Dear Traveler,

I like eating. I’m guessing you do, too. Heck, I bet most of us enjoy our meals, right? (Okay, this is clearly going to be a bit of a wise-ass blog post, isn’t it?) Well, while leafing through several travel catalogs today, I noticed an interesting commonality with the way many companies present their tours. And it has to do with eating.

In the trip sections of their catalogs—at the top of the page, just beneath the trip name—many companies listed with pride the number of meals that are included in their tours. For example, “The Priceless Paris Tour: 11 breakfasts, 7 lunches & 6 dinners.” Or “Lavish London: 6 breakfasts, 5 lunches & 4 dinners.”

Maybe I’m strange, because I found that odd.  As I said sarcastically above, we all do enjoy eating. It’s just that if I’m on a trip for, say, 10 days, I pretty much know I’m going to eat something like 30 meals.

I suppose if I’m purchasing a tour, it would be nice to know how many meals are included. In fact, I’d probably insist on knowing that figure. But it seems to me that these companies that list the number of meals before they even mention the meaningful experiences that are central to the trip… Well, in my mind they are missing the mark.

In essence, they are putting a croissant above the Louvre, shepherd’s pie before the Tower of London. Now, I love shepherd’s pie. And I’ll admit I’d enjoy it with a warmish bitter drawn from a basement cask in a 12th-century pub. But while food (and drink) can be an important and immensely enjoyable element of travel, to be honest, it’s the 12th-century pub that interests me most—the rest I can get right here in Boulder.

So, if you ever see one of our catalogs list the number of meals as the second-most important feature of one of our trips, please send me a strongly worded email that I have somehow lost the real point of travel! Here’s to savoring all that we can’t find at home.

Thanks for listening,

BB

P.S. That said, we do offer some pretty amazing meals on our Nat Hab trips… but they’re secondary to the incredible nature encounters that are the “main course”!