Why is Beer Tourism so cool?

Support local communities. While a great deal of the country is struggling with unemployment issues, the craft beer industry is exactly the opposite.  Over the past three years, big beer sales have gone down about 5%, while craft beer sales have gone up 21%.  In fact, it is estimated that last year craft beer created 100,000 jobs in the United States.  So next time you’re on vacation and sitting down to peruse the drinks menu, ask your server what local brews they carry. 

Get a (free) tour. Many breweries have regularly scheduled tours of their facilities (usually for free! And sometimes even with free beer tasting!).  And if you’re planning ahead, it’s always worth sending an email in advance to ask if there is anyone available to take you on a private tour.  I have found that if they can, craft beer folks love to show off their facility and talk beer with someone who is genuinely interested in learning more.

Try something brand new.  While you might be familiar with your own state’s brews, there are literally thousands of breweries’ beers that are not available at your local liquor shop.  Because of distribution limitations, being at your destination may be the only chance you’ll get to experience some of these beers.  And even if their beer is available in your state, drinking it where it’s been brewed means it will be a heck of a lot fresher (read: more delicious!) than if you picked up a 6-pack at your grocer 600 miles away.

As you become a more seasoned beer tourist, you will find that each location has a deep passion for their local craft beer scene.  From the more obvious “beertopias” like Portland, Asheville, St. Louis and Colorado to some more allusive locations like Louisiana, Minnesota and Ohio, you’ll be blown away by the enthusiasm and dedication the local communities have for their hometown suds.

A beer lover will be delighted to hear that Colorado alone has more than 120 breweries.  If this tickles your fancy, Zephyr’s Colorado Hike, Bike, Beer & Brewpubs Adventure is perfect for the adventurer who is looking to experience some delicious brews.  And to make it even better, the trip ends with the Great American Beer Festival, which will give you an opportunity to expand your craft beer loving palate beyond the Rocky Mountains.

Needless to say, over the next few days there are bound to be a few problems. We ask you to bear with us as we put the final touches to our new site. It’s only to be expected that one or two things don’t work quite as expected.

What do you think? How does it compare to our old site? What are your first impressions? Post your comments & feedback we would love to hear from you!

Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa, has a new sign at the summit:

That compares to the old one, which is pictured here with long-time Zephyr travelers Rick and Tony:

I have to admit: I sort of like the old, battered sign! It’s weather-beaten look seems appropriate for hard climb that gets one to the “roof of Africa”. However, I am sure the new sign will grow on me.  I look forward to standing underneath it on our next tour to Tanzania when we’ll have the chance to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!

I am by no means an expert (yet) on wine, but I know what I like!  And I like South American wines, particularly Carmeneres and Malbecs, more than wines from anywhere else in the world!  Malbec is a Bordeaux grape that produces an intense wine that resembles most closely a Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.  Although it is produced elsewhere in the world, it is quickly becoming Argentina’s “signature” wine.  On the most recent trip I guided (our Chile & Argentina Wine & Multisport Adventure in November) I was given an early Christmas present by our Mendoza, Argentina-based guides, Lorena and Luis: a list of their favorite Mendoza “Excellent Wineries” that produce Malbecs.  (The photo below of me, Lorena and Luis was taken during our bike ride through the Uco Valley  before we had any wine, incidentally!)

 Here is a little introduction to the list below.  Luis and Lorena compiled it last month upon request for those of us who love Malbecs.  Argentina is the fifth-largest wine producing country in the world, and there are, by some estimates, roughly 1000 wineries in the region of Mendoza, which produces roughly 70% of Argentina’s wine.   Imagine what Lorena and Luis must have had to do to create this list for us!   These wines should all be available in the U.S. (the U.S. is the number one market for wines from Argentina)  and the parenthetical notation indicates the sub-region of Mendoza where the wine is produced.  Many wine experts recognize that Argentina Malbecs provide a quality to price ratio that is one of the best in the world.  If you have a favorite Malbec that is not listed below, I’d love to hear about it.  Cheers!

Our Favorite Malbecs:

1. Catena Zapata (Lujan de Cuyo)
2. Vina Cobos (Lujan de Cuyo)
3. Luigi Bosca (Lujan de Cuyo)
4. Alta Vista (Lujan de Cuyo)
5. Kaiken (Lujan de Cuyo)
6. Tempus Alba (Maipu)
7. Zuccardi (Maipu)
8. Trapiche (Maipu)
9. Norton (Lujan de Cuyo)
10. Lagarde (Lujan de Cuyo)
11. Andeluna (Tupungato)
12. Bonfanti (Lujan de Cuyo)
13. Clos de los Siete (Valle de Uco)
14. Salentein (Valle de Uco)
15. Lurton (Valle de Uco)
16. Bodegas Atamisque (Valle de Uco)

A couple of my personal favorites are shown below.   I had my first Catena Zapata while watching Luis’ father do the tango at dinner the last night of our tour.  Our tasting at Tempus Alba included their excellent Vero, one of the group’s unanimous favorites.

