Travel Resources

The Roads Traveled recommends:

COOKING CLASSES

French Cuisine by Jean-Marc Villard 

French chef Jean-Marc Villard leads students on a culinary adventure in his day-long, hands-on, gourmet cooking classes (taught in English) at his own home in Maubec, France, the heart of picturesque Provence. A former chef and instructor at the prestigious Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon, France, Jean-Marc shares his passion for all things “gastronomique.” Click here to read more about learning to shop, cook, and eat like the French. Bon appétit!

The Cook’s Atelier

American chef Marjorie Taylor is the cook, and her daughter, Kendall Smith Franchini, manages the wines at this charming cooking school in Beaune, France. Devoted to regional Burgundian culinary traditions with a focus on the connection between farmers and cooks, The Cook’s Atelier offers hands-on cooking classes, workshops, market tours, and field trips to artisan food producers. We shopped for ingredients at Beaune’s outdoor market, and then prepared a truly memorable meal of gougeres, roasted pintade with garden vegetables, and fresh peach tarts. Click here to read more. On a return trip to Beaune, we couldn’t resist taking the market tour and cooking class for a second time. Click here to read more.

GADGETS, GIZMOS, AND OTHER MUST-HAVES

The Map Shop

It’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know how to get there. Maps make the difference. The Map Shop in Charlotte, NC, has about 11,000 maps to help you find your way around the world. Click here to read more.

PROPERTY RENTALS

airbnb

Looking for a place to stay? Pretty much anywhere? Check out airbnb, a website that lists homes, apartments, and rooms for rent by people in over 34,000 cities and 192 countries. We’ve used the service several times, and rented charming properties without a hitch. Click here to read about the cottage in Glen Ellen, CA. Click here to read about the apartment in London. Click here to read about the apartment in Paris. Click here to read about the cottage in Kenwood, CA. Click here to read about the apartment in Amsterdam.

RAIL TRAVEL

Trainline 

We love traveling by train in Europe, where the extremely well-connected and varied rail network makes it easy and convenient to hop on for a ride. London-based Trainline, Europe’s biggest train and coach app, has become our one-stop source for all things train-related. We’ve found that sites where English is not the native language sometimes can have confusing translations. We use Trainline’s website and mobile app, and both are simple to navigate. Trainline offers multiple languages, and having a dedicated English version facilitates researching schedules, fares, routes, station locations, destinations, airport transfers, and more. We’ve bought tickets on their site in dollars, euros, and GBP. For us, Trainline has been a game-changer.

TRAVEL/TOUR COMPANIES

British Tours

We hired a private driver/guide from British Tours to give us an all-day overview tour of London. We saw the major sites — the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (including uncrowded places to stand for clear views of the guards marching), Westminster Abbey, the Royal Parks, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and crown jewels, Ben Ben and the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and more. We’d visited London before, but our engaging guide shared new information and insights. Click here to read more about our tour.

Detours in France

Based in Beaune, France, Detours in France provides self-guided and customized tours. We retained them to plan our visit to Burgundy, which included a private guided tour and tastings along the Grand Crus Wine Road (Route des Grands Crus), a 9-mile hike through the countryside, a private guided tour at Hospices de Beaune, a cooking class at The Cook’s Atelier, and restaurant reservations. Click here to read more.

Holland Personal Tour Guide

We booked a private Windmills & Traditions tour with Gerk Kazemier of Holland Personal Tour Guide to venture north into The Netherlands’ countryside during a trip to Amsterdam. We strolled through the scenic villages of Alkmaar, Edam, and Marken, and saw some of Holland’s most iconic images:  traditional cheese markets and cheese shops; a cobbler carving wooden shoes; historic houses; a working windmill at Schermer polder (reclaimed land); canals and dikes; and a former fishermen’s island. Click here to read more about our tour.

We learned about Amsterdam’s history during our private walking tour of the city with Peter Hooghiemstra as we passed through: Dam Square, the Royal Palace, New Church,  the national monument honoring World War II dead, the Red Light district, New Market Square, Rembrandt’s house, Rembrandt Square, Begijnhof, canal zone, and Anne Frank House. Click here to read more about our tour.

Normandy Battle Tours

Stuart Robertson of Normandy Battle Tours brings the story of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy to life with his vivid accounts of this pivotal World War II event in France. His tour includes stops at the landing beaches, towns where battles were fought, and the cemeteries. Click here to buy his book “D-Day, June 6th, 1944: Following In The Footsteps of Heroes.” Click here to read more about our tour.

Portland Walking Tours 

To explore Portland’s thriving food scene, we booked an Epicurean Excursion with Portland Walking Tours. As we walked through different downtown neighborhoods, we sampled scrumptious foods and beverages from some of the finest purveyors while learning about what makes the city such a culinary destination. Click here to read more about our tour.

Private Tours Paris

We hired a private, English-speaking driver/guide from Private Tours Paris for two half days to give us an overview of Paris, and then the Palace of Versailles. In addition to driving us past the major Parisian sites, like the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, and Jardin des Tuileries, she personally guided us through Notre Dame Cathedral. She also personally guided us through Versailles. Being part of a tour enabled us to use Versaille’s group tour entrance and bypass the very long line for regular admittance. Click here to read more about our Paris tour, and here to read more about our Versailles tour.

Rinett Guide 

For our first trip to Budapest (and Hungary), we hired Zoltán Horváth of Rinett Guide for a private guided walking/driving tour of the city. Zoltán was terrific. He crafted a tour based on our needs. His commentary was educational, entertaining, and personal, and delivered in perfect English. He encouraged us to linger at our favorite sites — including Gellért Hill for stunning views of the Danube River. Zoltan also conducts virtual tours, which he promotes on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rinettguide/?ref=hl.