Savvy Nomads
David Devere and Sara Duke are travelers, adventurers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts of living a full life. They have traveled extensively and started traveling together after meeting while they were both working for the United States Antarctic Program between 1995 and 1999.
In 2003 they started a small publishing company, On-Word Bound Books. Once the heavy design and marketing of a book is complete and hopefully successful, publishing doesn’t keep Sara and David completely busy so they both continue to work outside of publishing on personal interests and new projects.
Sara teaches yoga in various studios and businesses around Duluth and around the country and has a passion for Restorative Yoga. See her website, Do Restorative Yoga, and blog for more information.
David enjoys history, culture, food and wine. These interests led him to earn a Certified Specialist of Wine accreditation from the Society of Wine Educators in 2012. A trip in 2011 on the Canal du Midi in the South of France was such an enjoyable experience he redoubled his efforts toward helping people explore, taste, and travel our beautiful blue planet.
Tasting wine is traveling without moving and cruising the canals of France is just plain spectacular. Combine wine tasting with canal boating and add a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and Savvy Nomad Tasting & Tours is born.
But, as people who like to experiment, once we felt comfortable in our new venture of wine tours, we knew it was time to change things up. We have had a long time dream of traveling the planet more extensively than we have in the past. A sailboat seemed like a perfect fit for us.
In 2017 we found ourselves in the Pacific Northwest, new owners of a beautiful sailing vessel, cramming as much knowledge as we possibly could into our exhausted brains as we learned to navigate this new-to-us world of sailing.
2018 brought a change of plans as family health concerns brought us back to Minnesota. In 2019, we explored some new canal boat routes in Holland and France, guided 3 small groups, and planned extended trips for the fall of 2020….that we were finally able to do in 2021. Our future plans include more boating and more travel. In fact, in 2021 we formed a partnership with 2 other couples and bought an adorable and sturdy used canal boat in France. We spent a few weeks in the spring of 2022 doing maintenance and outfitting the “Relax Companion” for our upcoming canal boat tours. Visit our Tour Dates page for trip details. We look forward to cruising the European waterways with you.
Cheers!