I love that working for Zephyr and I’m looking forward to guiding their Kilimanjaro and Safari Adventure in July 2012! Tanzania is an amazing country and I look forward to sharing this experience with you next year. So, without further adieu, here are a few lessons I learned while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro:

1. You Can Accomplish Things That You Think are Beyond Your Grasp
It has been a life long goal of mine to travel to Africa. I love both the spirit of the people as well as the beautiful, arid landscape. Right before going to Africa, I finally hit a point in my life where I knew it was more important to make this a reality than to hope that one day I could check it off my list (After all, one day may never happen.)

I feel that making the decision to take on such a feat is the hardest part, because you’re no longer just dreaming about an incredible journey, you’re holding yourself responsible to accomplishing it.

Once the hard part (committing) was over, I was able to open myself up to meeting many wonderful people and to pushing myself out of my comfort zone – to try something that many people would never try. When I arrived in Tanzania, I immediately fell in love with the people and culture. And, as I slowly made my way up the mountain, I realized that I needed to do more of this in life. I.e., committing to trying something new (that’s been on my wish list). What’s the worst that could happen?

I believe these experiences help to shape you as a person and make you stronger and more confident.

2. Journey is the Destination
It’s important to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Kilimanjaro is a remarkable mountain. And, while I found this challenge to be more mental than physical, there are the select few that are unable to summit due to altitude sickness. But summiting isn’t the point of climbing the mountain.

After all, the top isn’t just the final point on the trail, it’s part of the trail. It’s a terrific accomplishment to reach the top but don’t overlook the breathtaking landscape while you’re there (or on the way).

During each day of my climb, the scenery changed drastically. I saw plants and animals you would never encounter here in the states. I can distinctly remember each night, where I was sleeping under the African Sky. It was all part of the journey, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

3. Exercise is Actually a Mental Game
So often we only calculate our capacity as humans by assessing our physical condition. This is common on tours, as many potential guests wonder if they will be able to complete a certain tour based on their current level of fitness. We encourage everyone to try a tour, because we know that ultimately it’s not about what you ‘think’ you can do, but about realizing your potential.

Exercise is a mental game. And, it doesn’t matter what sort of shape you’re in; on a tour, you’re bound to discover untapped mental fortitude you didn’t know you had.

One of my greatest takeaways from climbing Kilimanjaro was realizing that I had pushed my body much further than I thought it could go. I had carried myself up 19,000 vertical feet. At the moment that I reached the summit, I realized that there were many things in life I could likely accomplish, much in the same way that I climbed that mountain. Our limitations are often mental. We accept our fears as reality.

4. Persistence is Key
Ultimately, every adventure comes with its difficult spots and sticking points. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be an adventure!

The key, in every one of these trying experiences, is to be persistent. During the first few days of
Kilimanjaro, you often wonder how on earth you going to ascend such a vast distance. But, as in life, putting one foot in front of the other really does move you up mountains – literally!

By Erika Helstrom Zephyr Adventures Marketing Manager & Zephyr guide for 2012 Kilimanjaro & Safari Adventure.

Here in the U.S. and to a certain degree in Australia, Wine Tourism is driven mostly by wineries that invite tourists into their winery with the goal of gaining a loyal customer who will buy wine directly from them then and in the future as a wine club member. For the rest of the world wine tourism is driven instead by the tourism industry and not the wine industry. Abroad, hotels, regional tourism agencies, a city’s information center, rental car agencies and tour companies like Zephyr Adventures all promote the wine region as a tourist attraction. These are the driving forces behind getting people into wine country, not the wineries themselves as it is here in the U.S.

Bodega Ysios is a stop on Zephyr's Rioja, Spain Biking & Hiking Wine Adventure

Internationally, many of the wineries themselves are not as welcoming as those here in the United States. Most wineries in Spain for example cannot be visited without an appointment and in almost all cases a wine tasting will cost the visitor verses the free tasting we might experience here in the US. Abroad a winery might expect the visitor to spend hours on a lengthy tour, often without wine in hand, and then they tend to offer a wine course that for many is just too detailed and time consuming. Here in the US, tourists arrive at a winery without appointment, they taste the wines they are interested in, and then they leave when they like. That being said a good wine tour and a well-orchestrated wine tasting is well worth the time but it is unrealistic to expect wine tourists to want to experience this at every winery they visit.

