A is for Announcements – Updates and Where Our Tasty Travels is Headed Next!

Welcome to April! While a number of blogs are starting off with some hilarious April Fool’s Day inspired posts, we are starting off this month with a few exciting announcements. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to and where the team of Our Tasty Travels is headed next.

Erin is a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW)

After studying, cramming, and anxiously second-guessing myself on why I put myself through such torture, I’m proud to share that I passed my Certified Specialist of Wine exam this year. The four weeks waiting for the results felt like a year. Sitting next to people who were on their second and third try at the exam and hearing the average pass rate for first timers is less than 50%, I was not entirely optimistic.

What does this mean and what is next? Well, for one, hopefully I sound a bit more educated when I actually write about wine.  And that also means, look for more wine-related content in 2014. Next, I am off to tackle the very difficult London-based WSET certifications. I’ve had several people ask why not the sommelier? Right now, I do not have any block of time where I can base myself for that, and I want to focus more on the history and technical knowledge about wine first as I think that’s more applicable for what I am concentrating on this year.

Our Tasty Travels Named One of Top 25 Culinary Travel Blogs for 2014 by TripAdvisor’s FlipKey

We were thrilled to find out TripAdvisor’s FlipKey vacation rental division named us one of the top 25 culinary travel blogs to follow in 2014. We are honored and thank those who support us and our ever-expanding waistlines as we travel in search of the best eats and drinks around the globe. Check out the FlipKey blog post here.

A to Z Blogging Challenge in April

We are trying something new and joining the A to Z Blogging challenge this month. Today’s post was easy to start off with A since we had a lot of updates to share. We have our topics lined up, so look for some cool content — ranging from beer and wine to street food and Michelin star dining! We are trying to transition from a category based site to culinary themes like “Street Food Saturday” and “New Brew Thursday,” and this challenge is the perfect time to start the switchover. If you haven’t seen them, check out the new daily themes on our sidebar. I’m also going to attempt to complete the A to Z challenge on my travel blog, No Checked Bags. This will definitely be a tough challenge — I have to maintain both blogs, my freelance work, and prep for a big trip…which brings me to my next announcement!

Our Tasty Travels is Taking to the Seas

Brett has been working in San Diego, California for the past six months, and I’ve been all over the place it feels like — back-to-back trips to Asia, studying for the wine exam, Northern and Southern California, and now catching up on work back in Belize — it’s time for a foodie trip! We tried to take a pretty exciting 36 night cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines that would’ve taken us from Los Angeles down through Mexico, Costa Rica, a full Panama Canal transit, Colombia, transatlantic crossing, and a few European ports prior to winding down in Denmark. Unfortunately, Norwegian’s website was a bit deceptive and after trying for a week to secure the balcony cabin we booked for the entire cruise, we ultimately had to cancel when we were told there could be no balcony guarantee for the transatlantic leg. I’d die in an inside cabin for a week at sea!

In any case, we opted for something far more stressful and hectic — a 22 night cruise with only four days at sea! We are on a Holland America itinerary that definitely seems to have a stronger food and wine focus versus other ships we looked at. Here’s a look where the team of Our Tasty Travels will be starting on April 25th:

• Venice, Italy
• Olympia (Katakolon), Greece
• Naupilon, Greece
• Athens, Greece
• Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey
• Mykonos, Greece
• Rhodes, Greece
• Santorini, Greece
• Naples, Italy
• Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
• Palermo (Sicily), Italy
• La Goulette, Tunisia
• Florence/Pisa, Italy
• Corsica, France
• Monte Carlo, Monaco
• Marseilles, France
• Barcelona, Spain

I’ve been to all but three spots, but I am excited to return eight years later with ‘real’ camera equipment and as a more experienced traveler. My last experience like this in the Mediterranean was a nightmare and I took a whole whopping 200 photos at best between all the places I visited over two weeks — and not one of them was of the food!

Mykonos, Naples, and Rhodes were three of my favorite places and I can’t wait to get back and eat everything! Admittedly, neither of us are huge cruise fans, and Brett is coming off six months in a hotel room, so it will be interesting to see how we handle 23 days on a ship. With only four days at sea, I think it’s safe to say we will be both be exhausted and hopefully a few pounds slimmer from all the exploration.

After the cruise winds down, I’m headed back to Belize for the summer while Brett takes on more European beer destinations and we plot out our various fall travels. Look for both of us at #TBEX Athens in October – that’s a definite!

Coming up tomorrow for Wine Wednesday: B is for Botrytis!