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14/10/2026

Last week I was back in Croatia, exploring areas in and around Zagreb and the coast before attending Tourism 365.

Croatia is so much more than her coast, and there is far more to explore here in every season. Tourism 365 celebrated its 10th year bringing together leaders from Croatia, Southeast Europe and beyond to push the travel and tourism industry toward year-round, sustainable tourism. Right up my alley.

I met with colleagues from Croatia, of course, but from the greater Balkan region as well. Some I’ve met before, one I shared an international stage with in London earlier this year, and some are new to me, but we’ll be in touch because they are *that good* at what they do.

In this industry, it really is as much who you know as what you know. Email and Zoom are important, but sitting across a table from someone, traveling together, sharing a meal, and yes, occasionally ending up on the dance floor together, changes a relationship in a way a virtual meeting simply can’t.

I met an extreme outdoor and mountain hiking tour operator from Slovenia and really want to bring y’all a premium small-group hut-to-hut hiking experience. I spent a lot of time with a travel partner from Georgia (the country, not the U.S. state) and I took it as my sign to stop thinking about it and move ahead with putting together a small-group trip there. Who’s in?!

I’m most excited that I was able to meet face to face with a yachting company for a custom charter buyout I’m working on for a large friend group, and I talked with other partners about a special tour of Croatia for a Croatian-American author. I’m still pinching myself that, for the second time in less than six months, I found myself in the same room with Croatia’s Minister of Tourism and Sport.

I am not sure why I’m surprised. I invest heavily in travel, in putting myself in the room and in building strong relationships with the leaders in my industry.

This is part of the reason I am so selective with the clientele I take on. It’s also why my clients return time and again to book their trips.

If Croatia has been on your list, come sail Dalmatia with me next year, and if you want something entirely unique, get in touch. It’s the type of travel I plan best.

Angie After New Deal Europe

08/10/2026

Zadar is a 3,000 year old gem. Human evidence goes back to the Stone Age, fitting for a city built of stone. Each time I visit, I allow myself to fully breathe in what Zadar offers: memories of the past and shared experiences of watching the world‘s most beautiful sunset at the sea organ.

Add the fantastic restaurants and beautiful hotel options from four-star boutique Heritage properties to tastefully renovated luxury accommodations and it’s the perfect place to visit for a couple days. I recommend 2 nights at minimum, but if you give me four, I can create an itinerary that takes you beyond the Venetian gates of the city walls into the heart of the region, where you can bike, hike, kayak, island hop, visit w**eries, and even bird watch.

New Deal Europe Angie After

05/10/2026

Crikvenica is an Adriatic resort town with a lovely promenade and pebble-crusted beaches (common for Croatia). The harbour is busy and boats take visitors to nearby Krk. For people who prefer land-based vacations, Crikvenica is a good choice. Hiking and biking is common in the surrounding area, and Rijeka, Opatija and Plitvice Lakes are all easily reachable for day visits.

16/09/2026

I'm very happy to have contributed to AARP’s latest piece on cruising Portugal’s Douro Valley.

They included one of my favorite reasons to visit in June: Porto’s Festas de São João, when the city fills with neighborhood celebrations, music, parades, and grilled sardines.

June is also one of the times I most often recommend Portugal to my clients. The vineyards are green, the days are long, the weather is generally more comfortable than later in the summer, and it is a beautiful time to pair Lisbon and Porto with a few slower days sailing through the Douro Valley.

The ships on the Douro are smaller, and there are fewer of them than on many of Europe’s other rivers, so the best cabin choices do not sit around forever.

June 2027 has limited availability remaining. If Portugal has been on your 'go there' list, let's talk.

I'll link the article in the comments.

18/08/2026

You know what doesn’t have a low-water problem?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐞𝐚.

If you’ve been watching the river levels on the Rhine and Danube this summer and wondering whether there’s another way to unpack once and experience Europe by water, there is.

𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢.

Next summer, I’m taking a small group of travelers yachting along Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast.

A max of 36 guests, we sail between islands and small coastal towns, swim directly off the back of the yacht, and dock right in town overnight so we can simply step ashore and explore.

If you love river cruising because of the intimacy, the ease and the ability to actually experience the places you’re traveling through, this may be your next trip.

Except this time, your “river view” is the Adriatic, and at €3,950 per person for the week, the price is comparable to many European river cruises.

My July 2027 private yacht charter is filling up, and when the cabins are gone, they’re gone.

Come yacht the Dalmatian Coast with me.

11/08/2026

YesterdayI booked myself on the Viking Lyon & Provence cruise and today the magazine arrived. I can't wait to eat my way through Lyon before exploring Provence this autumn. The weather will be cool, the crowds will be few, and there is no better way to enjoy France than in sweater weather. I'm looking forward to the Châteauneuf-du-Pape w**e tasting near Avignon and wandering the cobblestone streets of sleepy Viviers.

France river cruises are distinctly different than cruises on the Rhine and Danube, and they sell out quickly. I was delighted to find (and grab) the last cabin on board.