On our Zephyr Wine Adventures, we spend days visiting wineries in a region in advance of the tour itself. We determine who has the best tours, the best wines, the best vineyards to visit, the most unique stories, and the most sincere storytellers. We set up appointments for our adventure well in advance and we talk to the winery in advance about what we want to experience. We often find ourselves asking for a shortened tour or a less organized more casual introduction to the wine and wine region. This effort makes the best use of our group’s time and assures a balanced winery experience with less repetition of shared information. Let’s face it, once you have seen one stainless steel fermentation tank, you don’t need to see every winery’s stainless thereafter.

Why the difference? Wineries outside the U.S. rely more on traditional commercial outlets for selling their wines and don’t focus on direct sales to the consumer as much as wineries here in the U.S. So for them, inviting someone into their winery may be perceived as more of an inconvenience than an opportunity. These perceptions are changing but slowly.  It should be noted that there are also many great wineries around the globe that offer a great visit and tasting but they are not the majority.

Tradition has a lot to do with the old world’s lack of focus on the wine tourist but shipping laws have a lot to do with it as well. These laws regulate wineries from shipping direct to a consumer and are prohibitive both abroad as it relates to international shipping and here in the U.S. as it relates to shipping from state to state. On our International Zephyr Wine Adventures we often try to look into this with the wineries we visit in advance in an effort to make the possibility of purchasing wine and then bringing it back or shipping it to the U.S. easier. We aren’t always successful. Here in the U.S. shipping regulations are also a major road block, especially for the smaller wineries. To learn more about these regulations, the reasons behind them and their effects you can visit Free The Grapes or follow an informative and well written wine blog like Fermentation .

Overall direct to consumer wine sales are only 3% of the total wine sales here in the US. This statistic includes the largest wine producers, the top 2%, but 98% of the US wineries produce

Only 8.23% of US adults have purchased wine directly from a winery. Only 1.94% has purchased wine from a wine club (2011 Stonebridge Research Group) If you are still reading this I might assume you have been to a winery and may have even been on a Zephyr Wine Adventure. You may have even bought wine from a winery or even a wine club. If so, I’d like to make a toast to you, The Minority, the 1.94%!

Active wine tours are a large part of Zephyr Adventures travel portfolio. We have our customers to thank for that. Our customers keep us employed as the creators and guides of these awesome wine adventures and we love it! The even better news is that it goes beyond Zephyr Adventure’s doors, or computer screens in our case. As an example, we offer an Active Wine Adventure in Napa & Sonoma , we offer Sonoma Vineyard Walks in Sonoma and we co-created and hosted the Wine Tourism Conference in Napa. In 2007 Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley was responsible for 10,210 jobs and 9.8 million in wages (2011 Stonebridge Research Group). Zephyr Adventures and its conference & tour attendees are responsible for a tiny percentage of that wine tourism both then and now and together we are a positive for the overall economy and jobs market in the Napa Valley region.

2011 Wine Tourism Conference

As another example, the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference was hosted in Charlottesville, VA. We co-created that too. The local NBC station covered the event and noted the following, “Tourism spending in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, VA is up. The 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference helped boost spending to 0 million, supporting nearly 5,000 jobs.” (Oct. 13, 2011, NBC29.com).

Who are these significant and influential wine tourists? You! The affluent, well educated, responsible, somewhat older, healthy, active, social, really good looking people who make a conscious decision to spend a certain amount of their hard earned income on travel, new experiences, good food and of course, great wine. This happens to be exactly how we describe our Zephyr Alumni!

This post was written by Reno Walsh, who handles sponsorships on Zephyr’s conferences and is our lead guide on all Yellowstone tours.

By Elle Potter

As logistics director for Zephyr’s numerous conferences, I was in Napa last week for our first ever Wine Tourism Conference and was able to participate in a little pre-conference excursion with a handful of the conference attendees at Michel-Schlumberger Wine Estate in Sonoma. I had never been to Napa or Sonoma Valley, and was completely enchanted by the unexpected vibrancy of the autumn colors.

When was the last time you saw anything more than just the tasting room of a winery? If you have never seen the beautiful expanse of vineyards other than from your car, it’s time you get yourself to the beautiful Sonoma valley.

