Swiss Host A Fun Boat Party For Los Angeles Journalists
I like hearing about great places to travel almost as much as I love being at great travel places.
When someone does it right – through words, pictures or video, or a combination of all three – it’s like hearing Clapton play guitar, seeing Daniel Day-Lewis acting as Lincoln, witnessing Tom Brady throw a touchdown pass, watching Nick Saban coach a college football team.
In other words, it’s a thing of beauty.
Add to this an atmosphere of elegance and beauty, and that elevates everything to the next level. It’s like taking a playoff team and going to the Super Bowl.
That’s what it was like at a Tourism Switzerland press event to promote the Matterhorn and Lake Geneva Region one beautiful December in Marina del Rey, CA. The event was for West Coast journalists in Los Angeles to entice and encourage us to write about that part of Switzerland.
And it worked. Because you’re reading about it now.
The event was not only informative – Lake Geneva is the largest wine-producing area of Switzerland. for example, and yes they make wines in Switzerland – but fun.
It was held on a yacht in Marina del Rey. And not just any yacht, the one built for the wife of the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus founder and later the personal yacht of Mae West. The local Tourism Switzerland representative, Maja Gartmann, knows that in Los Angeles, it’s important to include a touch of Hollywood to press events.
The yacht is a classic, wooden touches inside and out, and does regular chartered cruises in Marina del Rey. Tourism Switzerland stocked it with cool journalists as much as it stocked the bar with wine – the fun gals from Jet Set Xtra, the young and ambitious Ashley Colburn who does travel videos, among other – and we cruised the harbor for a full three hours.
To add a special touch, we were all given massages. Yes, massages! On Mae West’s yacht! They were in a private room downstairs full of a floral smell and soothing music playing. When I got my massage, I literally left the planet Earth.
I’ve been to, and even put on, hundreds of media events and have never, ever, gotten a massage at any of them. When I returned to the world as we know it, I imagined how awesome it would be to have such a massage and walk out the door and see, say, the Matterhorn.
All the while we were given limitless Swiss wine – I find their whites quite agreeable, light and refreshing and lacking not at all for flavor – and fed a delicious buffet dinner. The wines, by the way are rare outside of Switzerland, so this was something to cherish (and I must say, I took full advantage of having a limitless supply! Hey, had a designated driver).
The appetizer was the World’s Best Cheese, Raclette. Then we were presented a show about the Lake Geneva Region which made us want to immediately inquire about plane reservations.
By the way, I’ve been to a winery in the Lake Geneva Region. It was Domaine du Daley, one of the many of the small wineries that sits above Swiss villages on the side of a hill above Lake Geneva. Here’s a guide on how to tour them. It’s highly recommended when you visit Switzerland.
Because not everyone can go on Mae West’s yacht.
Photos for this article were taken by Jack Fleming. He can be reached at JackFleming.com.
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