A Treasure Trove of Little Drives

Kent and I were up very early yesterday, to drive into Manhattan and attend our annual visit with the heads of 35 European tourism groups. It was the usual meet and greet, kiss on the cheek, speed-dating kind of affair, where you have 15 minutes to talk to each country, hotel group or attraction about why you think you’d like to write about them.

Since GoNOMAD was founded in 2000, the internet stone-age, we are considered a high-value target. We have also worked very hard to produce story after story, so no one in the room had ever been burned by us. That gives us an easy familiarity with all of the boards and led to the gifting of many of those little data drives that are so handy, and which come full of photos and text about destinations. I think I’ve got at least six of ’em and I love it, you just can’t own enough of these little treasures.

It was like Halloween for adults as the drives piled up in our bags. So far the trips that seem the most likely are to Portugal’s Algarve, to the Czech Republic’s Monrovia region, and maybe a return to the wilds of Hungary. France, we hope will also continue on our travel schedule for 2009.

It was wonderful to read the dozens of replies I got after sending out word of my trip to Iran later this month. People were positive, not full of fear, and had some interesting comments to say about this most interesting trip. Travelers who I saw at the show were universal in their shared desire to join me, others like my dad gasped long sighs, expressing dismay.