FEATURE
E
very year I take a one-on-one vacation with my mother. This annual tradition is specifi cally for her, so we go wherever she wants
to go, and in 2008 her request was ‘Lets go and be one with nature’. She wanted to travel domestically as she thinks there is so much of our own beautiful nation we have not seen.
Off to California we went! We had eight days and our only ‘musts’ were to see the Giant Sequoias, the rolling hillside vineyards in Napa Valley, and to only stay in boutique hotels and charming inns. Other than that, a map and a convertible were our guide. We landed in San Francisco and decided to stay there for two nights at the Sir Francis Drake. We ate everything possible that was locally recommended from clam chowder in bread boules to Ghirardelli chocolate treats. Before leaving San Francisco, we drove up to the Muir Woods National Monument to see the Redwoods and take a hike amongst the largest trees we had ever seen.
Valerie Wilson Travel, Inc., founded in 1981, provides the highest level of service and knowledge to leisure and business travelers as well as high level meetings. 2011 estimated gross sales of $330M (48% leisure, 52% corporate – with 55% being international). Headquartered in NYC with 16 locations in the US and a network of home-based agents.
This year marks our 30th
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Mom had always wanted to drive along the coast of California just for the sake of driving the coast, so next we were off to Monterrey/ Carmel with the top down. You can’t really be one with nature with a roof over your head! Of course, the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach was included. While there, we chartered a boat and went on a whale watching excursion and ran into a school of hundreds of dolphins which followed our boat for several miles. They were jumping and playing all around the boat and it was wonderful to see them in nature so closely. We also went to the Monterrey Aquarium to see an impressive jelly fi sh exhibit.
The highlight of the trip for Mom was Yosemite National Park. Seeing the Sequoias, taking a tour through the park, and hiking a waterfall made her entire trip memorable. Yosemite is ‘God’s Country’ as Mom, and many others, might say.
The highlight of the trip for me was Napa Valley which is where we ended, and we stayed at the lovely Blackbird Inn. I have had an appreciation for fi ne wines for many years now and the vineyards were beautiful. It was wonderful to learn about how grapes grown from the earth turn into something delicious on the table and how wine has been ingrained in so many cultures across the world for hundreds of years.
To explore America, US based inbound tour operator MDT (
www.mdtgroup.com) offer unique and personalised experiences. The luxurious Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa take travellers on a culinary adventure with a food & wine experience (
www.fairmont.com/sonoma) package. For those looking for a glamorous experience, Hotel Bel-Air (
www.hotelbelair.com) will re-open in October 2011.
For further information, please visit stand G120-I, U120 and O121 respectively at ILTM 2011.
OCTOBER2011
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