About Us
Katie Skow Villarreal & Ricardo Villarreal are professional bloggers as well as experienced social media professionals.
In addition to blogging about the wine and tourism industries, Katie and Ricardo are highly sought-after consultants for wineries, wine associations, and those in the wine tourism industry seeking a professional company to help establish and maintain their social media presence.
As wine lovers who have spent considerable time in and around wineries, Katie and Ricardo understand both the business and consumer. Their love of wine and tourism combined with creative thinking and a focus on relationships create perfect synergy for TravelPlusWine Social Media Marketing.
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Katie Skow Villarreal is an international globetrotting goddess. She proclaims there’s nothing better than a beautiful, exotic destination paired with a glass of the finest local wine. She embodies la belle vie.
Her travels have brought her to about two-dozen countries on nearly every continent, with the exception of Antarctica.
Highlights include Thailand, France, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Italy, Uganda, Mexico, Morocco, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Kenya. Choosing a favorite destination, like choosing the best wine, would be impossible—each has its incomparable character, elegance, aroma, and finesse.
In her spare time, other than drinking wine and traveling, Katie enjoys experimenting with new recipes, reading, and long walks. She is also fluent in French and Spanish.
Follow her on Twitter: @egoddess or @travelpluswine
Email her: Katie [at] travelpluswine [dot] com
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Ricardo Villarreal cannot remember the first time he traveled. But at the same time, it’s almost impossible for him to remember a time when he hasn’t traveled at all.
To this date, he has traveled to over 200 international destinations on five continents. What he likes most about traveling is discovering different cultures, learning about how people live in other parts of the world, and capturing the life and colors of the places he visits on his camera.
Ricardo is convinced that traveling is not an expense, but the best investment in life. This is because his travels have not only given him the opportunity to learn about our world, but have also taught him to appreciate life to the fullest.
When it comes to wines, Ricardo is adventuresome enough to try them all. You can read wine reviews in the blog, but one wine he loves to recommend for its uniqueness is the Château-Chalon, a French wine from the Jura region.
Follow him on Twitter: @skovi
Ricardo can be reached by email at ricardo@skovi.com
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GlobeTrotting Contributor
Sonya Stoa was probably a gypsy in her past life. She took her first backtracking trip to Europe at age 19, and has been addicted to exploring the planet ever since. She’s lucky enough to have a job that sends her to all corners of the globe, and when she isn’t traveling for work, she’s often vacationing in some exotic place.
She’s an off-the-beaten-tourist-path kind of girl, and hands down her favorite way to see a place is hanging out with the locals.
She loves travel for the spice it adds to life, and for the local food, beverages, ambiance, architecture, countryside, music, people, and unexpected adventures waiting to be encountered in every destination.
GlobeTrotting Photographer
With a great eye for photography, Adrian Perez has been able to capture the beauty and colors of innumerable places around the world through his lens.
From the serenity of breathtaking landscapes to the vitality of urban life, his photo compositions reveal more than a travel story.
Adrian doesn’t work in the tourism industry but he was trained to be a traveler. Not in school, not at work, but in family road trips as a child. These road trips were within limited budgets of time and money that gave him the ticket for his future journeys.
Breaking stereotypes in the accounting profession, his career as a CPA has engaged him on different business trips around the globe. This has helped him converge with cultures and distance himself from being just a tourist. When he travels, he manages the travel budget to make it fun, interesting and a real cultural exchange.
