“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
Mark Twain

“People who love to eat are always the best people.”
Julia Child

“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction in the life of the nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose – and it is the test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
John F. Kennedy

Welcome to my blog, TheCulturedTraveler, which is dedicated to sharing my adventures in culture, cuisine and travel (not necessarily in that order) with you.

My “credentials”:

I’ve traveled over 750,000 miles;
Attended thousands of cultural events; and
Dined out several times a week for as long as I can remember.

Living in New York City, I’m perfectly positioned to take advantage of all of these passions of mine. From crossing the ocean aboard Queen Mary 2 to attending an opening night at the Metropolitan Opera to discovering the new hot Broadway or off-Broadway show to having a fabulous meal in New York, Paris or Tokyo, I have lots of experiences (and, hopefully, many more to come) that might be of interest to you, perhaps for your reading pleasure but, hopefully, in order that you might be inspired to try some of them for yourself!

My inspiration for TheCulturedTraveler is to be your faithful reporter, but never (or hardly ever) seen. As Christopher Isherwood appropriately put it (at least, for me):

“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”

It is my pleasure – and my very good fortune – to be able to have these experiences and I hope that you will enjoy reading about them.

13 thoughts on “About Me”

    1. Linda: Thanks so much for your kind words. I’m very appreciative. It’s also been amazing to be in the blogging101 community for the past week. In addition to learning how to improve my blog (still having issues with those pesky widgets!), I’ve been overwhelmed by the support of all the other bloggers. Everyone seems to be rooting for each other and I think that’s great. Again, thanks for reading my blog and I hope that you’ll continue to be entertained by my exploits!

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  3. Thanks for the fantastic review of our Loft Opera performance of The Rape of Lucretia! I’m glad the journey out to our Hood was a good experience. – Adrian Rosas (Collatinus)

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    1. Adrian: It’s my pleasure – we really had a wonderful evening. (And I hope you know that TheCulturedTraveler was kidding about Brooklyn.) I’ve had my eye on LoftOpera for quite awhile and, for once, its schedule and mine coincided. I wish I’d had more time and space (oh, how very Parsifal of me!) in my post to speak more about the performance. I was so impressed with all of the cast and your Collatinus was not only beautifully and sonorously sung but, also, very sympathetic. I’d be very interested to know how much rehearsal time you all had – it certainly felt like a polished performance. Anyway, congratulations and best of lucky with your Rocco in Boston next month. Happy holidays!

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  4. I like reading your blog about Queen Mary 2.

    I think you just made my next voyage choice rather expensive 😝

    Very interesting to me is that you quote “The Innocents Abroad” as I do in the opening of my travel blog!

    Cheers,
    Bob

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    1. Hi Bob – thanks for checking out my blog. You’ll definitely enjoy making a crossing on QM2. Make sure you sail from England back to the USA. You’ll be setting your clock back (giving you an extra hour’s sleep or more playtime). Best regards, Jeff

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  5. I loved your write-up about a brief stay in London and have a question. I have stayed once at the Shangri-La at the Shard and now am considering a repeat, longer stay. Did you find the location a challenge in terms of getting to the West End and other parts of central London? That’s my only concern, because it would be hard to beat the rooms and views there! Many thanks.

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    1. Hi Bonnie – Jeff here. Great question! We have 2 favorite hotels in London: the Shangri-La at the Shard and the Corinthia, in Whitehall Place. For West End activities, the Corinthia is the best, hands-down. You can walk to the Strand in 3 minutes and the West End is a stones throw away. We used to stay at the Corinthia all the time. I think it’s my favorite property in London; however, their rates have become ridiculous!! The great thing about the Shangri-La is the amazing views and, with rare exceptions, we stay at the Shangri-La almost exclusively (and we’re in London 2 – 3 times a year). As for getting around, we love getting in the tube, and the London Bridge tube station is right at the entrance to the Shangri-La. You may have to change trains to get to the West End, but you’ll be there within 15 minutes. A couple of other plusses: we’ve discovered that the neighborhood around the Shangri-La is great. Borough Market is a 5-minute walk and, in the other direction, Bermondsey Street has loads of cute restaurants, cafes and bars. The other thing we did was to make “friends” with staff at the Shangri-La – we had a small issue checking in last year and, when we politely spoke up, the staff responded beautifully and when we go now, we’re very well taken care of. To sum up: if all things (rates) were equal, I’d probably choose the Corinthia, but we love staying at the Shangri-La and, in fact, will be there next week for a week and again in August. Let me know how things turn out for you, and thanks for checking out my blog!!

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    1. Hi Bob: Thanks for the comment and the encouragement! It’s true: I’ve neglected the blog of late, and it’s a shame. Over the past couple of years, we’ve had some amazing adventures, including our trip to Italy in 2018, where we rented a villa in Perugia for 2 weeks (AMAZING), sailed from LA to New Zealand and then came back to the states via Singapore (earlier this year), and yet another return to Italy last summer (rented a beautiful apartment in Rome in Piazza di Spagna) and rented another apartment in Venice for the Biennale. We’ve been very lucky and, I suppose, I should be sharing it, right?

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