillows, herbal teas, and turndown music or video. “Chris has a knack for innovation and surprise,” he said, “So stay tuned.”

I’ll be watching—not only because I’m godmother to the Star Breeze, but also because it was fascinating to watch a cruise line president get up on stage at our summit to give a presentation about what’s coming in 2017, and then watch it evolve into a collaborative brainstorming session with our Trusted Travel Experts. John was eager to hear their thoughts and feedback on what he’s introducing, and I have no doubt that our WOW Listers just gave Windstar a few more ideas about what discerning travelers like you really want. I’ll be eager to hear about your upcoming experiences onboard Windstar ships. Please keep me posted!

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Additional reporting by Billie Cohen

Where Was the WendyPerrin.com Team Last Week?

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This year’s Wendy Perrin Global Travel Summit was held at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya resort, a beachfront all-inclusive in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The large complex consists of three sections (Zen, Ambassador, and the adults-only Grand Class), and we got to experience all of them, along with the resort’s eight restaurants and its spa. Lest you think we were slacking off amid all these palm trees and decadent meals, rest assured that we didn’t spend more than a few minutes at the beach. Contrary to the vacation vibe of the photos below we actually spent all our time working with the Trusted Travel Experts of the newly announced 2017 WOW List to make your next trips even better. But thanks to invigorating panel discussions with our extended team, and the hospitality of the Grand Velas staff, this busy weekend was still a lot of fun.

Here’s a tour of what Wendy, Brook, Jill, and I saw, did, and ate while we were there.

A room in the Zen building of Grand Velas Riviera Maya, Mexico

A room in the Zen building of Grand Velas Riviera Maya. Photo: Billie Cohen

The first night, we all stayed in the Zen building, which has no beach access and is set amid the mangroves. Even though Zen has the smallest rooms of the resort, they are still quite large, have big bathrooms, and boast outdoor patios overlooking plenty of greenery. Tip for families: There are more connecting rooms in this building, and the kids’ club is here (a teen club is located in the Ambassador section).

Grand Velas Riviera Maya hat and basket Mexico

A big floppy sunhat and a pretty woven beach basket. Now if only I had time to lay out on the beach. Photo: Billie Cohen

The resort has plenty of the usuals when it comes to amenities: L’Occitane soaps and shampoos, loofahs, and a free mini bar (this is an all-inclusive after all). But the perks I was most surprised by were the beautiful woven sun hats and beach bags. Handmade nearby in Leon, Mexico, out of 100% cotton coated with resins and enamels, the glam hat has a super wide and wavy brim—very helpful for keeping the sun out of your eyes and any paparazzi at bay. The hats are complimentary for VIP guests and those staying in Presidential Suites; the bags are in every room and are free to use during your stay. Both are available for purchase at the resort’s boutiques.

A real cenote was incorporated into the hotel’s grounds. It’s now fed by an irrigation system and swimming is not allowed. Photo: Billie Cohen

The rooms are accessed via a raised, covered wooden walkway that makes you feel like you’re deep in the quiet jungle. There’s even a restored ancient cenote (though you can’t swim in it).

The Zen pool at Grand Velas Riviera Maya Mexico

The Zen pool at Grand Velas Riviera Maya. Photo: Billie Cohen

You’re not too remote from the resort’s amenities, of course—a few minutes’ walk takes you to a very pretty multi-level pool, the casual restaurant Chaká, or the spa. A shuttle van zooms guests over to the beach (maybe four minutes away), and it was our experience that we never had to wait more than a minute or two for a ride.

Grand Velas Riviera Maya herb garden in Mexico

Mint, verbana, and other herbs for the resort’s restaurants are grown right here. Photo: Billie Cohen

The hotel grows its own herbs for use in its various restaurants. Stroll along a path that winds past the Zen pool and you’ll find a miniature-golf course and a greenhouse.

