Modern Adventure Press
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Top Travel Specialists 2025
Modern Adventure founder Luis Vargas is recognized as one of the top travel specialists for 2025 by Condé Nast Traveler. This list includes travel experts for every trip and traveler imaginable.
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The World’s Best Food Tours
More than superficial restaurant visits, these trips—often led by celebrity chefs—offer the sort of deep dives pioneered by the late Anthony Bourdain.
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Here’s How to Spend Responsibly
To make sure your travel dollars actually benefit local communities, start by choosing the right travel company.
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Brands that Matter 2022
Modern Adventure makes the Fast Company list of Brands that Matter in 2022. Next-level creativity and sustainable business practices build a brand with impact.
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Top Travel Operator in the World 2021
For the second year running, Modern Adventure is recognized as one of the top travel operators in the world by Condé Nast Traveller’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards, the most prestigious in the travel industry.
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Best in Business 2022
MO/AD is one of Inc.'s “240 Companies Going Above and Beyond,” celebrating the power we put into purpose and the positive impact we have on the world.
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Modern Adventure named a 2021 Game Changer
"To be on the list means you are pushing your peers to think deeper, dream bigger, and innovate harder. You are changing how we collectively eat, travel, and drink for the better."
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Master Class
Have you ever wanted to take a guided tour of Tokyo with a Michelin-starred chef, or visit the Loire Valley with a celebrated sommelier? Luis Vargas founded Modern Adventure to do just that.
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“This trip is bonkers. You know that, right?”
“I’d had Oaxacan food before, but few restaurants served meals like this—'celebration food' worth the effort only for births and weddings. And, apparently, for Modern Adventure.”
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World's Top Culinary & Cultural Travel Experiences
“A reservation at the world's top restaurants is no longer enough. Now, diners are going behind the scenes with chefs as part of experiences that money can't buy.”
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Travel with Chefs
There’s an intimacy in spending a week with a chef, building a relationship, learning and gaining access to things you normally wouldn’t. It’s one thing to get an impossible reservation to a restaurant, another to be met by the chef as a friend.
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Paragon: Trips of a Lifetime
Every meal tells a story. But for every experience, there's so much context they will never see. That's what drove Kyle and Katina Connaughton of SingleThread, their triple-Michelin-starred restaurant to co-create the Paragon series of trips.
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Global Culinary Ambassadors
"We are turning people into educated gastronomers. We still have guests from previous Modern Adventure trips texting us with food questions!" — Diego Galicia of Mixtli
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Beneath the Argentine Skies
Chef John Manion of El Che Steakhouse has a stacked seven-day itinerary, from dinner at Siete Fuegos and horseback rides through the vineyard-rich Uco Valley. “This is my place, these are my people, this is my method of cooking — the live fire.”
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Faraway Lands, Deliciously
“Modern Adventure is curating a slew of foodie getaways, each spearheaded by the world’s most prolific culinary influencers. Who wouldn’t want to venture to faraway lands... eating really, really good food?”
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Most Innovative Companies in 2020
Modern Adventure makes the Fast Company list of the world's most innovative travel companies in 2020.
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The World on a Plate
“In opening our mouths, we open our minds... A basket of dumplings can teach as much about a culture as its greatest monuments... on eating and drinking itineraries with Modern Adventure.”
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Podcast: Purveyors of Joy
On the Pass' host Gabriel Ornelas connects with Modern Adventure CEO and founder Luis Vargas. Listen to the Spotify episode and discover what it means to use travel as a force for good.
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Experience the World’s Best Restaurants
“We hope travelers will return home from these trips with a better understanding of themselves and the world around them, and a deeper appreciation and context for the craft, passion and inspiration of our Paragon Luminaries.”
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Morocco Inspiration
Award-winning chef Nyesha Arrington shares how her recent Modern Adventure in Morocco inspired her craft, and transformed her as a traveler.
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Dream Itineraries
“New tour company Modern Adventure taps leading-edge VIPs in the culinary and wellness realms to plan and helm dream itineraries.”
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Ready to Travel Again? MO/AD Thinks So.
“There’s one thing Luis Vargas is betting on: travel will come back in a major way—that travel can be a 'force for good' and that we’re moving from an “age of things to an age of experience.”
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Best New Experiential Tour Operator
“This new Portland-based company curates not just extraordinary itineraries, but they also enlist incredibly cool, in-the-know trip leaders.”
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What’s Not to Like?
“Modern Adventure aims to command a particularly sweet spot of travel, a place where adventure meets curated experiences on expert-led trips. You eat the best food, you meet the locals... What's not to like?”
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Travel More. Buy Less.
Watch CEO and founder Luis Vargas' TEDxPortland talk. Because adventure and exploration is the best way to learn and expand your horizons.
