Fabian & Francis cruising the Black Sea

Where in the world... 

Our trip to the Black Sea

Oceania Cruises: Riviera

The brand new Riviera, which debuted in May 2012, is stunning. Designer touches are everywhere, from the magnificent Lalique Grand Staircase and stunning Owner's Suites furnished in Ralph Lauren Home.


Comfortably mid-sized, with a country club casual ambiance and level of personalized service, combined with new amenities, made it an incredible experience…one which were not expecting. As the first ship designed for lovers of fine dining and travel experiences, the 1250 passenger Riviera offers guests multiple dining venues, of which six are open-seating gourmet restaurants with no surcharge.

Accommodations in every category are incredibly spacious, especially with regard to the lavish bathrooms.

 Our 13 day Itinerary

Day	Date	Location
1	Thu, 25 Jul	Istanbul, Turkey
2	Fri, 26 Jul	Nessebar, Bulgaria
3	Sat, 27 Jul	Constanta, Romania
4	Sun, 28 Jul	Odessa, Ukraine
5	Mon, 29 Jul	Sevastopol, Ukraine
6	Tue, 30 Jul	Yalta, Ukraine
7	Wed, 31 Jul	Sochi, Russia
8	Thu, 01 Aug	Trabzon, Turkey
9	Fri, 02 Aug	Sinop, Turkey
10	Sat, 03 Aug	Çengelköy, Turkey
11	Sun, 04 Aug	Kusadasi, Turkey
12	Mon, 05 Aug	Mykonos, Greece
13	Tue, 06 Aug	Piraeus, Greece

Arrival into Istambul, Turkey:

Turkish Airlines

Excellent Business Class as well as Comfort Class (Premium Economy).

With the most amazing tour operator in the world, Nurdan from Nurdan's United Travel Services, Turkey.

Istanbul, Turkey

MUST SEE:

Dolmabache Palacio

Mezquita azul

Iglesia Sofia

Grand Bazaar

MUST EAT & DRINK

Sur Balak (5mins from Four Season)
Kebabs’  
Doner Kebaps (like Mexican Tacos)

Black tea and Apple tea

Turkish Coffee

Nessebar, Bulgaria

Nessebar, Bulgaria...an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast!

MUST EAT AND DRINK: 
Pork (not a lot of options)
Local Wines

Constanta, Romania

Constanta - the oldest extant city in Romania. It was founded around 600 BC 

MUST EAT AND DRINK:

Local Wines
** 1 dollar = 3.3 Lei

Odessa, Ucrania 

The port of Odessa, where they arrived, is one of the most important seaports in Ukraine which is located on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea.

MUST SEE:

        Potemkin Steps y Odessa City Hall 

       Opera House

       Fine Arts Museum 

       Primoski Boulevard

MUST EAT & DRINK :

Pork and vegetable dumplings 

Pork   Borsch (onion and egg soup)
Vodka : Horilka 
Cold fruit tea
 

Sevastopol, Ukraine
Sevastopol is one of two cities with special status in Ukraine (the other being the capital, Kiev). A strategically important naval point, it is also a popular seaside resort and tourist destination.

MUST SEE:

Khan Palace in Bakhchisaray (1hra del puerto)

Yalta, Ukraine

YALTA, a resort city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea. The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land.

MUST SEE:

Museum: Chekhov
Alexander Nevsky Cathedra;

MUST EAT AND DRINK:

Beer: Lvivske
BBQ Pork

Sochi, Russia

Situated on the Black Sea coast near the border of Georgia, Sochi is one of Russia's largest resort cities. A lot is going on here in the next few years. Sochi will host the XXII Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games next year as well as the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix. It is also one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Basic info:

* "Spasibo" = Thank you
* 1 Dolar = 30 Rubles

Trabzon, Turkey

Trabzon played a key role in both the Silk Road and the Ottoman period because of the importance of its port.

MUST SEE:

Monasterio Sumela (1 hr from port)  CANT MISS

MUST EAT AND DRINK:
Kebabs

Kusadasi, Turkey

A resort town on Turkey's Aegean, its primary industry is tourism given it is so close to Ephesus.

MUST SEE:

Ephesus: Old Roman Town-  CANT MISS

MUST EAT AND DRINK:

Kebabs

Travelworld at Virtuoso Week 2013, Las Vegas

WOW! The Travelworld team was just in Las Vegas for Virtuoso's annual conference and there is no way to describe it. Over 4200 participants from nearly every corner of the globe. Our friend and editor of TravelPlus.com, James Shillinglaw, describes it best:

 Virtuoso: The Week That Was!

