ZAP Wanderlust: The Places Zapwater Has Taken Me
Ok I love to travel. I make no secret about it. With Zapwater’s growing travel marketing practice, I get to combine my passion for both public relations and seeing the world. We’re proud to represent international destinations such as the Maldives and Finland. I’m blessed that since founding Zapwater, our little agency has taken me to some pretty amazing places. Here are my five favorite places that Zapwater has taken me. 5. Moab, Utah. Most people don’t know that our first client was Moab Paper. One of my favorite Zapwater programs was a partnership we created between Outdoor Photographer Magazine and Moab Paper called the Moab Experience. In short, we took some great photographers down the Colorado River and I got to tag along.
4. Copenhagen, Denmark. Shortly after Zapwater joined the Travel Lifestyle Network, I was lucky enough to attend the network’s annual meeting which happened to be in Copenhagen. I’m not sure if it was sitting in a park watching Denmark play Portugal in the Euro Championships (I’m a huge soccer fan) or sitting by the canal at 11pm drinking a beer while the sun was still up, but I loved this city.
3. Singapore. Attending ITB Asia, a travel tradeshow, I was excited to eat my way around this city state. And I did. I had a checklist of things I wanted to try from peanut pancakes to jelly fish, from eating the best biryani, black pepper crabs and Singapore steamed chicken to indulging in fish head curry soup, I ate everything on the list. And gained 10 pounds along the way!
2. Belfast, Ireland. When work took me to Dublin, I added a few days and went up to Belfast. Having grown up in the 1980s and 1990’s, I had always been interested in the “troubles.” I always wanted to visit to see it with my own eyes. I won’t share my politics on this blog, but it is an amazingly fascinating place that is still incredibly tense, much more so than I expected.
There is a great BBC documentary on the conflict that uses the Europa Hotel as a backdrop. You can watch it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG3GI5EqHWA
The Europa is the “most bombed hotel in the world.” It was bombed 28 times during the “Troubles.” Apparently, no trip to Belfast is complete without a beer at the Europa. I obliged.
1. Churchill, Canada. When your good friend and client, BBC Award-Winning photographer Andy Biggs says, “hey, do you want to go photograph Polar Bears with me?” what are you supposed to say?! You grab your thermals, your North Face and your gear and you say “hell yeah!”
I’m blessed that Zapwater has provided me with so many opportunities to travel to the amazing places that I have. It’s such a gift that I can combine my love for public relations and growing Zapwater with my love for visiting far away places. The team at Zapwater has put so much into growing our agency, so it’s certainly fun when business trips include passport stamps.
David Zapata, President