Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ’s)
(FAQ’s)
Here are some of the most frequent questions Michelle Valentine receives from her viewers.
Topics are Travel, Food & Wine, TV Show, Events, Business, and Personal.
Do you have a question to ask? Contact Michelle Valentine.
First of all, imagine the type of vacation you want. For instance, do you want a luxurious romantic beach resort trip with your husband? Do you want a luxurious cruise that takes you to unique destinations around the world? Do you want a luxurious glamping nature vacation for you and your girlfriends? Do you want a luxurious spa retreat vacation for yourself only?
After you decide the type of vacation you want, next would be to think of the destination. Are you staying in the United States or do you want to travel International?
After deciding on the destination and the type of vacation you desire, consider the amount of time you have – one month, two weeks, one week, one weekend – and the time of year. Do you want a hot beach or cold snow? Should you pack cocktail dresses, bikinis, or hiking gear?
After you have these things in mind, start looking at booking your vacation.
The most romantic destinations for couples are places the couple decides on together! Meaning, both of you must want a romantic beach getaway, not just she wants beach and he doesn’t like the water.
Romantic destinations mean different to each unique couple. One couple may find a rustic cabin in the woods on a lake romantic, while another couple considers a large historic European town as a romantic destination.
But, according to travel stats, international places like Italy (history, the sea, food & wine) and the Caribbean (beach, sunsets, pina coladas) are most popular.
Wow! That has a lot to do with your destination interest as a couple, as well as taking into consideration your guests’ budgets and the time they must take off work to travel for your wedding.
If you like sunshine and beaches – and an all-inclusive type of arrangement, consider a resort or a cruise wedding. For instance, my husband and I love cruises. We live in Florida, so jumping on a cruise ship for our wedding was an easy decision for us.
Our guests and family members, though, would be traveling from all across the United States, from Florida to Las Vegas to California. And family members from Spain and Australia.
We chose a weekend cruise, which costs less than a week-long cruise – and most important, it was less time for guests’ travel time. Family members traveling would have to tack on an extra few days just for travel to and from the Florida cruise port! All our guests got a free cruise, and they arranged and paid for their own travel expenses to and from the cruise port.
Being an extrovert and a talker, I make friends wherever I travel. Plus, while filming a travel TV show, lots of people come up to me and say hello!
New to USA Girl Seeking Female Friends wrote to me a while back, asking for tips how to make friends in the United States. This blog post is one of the most read posts on my website! So, you’re not the only one wanting to know how to make friends when traveling – or when you have moved to a new country!
Here are some tips to help you make friends when traveling:
- Always start up a short conversation with someone you are standing or sitting next to.
- Ask them a question or compliment them on something they are wearing.
- Look up and alert, like you would welcome someone to talk to you.
- Sit near people that are having a good time. Join in their fun!
- Attend events that have a lot of people, which makes it easier to talk to someone.
- Travel with a group of people for instant friends with common interests.
Ahh… “Dream Vacations” are fabulous! How exciting to plan for… and look forward to!
Watch my new travel television series, “Love Eat Travel” for fabulous ideas for a “dream vacation”!
Here are some other great travel planning tips:
- Start planning for your trip right now! Get excited, dream, learn as much as you can.
- Try to get an exact date set. Even a year or the month you plan to go. This will help you to prepare for weather, activities, and packing.
- Start telling relatives, friends, and co-workers about your upcoming dream vacation. They will most likely share their personal stories to help you with more ideas.
- Start saving for your trip. Create a budget. Perhaps get a part-time job to supplement extra splurges you may want for your “Dream Vacation”.
- Watch my TV show to inspire you to plan for your dream vacation.
- My website here offers thousands of tips, recommendations, and videos to help you plan your trip.
- Join social media groups about travel.
- Follow my Facebook page about travel.
- Follow my Pinterest page and pin on your boards of places you want to travel to.
- Watch travel videos on YouTube.
- Watch travel movies to help you dream bigger!
Ha! I’m an over-packer, too, and I’m not ashamed to admit it!
I am more than happy to pay extra fees for my extra luggage.