By James Shillinglaw
August 19, 2013

Those outside the travel industry who think travel agents are "dead" in a world that is supposedly dominated by online travel companies should spend a Thursday night in August at The Bank at Bellagio in Las Vegas.

During Virtuoso Travel Week, the annual meeting of the Virtuoso luxury travel network, which just celebrated its 25^th year, it’s become a tradition after a week of heavy meetings and appointments for Virtuoso travel advisors and suppliers to gather on Thursday after the closing gala dinner at The Bank nightclub to blow off a little steam. And do they ever blow off steam!

The Bank is transformed into "Club V” (Club Virtuoso) with literally a thousand or more people packed onto the dance floor. And many of them are surprisingly young given the usual demographic at many travel agent events. One of the highlights of the evening, however, is when Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch gets up on a raised platform to dance with Valerie Wilson, a veteran Virtuoso member and owner of Valerie Wilson Travel in New York. Upchurch himself then leads the festivities into the wee hours of the night.

This year's Virtuoso Travel Week attracted more than 4,200 participants, including travel advisors, suppliers, media and other guests (compared to roughly 3,800 last year). What's more important is that 2,000 travel advisors attended, more than the number of suppliers registered.

Last year Virtuoso changed the branding of its annual domestic conference from Virtuoso Travel Mart as it tried to put more of a consumer face on its activities in Vegas every August. The idea was to create a "happening" like Fashion Week that will eventually be recognized by consumer media and the outside world.

Last year I wrote that Virtuoso Travel Week was still a "work in progress," which perhaps wasn't surprising given that it was the first year with the new name and focus. This year roughly 15 consumer media attended the event, so Virtuoso is continuing to build up its consumer face. I'm just waiting for the day when the Bellagio fountain is lined with TV cameras and crews eagerly awaiting news of the latest and most innovative luxury travel products.

Nevertheless, Virtuoso's giant event this year truly emerged as a real phenomenon, largely because it just keeps growing and getting busier year over year. Virtuoso Travel Week is now the largest convention hosted by Bellagio and the property makes a special effort to ensure that its entire staff is on duty and ready to serve its Virtuoso guests. Indeed, Virtuoso even released a video made by Bellagio showing just how much preparation the resort puts into the event.

Last week Virtuoso Travel Week had not one but three keynote speakers at its opening general session. In addition to Upchurch, the session featured Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why,” who first spoke to Virtuoso in 2010; Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D, Age Wave president and CEO, who spoke in 2006; and Lee Brower of Empowered Wealth, LLC, who for more than 12 years has also served as an entrepreneurial coach for Strategic Coach Inc.

Last year Virtuoso hosted its first celebrity guest, Francis Ford Coppola, who regaled Virtuoso attendees with stories of his Godfather movies, but also happened to be a preferred supplier who owns luxury resorts in Belize. This year Virtuoso featured magician David Copperfield, who is also effectively a Virtuoso preferred supplier as well as owner of Musha Cay, the exclusive island resort in the Bahamas. Not to disappoint the crowd, Copperfield also performed one of his signature illusions on stage.

But the real heart of Virtuoso Travel Week remains its famed (some say infamous) four-minute meetings, where every Virtuoso travel advisor can meet virtually every Virtuoso preferred suppliers. Each travel advisor and preferred supplier is scheduled for roughly 98 meetings per day for four days. This "speed dating" has been a major part of Virtuoso Travel Week since its inception, but now it has spilled over to encompass every ballroom in the Bellagio and many of the hallways in the convention center.

Row upon row of tables and chairs line every room and time clock countdowns on the individual meetings are projected on giant screens on the walls, as sharp tones indicate when meetings are about to come to an end. It certainly is speed dating, though it often reminded me of a giant bingo game, where the prize is matching a travel product to the right customer through a Virtuoso travel advisor.
I sat in on an hour's worth of meetings, as I have in the past, and I continue to be amazed about the process. The goal, however, is to build relationships, however brief, which can result in connections over time, so Virtuoso travel advisors can work more intimately with resorts, destination companies, tour operators, cruise lines and other top suppliers.

At just a little under 4,000 rooms and suites, the Bellagio can no longer hold every Virtuoso attendee, so the conference has now spilled over to the adjacent Vdara and Aria. Indeed, Upchurch told me he believes at some point Virtuoso Travel Week will take up a good part of the "campus" that links the Bellagio and City Center resorts.

And what of the annual tradition at The Bank? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if next year Upchurch and Wilson will have to repeat their dance performance at Hyde, Bellagio's other big nightclub, as well as The Bank. In the end, the message is this: Travel agents are vibrant, alive and dancing the night away at Bellagio!

James Shillinglaw is editor in chief and editorial director of travAlliancemedia, which publishes TravelPulse.com, Agent@Home magazine and Vacation Agent magazine.