I had my first winery/vineyard/wine-tasting experience earlier this year in the St. Ynez Valley. The drive was beautiful and sunny, and many of the tastings were held outside, but beyond that, my experience was limited to pretending like I knew what I was talking about after I sampled each wine. And trust me – I didn’t know diddly.

Before we even sampled the wine, our guides Margaret Chastain and Jim McCammon took us on a beautiful stroll of some of the acres and acres of Michel-Schlumberger’s sprawling vines.

Jim Morris, Vice President of Marketing joined us and we were lucky to get some incredible inside scoop on the land, the efforts at creating a sustainable environment, and the subsequent wines that come from a combination of the two.

By the time we got back to the tasting room to sample the labor of their fruits, I felt like I had an intimate connection with the wine. It came from those beautiful hillsides I had just wandered around and the different tastes were influences by the different soils I still had on the bottoms of my shoes.

It’s no wonder I took a zillion pictures – even untouched, look at how vibrant these colors are! You want to really, really experience wine country? Sonoma Vineyard Walks is the way to do it. While you won’t leave your experience feeling like a fully-qualified sommelier, I can promise you will feel a connection to the soft hills and bursting grapes that you’ll want to come back to again and again.

By Elle Potter, Zephyr Adventures conference admin and community manager

There are two ways to travel:  be incredibly prepared or don’t.  I am rather infamous for being perfectly content to wander around for hours on my own in new and unfamiliar places.  This makes me an easy out-of-town visitor, as my friends can keep up with their work schedule and I can keep myself happily entertained.

Earlier this year, I spent two weeks in Bologna, Italy with a friend of mine who was there on business.  Each day, I ate breakfast (twice) and would then begin my carefree meandering around the city while he went off to work for ten hours.  I had my fill of the city after the first week and began gravitating further and further out into the countryside.

I read somewhere about a cathedral on the top of a hill outside Bologna called Madonna di San Luca.  Being one who, as mentioned, is generally more interested in seeing where the roads take me, I hastily drew myself a squiggly line in my notebook as a “map” and started out for the day.

The direct route

The road less traveled.

Let this video set an example of what happens when you don’t follow up on all the details of a pending adventure.

If this sort of adventuring doesn’t appeal to you, have no fear!  You can have just as much fun (arguably more fun) joining us for the Umbria & Tuscany Hike & Bike, and we’ll sort out all the details for you.  All you have to do is bring your sense of adventure and an appetite for incredible Italian cuisine.

Oh, and one more thing:  Pack better shoes than I did.

By Elle Potter, Zephyr Adventures conference admin and community manager

If you are an active traveler, how do you decide which Zephyr European tour you would like to join? Below I’ll discuss the five European trips we have on our 2012 schedule, guiding you to the best fit for you.

Mosel River Barge & Skate Tour, Germany: Do you inline skate? If so, then definitely consider our annual European inline skating tour. Inline skating, when you have the skill down, produces a rhythm and beauty that keeps our skate tour participants in perpetual happiness. In recent years we have run one European inline skating tour, in locations such as Switzerland or The Netherlands, and in 2012 are featuring this new Barge & Skate tour along the Mosel River  in Germany. Remember, too, a) all our skate guides are also instructors and can help you improve your skills and b) this tour is open to bicyclists and our skating tour locations are ALWAYS the easiest bike tours.

If you do skate you should consider our other active European tours as well. Inline skating has certain limitations, since we need paved, smooth, mostly flat roads or paths with very few cars. Most of Europe simply does not offer that. Additionally, we find that biking and hiking have their own benefits (read below) and many of our alumni have happily switched from skating to bike or hiking tours.

Tuscany Hiking & Umbria Biking, Italy: We are really pleased with our Tuscany and Umbria tour in Italy. We believe we have the best active tour in these two beautiful provinces because we combine hiking in hilly Tuscany with biking in flatter Umbria. Hiking in Tuscany is pure joy, as we walk down farming roads situated on ridge tops with valley views on both sides. Hiking gets us places we cannot get by bike or inline skates, is MUCH easier in terms of reading route directions, and enables casual conversation with fellow tour participants. Since many people do not want to bike for an entire vacation, this combo tour is a perfect option.