When shooting a travel TV show, it’s important I have all my necessities… 20 pairs of shoes, 50 dresses, 10 purses. Okay, just kidding, but I am much happier with lots of choices taken from my personal closet from home.
I’m not into the “pack 2 shirts and 2 pants, and wear for 2 weeks 100 different ways”. It’s not me.
On my website here, I do offer packing tips for various trips. It’s up to you what to bring and what not to bring!
Always have health insurance whether you’re traveling or not. Even while in college, I had Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and to this day, I still use them as my health care provider.
Check with your employer about health care. They may offer at no charge, or a nominal charge.
Also check with your travel agent or cruise line regarding insurance when traveling internationally.
If you enjoy unique, upscale tours, I would recommend searching online for tours to match your desired type.
If you plan on traveling to a specific destination, be sure to visit the Love Eat Travel Events Calendar for events that are happening in that area.
Attending an event is always a fantastic way to learn about the people and culture of a location. Events at the Love Eat Travel website lists events from around the world.
One way to make money while traveling is to have a continual “passive” source of income. Passive income for instance, is having a travel blog. Your travel blog can have affiliate links which generate revenue. When your readers enjoy what they are reading, and they click on the purchase links you provide within your blog post, you earn income.
Another way is to have advertising opportunities on your blog/website. Offer banner ads on your sidebar. These are small ads that are eye-catching, and readers will click on the ads to learn more.
Additional passive income is to offer paid sponsored posts in your website. Be sure you are transparent with the paid sponsored posts. This means that you tell the readers within that article that that is a sponsored post. Be sure you are providing your honest opinion about what you are promoting by writing about it, whether it’s a hotel, a resort, a restaurant, or a product.
Another way you can make money while traveling is to become a Brand Ambassador for a company. You can be a Brand Ambassador, “the face”, for say, a wine company, and they pay you to travel to their vineyard in Argentina as well as to various wine shops. You will have press photos taken with their wine. Keep in mind to only become a Brand Ambassador for brands you believe in and truly love, because your face will be associated with that product forever!
Also, you can be an Influencer for a company’s product. This means you promote a product, perhaps a resort-wear clothing line. You would wear their clothing during your vacation. You would take gorgeous, unique-setting photos of you wearing their clothing and then post to all your social media accounts. You will also write a blog post (while relaxing on a terrace in Italy) about how wonderful the clothing is that you wore on your vacation. Talk about the benefits of wearing the clothing, style tips how/where to wear. Provide direct links to the clothing items within your blog post.
Of course, the best way to make money while traveling is to have an online shop, where you sell fabulous products! Your online shop is always open, and income is generated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Travel tips are so helpful!
There are thousands of great tips right here at the Love Eat Travel with Michelle Valentine website!
Read travel tips to inspire you to travel somewhere new, to help you learn about activities to do while there, and to help you pack for your trip!
If you would like to receive travel tips each week in your email inbox, subscribe to my weekly Love Eat Travel eNewsletter! It’s filled with lots of great travel tips, plus info on the latest TV show news, world food recipes, get first notices of giveaways and sweepstakes, and lots more!
Well, you have two choices:
The dish you’re best cooking or have it catered.
If you’re great at cooking meatballs and pasta, great! If not, call your local Italian restaurant and pick up some ready-made authentic dishes.
I love having dinner parties! My table for 10 gets filled quickly. Themes are really important to choosing the food to serve, so I love holidays of any kind.
For instance, “lobster season” starts in August. I had a lobster dinner party, with the lobster flown in from Maine. Each guest had their own 2-½ lb. lobster!
My husband is great on the grill, so we grilled them. Easy!
I bought those little personal candle butter warmers for each guest to dip their lobster into. Fancy and fun but super messy. We had a blast!
When having friends over that I haven’t seen in a while, I don’t want to spend time in the kitchen cooking. The local Italian restaurant offer ready-made authentic dishes, and I order a large pan of lasagna and another pan of chicken alfredo. Plus, the restaurant makes a super large salad with dressing. Even a bag of Italian buns and butter pats. So easy!
If you want to get really creative, try one of the cooking recipes at my website!
