Are huge, convention hall-filling travel shows all that different from other types of public-welcoming conventions that set up booths and hand out industry literature?
In a word: so much. (Two words, then.) Hit-the-road shows have a way of making attendees long for adventure right then and there, not in a few weeks, or months, when a trip can actually be taken.
The LA Travel & Adventure Show has a knack for accelerating the adventure part of the equation right from the convention hall. That hall is in Long Beach, the dates are Saturday, Feb. 21 and Sunday, Feb. 22, and the "you're already on vacation" to-dos will run the gamut from Segway rides to rock-wall climbs to the ever-popular, Instagrammable bubble rollers. (You won't get wet -- much.)
Nope, it probably can't deliver an Alp straight to Long Beach -- the postage alone, right? -- or a posh Tahitian resort, but the show, with its 500+ exhibitors can set up a virtual world, of sorts, allowing adventurers to try the sorts of things they might do while away from the cares of their day-to-day for a week. (Scuba diving is on the roster, lest we forget.)
As for the tastes of other cities and nations? Cooking demos will deliver those. As for experts experting about how to pack, what to see, and where to go now? Rick Steves, Samantha Brown, Pauline Frommer, and Phil Keoghan are among the headliners.
A Global Beats Stage, travel deals, promotions, a caboodle of specials, raffles, and more dot the two-day getaway gathering.
But maybe you just want to brochure- and book-up, the better to dream about where you'll plane it to (or train it to or drive your car) next? Info from everywhere, or next to everywhere, will be handed out, with people who can discuss the details. Best bring an empty sack of some sort because you'll leave the Long Beach Convention Center with planning material for your next five dreams. Er, years. Er, you'll have a lot to look at, in the going-to-someplace-new department.
