Travelicious Who?
Sandra here, a matchmaker and storyteller. Welcome to my tasty collection of delicious travel tales, tips and splurge-worthy hospitality recommendations.
Hello there, welcome to Travelicious, a tasty collection of travel tales, tips and other hospitality related recommendation. Although, as a disclaimer, I should probably greet you with “Herzlich willkommen, Guten Appetit + Prost”. That’s a ‘heartfelt welcome’, followed by ‘Bon Appetit’ (duh) and ‘Cheers’ in German — my native tongue.
I love to travel, eat + drink, and seem to be caught in a spiral of the aforementioned as I always have a new trip planned and a work-in-progress list of where to get the best coffee and then some. Not complaining tho. I am surely blessed living a multi-cultural and very travelicious life, going back and forth between the USA and Europe, thus the title.
Now that you know that I am from the wurst country of Deutschland, and in accordance also correctly guessed that I am not a vegan, allow me to surprise you with my current home being the Palmetto State of SC, USA. Moved from one pork loving place to another — with a few years in NYC in between. Never pictured myself in the South either, but it could always be better or worse, like Florida. No offense, dear Sunshine Staters, but it’s even hotter or more humid where you live. And after a year in FL college, I’ve seen enough hurricanes for the rest of my life, although Miami’s Cuban sandwiches are travelicious indeed.
Born and raised in a small town in the state of Rhineland-Pfalz Germany, I’ve been calling the US my home for 15 years. First for work, then also for love which led to a honeymoon baby and the need for working just a little more. Consequently came the move to the Charlotte suburbs to raise our family and grow our travel business. Still missing the Big Apple where it all started for us in 2002 — after that Hallmark movie worthy first Sandra and Ted meeting at Oktoberfest in Munich, but that’s a whole other story.
I’ve always had a thing for languages — with French being my first foreign language, followed by English, Italian and broken Spanish — as in order to indulge in local specialties, you should know how to order them. Italian Lamb ball appetizer for the table? “Granelli di Agnello” sounded a whole lot better. A mistake I made only once. But I’ll never forget the look on everyone’s faces once we found out what was really on our plate during Easter in Italy. Paolo, our bus driver didn’t mind at all and had upped my order to an XL helping to ensure there was plenty to share. He didn’t need to worry. There was lots left just for him after everyone else realized that we were eating a bite size, deep-fried ball. Who would’ve guessed? Honestly, it wasn’t THAT bad, tho maybe not quite what I’ld call a travelicious must-have.
My mission in life is to be a traveler and not just another tourist.
I take the roads less traveled and support the local communities I’m visiting.
I favor small businesses: coffee shops, restaurants and (wine) bars, boutique hotels, etc. I shop at farmer’s markets and with artisan producers.
By doing so, we keep those culinary traditions alive that make a place unique and indeed travelicious.
When you ask me about my day job, I’ll tell you that I’m first and foremost a storyteller and matchmaker: between our travelers and the beautiful destinations they are visiting with Inside Europe. Officially I’m the President and Co-Founder, but I like the above titles a whole lot better. My first career was in print journalism, I worked as a reporter, too. According to my dad, I took pictures of food as a child already. Imagine how surprised he was when that became a thing and, if you look at Facebook or Instagram, I haven’t stopped since. Of the 101,705 pictures on my iPhone as of 11/11/22, more than 75 percent are food or drink related, next are sunrises and sunsets, then the two and four legged girls whose proud mom I’ve been for 14 years and counting. I don’t like selfies, but am getting better at showing my face in pictures as I get it, seeing is believing that I’ve been where I say I was.
Travelicious is a collection of mostly personal and always tasty finds from the present, past and sometimes future (as I research temptations of an upcoming trip). It’s usually coffee first, often second, too. Ideally followed by great local, whenever possible also seasonal, eats — paired with bubbly water and wine.
If you haven’t tried Spaghetti-Eis in Germany, you are missing out!
I am a travel pro and not an influencer. All opinions are my own and genuine.
While I always look for a deal, and get to enjoy some perks of being a travel expert in the hospitality industry, I rarely get freebies or fully hosted for the experiences that qualify as #travelicious. This keeps me impartial and grounded when it comes to value for money. As part of our Inside Europe promise to “travel better together”, I always look for the good things in life, especially when taking the roads less traveled.
But it isn’t always rainbows and roses, or in tourism jargon, good eats and a great night of sleep. Unfortunately, and that’s now more true than ever, while services and quality’s gone down, prices have sky rocketed — sometimes more so for travelers from afar, and that’s not right at all. In my subscription version of Travelicious, I’m calling out these businesses and also share the occasional negative experience: to make sure you won’t repeat my mistakes. On the bright side, subscribers get access to my all time favorites that I won’t share with just anyone.
Can’t wait to read your views on how, where and why to travel..😊