This certainly depends on your own desire to learn, if you have all the proper tools and mixes, your budget, and what your friends like to drink!
If your girlfriends love Cosmopolitans, perhaps buy some of the ready-made mixers. Some already contain vodka, so be sure to check out the label before you buy.
For more fun, be sure to use martini glasses!
If your friends are sports-watching, beer-drinking type of people, simply serve beer. Of course, find out which type of beer they like: out of the can, light beer, or craft beer. Beer drinkers can be quite particular, so be ready for lots of different answers.
An easy idea is make a simple punch. You can serve it in an old-fashioned punch bowl, or in a simple glass pitcher. Perhaps sangria, or spiked iced tea or lemonade.
Serving cocktails is about the “fun”, so feel free to experiment with some unique recipes, too!
It’s quite simple, really. Lighter foods such as light appetizers and dinner foods such as fish and chicken deserve a lighter wine. So think white wines.
Heavier dinner foods such as steak and potatoes go great with red wines.
The beauty of wine is that there are so many to choose from, and it takes time to find ones you like! Perhaps attend a food & wine event near you to sample different wines. Best of all, the wine representatives will be there to share their knowledge with you and help you learn about wine. Cheers!
The obvious choice would be wine you personally love to drink!
Remember that a dinner party is about the company – not the food and drink – so don’t worry too much about the exact wine you are providing.
Purchase wine that is not too expensive, and not too “cheap”. You can find some great bottles around $10 – $15 each. Each bottle serves 3 or 4 glasses, depending on the pour.
Depending on the appetizers and dinner food you are serving, choose some reds and whites. A nice white Chardonnay and a good red Cabernet would be a good mix. Read wine reviews to get an idea of the varieties.
Any leftover wine I’ve heard you can freeze into little ice cubes and use at a later time. I’ve never encountered wine left over from a dinner party, so I know nothing about those ice cube ideas, though!
This certainly depends on your own desire to learn, if you have all the proper tools and mixes, your budget, and what your friends like to drink!
If your trendy girlfriends love Cosmopolitans, perhaps buy some of the ready-made mixers. Some already contain vodka, so be sure to check out the label before you buy. For more fun, be sure to use martini glasses!
If your girlfriends would love some refreshing cocktails, Try this Smoking Pineapple Margarita Recipe from Sandals!, or This Watermelon Margarita Sandals Recipe is One in a Melon!, or Feel Cool as a Cucumber with this Sandals Cooler Recipe, or the Sandals Delicious Sake Cruise Recipe.
If your friends are sports-watching, beer-drinking type of people, simply serve beer. Of course, find out which type of beer they like: out of the can, light beer, or craft beer. Beer drinkers can be quite particular, so be ready for lots of different answers.
An easy idea is to make a simple punch. You can serve it in an old-fashioned punch bowl, or in a simple glass pitcher. Perhaps sangria, or spiked iced tea or lemonade.
Serving cocktails is about the “fun”, so feel free to experiment with unique cocktail recipes, too!
If the family gathering is not for a major holiday, consider some casual appetizers like super-easy Layered Taco Dip, tasty little Baked Mac & Cheese Bites, or Tiny Lasagna Bites.
If it’s holiday time, and you want to make appetizers that are a little more “fancy”, try making these Spinach & Ham Puff Pastry Bites or delectable Alfredo Stuffed Mushrooms.
My family always looks forward to my relish trays, which I have a good variety of green and black olives, pickled artichokes, hot & sour yellow pepper rings, jalapeno pepper rings, and sweet baby gherkin pickles. I have a vintage glass toothpick holder I put out, and place fancy toothpicks in it.
I always put out a tray of various crackers, too, like cracked pepper water crackers, saltines, and Ritz crackers. My family loves the buttery flavor of Ritz crackers, and now they have flavors like bacon!
We offer a variety of ways a business can be introduced to the viewers of “Love Eat Travel with Michelle Valentine”.
We are always seeking guests on the “Love Eat Travel with Michelle Valentine” television series! We look for people with unique stories to tell, and can bring interest for our viewers.