Trusted Travel Experts share their best practices for helping guests have extraordinary trips. Photo: Tim Baker

Zen is also where the conference center is located and where we spent most of our time. The resort hosts many weddings too.

grand class suite at the grand velas riviera maya mexico

Wendy’s Grand Class suite. Photo: Wendy Perrin

A Grand Class suite terrace at the Grand Velas RIviera Maya resort. Photo: Wendy Perrin

pool view at the Grand Velas RIviera Maya resort mexico

The view beyond Wendy’s laptop, at the Grand Velas RIviera Maya resort. Photo: Wendy Perrin

Ambassador and Grand Class are the resort’s two beachfront buildings; the main difference is that Grand Class is adults-only and the rooms are slightly bigger and have private plunge pools. But the Ambassador pool is the largest pool; it has many chaise longues, some in the sun and some comfortably under palapas. White-shirted servers wander around making sure you have drinks and snacks, and the Azul restaurant (which hosts a huge breakfast buffet) is on the left in the above photo.

I came back to my room one night to find our website’s logo, made out of rice! Photo: Billie Cohen

Knowing who we were and why were there, the resort staff went out of their way to make us happy, with surprises like this one: our logo made out of colored rice that showed up on the beds one evening, and our logo on the telephone screens. But even random staffers I passed in random hallways stopped what they were doing to say “buenos dias” or help me figure out where I was going.

Grand Velas Riviera Maya Bistro food, Mexico

Even a simple vegetarian sandwich with fries was delivered to our table like a work of art. Photo: Billie Cohen

Guests can eat at any of the eight restaurants on site, ranging from the casual buffet of Azul to the AAA four-diamond, French-influenced menu of Piaf. Tip: Wine and cocktails are included in your room rate (though some wines and liquors cost extra), and so is room service…which tastes even better when eaten on your beachfront terrace.

Grand Velas Riviera Maya Frida restaurant Mexico

Named after the artist Frida Kahlo, the Mexican-themed restaurant Frida does pretty well in the art department itself. Photo: Billie Cohen

All of the restaurants have two things in common. First, as soon as you sit down, a server will ask about any food allergies so that the chefs can customize your meal (and they did a good job of this; I am vegetarian with several food sensitivities, and I ate pretty well). Second, all of the food presentation is just beautiful. The chefs here take the “eat with your eyes first” mantra very seriously, and plates were artfully composed and then decorated with swoops, drizzles, and dots. Not that any of that beauty kept us from eating. The food was sometimes fussy (and the multi-course, molecular-gastronomy tasting menu of Cocina de Autor was hit or miss) but, for the most part, the food was very good.

taco and tequila tasting on the beach at Grand Velas Riviera Maya Mexico

Right around sunset, the hotel arranged a tequila and taco tasting on the beach. It was a nice way to end our summit. Photo: Billie Cohen

Over the course of the weekend, we had the chance to experience a few special activities that the resort can arrange for guests or groups. One was what they call “Picnic in Paradise,” a gourmet lunch on the beach—but it rained the day ours was scheduled, so all the charcuterie, sandwiches, and cakes were moved to a presidential suite. We did get to experience a taco-and-tequila tasting on the beach, however: a sprawling buffet of savory Mexican treats, including grasshoppers, and a table each of tequilas and mezcals. This was a hit.

The spa at Grand Velas Riviera Maya is designed to look like a cenote. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

Brook tested out the spa. She reported back that the private men’s and women’s sections of the spa were designed to look like a cenote, the water-filled sinkholes that this part of Mexico is known for.

The spa at Grand Velas Riviera Maya, Mexico. Photo: Brook Wilkinson Photo: Brook Wilkinson

She took the spa’s signature “water journey.” Recommended as a complimentary service before any spa treatment, starts with a circuit of showers, saunas, and steam rooms.

The spa hot tubs at Grand Velas Riviera Maya, Mexico

The spa at Grand Velas Riviera Maya, Mexico. Photo: Brook Wilkinson

“The water journey ends with plunges in the side-by-side hot and cold jetted tubs,” Brook reported back. “The better to get your muscles primed for that massage.”

ocean view from a suite at the grand velas riviera maya mexico

View from Wendy’s balcony. Photo: Wendy Perrin

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

What We Learned from our Global Travel Summit

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The WendyPerrin.com team is just back from our second annual Global Travel Summit, where we spent the weekend picking the brains of the Trusted Travel Experts on Wendy’s WOW List and, equally important, letting them swap information about how best to serve you.

