Antarctica, Hurtigruten Cruise (C) Sonne

Start of para-sailing, Caribbean coast, Cancun, Mexico (C)Sonne

Dream. Go. Discover. Explore. Set your sails.

Take a leap. Sit still somewhere new. Meet yourself.

Add kindness in different time zones. Share beauty. Create laughter.

Spark an idea. Illuminate.

Whether you want to explore all seven continents or experience  your own neighborhood better, here are some inspiring travel quotes, and some images from my travels.

“Make voyages! Attempt them-there’s nothing else.”

– Tennessee Williams

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ”

– often attributed to Mark Twain

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

Bilbao Museum, Basque Country, Spain, (c) Sonne

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ”
St. Augustine 

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” –Mohammed

Zip-lining, Nicaragua, Austin Lehman Adventures, (c) Sonne

 

 

 

“Adventure is worthwhile.”

– Aristotle

 

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

-Helen Keller

 

” Not I, not anyone else, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself.” –

-Walt Whitman

World’s largest Hot Air Balloon Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico (c)Sonne

 

 

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

— Martin Buber

 

“Three things restore a person’s good spirits: beautiful sounds, sights, and smells.”

-Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot

 

 

 

 

Moroccan Woman in the Atlas Mountains of Africa, Access Travels trip (c)Sonne

“All life is travel through time and space. Think outside the cube.”
-Lisa TE Sonne

 

 

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

– Maya Angelou

Buddhist, Himalayas, Royal Kingdom of Bhutan, Asia (c)Sonne

“Hitler didn’t travel. Stalin didn’t travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn’t want to have their orthodoxy challenged.”

— Dr. Howard Gardner

“Experience, travel – these are as education in themselves”

– Euripides

“When travelling, kindness can be  the greatest gift, and dearest souvenir.” -Lisa TE Sonne

“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.”        -Anna Quindlen

Lady Astor, Queen Victoria, Gandhi, Charlie Chaplin, Lawrence of Arabia, Kipling, Henry James, Henry Ford, Churchill all walked the grounds and halls before Cliveden House in England became a five star hotel to top the lifestyles of Downton Abbey (c) Sonne.

Maasai walking in Kenya, Africa (c)Sonne

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”

– Bill Bryson

Parenting chinstrap penguin,sitting on an egg and a chick  below:

“I  like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit. The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals.”

– David Attenborough

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”                                             – Marcel Proust

After traveling on all seven continents, I saw this dolphin wave surfing at the Pacific beach fifteen minutes from my home. (c)Sonne

“To move, to breath, to fly, to float…to travel is to live.”  -Hans Christian Andersen.

Sonne and a polka-dotted whale shark by Danny Heilprin

-Lisa TE Sonne, excerpts for Luxury Travel Mavens

@ExploreTraveler

(c) Lisa TE Sonne, Selects from a book she is working on

All above photos by Lisa TE Sonne. Please contact her for permission to use. Lisa@Sonne.org

Please add your own inspiration and any travel/ exploration quotes you want to share in the comments section below or email them. Thanks!

Turkish lamps and warm hospitality seemed ubiquitous

Turkey is full of fantastical lamps, but you don’t need to rub them to have at least three wishes come true. The luxuries of good eating, shopping, and spa-ing are not new to Istanbul, which has culled for centuries from Europe, Asia, and Africa.  Before we boarded our “Ancient Mysteries” cruise on Holland America’s Noordam, my girlfriend Jamey and I indulged in pleasures worthy of the Sultanas of the 1400s and 1500s.

Ottoman Eats- The Matbah

Part of the Matbah menu featuring Ottoman food, Istanbul

This unique restaurant highly recommended by friends offers culinary time travel. Many dishes were researched from previous centuries, and the 32 Ottoman Empire menu selections are all from the “Kitchen of the Sultan,”—truly palatial for the palette

Enticingly, the menu includes the date of the earliest known recipe of the dish, if it’s known.   For the cold plate, I chose the Karidye Pilakisi (Shrimp Stew), which had the notation, “In 1473, during the month of Sha’ban, the palace bought shrimps for an amount of three silver coins almost everyday.”  Still delicious today, even when paid for with plastic.