Thank you for your interest in being involved in the “Love Eat Travel with Michelle Valentine” television series!
We have a variety of packages to suit your budget.
Ooh, a chef! Fabulous restaurants could not exist without chefs like you who are passionate about their work! Starting a new restaurant will be an incredible journey, and will take a tremendous amount of time, energy, effort, and resources.
Only after your restaurant is opened you could consider creating cooking segment on social media.
Thank you so much for watching the show and wanting to be a part of it! We welcome businesses and guests on the show.
With our TV series “Love Eat Travel with Michelle Valentine”, there’s quite a group!
When it’s time to shoot a full episode, traveling is me (the Host & Producer), a director, two camera people, our sound engineer, a production assistant, a still photographer, a stylist/makeup artist, and a social media specialist.
Sometimes we hire local people at the destination, like specialized camera operators if we have underwater shoots – or specialized drone operators for mountains and challenging terrain.
Sometimes our location scout will travel with us, but they have already traveled to the location many months in advance.
Up to 10 of us from our production team travel together for an episode.
We offer unlimited event listings, as long you follow the guidelines for the type of events we accept.
It is FREE to post your event, and have it listed! Submit your event FREE here.
Yes! We welcome event listings on the Love Eat Travel website! It’s FREE to post your event!
Visit our Events Calendar to see events happening your city, state, country, and around the world! Each event listing features a description and a location map.
Events are categorized by Art & Music Events, Festivals & Fairs, Food & Wine Events, and Holiday Events.
Thank you for watching and aspiring to be a travel TV host like me! As a teenager, I created lots of arts & crafts projects. My neighbor said, “Why don’t you show other people how to make these beautiful things?” I thought, “How can I reach a lot of people to teach them?” I walked to the local cable TV station and told them I had an idea for a TV show. They were like, “Sure, kid, give a proposal, and we’ll think about it.” I didn’t even know what a proposal was, but yet I sat down to my little typewriter and tapped away describing what I could do and why would people want to watch my TV show. Well, the TV station loved my idea, and “Michelle’s Craft Show” was born!
I didn’t get back into television until I graduated college and turned my television show ideas into reality. After producing & hosting many TV shows on music, fashion, home shopping, politics, and more, I was traveling so much, it was natural to create & produce a travel television series. “Love Eat Travel” is my new TV series. I am the host, producer, and writer for the series.
So, to answer your question, “How can I get my own travel TV show?”, I would recommend to travel, write, create videos, get a social media following – and perhaps a production company or television network that would produce a show for you. Or produce your own television show as I’m doing.
Great question! The best way to start a travel blog is to start writing!
Consider writing a guest post here on the Love Eat Travel website!
In the meantime, write about your past travels (best places, fun things you did, etc.). Write about your current travels (while you’re at your destination). Write about your future travels (all the planning you’re involved in). Don’t stop writing! Write every single day. Always be writing.
It is crucial to have photos with each blog post. Photos that represent the location well. Keep in mind one great photo to use to represent the blog post itself. If someone were to look at only that photo, they can sum up easily what that blog post is about.
After you have a dozen or so posts written (on Word document or the like), then it’s time to put it out on the internet for people to read! Create a website for your blog. You will need to have a good web hosting company. If you’re just starting with a super basic blog, you can get shared hosting for $2.99 a month. When you get a million visitors like I do, you will eventually upgrade to your own dedicated server!
So think of your blog – your website – as a permanent home for your writings. Don’t get too involved in the style or design of the blog, be sure to focus on the content. The writing is what is most important!
Again, consider writing a guest post here on the Love Eat Travel website!
The MichelleValentine.tv and LoveEatTravel.tv website is designed completely in-house, and is updated daily with new content. We do not create websites for other companies. We have a dedicated web server with our website hosting company.
- Share super-great content!
- Provide information, education, and entertainment.
- Share your great content consistently.
- Try for daily postings, or at least every other day.
- Post beautiful photos.
- Post exciting videos.
- Share your travel stories.
- Search for friends and people and friend them.
- Search for businesses you patronize and follow them.
