My first assignment for the AZ Department of Tourism focused on what to do in my longtime hometown.
I moved to Arizona to work at a start-up weekly entertainment magazine that focused on events in the greater Phoenix metro area, and over the next several years I crisscrossed the Valley of the Sun to profile and preview everything from baseball stadiums and dive bars to ballet performances and boutiques. Even after switching careers, I keep checking out new restaurants, shops and experiences — now just for fun, instead of a byline.
A look at Phoenix’s most diverse and inclusive neighborhood(and my introduction to Arizona’s “Hip Historian,” Marshall Shore)
When Visit Phoenix offered me the opportunity to interview Marshall Shore as part of a feature that would profile the city’s Melrose District, I couldn’t agree fast enough. Although I was familiar with Shore as Arizona’s “Hip Historian”—a role in which he hosts everything from walking ghost tours downtown to virtual happy hours with some of the state’s most interesting people—I’d never met him in person.
Would you prefer a weekend of museums, gardens and galleries? Or mimosas, massages and dinner inside Gianni Versace’s former mansion? (Maybe pick some from each itinerary.)
Sometimes I get exhausted justwriting about all the activities in a suggested itinerary. When I was putting together the three-day “Cultural Treasures” article here, I swear my lower back seized up based on the walking and standing required to hit all the listed museums and arts events. To make up for it, the two-day “Romantic Getaway” itinerary just above it on the same page includes mimosas, massages, a private beach bed, quiet time in the hotel room, and an intimate, eight-guest restaurant where dinner lasts more than 2½ hours.
I mean, you could pick your favorite activities from each one …
Saudi Arabia isn’t on my “must-see” list—and the government wouldn’t welcome me, either—but Jeddah is thriving and at least I can take inspiration from the region’s cuisine.
This assignment required me to “step out of self” more than the others in the series, because Saudi Arabia is not a country I’d care to visit, and nor would it want me there. (Its strict legal codes based on Islamic principles—it’s the only Arab country that claims sharia law as its sole legal code—means men and women can be put to death for being gay. (Also forbidden, with much smaller penalties: public consumption of alcohol and interacting with unrelated people of the opposite sex.)
While I wrote these itineraries for Jeddah, I put myself in the mind of executives who’ve been told they have to attend business meetings in Saudi Arabia’s commercial capital. What would they want to know and to see in their downtime?
The one thing that stuck with me, though, was the cuisine and culinary ingredients. Shakshuka! Coffee-date pudding! Orange-blossom mints! Mouhalabieh! Mint vinaigrette! The screenshots below have been saved on my desktop since last October as prompts to research the recipes and re-create the dishes (closer to home, where they could be accompanied by a digestif or a mimosa).
Rose pistachio cheesecake
Sweet potato pancakes with date syrup and Greek yogurt
Head here for a a whirlwind “24 Hours In” itinerary and, further down the page, a two-day “Culinary Tour” piece.
Part of an assignment to research and create travel itineraries
for destinations all around the world, for different types of travelers.
This installment: Kuala Lumpur.
I’m not sure if it’s too wise to admit it, but before this assignment I didn’t know much about Malaysia. (In fact, if you had asked me the name of this city, I’d have called it “Kuala Lam-pur.”) Researching articles like these can teach you a lot — especially when the first lesson is how far behind you are in learning.
That education started with my first sentence. Tin mining? I didn’t know that adding a tin alloy helps strengthen some metals, like copper, and I marveled how someone, somewhere, millennia ago, had already figured that out and determined how to smelt tin from ores. It only got more interesting from there.
Head here for a three-day “Cultural Treasures” adventure,
and here for a two day “Culinary Tour.”
Part of an assignment to research and create travel itineraries
for destinations all around the world, for different types of travelers.
This installment: Sanya, China.
I’m just happy they kept the word sylvan in the intro text. I’d tried to use it in another (earlier) destination, but their powers that be changed it to something more common. (Which made me determined to use it somewhere else instead.)
Head here for a two-day “Romantic Getaway” piece, and here for a five-day “Family Vacation Fun” itinerary (which let me use “See the Village People” as one of the intros, so of course it’s one of my favorites).
Unlike the nine other cities in my mega-assignment, I had an assist for Abu Dhabi—a friend who’d recently spent a year or two there. 🙏
Part of an assignment to research and create travel itineraries
for destinations all around the world, for different types of travelers.
This installment: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Unlike the other nine cities in my mega-assignment, I had a friend who recently had spent a year or two in Abu Dhabi, and was able to suggest some suitable places to profile. Such an assist was greatly appreciated.
Head here for a whirlwind “24 Hours In” piece, and here for a two-day “Culinary Tour” itinerary (which is one of my favorites because they left in several of my intros that had fun plays on words, like “Every Day Is Hump Day” for a blurb about a place that serves camel burgers).
Western Portugal’s enviable wealth of destinations warrants an ambitious itinerary that includes something for every family member who’s lucky enough to explore it.
Part of an assignment to research and create travel itineraries
for destinations all around the world, for different types of travelers.
This installment: Sintra, Portugal. Of all the locations I wrote about, this one enchanted me the most, and I might just end up visiting the area in 2018.
Head here for a three-day “Countryside Pleasures” piece, and here for a five-day “Family Fun” itinerary (which let me use the phrase “It’ll be epoch!,” so of course it’s one of my favorites).
By Sam Mittelsteadt 