Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 10th Annual LA Travel & Adventure Show at the Long Beach Convention Center. I’d gone once before around five years ago and enjoyed it — it features an entire convention hall with booths representing 100+ countries around the world, as well as dozens of domestic tourism hot spots. This is my kinda party.

This is one of several lecture spaces where travel experts give presentations throughout both days of the show:

We pass the meet & greet area… some big names stop by here throughout the weekend.

While most of the booths feature destinations, some of them sell travel products like these pick-pocket proof pants.

Other clothing brands represented include Scottevest, a company I love — I’ve worn their Molly Jacket all over the world (photo proof!), and I tried on their Women’s Trench at the show. This week all of their products are 40% with code SeV14.

Have you heard of Jucy vans? I remember seeing them all over New Zealand a few years ago, and now they’re becoming popular in the States. It looks like a van on the outside but the middle transforms into a bed and the trunk becomes a mini-kitchen. There’s more sleeping space in a pop-up tent with a mattress on the roof.

It’s easy to get overloaded with brochures and pamphlets at this event, so I made a conscious effort to only pick up a few things that I piqued my interest. Here’s a sampling of my goodies:

• Flier for Dark Sky Festival at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks on Sept. 11-13, featuring astronaut speakers, constellation tourism, telescope viewings, photography, nature walks, crystal cave programs, kids’ activities, and more (sign pictured above)

• Pamphlet for Tours by Locals; if you’re traveling to a new place you can connect with a local who will give you a personal tour around their city

• A flier for 20% off Amtrak routes through California (you can get 20% off too; go to AmtrakCalifornia.com/VIP20 to book)

• A map of Belize detailing tourism hot spots

• Info on Croatia tours (I would travel solo but it’s nice to see how this company shapes their itinerary)

• Tours of Cuba with Roads Scholar (they focus on educational travel)

• A map of the Alaska Marine Highway illustrating popular ferry routes for tourists

• Flier for Bike & Barge Holland Tours, which I picked up for my parents because they’ve mentioned an interest in this sort of activity — travelers spend their days biking through villages and countryside and then spend the afternoon / evening on a barge floating down the river to the next destination.

• Gorgeous color brochure for Papua New Guinea, just because. Someday I’ll get there!

• Sunset magazine gave out their latest issue for free. Score!

FYI, I was in no way compensated for including the above links. Those were simply the booths / fliers I was most drawn to.

I was SO thrilled to find that Zara Tours had a booth — they are the company that my sister and I climbed Kilimanjaro with last summer. We were so pleased with our Zara experience (I would not have reached the summit without the help of our guide Bruce) and it was a pleasure to chat with their representatives, as well as another traveler who was planning her own trip to Africa.

Here’s a list of the speakers (most of them returned on Sunday, too) — Rick Steves, Pauline Frommer, Samantha Brown, and Phil Keoghan. Talk about a power line-up! All four of them are celebrated travel gurus.

While we didn’t have time to listen to every speaker, we did pass Rick Steves posing for photographs on our way into the exhibition hall:

And we passed by Samantha Brown taking photos with fans:

We did, however, have time to listen to Phil Keoghan (host of Amazing Race) speak to the crowd. He shared stories about growing up on the island of Antigua, the challenges of hosting a travel TV show, and random adventure stories from his life-long career as an adventure traveler. That last part was my favorite aspect of his speech — Phil has the craziest stories like shooting a live TV segment with sharks underwater, attending a wedding at a nudist colony, putting a golf ball 26 miles a day across Scotland, swimming from Asia to Europe across the Bosphorus River (not recommended), and renewing his wedding vows underwater. He spoke about his philosophy of N.O.W. (No Opportunity Wasted), which is also the name of his book. What an inspiring guy.

We also listened to travel photographer Ralph Velasco give tips for how to improve your photography (#1 tip: get up earlier for softer light and less crowds).

Major thanks to my friend Irving for the ride down and scoring free tickets from Distant Lands travel store in Pasadena!

Like I said… this was my kinda party!

These sort of travel shows happen around the country (and world) so even if you’re not in Los Angeles, odds are you’ll find one not too far away. In addition to being a great resource for travel information, these shows will inspire you to check out new destinations that may not have been on your radar.