The Case for Travelling Abroad in 2018

Free tickets to the LA Travel and Adventure show?  Sign me up!  Yesterday, I happily spent an afternoon attending informative speaker sessions and shopping for new adventures at the LA Convention Center.  For once, I had researched the vendors ahead of time to know which ones to target.  Peter Greenberg, aka The Travel Detective, was worth the mile-hike from the offsite, makeshift overpriced auto-dealer parking lot.  Here's what I learned about why we should ALL be travelling in 2018...

Thanks to our current administration, there is the impression globally that the U.S. is not the most welcoming of visitors. As a result, international airlines have many outbound flights that are pretty much empty, and resulting in amazing fare sales.  It's a global buyer's market, especially for 5th Freedom Rights airlines (e.g. those not based in the departure or destination countries).  For example, I've seen $500 fares from LAX to London on Air New Zealand, and the same on Air Tahiti Nui from LAX to Paris.  I've recently booked a $515 flight from LAX direct to Singapore for the last week in April.  Apparently only 52% of airlines inventory is available online, with 48% visible only to travel agents.  I met many interesting boutique tour companies while at the show.  It's also been a safe year to fly in 2017, with zero fatalities on commercial jet travel.  

The U.S. state department's travel advisories are using fear to dissuade people from travelling.  Luckily, that hasn't stopped me from much.  I've shown up in places the same week as a bombing at the airport (Moscow), plane crash (Sharm el Sheik), local protests (Rio, Brussels, Peru), and witness to an armed robbery at the airport (Lyon).  A Turkish cultural tours company that I stopped by informed me that he is able to do better deals this year because of the still ongoing unease about the political unrest there.  

Here's where Peter Greenberg recommended going in 2018 and why:  Portugal - now has five Michelin starred restaurants, and the Azores are beautifully preserved.  Faroe Islands (between Iceland and Norway) is a great place to see the Northern lights.  Malta - almost every bad guy in history has tried to conquer it.  Rwanda - for the silverback gorillas.  

From the show, I was able to get research materials and contacts on how to go to Bhutan, Nepal, Seychelles, Turkey, Polar Bear excursions and others.  Chef David Kuo also did a demo on how to make squid ink xioa long baos and they were delicious.  And the session with The Points Guy was standing-room only.  I got so many great tips.  Next year, I may need to attend both days of the show, and to arrive earlier for closer parking!