Provence, France Biking: Are you a biker? If you bike regularly at home, you already know the joy of biking down a country lane, with beautiful scenery, and friends at your side to share new experiences. Biking is also a great speed: fast enough to see multiple European towns in a day but slow enough to not miss the surrounding scenery. Your decision now is simply to decide which of our bike tours to take and we have three in 2012 from which you can choose. Our Provence tour in France is probably the flattest, easiest riding of our three biking tours. There are always hills when you cycle six days in a row over hundreds of kilometers but if you prefer easy riding, this is a great choice. In addition, the Provence tour is the only food-oriented tour of the bunch. We visit a farmer’s market, tour an olive oil mill, have a picnic at a fig farm, and stop by a goat cheese producer and a honey bee farm. Choose Provence if you are a foodie.

Rioja, Spain Biking: Rioja is a fabulous area of Spain, with ancient towns, beautiful vineyards, and rolling hills. The best part about it, in some ways, is that it is relatively unvisited by foreign tourists. Americans, especially, don’t seem to have Rioja on their radar. Choose Rioja for your 2012 bike tour if you want to experience a classic European bike tour, without the crowds. Also, Rioja is our most wine-oriented European vacation, with winery visits scheduled every day.

Puglia, Italy Biking: New in 2012 we are offering a six-day bike tour in Puglia, the heel of the boot of Italy. Puglia is half Italian and half Mediterranean in its culture. White-washed houses and three-hour siestas will leave you wondering where you are and how you can extend your stay. While you could choose Puglia as the first active tour you take in Europe, the area does not have the classic look and feel of a bike tour in France or Tuscany. We especially recommend Puglia, therefore, for those of you who have already traveled in Italy or who are ready for a new area of the European continent.

Remember, too, that on all our tours we don’t stay in one big group and have three routes each day, guides, and van support. So you don’t have to be a speedster and can choose which route, at what pace, and with which of your fellow tour participants to experience each day of your European vacation.

PS As I wrote this blog post, I realized the word “activity” is not descriptive enough for me. I know others might view activity and think shopping, going to a movie, or visiting a museum in Paris. When I write blog posts, however, what I really mean by activity is “active activity”. I sort of like the sound of that but was not sure you would, so I left it out! Am I missing a better word here?

Puglia (pronounced without the “g”) is the heel of the boot of Italy. Although it is considered southern Italy, you can tell from the map on the left it is actually southeast Italy, bordered on the east by the Adriatic Sea and on the south by the Ionian Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean.

It is this proximity to the Mediterranean that gives Puglia a very different feel from northern Italy or from the beloved provinces of Tuscany and Umbria where we have been running biking and hiking tours for years.

Puglia is sunny, with frequent blue skies and few clouds. It is maritime, with big influences from the Adriatic Sea where we spend one night on our tour. It feels more like Greece than Italy at times, with whitewashed houses and acre after acre of olive trees, each field lined with stones. And it is full of history, ranging from small medieval streets in the towns we visit to Roman and pre-Roman ruins in the area. Puglia can be magical.

But I must be honest and admit the first two days I was in Puglia, I was not sure it would work for a Zephyr tour. We know other companies run tours there but we have also found our criteria for “small side roads” seems to be stricter than that of our competitors, perhaps due to our inline skating roots where dealing with cars is not only no fun, it is not safe. We love quiet roads and for two days in Puglia last month, I was not finding them.

Part of the difficulty was there are no better maps than the large 1:200,000 maps of the entire province of Puglia. No matter how hard I looked, I could not find the 1:40,000 scale we have used to set up tours in Tuscany, Provence, and The Netherlands. As Devon and I drove on the smallest roads the map listed, I was unhappy with the traffic and, just as much, with the density of houses along the roads.

It was then we found Vito, a local guy who just started running his own mountain biking day tours in the area. Vito doesn’t speak much English but we hired him to take us on a bike ride. In a mixture of Spanish, Italian, and English it took awhile (and a few kilometers) to convince Vito we were really only interested in routes on pavement and we wanted the smallest, most scenic roads possible. Once he understood his charge, Vito came through with flying results.

There ARE fantastic roads in Puglia, it is just that the only people using them live in the local village. As Vito said several times, “my friends where I live in Cisternino have never been on this road”, talking about a road only a few kilometers from his home town.

Once we biked several days with Vito, everything changed. The long stretches of empty road bordered only by groves of olive trees, the quaint small villages where nothing was moving at mid-day, and the small, whitewashed “trulli” huts dotting the landscape were all amazing when seen from the seat of a bicycle. There are rolling hills but nothing dramatic, so this is a good tour for all ability levels as well.

If you have already visited Italy but never been to the southern part of the country, you’ll fall in love with Puglia. Come join us on our May 2-7 Puglia Biking Adventure.