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Last year I attended the Travel and Adventure Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. I was so excited to visit my first ever travel expo and I’m so excited to tell you all about it! Keep reading for my Travel and Adventure Show Review!
Philadelphia Travel and Adventure Show Review
What is the Travel and Adventure Show?
The Philadelphia Travel and Adventure Show was held on Saturday March 10 and Sunday March 11. This two-day event featured speakers, booths, live entertainment, a virtual reality experience and culinary displays! The mission of the show is to help those looking to plan and book their next vacation find thousands of options to explore. At the show, destination experts help them get there, and with show exclusives, travelers can save tens of thousands of dollars in savings on booking their next vacation!
Looking to book your next vacation? Then reach out for my expert vacation planning services – go to the show to get inspiration and ideas, then come to me to book. Click below to get started!
Travel and Adventure Show Speakers
I drove down to Philadelphia on Sunday morning to attend one day of the conference (thats all my schedule allowed unfortunately). I arrived right in time to see Samantha Brown take the stage. I see her pins all the time on Pinterest and I was excited to see her speak. Samantha Brown is the only female travel host I can think of!
Samantha was promoting the upcoming season of her PBS Series, Places To Love. Her talk was so inspirational! She talked about her approach to her new show which is to “go beyond must sees and must dos” and really experience a new place. Her best travel tip – take two hours, and just go for a walk. Away from the city center, without a map or guidebook!
Her message was so inspiring. She wants folks watching her show to think, “If she can do it, I can do it.” Which is exactly how I feel about family travel and my site!
I also caught most of the Peter Greenberg talk at the Travel Theater. I was not familiar with his work, but he talked about how to save money on hotel bookings, and what extra up charges to avoid on a cruise.
Of course if you are interested in a booking a cruise – check out the best way to book a cruise, you will for sure be in good hands with me!
Honestly, one of the main reasons I came down to the Travel and Adventure Show was to see The Point Guy speak, but unfortunately he was ill and had to cancel his session. I wish I had sat in on more speakers, to me, this was the best part of the expo!
Travel and Adventure Show Philadelphia Exhibits
After Samantha Brown’s talk I wandered over to some of the exhibits. I saw folks on the virtual reality ride, and I knew because of my recent bout with vestibular neuritis, I had to skip that! But there was a decent line and the people on it looked like they were having a blast!
When I arrived at the Travel and Adventure Show I was given a schedule of events and a map. The speaker’s “theaters” were all around the perimeter and the exhibits were in the middle of the space. They were arranged, mostly, by location. Since I wanted to connect with local tourism boards, I first headed to the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania area.
At this show I ended up connecting with the rep from the Dutchess County tourism board (in upstate New York) and ended up going on a subsequent FAM trip with them!
After talking to several reps about great local places, I was pretty hungry! Luckily I stumbled upon Waffatopia. I could not resist a banana and nutella waffle! These waffles were so delicious and they ship nationwide! Needless to say, I will be ordering some more of these!
UPDATE: Sadly, Waffatopia had to close it doors in 2019.
After downing my snack, I headed over to the Taste of Travel stage and saw the end of Culinary Fight Club. This was like being in a live version of Chopped or Iron Chef! I hung out here for a bit while the chefs finished plating their dishes. The audience got to try the dishes and vote for their favorite!
Next I got to check out one of the performances at the Global Beats Stage. I caught a local troupe of Polynesian dancers – ranging from little kids to adults! This was a really fun way to get in the spirit of the South Pacific! As if I didn’t have serious wanderlust already!
Lastly I wandered through the remaining booths. There were representatives from ALL OVER THE WORLD and I loved dreaming up my next adventure.
After a several hours, a few business card exchanges and a one too-many waffles later, I headed home. Unfortunately the traffic getting back to Long Island was so bad, but despite the long ride home, I’m glad I went to the Travel and Adventure show!
Travel and Adventure Show 2020
Especially now that I am also a Travel Agent with Paradise Travel, I am planning to head to the Philadelphia Travel and Adventure show again this March (leave me a comment if you are too!)
Click here to see the 2020 Travel and Adventure Show schedule – coming to the Philadelphia, Boston, Denver, Bay Area, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Chicago- and new for 2020 Atlanta!
Also new for 2020 – a special ticket and day for us travel advisors ! A day of workshops, celebrity meet and greets and a chance to win a FAM trip!
Have you visited a travel expo? Have you attended the Travel and Adventure Show?
hover over image to pin for later:
I was provided a press pass to the Philadelphia Travel and Adventure Show. As always, opinions are all my own.
OTHER AWESOME TRAVEL POSTS:
Tips for Surviving Long Flights
Read about the Washington D.C. Travel & Adventure Show experience
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Please share:
This looks like a great show!! How fun & inspiring that must have been!
Travel is my favorite thing to do. If I could travel all the time I would do it. Thanks for sharing the information you got at this conference!