For the entrée, it was a tough choice with so many temptations. I narrowed it down to Yufkada kuzu incik, begendili: “baked lamb shank on a bed of pureed eggplant, served in a pastry bowl” with 1463 as the first known recipe (before Columbus sailed!) or Zire-ba (mutencene): “Diced lamb with dried apricots, raisins, honey and almonds baked slowly in an earthenware casserole.” The latter was dated 1300-1463, so I went for the oldest and my taste glands were richly rewarded.

Shrimp stew, an Ottoman dish, Istanbul

The menu credits Ottoman Cuisine as coming from Middle Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East, Mediterranean, and European cooking traditions. It seems that fusion feasts are not new.

The outdoor, upper floor patio setting provided breezes, and as hundreds of birds flew overhead in the sky of pastels, the call to prayers of the muzzeins also filled the air, reminding us of other traditions that have survived the centuries.

Our first day in Istanbul felt complete, and we looked forward to how we would conclude our next day set to explore the standing history of mosques and palaces from half a millennia ago.

The dark pink building to the right houses the women’s Hamam founded in 1556

Spa- Hamam Style

To enjoy the kind of spa treatment that the top harem women and wives and mothers of Sultans enjoyed, we headed to the Ayasofia Hurrem Sultan Hamam, founded in 1556 by Sulieman the Magnificent, and elegantly renovated in recent times. Humams are traditional Turkish bathing houses segregated by gender. Istanbul has several high-end ones – some very old and some part of new high-end hotels.

Over 300 marble pillars support the underground cisterns built in the 6th century. photo by lisa te sonne

This humam is located in the center of the historic district and an unforgettable capper to a day of sight-seeing. Just a few-minutes walk away are the magnificent Hagia Sophia, with both Christian and Islamic beauty; the striking Blue Mosque; the remnants of the Hippodrome; and the underground waters of the Byzantine “Basilica Cisterns,” which were started in the mid 6^th century. There are scintilating  treasures for the eyes, mind, and soul, but for the sensual pleasures of the body, enter the Hamam’s marbled and domed sanctuary, also a part of history.

Each visitor is matched with a personal female attendant who leads the way to an undressing room, then to a soothing bathing area. Mine pours warm waters over me from a gold bowl, scrubs me, and massages off layers of the unwanted. She whooshes soft silky soap bubbles over me, and massages me as I am stretched out on a side of an octagonal marble fountain that seems ageless.  My mind releases any worries about current times, and I wonder how closely this resembles how Sultan’s wives were treated centuries ago.

Spa for Sultanas, Istanbul

In the midst of all this pampering, she massages my scalp and washes my hair tenderly, like my mother did when I was little. It is a happy memory, but a small lump forms in my throat.

After more cascades of warm and cold water for rinsing, I am led upstairs two flights to a private room framed by an intricate wooden carving. A masterful massage of perfumed oils ensues, with any remaining knots kneaded out – front and back; top and bottom. I am again offered water or fruit drinks. My attendent beams at me “You are a Sultana!”

Delighted and detoxed, clean and smooth, I lounge near my childhood friend as we each purr contentment under a tall tranquil white dome, a nearby fountain flowing its liquid mantra to relax. When we are ready to head back out the door into the large park framed by iconic architectural wonders, we are handed little bags to take home. Mine has a kese (scrubbing mitten) and kariklar (plastic sandals) with the year 1556 imprinted.

Bazaar  Shopping

Crossroads of consumerism through the ages-Istanbul’s Bazaars

Straddling two continents, Istanbul, once aka Constantinople, is a crossroads of consumerism, from the Silk Road times to the Grand Bazaar and smaller Spice Bazaar, which are still magnets for thousands of shoppers. At the Grand Bazaar, twenty entrance gates are portals I read to a maze of more than 60 paths and 4,000 shops and cafes today—the evolution of a shopping center centuries old. Were these the original mega-malls?

The Grand Bazaar invited conspicuous consumption and beautiful production centuries ago with designated sections for the making and selling of leather goods, gold, jewels and the artistry of Turkish rugs. Today, shoppers weave through the maze under tiled, vaulted ceilings. Narrow passageways of vendors may lead to a courtyard or a wider path of stores with the labrinth including a great range these days from exquisite jewelry to junky trinkets—all waiting to be bargained for.   Amidst modern cell phones, men still scurry with silver trays of tea to serve the merchants.

