Welcome to OurTravelCafe.Com

Hello new friends and old, and welcome to OurTravelCafe.Com.

All my life, I’ve been a tireless traveler.  Perhaps that comes from my parents, who once-a-year packed us kids into a car for a driving vacation somewhere in the Deep South or surrounding states. Our first vacation that I remember was a road trip from Louisiana to the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.  My parents still have the blurry and jerky 8mm silent video from a borrowed movie camera and a few black-and-white prints, including one where I was fascinated by a caged black bear.

Or maybe it’s job related, as for the past 25+ years I’ve traveled frequently and distantly, literally around-the-world on one particular trip, and by miles many times over according to my airline records. By current count, I’ve been to 33 countries and 47 US states on business or vacations, and I’m eager to visit at least an equal number in the not-to-distant future.

I’m also a dedicated restaurant patron and over-qualified eater.  Again, that’s likely traceable to my parents, as each Sunday we had an after-church lunch at a local restaurant.  My career choices definitely expanded that, as most of my professional career has been in marketing for restaurant equipment companies, with many of the world’s largest and many of the finest restaurants as customers.  At one point, I had a group of demonstration chefs reporting to me, and thus was a fortunate participant in a number global culinary exhibitions.  Plus, my company was a sponsor of the Bocuse de Or global culinary competition, which, of course, required my personal attention!

The fusion of those two passions are the inspiration of OurTravelCafe.Com.  My hope is to share a menu of travel experiences that reflect my personal journeys.  As I’m fortunate to have a global network of friends in the communications, restaurant and travel industries, I’m hopeful they will contribute as “guest chefs” to this travel and culinary gumbo.

Beyond that, OurTravelCafe.Com generally is written from my personal perspective — that of a 50-70-year old, upper-middle-class Southern American Baby Boomer traveling for work and fun.  These days, my best trips include my wife and our adopted teenage son, and occasionally our grown children, their families and our grand children.  My wife and I enjoy active travel, so you can expect lots of references to hiking, biking, exploring historical and natural sites and similar activities.  We also like to cruise, though we prefer to plan-our-own port activities rather than taking the standard cruise line offered excursions.  When we travel on our own, we enjoy walking tours of city centers and driving excursions through the countryside, always keeping an eye open for local markets featuring local cuisine, merchants and goods.

We’re not budget travelers though we do enjoy a good bargain — especially my wife.  Neither are we high-end, luxury aficionados, but you will occasionally find some attention devoted to that segment when we are lucky enough to splurge.  Thus while you might find an occasional tip on travel bargains and deals or visit to high-end luxury properties, usually I’ll focus on the destinations and activities rather than cost.

We also love road trips through our (new) home state of Georgia, and along our path as we visit family and friends. Though we like cities, museums, arts and such, we also love to find quaint, quiet and quirky spots in small towns and out-of-the-way destinations that let us escape the distractions of everyday life. We often take day trips from our base near Acworth, GA, in the foothills northwest of Atlanta. Occasionally, we’ll wander around more of Georgia on overnight and weekend excursions that most often include parks, hiking, biking or boating. On a very rare occasion, we may even write about experiments in camping, though for years my idea of camping has been staying overnight at a Holiday Inn without room service.

On our family vacations and other travel, we tend to make extended visits to remote destinations, with the belief that if it takes a long time to get there, you should spend sufficient time to explore. Some of our recent trips have included cruises with ground extensions in the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Scandinavian areas; a self-guided city and train adventure into Bavaria, Munich and Vienna; and a month-long cruise, train and driving exploration of Alaska, Vancouver, Oregon and Washington. Upcoming in 2018 we’re planning a week in the Northeast from Boston to Maine, then an African safari in 2019. There’s lots more on our future “to-do” list (as I refuse to think of exploration as a “check-it-off-the-bucket-list” activity).

One more thought. As more of us aging baby boomers are focused on activities, exercise and health, I’ll also include some general fitness observations or health details in my posts.  I am a devoted user of Garmin’s VivoActive HR fitness watch and tracker.  I try to ride 50 miles per week on a bicycle or the equivalent of that at my local gym on exercise bikes. My outdoors riding speed on flat ground is 15-18 mph, and I’ll average 20 mph on the LifeCycle upright bike at my local gym set on a random program at level 11.  So, if I do something more on the strenuous side, I’ll likely include some of the data and readings provided to help readers evaluate how certain activities might affect them.

Rather than going on here, I invite you to look around.  We’ve organized the site as a menu, and hope you find that convenient.  We would also love your feedback on the articles, topics, style and anything else.  I hope you enjoy OurTravelCafe.com, and that you will come back frequently to check out our ever-changing menu of travel experiences.

E-Mail:  Contact@OurTravelCafe.com