4 Fully Immersive Vacations

If you’ve been to wine country, be that Napa, Champagne, Mendoza, or otherwise, you know that it’s an incomparable sensory experience for your eyes, nose, and taste buds.  While a mere visit is worthwhile in itself, the ability to actually pick the grapes and join in the harvest is an experience that will fully immerse you in the art of wine.  One such winery in Napa is Schramsberg which hosts a spring and a fall camp that will take you into the storage caves, into the vineyards, and into the kitchen for an all-around engaging weekend.

For the coffee lovers out there, a fantastic way to indulge your daily beverage obsession is to stay on a coffee plantation where you can witness the process of producing your favorite warm drink from picking to roasting to, our favorite part, drinking it!  There are a number of plantations throughout Latin America where you can usually find a steal of a deal.  One that we can’t ignore is this absolutely adorable Petisa Coffee Plantation Chalet on Airbnb which is at a mere $92/night and offers a 19% weekly discount.  The place sleeps 8ppl so it could be a family trip, but at that price you can enjoy the whole place as a couple.  Tie it in with other activities in Costa Rica such as visiting the Monteverde Cloud Forests (just north of here) or visiting the quaint towns on the Pacific coast.

As if going to Africa on safari wasn’t exciting enough, you can experience something that makes you feel as one with your primate cousins.  In Eastern Africa you can go on a guided hiking excursion through the jungles that Jane Goodall herself trekked through decades ago with the intention to spend time with a family of wild gorillas.  Here’s how it works: you have to purchase a permit well in advance and are given a guide with your small group to walk through the jungle.  The hikes can be very difficult and could last up to 6-hours so this isn’t for the impatient travelers.  Once you find the gorillas you have an allotted one-hour to spend with them.  Take a seat, take it easy, and watch these amazing animals in their natural habitat.  Many seasoned travelers describe this experience as the most intimate wildlife experience you can possibly have.

2019 is the year when Jedi from all over the galaxy will welcome the concluding movie to the latest trilogy, as well as the exciting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.  Attached to this new extension to the already massive theme park(s) is the perfect experience for someone who has always dreamed to be in a galaxy far, far away as the moment you check in to your first-of-its-kind Disneyland or Disneyworld hotel you’ll be treated as one of the residents of George Lucas’s world.  You’ll be given clothing to wear and adventures assigned to you.  This is an absolutely revolutionary travel experience so much so that we don’t have a lot of details yet, but you won’t be disappointed whether padawan or master.