Pine Apples

You can now enjoy luxury vacations at even the most fancy resorts (especially there) and get kosher food. It just takes a little study and planning, and believe me, it's well worth it.

Pine Apples

Pick your Vacation Spot

As one of the scholar kosher travelers I've interviewed told me,"Dream about where you are going to go, and then frame out where the Jews are."

Back to the dreaming phase. Do you want:

-an island vacation

-a underground flee where you'll meet no one you know

-a luxury cruise, resort vacation

-a vacation to see the world on a little budget

-to see other cultures, including our own?

Dream about where it is you want to go and write back some questions like:-am I concerned in meeting new people?

-do I want to see museums and culture or just sit on a beach?

-how long can I go for?

-how important is eating to you?

-how long do I want to be on a plane for?

-do I want to be able to eat in restaurants?

If you find it is hard for you to make a decision about where to go, try this tool: Handy Dandy Decision making tool

Luxury Hotel, Cruise, and Resort Stays

If you are staying at a secluded resort and pretty much spending all of your time there, you can either:

a. Do some study to see where the Jews are and if there are any kosher restaurants around using http://www.chabad.org or kosherdelight.com.

b. Order food with royalpalate.com, have it delivered to your hotel, making sure you ask for a refrigerator in your room.

c. Call the hotel and ask for the food services manager. By now, most whatever working in food services has heard of kosher food. Most likely, you can dispose to have kosher meals delivered to you in your room, in any large resort. (The best place for this is Disney World).

d. If you are not staying in a Jewish area, plainly bring a pot and when you arrive, go to a grocery store buying your popular foods. Kasher the oven and microwave in your hotel and cook.

Private Beach Vacations

I know a frum house that spends a lot of time in the Carribean, Antigua, Barbados, Tobago, the Cayman Islands. They want a nothing else but private, cozy, vacation and don't want to see whatever they know.

What they do is study for underground beaches so swimming is not a n issue.

Next they keep a villa that Must have a kitchen, stove, refrigerator, a.k.a., a kitchenette.

Since finding a grocery store around is often rare, they bring all they can and devote 1 or 2 suitcases to doing so.

Tuna, jelly, cereal, pretzels, pasta, breadmixes, etc. 1 or 2 pots and pans. They happen to eat very plainly on this vacation.

If you want more elaborate food, you can do the same thing. Go to restaurants around and order lots of takeout meals. Ice them. Before you leave, wrap them icy and put them into a suitcase. Check the suitcase on the plane. You may have to check with customs officials to make sure you can bring the meat into the country. If you don't want to bring this onto the plane, you can pack it in dry ice and ship it through via the post office.

The benefits to these models is that you don't need to try to find a grocery store once you are there. You may want to find a market that sells fruits and vegetables, but most likely that won't be a problem.

You see that this study phase of meal planning for vacations is not too strenuous. It is undoubtedly worth doing the meal planning before hand so you can enjoy a relaxing stay.

International tour with little Jewry
International tour is a little bit harder to menu plan. Here's what I advise you do.

1. Get a list of what you can buy in the country you are going to. Call the Star-K and do a hunt on the internet for items you can buy everywhere in the world. Here's a few:

bottled water; unflavored seltzer; beer; beer on tap in a business bar; peanuts roasted in a shell; dried beans, split peas, and all other dried legumes and canned fruits produced in the U.S. With no additives other than sugar. Please note that canned cherries may contain carmine, an insect passage used for coloring. Do not buy canned cherries (these may also be found in fruit cocktail) without reliable supervision. In addition, canned plums may contain a coloring derived from grape skin..

Also, most dried fruits may be consumed; exceptions contain prunes with added oil, pineapples, pears, raisins, and apples. You may buy any canned pineapples made in Thailand or the Philippines. You may also buy any icy vegetables containing no oils or other additives.

You may buy and consume any whole kosher fish. However, if the fish store worker cuts the fish with a non-kosher knife, the cut area may become not kosher. To avoid this problem, bring your own knife with you to the store.

Do ask your Rabbi as I am not one!

2. Next, do a hunt on the country you are staying at, again chabad.org and kosherdelight.com are great sites.

3. Find the Jews in the country you are traveling to. Do enough making ready to make sure the community knows you are coming. A lot of community have lists with an approved section of foods with builder and there is a no section and a maybe.

Email population in develop to talk about food. For example, in Lisbon there is a woman who cooks food for Jewish travelers. In Cophenhagen you can eat their yogurt. All these insider secrets come from talking to the residents of the city/country you are traveling to.

I imagine if you are touring a country with little Jewry, you want to see and do and meet people, and learn about the culture. Like I said, find the Jews, palpate them, make sure they know you are coming, find out what you can and cannot eat and bring food that is non perishable.

You can go anywhere! Part of the fun is doing the study before hand only to be able to use it when you get there.

Business Travelers

If you are traveling with your business or on business and need to be able to "blend in" to business dinners and awards ceremonies, here's what you can do.

Instead of asking your business to furnish you with kosher (because mixups can often occur), call the hotel directly and ask for the catering services manager. Tell them you need kosher meals.

I know of one frum woman who was being honored at a business evening meal and what she had the hotel do was use a regular china plate with a napkin folded beautifully on top of the plate. On top of the napkin was a plastic plate holding her actual dinner. It was very discreet, no one noticed that she was eating a dissimilar meal. This was in Cancun.

You can do it too!

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