An entry to the Spice Bazaar, Istanbul

Near one end of the Galeta Bridge (well worth walking), the “smaller” but still a-mazing Spice Bazaar was purportedly created in the 17^th century to provide revenue for the “New Mosque” (now in its 4^th century, which is still relatively new in a city with the Hagia Sophia). Spices, herbs, honeycombs, and all kinds of delectables seduce the senses and invite quick deal-making for some delicious presents.

Cruise Time

By the time we boarded our Holland America Cruise ship, the Noordam, we had tended to body, soul, and mind and had gifts for our husbands and friends in packages to carry to our Verandah suite on the Promenade Deck.

When we opened the door to our suite, more treats awaited — a bottle of champagne on ice and a dozen cut fruits waited on one plate, several kinds of finger sandwiches rested on another, and white and dark chocolates of sea horses and towers greeted us inside our well-designed cabin. Outside on our verandah, the azure of the Bosphorus, the coastlines of Asia and Europe, and a skyline of spires and skyscrapers and domes – past and present – wrapped around us.

With nearby menus for room service, onboard spa treatments and shore excursions, we were leaving port to head through the Dardanelles toward Greece as part of the Ancient Mysteries cruise, happily warmed up by Istanbul’s enduring luxuries of food, baths, and shops.

Photos and articles by  © Lisa TE Sonne

Click here for more of her Luxury Travel Mavens pieces

For additional Sonne articles, photos and radio pieces visit www.WorldTouristBureau.com

Please add your experiences and thoughts about Istanbul:

La Belle Vita– Serving up wines, foods, historic sights, and relaxing memories

Instead of a last gasp of summer, would you like a great grasp of vacation luxury at a special price?  European Waterways is now offering $2,000 off an August 25^th cruise of culinary and cultural gems in Italy on the boutique La Belle Vita, “the beautiful life”- and it is a beautiful life!

With fewer than 20 fellow passengers and nine crewmembers, the luxury boat travels between Venice and Virgil’s Mantua in Italy’s Po Valley. As the private shore tours of castles, villas, museums, and palaces show how the wealthy were pampered in the past, current-day passengers are richly indulged in the present by a talented team.

Each day Chef Andrea Chin points to a different region of Italy on a map to set up the sumptuous courses of related specialties that he and Sous Chef Mario Sartori freshly prepared. Hostess Vanessa Santamaria describes the wine pairings for the courses. A third person elaborates on the Italian cheeses selected for that meal.

Sangria served topside while La Belle Vita tours the Grand Canal of Venice with savory appetizers and warm breezes

There’s an open bar and friendly staff who will find you topside to see if you would like a snack or cocktail. And everything is artfully arranged and delightfully presented.

The Chef is happy to share his recipes with food lovers — even before his anticipated book comes out featuring regional Italian dishes. He will also provide a cooking lesson on request. The only dinner off the boat is private dining at Ca’ Zen, the villa where Lord Byron wrote inspired poetry and pursued a great romance.

Art and Architecture are part of the excursion menu of private tours on La Bella Vita tour of Venice and the Po Valley of Italy.

To work up physical appetites and feed curiosity, Team Leader Klaudia Neri, who speaks five languages, helps tailor shore time, with specially-picked guides for each private tour, covering a range of artistic and architectural wonders of medieval and renaissance times. She can also help you with current desires — from getting a set of watercolor paints for fun onboard, to finding the pharmacy or photo store you want to answering questions about history and customs.

The affable Captain Rudy Toninata entertains visitors on the bridge while skillfully navigating through locks. Toninata and Neri have years of experience with Italy’s family run Delta Tours to work well with European Waterways for passengers to enjoy the best.

I greatly enjoyed this stimulating itinerary and relaxing venue last July to celebrate my birthday with my husband, so I encourage those who love food and arts to pick an occasion (half-birthday, “un-birthday,” anniversary, or “just because”) and savor the “Beautiful life!”

“Read All About It!” Summer special rate on intimate cruise of Venice and the Po Valley -the best of grapes and gondolas. (c)Lisa TE Sonne

And with the $2,000 savings (that’s $1000-off per person for double cabin) being offered by European Waterways,  you could upgrade to first class airfare or buy some beautiful hand blown glass on the Venetian Island of Murano, or hand-made lace on Burano, or order cases of wine, or ….. plan your next journey worth reading about.

