The Mast-Head: Star Will Travel
Readers this week will notice a fresh focus on travel in The Star. Two projects, a culinary tour of Greece with Florence Fabricant in September and a brand-new Travel quarterly are in this week’s issue. How and why we are taking this new tack here is worth explaining.
The Greece tour came about after our partner, Thalassa Journeys, asked Florence Fabricant of The New York Times to lead a small group on a winding food-and-wine arc from Kavála to Thessaloniki. Wine will lead the way, with near-daily visits to vineyards in the less-touristed northern corner of Greece. There will be an outing to the Vikos Gorge, which is thought of as the Grand Canyon of Europe, and visits to ancient cultural sites.
Ms. Fabricant began as a food writer here at The Star when my father was the editor. Her very first “In Season” column for us was about the joys of corn in August. Today, in addition to The Times, she writes cookbooks and in the summer hosts the hugely popular “Stirring the Pot” series of talks with leading chefs at Guild Hall. The pairing, if you will, between her and The Star seems natural. A brochure went in the mail to Star print subscribers this week; we have extra copies at the office, for those who did not get one.
As noted, our first Travel section is part of this week’s edition, which also has a two-part garden and landscape section. Travel sprang from an observation from Judy D’Mello, a contributing writer here and former reporter, who said Star staff tend to go on very interesting vacations. It immediately seemed a good idea, so we gave Judy the go-ahead.
While The New York Times Sunday Travel section is a must-read for many, part of the argument for a travel section in a local newspaper is that plenty of others do not see it. Planning ahead for some of the bigger adventures, such as Judy’s trip to Bhutan, requires lots of lead time for visas and visitors permits. Other choices, like the “Getaway” feature I wrote for a Greenport day trip, can occur whenever the fancy moves you.
It might seem odd to be thinking about travel on the eve of the summer season, but there is no time like right now to think about seeing the world — even if it’s just a couple of ferry fares away.