- Comment on other people’s and pages posts.
- Use lots of hashtags and emoji.
To see examples:
- How I share my blog posts & photos, follow my Facebook page.
- How I send out limited-character tweets, follow me on Twitter.
- How to use hashtags and emoji, view my Instagram.
- Ideas of the type of boards and photos to use, see my Pinterest page.
Growing your social media followers does not happen overnight! Keep in mind it takes months – even years – to grow your social media followers!
We didn’t! We had to put production of future episodes of “Love Eat Travel” on hold. Most international travel locations have been shut down, plus, we would never risk the health of our production crew!
But that doesn’t mean we stopped working! There is always work to be done in television production! We’ve been editing videos and also creating voice-overs in my home recording studio. We’ve been contacting convention and visitors’ bureaus, as well as potential sponsors for the show. We’ve been writing scripts and nailing down new destinations and restaurants to visit, and people to interview. We’ve been writing blog posts, updating the website, and adding more products to our online shop.
In the meantime, we’ve been continuously posting on social media all the great content we have on our blog, to help our social media followers dream about their upcoming travels when the world opens up again!
YouTube viewers love fresh, new, and unique content! Post videos of your travels or you cooking in your kitchen. Post videos that are in HD (high definition) and edited well. YouTube has free editing software built right in for convenience. Use short graphics to tell your video story. Stay away from posting super-long videos. Videos that are shorter in length (less than 10 minutes) get a better response in viewership. Be sure to get subscribers, too!
Note that Facebook is now offering video pages, too! You can post videos up to an hour long. Check out the type & length of videos I have posted at my Facebook Watch page. Be sure to follow my page for notices of new video uploads.
While I loved my studies in Psychology (B.A. degree in Psychology) and additional studies in Interior Design, I would have taken more business classes. I’m and entrepreneur by nature, and some business courses would have helped tremendously. Lots of trial and error happened over all these years in my businesses!
My current television production crew has worked with me for many years, which makes it easier when things need to get done, as we all understand each other. If you have a skill that could help our team, you can find periodic job openings at the Michelle Valentine Media Careers page.
It’s easy and free to get on Michelle Valentine’s mailing list!
I was single all my life, working hard on my television shows and speaking aboard cruise ships. In 2015 I finally met the man that is my true best friend! We married aboard a cruise ship in 2017.
I’m a Gen Xer. I watched the first music video ever played on MTV… when MTV played music videos!
I live with my husband in our waterfront home in Apollo Beach, Florida. It’s a small beach town located on the Gulf Coast of the United States, about a half hour south of Tampa.
We have a beautiful 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom home that we love to share with family and friends, and frequently have visiting guests! Also living the good life with us is our 130 lb. dog and little kitty. Both fur babies were rescued from awful situations.
We enjoy relaxing on our deck to watch beautiful sunsets and playful dolphins swimming by!
“Michelle Valentine” is a trademarked name. It is not my legal name. I am proudly of Polish descent, with a last name most people cannot pronounce nor spell!
I created a new name in 1997 when I became an advice columnist for a newspaper. I always collected hearts, and came up with the hearts/valentines idea. I chose “Dear Michelle Valentine” as the title for my advice column. Over 200 columns were published in fine newspapers and magazines. My advice columns are available for reading here at my website.
I eventually received an offer from a book publisher, and my book, “How to Find Love Online” by Michelle Valentine was published in 2000.
During the same time as writing my advice column, I came up with another television show idea to complement my newspaper column. I created and co-produced 7 seasons of the television show titled, “Michelle Valentine TV Show”, which began airing on Time Warner Communications, and still airs on television today! Watch all 7 seasons of the “Michelle Valentine TV Show” here.
Yes, to the supermarket.
I wear red for my business brand, Michelle Valentine. It’s a great color for me to wear, as my hair and skin are pale in color and the red gives me some “oomph”!
But pink is my absolute favorite color, and I wear it a lot when I’m not working. My nickname since high school is “Pinky”. I always wore something pink everyday to school. It became a game in school for other students to locate something pink I was wearing. My shirt, dress, socks, even my nail polish!