Ask me about Viking

10/08/2026

Unpopular opinion, perhaps, but I think it needs to be said:

Sometimes, when we travel, we forget that the place we have spent months dreaming about is simply home to someone else.

The person making your bed may have been away from their children for weeks, the server bringing another bottle of w**e may have family living in the path of a wildfire, the guide showing you a centuries-old church may be checking their phone between stops because someone at home is dealing with something you will never know about.

Still, they show up, they smile, they answer our questions and carry our bags and cook our meals. They help make the week we have saved for and anticipated feel extraordinary.

I think about this a lot when I travel. Europe is experiencing another brutal summer, parts of the Balkans are dealing with extreme heat, drought, and wildfires, low water on the Danube has become serious enough to affect electricity production, while falling rivers elsewhere are disrupting transportation and industry.

Last month, on my way to Croatia, wildfire smoke settled over JFK - John F. Kennedy International Airport it was eerie to witness. When I arrived in Dalmatia during peak summer for the first time, it was hot. Very hot. Not hotter than home in North Carolina, but hot nonetheless.

There are plenty of reasons I generally prefer Europe in spring and autumn, and I talk about those with my clients all the time. This isn't really about that; instead, it's about remembering who we are as much as where we are.

Americans are accustomed to walking inside and immediately enjoying the cool that comes from air conditioning. In much of Europe, that has never been the norm. Buildings are older, infrastructure makes it complicated, energy is used differently, especially during periods when an entire country is being asked to conserve electricity.

Travel asks for an awareness to look beyond our own vacation so we can notice the people whose lives make our visit so special. When a destination stops being scenery and becomes somebody's home in our awareness, we travel a little differently.

I'll drop a link to a recent AP News article in the comments for further context.

06/08/2026

I was honored to share perspectives on Portugal, and on experiencing it with Viking, in a recent article in PARADE Magazine.

“What makes Portugal different is that it feels like you’ve stepped into the destination instead of simply passing through it,” Brandt says. “Travelers aren’t just seeing Portugal, they’re sharing time with Portugal: sitting with w**emakers, wandering neighborhoods, and experiencing the daily life in a way that feels increasingly rare in travel today. Instead of simply checking off famous landmarks, they want experiences that feel active, personal, and meaningful.”

Link to the full article in the comments.

Is Portugal on your ‘Go There’ list?

04/08/2026

Croatia has a way of getting under your skin.

It's in the way the engine heat from the buggy we rode in Korčula hugged your legs, suppressed by the midday, very dry July sun. 𝙸𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕, 𝚠𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚎. Wheels crunching over rocky ground that seems like it hasn't seen rain in years; the hot fuel and engine smells mixing with the pine trees that were baking in the relentless Dalmatian heat, their scent changing. They no longer smelled like pine needles or resin. Just a hot tree.

𝗡𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗴𝗴𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲.

It's the way the laundry hangs, lifeless, from the centuries-old homes, swaying casually like whispers of their wearers who fundamentally understand the idea of 𝘱𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘰. Literally it means "slowly," but in Dalmatia it's more a philosophy to take it easy. Yet, you know those clothes dried quickly and have the best air-dried scent.

It's the way you can find the Milky Way stretched across an impossibly black sky with more stars than you can count.

It's the deafening song of the cicadas, so constant that after a while you stop hearing it with your ears and start feeling it in your chest, as though the rhythm of summer has found its way inside you.

It's the abundance of dry stone walls built by hand, stacked almost on top of each other and you can't quite figure out how people know whose is whose.

It's finding fig trees growing in the middle of a national park, wondering how many visitors walk past without realizing their bounty, and the blue-green dragonflies skimming across water the very same color, as if the dragonfly emerged as an extension of the minerals that turned the water so blue. It's the trout lazily swimming in place, speckles glistening in the sunbeams that make their way through the tree canopy, nowhere to go.

Eventually, you begin to understand another Dalmatian idea: 𝘧𝘫𝘢𝘬𝘢. It's a quiet surrender to the present moment. It's a way of living if only for a week or two.

It all gets under your skin as long as you are open to it, as long as you are present for it.

03/08/2026

I often steer my clients toward Europe in the shoulder seasons. The peak summer months increasingly bring record-breaking heat, crowded cities, and on the rivers, the possibility of water levels that are either too high from spring melt or too low after weeks of extreme heat.

This morning I saw another headline about a World War II bomb found in the river near one of Croatia's largest cities in the northeastern region visited on some Eastern Europe river cruise itineraries. History continues to provide us lessons.

Give me September and October (and occasionally a November or December sailing). The vineyards are turning gold, the afternoons are comfortable enough to linger at an outdoor café, the crowds begin to thin, and Europe’s rivers often offer a rhythm that makes for a more enjoyable journey.

There are always exceptions, and no one can predict the weather, but if you ask me when Europe is at its most comfortable, most beautiful, and often at its best… you’ll usually find me booking the fall.

If Europe is on your list, let’s talk about when to go there.

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