Samantha Brown, Don Wildman, Leon Logothetis & Friends
Samantha Brown has been taking Travel Channel viewers on
exotic journeys for the past 14 years. Photo credit Elaine J. Masters.
I just spent the weekend with Samantha Brown, Don Wildman, Leon Logothetis, Patricia Schultz and Jorge Meraz – and what a fun weekend it was.
As the emcee on the Travel Channel Stage at The San Diego Travel and Adventure Show, my job was to introduce each of the speakers. When I wasn’t doing that, I was backstage talking with them or in the audience listening to their presentations.
Samantha Brown and all the speakers -
In spite of their celebrity, all of the speakers turned out to be really nice people. No huge egos. No demands. Just sincerely nice people.
Samantha Brown suggested ways the audience could “travel better.”
Samantha Brown reminds me of Meg Ryan, but her sense of humor is more like that of Ellen DeGeneres. In spite of the fact that she’s traveled with a Travel Channel film crew for more than a dozen years, she remains a real traveler seeking ways to connect with the local lifestyle. I smiled when she said her favorite food is peanut butter (mine, too) and her favorite beverage is Earl Grey tea (mine, too). Her husband Kevin said it was our “Bergamot bond.”
Don Wildman may look a little sinister on the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum, but he loves cats and so do I, so we ended up talking about our favorite felines. Wildman is also brilliant – sort of a cross between a professor and Indiana Jones. In fact, his father was a professor and three of his four sisters are teachers, so explaining things like he does on TV is really in his genes.
1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz has been
translated into 24 languages and sold 3.5 million copies.
Speaking of Indiana Jones, did you know that Petra – the landmark archeological site in Jordan – only became a popular travel destination after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed there? That’s just one of the many things I learned from the very savvy Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places To See Before You Die and 1,000 Places To See in the U.S. and Canada Before You Die.
Leon Logothetis, a true global adventurer, is the author of Amazing Adventures of a Nobody.
And Leon…what’s not to love about Leon? He left a job as a successful stock broker in London when he realized that “stuff” was never going to make him happy. Today he’s “concentrating on connections with people not accumulations of things.” He’s traveled around the world on a yellow motorcycle “powered solely by kindness” and raised funds for several charities.
The big takeaway of the weekend
Off-the-beaten path travel is now mainstream. No one, it seems, wants to be a tourist. I loved hearing this because when I started writing about authentic travel a few decades ago, most people had no idea what I meant.
I met these cute kids when I went AWOL from my tour group in China circa 1981.
I remember writing an article about traveling in China for the Travel section of the L. A. Times. I recounted how I had “escaped” from my tour group whenever possible (in those days Americans could only travel in government controlled groups) and wandered through neighborhoods on my own. The next week the paper printed a dozen letters from readers who said my behavior was “risky,” “naïve,” and worse.
So we’ve come a long way – and I love it. Everyone should travel however they are comfortable, and today – for most people – that includes experiencing the local culture and meeting people.
The bottom line
Slow travel, authentic travel, off-the-beaten path travel – call it what you will – changes us. It makes us better people. It helps us find out who we really are. It helps us understand other people and their cultures and, consequently, it makes the world safer.
The weekend was a celebration of the joy of travel and I had a grand time.
Wish you had been there. Maybe next year (February 14 -15, 2015).
Cheers,
P.S. If you were at the show, will you leave a comment below and tell us what you liked best?
Category: Authentic Travel
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Very nice! And very informative.
Thank you for extending passes to the show. My husband and I enjoyed many of the features; we arrived in time on Saturday to take in the presentation by Jorge Meraz. As fans of Crossing South, we appreciated his talk which had us dreaming of our next trip south. Exactly as you said, the speakers were sincerely nice people.
I loved listening to Samantha Brown and Patricia Schultz, and am writing my second article now based on Patricia’s travel recommendations! I also loved talking to the exhibitors about midlife travel and volunteer travel, two areas I’m passionate about. It was a great show, and you were a fantastic emcee!
Thanks so much for your kind words, Lois.