May Wrap-Up

A Taste of Luxury: A treat for the TTT

The May meet-up of Toronto Travel Tribe was one of the best attended and definitely the most luxurious ever! Thanks to the generosity and hard work of Lindsay, Maureen and the rest of the crew at LMA Public Relations, the Tribe was treated to an evening of delicious food — provided by the Tribe’s own Gillan Anderson @oneblondechef — drinks, prize giveaways and presentations about some of their amazing clients: COMO Resorts and Hotels, Ojai Valley Inn and Spa in California, Kensington Tours and the Grenada Tourism Board. LMA PR transformed their swank offices at Yonge and Bloor — with sweeping views of the city — into a great place to meet and mingle and learn about all the enticing destinations represented by COMO, Ojai, Kensington Tours and of course the country of Grenada.

LMA PR recently sent me (Mariellen) to the Uma Paro boutique hotel in Bhutan — a COMO property — which I wrote about on my blog Luxury in the Himalayas. I gave a talk about the Uma Paro and about my trip to Bhutan during the evening, and was very happy to introduce Kristen Scott of the Bhutan Canada Foundation, who came out to her first TTT meet-up. The Bhutan Canada Foundation sends teachers to Bhutan, and helps increase the level of education in the tiny Himalayan kingdom. For those interested in reading more about Bhutan, check out my blog, Is happiness a place?

We had a number of other newbies come out — like Mini Kolluri of Masti Magazine and Tracey of @soloandsocial — and we saw some familiar faces, back from their treks abroad, including Dave and Deb of ThePlanetD, Janice Waugh of Solotraveler, Lucy Izon of Canada Cool, Dian Emery of Girlsgetaway and our cyber-godmother Evelyn Hannon of Journeywoman.

The highlight of the evening was the prize giveaway. The grand prize was two night’s accommodation at Ojai and the winner, Andrea Rataj, deserved it after all the hard work she put in helping Gillian prepare the fine food we ate. The second prize, a gift basic from Grenada, was one by the always lucky Lucy Izon and the third prize, a basket of alcoholic drinks from around the world, courtesy of Kensington Tours, was one by Melanie Fine. I won a special prize, donated on the spot by Deborah Peniuk of Aya Life: a ticket to see kid Rock perform in Toronto.

A special mention to Maureen Wright of LMA PR who baked treats, from Grenadian recipes, and Amanjeet Chauhan, who was the evening’s “official photographer.” Another thank you to Gillian, and her assistant Andrea, for preparing a very large tray of creative, fresh and tasty sushi. And finally, a big thank you to David’s Tea, who has been a supporter of Toronto Travel Tribe from the beginning.

Below is a list of everyone from the Toronto Travel Tribe who attended, including their Twitter name and their website/blog, but first a photo of Lucy Izon @CanadaCool, receiving her prize from Karen of the Tourism Board of Grenada. Other prize winners’ photos are on our Toronto Travel Tribe Facebook page. And a reminder: you can join the Toronto Travel Tribe simply by “Liking” our Facebook page — and by being enthusiastic about travel, of course.