I have never taken my pets with me traveling, as I do not want to stress them out. Friends and family always volunteer to stay at our home to watch my pets. My dog is a big 130 lb. boy and would not fit under an airplane seat!
My husband and I are planning to rent a big RV (recreational vehicle) for a week or two and travel across a few states. We are considering taking our dog with us, as we know he would love it!
When filming for for the Love Eat Travel TV show, we travel at a new destination once a month. My film crew and I are at the location for at least a week. We film 6 episodes per season, with one season per year.
When we’re not filming, my husband and I travel somewhere at least once a month, anywhere! Sometimes we just jump on a cruise ship at the local cruise port for a 3-day getaway.
I am afraid of sharks. I love all my limbs. Also, I’m afraid to drive up those big hilly streets in San Francisco! I had a rental car once, sitting at a red light atop a big hill. I started crying because I was terrified to take my foot off the brake and perhaps rolling back into cars when the light would turn green!
I love to cook! I love to cook for friends and family. My favorite dish to cook is from my Polish heritage: pierogi (large dumplings stuffed with mashed potatoes and cheese), kielbasa (herbed sausage), goblaki (meat and rice rolled into cabbage leaves and baked in tomato sauce), mizeria (cucumbers in sour cream sauce with dill and sugar).
I wrote about an Easter dinner at my home for family and friends. It talks a bit about Polish foods, and there are some photos of my home, as well.
My heart can be found in many places, but Italy would have to top my list.
We didn’t have the money to do yearly family vacations, but I do remember as a teenager our family taking a big trip to Florida. We had an old camper atop a pickup truck and traveled from Detroit, Michigan down to Orlando, Florida.
We stopped in Tennessee to visit the Smoky Mountains, and eventually made it to Orlando, Florida, where we went to Disney World. We stayed at my father’s cousins’ one-bedroom apartment, and we slept on the floor in the living room.
We also visited Gatorland theme park and wildlife preserve in Orlando, which was founded in 1949 and is still open today.
To put myself through college, I took a two-month course the summer after I graduated high school, to become a licensed manicurist. I realized that working as a manicurist would allow me a very flexible schedule while working at beauty salons and going to college.
I studied Psychology and received my B.A. in Psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. I wanted to become a mental health doctor, a Psychologist, but ran out of money (and energy).
My senior year of college, having all my credits for Psychology already, I studied a bit in Interior Design, and interned at prestigious Hudson’s Design Studio. I landed a job out of college as an Interior Designer for Jacobson’s Home Stores, and won an award! My designs were using the principles of Psychology regarding use of color and style for home decor.
From there, I started working in television again (I was a teenage TV Host of “Michelle’s Craft Show”) and created & produced the “Michigan Shopping Network,” selling home furnishings, jewelry, clothing, and more.
I am surprised how many people ask me this question! Well, having long hair is much easier than short hair, in that it is more versatile in styles. I don’t wash my hair everyday, I use dry shampoo on those days. Dry shampoo is great! I have fine hair, and when I use that dry shampoo, my hair “poofs” up like it’s freshly washed!
While traveling by plane, train, or car, I wear two braids. They’re great for keeping my hair in one place, so it doesn’t move around a lot. When the weather is atrociously hot, I gather all my hair with a scrunchie and wear a low bun, looking like a Spanish Flamenco dancer. I have many scrunchies in various colors, and some I had tailored with the same fabric as my shirt or dress!
Hats are my best friend. I have many, many hats! My skin (and the top of my head) sunburns easily, so wearing wide-brimmed sun hats are a must for me. For a more casual look, I have lots of baseball hats in various colors – and with travel logos like Alaska, Orlando, Zoo Miami, etc. I have some cowboy hats (one is leopard print), and I love newspaper-boy style caps in colors like brown, black, and blue. In colder weather, I love pretty knit hats, and bonus if they have a cute pom-pom on top!
I offer beauty & fashion tips at my blog, to help you with topics on skin, nails, shoes, and more. Please feel free to share your personal beauty & fashion tips in the comments of any of my blog posts. My readers would love to hear your personal advice, too!
