Among the pandemic’s many challenges: quarantine measures greatly reduce our ability to create new experiences and connect with other people. And we’re craving those connections and their social benefits more than ever. Planning and anticipating a trip can be almost as enjoyable as going on the trip itself, and there’s research to back it up. … A 2014 Cornell University study delved into how the anticipation of an experience (like a trip) can increase a person’s happiness substantially—much more so than the anticipation of buying material goods.

So, here’s a hopeful thought: Start now to plan to go with Zingerman’s Food Tours’ managing partner, and tour guide extraordinaire, Kristie Brablec, on an amazing, awe-inspiring, week-long visit to a place that culinary insiders have been talking about for the past ten years—Denmark. If you do book the trip, a year from now you’ll already have bought your tickets and you’ll be picking out what to pack for a late summer visit to Scandinavia with Kristie. In the process, based on Ms. Curran’s comments above, you’ll have also gotten yourself a year of increased happiness, and higher hope to boot.

While the world at large will still think first of spots like Italy and Spain for travel adventure, more and more of those in the know have been focusing on what’s happening in Denmark. The Danes, it seems, have learned how to grow from challenges of the past, and also the present. As author Karen Blixen (aka, Isak Dinesen, author of Out of Africa) writes, “Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.”

Here’s what Kristie has to say:

This tour is unlike any other we’ve done, with a real focus on sustainability. This tour will be active, socially conscious, and packed with some of the most exciting culinary adventures you can imagine. We’ll cook with Michelin chefs, forage for wild Scandinavian treats, harvest and cook with fresh seaweed, and meet some of the most inspiring chefs in the country. We’ll eat and bike our way through Copenhagen and visit a few of Denmark’s many islands, discovering true behind-the-scenes food & wine traditions both old and new. We’re excited to stay in all Eco-labeled green-key lodging. This mission supports our vision of sustainability as we work to consciously make environmentally friendly decisions on our new tours. Our host is a well-known food champion in the country with a focused knowledge of sustainable farming.

Fall is my favorite season in Europe for a variety of reasons. I love the harvest, warm days, cool nights, and of course fall truffles! We could all use something fun and new in our lives! We’re going to Denmark! This project has kept me busy and has been in the works for well over a year. I’m excited to share the new program and the future of travel with all of you. Here’s to the future!

Just writing about the trip—putting my mind into a mental place where twelve months out I’m travelling again—is helping me move the current issues of the world to the side. Instead, I can imagine being in Denmark for the first time, taking a couple deep breaths of fresh air on a late August afternoon in Copenhagen, and sitting down for coffee. If you travel with Kristie, you will be guaranteed to learn, laugh, and eat well in the process. And pretty surely be reminded of what Hans Christian Andersen meant when he wrote, “Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”