I love Samantha Brown’s suggestion of taking two hours to walk and explore! I don’t do that enough when I travel.
OH boy! I would be in heaven there! Travel is a huge part of my life. What a great event for you to attend!
I missed Samantha Brown when she was here in LA, and I wish I’d seen her. We had a camel ride at our Travel and Adventure show; I would have much preferred waffles!
yeah strangly besides virtual reality, there wasnt any other things for kids to do.
So much fun! The Expo has so many more experiences than people would think. Also a great place to plan future trips!
This looks like fun and the chocolate waffle looks yummy!
The virtual reality experience looks so fun! And I’d love to try those waffles lol. Thanks for sharing!
The waffle sticks look great but overall this looks so fun! I wish we had something like that around here!
Love Samantha Brown and her message! So true… travel is not out of reach… just takes planning and saving up!
I didn’t know there was such a thing as travel expos! I live in the Bay Area so I must check it out. And yummm to banana nutella waffles!
We love going to these travel shows. We missed it this year in LA and San Diego due to busy weekends. The only downside is the serious case of wanderlust. But, it is a great place to get ideas for trips and tips. We’ve met Samantha Brown and Rick Steves in past shows. My kids love going for all the freebies 🙂
I never visited any travel expo or attended any Travel and Adventure show. Likewise never explored this part of the world. 🙂 But really getting inspired reading the whole things. Had much fun indeed!
Oh man! I wish I would have been there! I also follow Samantha Brown. I think my favorite would have been the travel talk, too. I love hearing from the professionals. However, that Polynesian dance would have caught my heart as I love anything tropical! I live in Florida, so I’ll keep my eye out for any expo’s here!
yeah it doesnt seem like the SE is well represented by this show!
What a cool experience! I’ve been looking more into travel shows and believe this is the most popular one? It seems like it was worthwhile, that’s for sure. I’d love listening to the speakers and networking with everyone.
I was meant to go to the Chicago one but it was a 3 hour drive and it decided to snow heavily for the whole weekend so I thought it’d be best to skip it! Sounds like it was a great show!
Looks like a useful conference. I attended my first one in Jan in Mumbai, India – got to meet many tourism boards which was exciting.
Looks happening! Did they have a speaker on sustainability in travel? Hoping that somewhere in the world will start seeing it as a normal part of travel expos rather than remain its own niche topic!
hmmm I dont think they had that. Would be a good addition
I love travel shows, I always leave wanting to go everywhere and feeling inspired 😀
I love travel shows, I always leave wanting to go everywhere and feeling so inspired 😀
How fun! I’ve never heard of this before but now I really want to go myself! Thanks for sharing!
Wow I’ve never been to a travel show before! What fun. And gosh those banana and Nutella waffles look to die for!!! I need some shipped to me haha
Looks like a great convention to stay up-to-date on travel information! It sounds like a great opportunity to explore what’s out there and where to go next. And, there are delicious waffles available! Thanks for sharing your experience. #WeekendWanderlust
I’m sad we wen’t on different days as it would have been nice to meet in person, but I’m glad you had a great experience too. Totally agree about how great Samantha Brown’s talk was. It was very inspiring. Also, I never realized until she started talking about the lack of female travel hosts in travel television. They seem to improve the show every year, so I’m looking forward to attending again next year.
maybe I will see you next year!
This sounds like such an interesting experience. I like the advice Samantha gave about exploring without a map or guidebook. I do this often and have a great experience most of the time.
Waffatopia seems to be good to be true! I remember watching Samantha Brown on travel channel a long time ago. I would love to see the points guy speak some day.
Looks like such a fun event, and Waffatopia is really speaking my love language!
I love the idea of taking 2 hours to walk around a new city with no destination in mind. Sounds like you had a great time! Great read!
I’ve heard of the travel and adventure shows before but I’ve never been to one. After reading this, I realize that I really need to get myself to one! Thanks for sharing!
I would have loved to hear Samantha Brown speak. I’ve been a long-time fan – way back when she was a host on the Travel Channel. I remember really wanting her job!!! This Travel Expo seems like it had a lot of information.
That looks like such a fun chance to explore different travel options! I’m hoping to go to one when we get back from our gap year trip!
This looks and sounds like so much fun – I had no idea that this was a thing! So cool!
Wow! What fun!!! Sounds like an awesome event! <3
So fun!! I loved watching Samantha Brown years ago, but didn’t know she had a new show. Will have to watch it!! I would love to go t a travel expo sometime!
This sounds like such a great travel show! I’m a hula dancer, so I know how inspiring Polynesian dance can be to book a trip to the tropics!
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Your review expertly portrays the spirit of the Travel and Adventure Show! Reading about the displays and speakers inspires me and makes me want to attend. Thank you for providing such a clear picture of this momentous day.
definitley look to go – they offer them in the winter time