********

MORE INFO from European Waterways: “Prices for a 6 night cruise aboard the 20 passenger La Bella Vita are from $3,840pp in a twin/double en suite cabin, including all meals, wines, an open bar, excursions and local transfers. Full boat charters are also available. European Waterways: Tel: +44 (0) 1753 598555. Toll free from the US:  1-877 879 8808 ”   Check also for special prices on two upcoming fall Trips on La Belle Vita.

You can also connect by  Website * Facebook, Twitter, or You Tube

*******                                              -Lisa TE Sonne for Luxury Travel Mavens

Photos by (c) Lisa TE Sonne

Jane Austen at the American Museum of Natural History © AMNHD. Finnin

“Known for her sharp-witted novels about love and manners among the English gentry, Jane Austen did most of her writing in the early 1800s, more than a century before most European households had electricity. Although she lived comfortably and ate well, she had fewer food choices than most English people do today. At the time, a summer treat as simple as ice cream was quite a luxury” per information provided by the museum to go with the photo above.  Only the wealthy tended to have “ice houses” in the summer, sometimes a cave-like feature in the shade far from the house.

(c)AMNH Summer of 2013

The recipe below was one of the goodies gained when I recently visited the AMNH and enjoyed this summer’s “Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture”  exhibit. Visitors can be given tickets through package deals at the nearby Belleclaire Hotel or purchase tickets in advance for the “timed exhibit.”  Such crowd control makes it easier to sample that day’s free tastings, make a “virtual meal,” explore the complexities of “farm to fork” today, or get a better look at what people of the past ate.

Thanks to the AMNH for the following recipe. The ziplock bags seem to be a bit anachronistic, but this museum houses both great dinosaur skeletons and a cosmic walk through eons in space, so I’m not questioning temporal matters.  But I may go make some ice cream- glad to have ice so readily available.

“Jane Austen” No Electricity Ice Cream in a Bag

Ingredients

• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup whipping cream (heavy cream)
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla or vanilla flavoring, if desired
• ¼ cup frozen or fresh currants, plums, blueberries, or peaches
• ½ to ¾ cup sodium chloride (NaCl) as table salt or rock salt
• 2 cups ice
• 1-quart plastic zip bag
• 1-gallon plastic zip bag

Procedure

1. Add ¼ cup sugar, ½ cup milk, ½ cup whipping cream, and ¼ teaspoon vanilla to a blender or mixing bowl.
2. Add the fruit and blend until smooth.
3. Add mixture to the quart bag. Seal the bag securely.
4. Put 2 cups of ice into the gallon bag.
5. Add ½ to ¾ cup salt (sodium chloride) to the bag of ice.
6. Place the sealed quart bag inside the gallon bag of ice and salt. Seal the gallon bag securely.
7. Gently rock the gallon bag from side to side. It’s best to hold it by the top seal or to have gloves or a cloth between the bag and your hands, because the bag will be cold enough to damage your skin.
8. Continue to rock the bag for 10-15 minutes, or until the contents of the quart bag have solidified into ice cream.
9. Enjoy!

-Lisa TE Sonne for Luxury Travel Mavens.com

Creative Cocktails in the Caribbean

Looking for colorful spirits to cheer about? Wondering how playful you can be with your Don Julio Blanco tequila, Tanqueray No. 10 gin,  Zacapa 23 rum, and Ketel One vodka? In the quest for the best Rum punch, who wins?

Luxury Travel Mavens shares Caribbean Cocktail recipes from World Class Mixologist Roberto Berdecia of Puerto Rico, and divulges arguably the best “Rum Punch” formula on earth from the country that invented rum, the Barbados, thanks to Roger Goddard and his Cutters Deli.

Eternal Cocktails from Puerto Rico

On a recent foray to the United States Territory of Puerto Rico, Berdecia, the creative cocktail guru behind the concoctions at the Eternal Bar of the Conrad Condado Plaza Resort in San Juan recommended the following to warm up the cold months:

 Spiced Sip

• 1 ½ oz. Zacapa 23
• ½ oz. Amaretto
• ½ oz. Homemade Cinnamon & Black Pepper Syrup
• 2 oz. Pear Juice
• Garnish with Cinnamon Stick
• Serve in a Snifter glass

Note: Zacapa 23 is a distinguished rum developed originally in Guatemala. Each bottle is adorned with a hand-woven Petate band which the Zacapa website says  represents “the unity of time and space, earth and sky.” The site also says the rum uses virgin sugar cane honey instead of molasses for sweetnes ,  and fermentation includes yeast from a particular kind of  pineapple.

