New at Zoom Vacations

Zoom Vacations is constantly fine tuning trips to make them better and better each time.  Some changes and additions are subtle but significant.  Here is a list of current and upcoming changes to our roster of award winning trips:
 
Zoom China - Upgraded hotel location on the iconic riverside Bund. Great shopping area and great river and skyline views of the Bund from our new hotel in Shanghai.
 
Zoom Argentina - Added an insider tour of the Teatro Colon to the itinerary.  If you have even been to the Paris Opera House, you won't want to miss this. The welcome dinner is now at one of the top restaurants in South America, which was likened by one guest to Alinea in Chicago, considered the world's best restaurant.
 
Zoom Rio Carnaval - Now this trip includes Samdadrome tickets for the main Carnaval parade.
 
Zoom New Years - A Zoom Lounge will be available on Ipanema Beach with beverages and snacks while you sun tan and watch the hot Cariocas enjoy the beach. Also, a private Corcovado tour has been added to the itinerary.
 
Zoom Southern Africa August - Cape Town upgraded hotel and confirmed dinner reservations at the hard to get in Test Kitchen.
 
Zoom Peru - Confirmed dinner reservations at some of the best restaurants in town such as Central and Astrid & Gaston.
  
Read about our tour to China this May

Social Media, a Travel Resource

Social media has replaced the paper postcard as a means to communicate with friends back home. Facebook in particular continues to let our friends and family know where we are, that we're safe, we're enjoying ourselves, and what we're up to, in real time.  

And it's not  just about what we're writing but also what we're posting, such as movies, articles, and pictures, that help our friends and family travel and experience the destination vicariously.  Facebook can also help us connect with locals when we're traveling. While I was on Zoom Peru just a few weeks ago I posted that I was going to Lima and one of our Zoom alums contacted me and we met up after not having seen each other for a few years. 

So, as you can see, social media has closed the circle connecting us with family back home while at the same time connecting us with friends locally when we are abroad.  Facebook has become a travel resource. 

During Zoom Vacations tours, we update our page on Facebook with periodic photos of the trip, allowing you to see the tour unfold in realtime.  If there is a trip you've been considering, following Zoom on Facebook can be a great way to see what you may experience on the tour.  Plus, it gives you the opportunity to learn more about the destinations you have or have not been to.  

Travel Makes Everything Taste Better

Is cappuccino really better in Rome? Is ceviche really more tasty in Peru? 

Sometimes, when I am home, I get an uncontrollable yearning for food just the way I had it somewhere else; usually on a sunny beach, a 2,000 year old piazza, a crowded fragrant market, or in the kitchen of an attentive cook. My yearning is usually followed with the conviction that we just don't know how to make a ceviche like they make it in Peru! Is it that the fish was literally caught hours ago off the coast of Lima, or is it that the limes used to cure and cook the fish, were grown in the Peru terrain and taste differently, or is it that my table was overlooking a 2,000 year old pre-Inca pyramid, and all these things came together at that one moment to heightened my senses, create an emotional response that triggered a tastier, more memorable ceviche than the overpriced version I can get at the fancy gourmet eatery in my home town?