Katy Rockett of Intrepid
Intrepid's Christian Wolters
Flight Centre's Greg Tillson (right) with some intrepid friends
When you want to launch a new range of foodie tours, how better to do so than lure a few hundred of your clients, potential clients and suppliers to a cool downtown venue with exotic food and drink? So it was last week when the always-innovative folks at Intrepid Travel launched their Food Adventures.
And even the least-daring, Kraft-dinner-loving Canadians would find something to interest them. That’s because the tours range from a few hours (Urban Adventures’ Urban Food Safaris in, for example, Los Angeles, Dehli or Barcelona) to 14 days on a Real Food Adventure to, say, China, Mexico, India or Spain. In between are Bite-Sized Breaks of 4 or 5 days’ duration, a great way to bookend a trip to destinations as varied as New Orleans and Tokyo.
In all there are 20 itineraries, all focusing on authenticity and fun. “You might do a home stay and cooking class in Vietnam, or learn to bake bread in Spain,” Intrepid’s big cheese for Canada, the always-genial Christian Wolters told me. “But we promise food will be the core experience.” Maximum group size is 12.
And where better than the launch, held at the hip Steamwhistle Brewery, than to grill industry types as to the weirdest food they’ve ever eaten? Adventure Center’s Blair Smith admits to munching on kangaroo in the Australian outback, while his colleague Gayle D’costa tried puffin in Iceland (“Gamey”). Joanne Scalamogna of Access Marketing has sampled alligator in New Orleans; while TPI’s Rhonda Lafosse dared some ox testicles in Kenya. (Yum!) Rob Sharp of Out Adventures has chewed on tarantula in Cambodia (“Crunchy”). But the prize goes to Adventure Center’s Tom Gehrels who recalls eating live bug larvae – “the big cockroach size” in Venezuela. Oh, and also sheep’s brain in Morocco, “But I think that’s fairly standard fare in Morocco.”
All way ickier than anything your clients will be exposed to on an Intrepid Food Adventure. But still great dinner table conversation – no matter what part of the world you happen to be in.
The new Intrepid brochure