We know that WendyPerrin.com travelers are not just any travelers: You’re sophisticated, smart, and thoughtful about the way you see the world, you’ve likely already seen a large part of it, and you define value differently than most people—as true, authentic, eye-opening experiences, not just as dollars and run-of-the-mill tourist photo ops. With all that in mind, we mined our collected group of trip designers and journalists for travel trends, travel business trends, and news about various destinations around the world. Here’s a short list of what we learned this past weekend, with much more to come over the next few months as we dig deeper into the most useful information you’ll need to make 2017 a year of extraordinary travel.

There’s a new trend in cruising, and small-ship company Windstar Cruises is leading the way on it: small-group, highly customized shore excursions. New president John Delaney, who came over to the company earlier this year from Seabourn, tells us that his personal main focus in 2017 will be to create bespoke shore excursions not seen elsewhere in the cruise industry. Stay tuned to learn more about what that means.

If you want to see Turkey this year, Trusted Travel Expert Karen Fedorko Sefer says gulets are the way do it. These traditional two-masted wooden sailboats allow exclusive touring of the Aegean Coast’s most beautiful spots. “Imagine sailing into beautiful, empty coves,” she says. “It’s a private, exclusive, and peaceful experience.”

New low-cost airlines are going to make nonstop travel over the Atlantic cheaper and easier this year, says Brett Snyder, president and self-titled Chief Airline Dork of Cranky Concierge, an airline assistance company that provides booking, flight monitoring, award-travel help, and emergency assistance if your flight gets canceled or rerouted.

Joe Yudin standing at the Wendy Perrin Global Travel Summit

Joe Yudin shares ideas based on his own experience running Touring Israel. Photo: Tim Baker

Our Trusted Travel Experts have been busy creating new experiences for travelers. We’ll be covering more of these throughout the year, but here are a few as an appetizer:
- Joe Yudin recently launched a program that lets adventurous types test their mental and physical strength during a survival-training challenge in the desert, led by former Israeli military types. “It’s like a Bear Grylls experience,” Joe says with a laugh. “It’s not easy, but people are loving it.”
- Julie Byrd is turning travelers on to Baja California’s less-frequented spots, such as La Paz, where she now offers Zodiac tours to nearby small islands for private snorkeling, diving, and overnight camping.
- Some TTEs start immersing you in another culture even before you leave home—for example, Jill Curran creates playlists for her clients so they can get to know Newfoundland before they step foot on the plane.

Apart from their ability to deliver extraordinary experiences, our TTEs earn a spot on The WOW List only when they’ve proven their customer-service skills (based on reviews from real travelers). So we enjoyed hearing from them about new methods they’re using to stay personally connected to their travelers:
- Maita Barrenechea visits guests in their hotel before they leave, to say a friendly good-bye.
- Andrea Ross calls every client after their trip to get feedback first-hand.
- Cherri Briggs is making sure her travelers have (and know how to use) a variety of digital tools, such as WhatsApp, so that they can stay in touch more easily if they need anything while they are on the road.

Andrea Ross helped launch a campaign to eliminate the millions of plastic water bottles that wind up in Siem Reap landfills each year. Instead, her coalition’s goal is to provide travelers with reusable aluminum bottles that can be refilled at clean-water stations (hotels, restaurants, cafes, and other spots) across the city, all of which are helpfully listed right on the bottles. She estimates these efforts will remove one million bottles from landfills in Cambodia this year.

andrea ross speaks at wendy perrin global travel summit

Andrea Ross, a WOW List travel specialist for Cambodia, talks about her organization’s work on reducing plastic bottle waste.

Be a smarter traveler: Follow Wendy Perrin on Facebook and Twitter @wendyperrin, and sign up for her weekly newsletter to stay in the know.

Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary

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What We Learned from our Global Travel Summit

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