Strawberry Puree adds sweet color at the Eternal Bar in Puerto Rico

Mint Tree

• 1 ½ oz. Don Julio Blanco Tequila
• 1 oz. Strawberry Puree
• 1 oz. Grapefruit Juice
• ½ oz. Passion Fruit Liquor
• 8 leaves Mint
• Garnish with Mint Leaves
• Serve in a Cocktail Glass

Spooky Mango

• 1 ½ oz. Tanqueray No. 10
• 1 oz. White Guava Juice
• ½ oz. Homemade Ginger Syrup
• 1 oz. Mango Puree
• Top with:
• 1.4 ounce of Strawberry puree
• Orange Zest for garnish
• Garnish with Orange Zest
• Serve in a Highball glass

Some tropical Blue Curacao to ward off the winter blues

Tropical January

• ¾ oz. Ketel One Citroen
• ¾ oz. Ketel One Vodka
• ¾ oz. Coconut Cream
• ¾ oz. Blue Curacao
• Garnish with Slice Strawberry and Mint
• Serve in Old Fashioned

Barbados Best

When you check in at the luxurious Crane Residential  Resort in Barbados, you are immediately asked, “Do you want Rum Punch or Fruit Punch?” as a welcoming refreshment.   The bartender at the Resort’s Bar 1887  (named after the year the hotel was started) asked the same question. This seems to be an ubiquitous query on this enchanting island. No wonder. Rum as a drink started in Barbados as a happy accident, and when the British moved in they made rum a medicinal ration for each member of the Navy to receive a daily dose.   Now restaurants and bars seem to want tourists to get their share too.  There seems to be an informal competition for the best Rum Punch.

The beguiling moon in Barbados after a glass of Cutters Rum Punch.

One night at a private party  with a beguiling full moon over the sea, I tasted what for me was the freshest best Rum Punch. Turns out the man making the mix was Roger Goddard of Cutters down the road and he goes lengths to get the freshest ingredients.   When I asked for the secret recipe I was told it was “1,2,3,4” as in

One of sour
Two of Sweet
Three of Strong
Four of Weak

To elaborate, this means:

One part fresh squeezed lime — no mix
Two parts sugar – Bajan (local speak for Barbadian)  locally grown cane sugar. At Morgan Lewis Mill they still press the cane the old fashioned way.  Goddard and  friends annually help press to keep the tradition alive
Three parts strong rum — Bajan of course (Mount Gay Rum is an historic choice)
Four parts weak: Serve over a full glass of ice

For the finishing touch, add fresh, coarsely ground nutmeg from Grenada,  the Spice Island near Barbados.

Clink glasses with a happy toast and enjoy good company!

-Lisa TE Sonne for LuxuryTravelMavens.com

Cheers!

Photos by Lisa TE Sonne except for the photo to the left, provided by the Eclipse Bar in San Juan.

Gale Anne Hurd produces hit action movies & great dives.

As her professional reputation shoots even higher in the entertainment stratosphere, what does producer Gale Anne Hurd do to relax when she has time? She plunges into the ocean with mask and tank for luxurious exploration.

This month alone, Hurd’s meg- hit television series WALKING DEAD broke all cable records, her movie VERY GOOD GIRLS is in post-production, and her star was placed on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (between Buster Keaton and Peter Lorre).

At the event, director and explorer James Cameron extolled the intelligence of the Phi Beta Kappa Stanford grad and lauded her talents as one of the “biggest producers in the business.” She helped discover his directing talent when they both worked with Roger Corman.

Part of Hurd’s smarts includes knowing how to do things well, whether she is producing box

Diver Gale Anne Hurd with the star of The Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln, and her own Star for the Hollywood Walk of Fame

office hits, overseeing a television series, owning and operating a wine bistro, promoting ocean conservation, or enjoying luxury diving.

The action producer of other worldly hits including THE TERMINATOR movies, the HULK, THE ABYSS and ALIENS shares a passion in her personal life.

Why do you love diving?

To me, scuba diving is the closest I can get to a different universe without leaving planet earth.

How long have you been diving ? Where have you dove? 

I’ve been diving since 1987, when I became certified in advance of producing THE ABYSS.  I’ve completed over 300 dives in the Pacific Ocean, both North and South (from California to Micronesia and Hawaii, Fiji and Indonesia, Tahiti, etc), the Coral Sea off of Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Atlantic off of Florida and the Bahamas, as well as most areas of the Caribbean, including remote areas off of Saba, Dominica, St. Kitts, Barbuda, Belize, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, the Cayman Islands, St. Barths, St Martin, and  Anguilla

Do you have an extraordinary moment that stands out in your diving memory?

A night dive from shore off Madang, PNG to the wreck of the Coral Queen and watching thousands of flashlight fish swarm around us right after sunset, all blinking in unison.  It was like being surrounded by 10,000 Tinkerbells!

“Diving is as close as I’ll come to leaving this world.”

What is a favorite luxury dive experience from a land base?

I made some fantastic dives from the Aman Resort in Moyo Island, Indonesia a number of years ago.  It’s a tented luxury resort on a VERY remote island.  They had an underwater nature trail there that was fantastic.

What  are your favorite live aboard dive trip experiences??

As a former owner of the Palau and Truk Aggressors, I’m a big fan of the Aggressor boats around the world.  They are all fantastic ships in great locations for diving.  I also very much enjoyed the Tiata off of Papua New Guinea, which when I was on board traveled from Kavieng, New Ireland to Rabaul New Britain.  The fish life and invertebrates are beyond compare, and the local tribespeople are fantastic, which makes the experience wonderful on a socio-cultural level as well.

What makes it a “luxury dive” for you ?

To me, safety comes first, a great, well-maintained boats kitted out for divers, and the ability and guest-friendly nature of the crew.  Being ecologically sound by tying up to buoys rather than dropping anchor on coral reefs is essential.  Having comfortable staterooms and good food is important too.

Hurd dives with Sting Rays.

Any tips for other divers to make diving more luxurious?

Buy your own equipment and keep it well serviced; after all, it really is your life support and should be treated as such.  Make sure you have the proper dive skin or wetsuit for the water temperatures you’ll be encountering.

Is there any diving you haven’t done yet, that is still on your bucket list? Where and why?

One day I’d love to dive the Galapagos and also Borneo.  Both are remote areas with sea life I haven’t encountered before — and of course, the Red Sea.  I had hoped to dive the latter when I visited Jordan a few years ago, but I came down with a terrible virus and was unable to dive.

 Why do you think it’s important that we protect the oceans?

We are the Water Planet, and if the oceans become even more unhealthy, all life on the planet will suffer.  It’s a very delicate balance now, and we must take action.

You are on the advisory boards of Heal the Bay and Reef Check. How are they helping our seas?

 Heal the Bay focuses on the health of the beaches and oceans off of Southern California, and monitors the water quality of the local beaches, scoring the safety and health of each one.  Reef Check monitors the quality of seas and sea life in over 90 countries around the world and trains local people who are stakeholders (fishermen, etc.) to dive and monitor their seas, so that they can take the lead in protecting their own seas and beaches.

Hurd at her Vertical Wine Bistro in Pasadena, California

You founded one of the most wonderful gathering places in Pasadena, California–  VerticalWineBistro. Is there any consciousness to how fish fits in the menu because of your diving? 

We do focus on sustainably caught seafood because of my interest in protecting the seas.  We use the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood list, which is easy to access on line.  I recommend it to everyone!

In pressure filled arenas, you are very successful in your life including producing innovative Oscar-winning films, and developing and heading up the record-breaking television series WALKING DEAD.  Does diving help your professional success?

It’s a great way to relax and escape for me.  When you’re diving, you are completely engrossed in the undersea world and not thinking about work.

 Has diving helped your personal life?

My daughter and I have dived together around the world, and it’s something we love to share.  She was certified on the island of Culebrita, in the US Spanish Virgin Islands, another wonderful and rarely dived site just off of Puerto Rico.  So many of my friends dive, and it’s wonderful to take dive trips with them as well.

 Lisa TE Sonne for Luxury Travel Mavens

 Photographs provided by Hurd’s company Valhalla Entertainmnent.

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Do you have any favorite luxury dives, Hurd movies, or Walking Dead episodes to share? Please add your comments below!