InTouch photo1 photo2 design element

The knowledge, passion and insight of real people

Real Immersion
design element design element
InTouch
What We Do
All About Us
Press
FAQ
InTouch Community
Our Hosts
Travel Stories
Community Blog
Traveling?
Sample Itineraries
Plan your Trip
Your Reservation
Hosting?
Join InTouch
Your Application
" Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries."
-- René Descartes
Host profile: Ronald Holden

Host: Ronald Holden

Location: USA: Seattle

Profession: Journalist (wine, food, tourism)

Specialty: Wine, Culinary/Cooking, Music, Local Culture

Ronald is a former broadcaster and public relations executive who learned to type at an early age and hasn't stopped yet. Curious, inquisitive, personable, multi-lingual, cultured, he lives in downtown Seattle, keeps a blog (www.cornichon.org) of tasting notes and travel dispatches, and sends his reviews of neighborhood restaurants to an assortment of local and regional publications.

Fluent in French and German, he welcomes visitors who want to see what it's like to live downtown in a creative, vibrant, politically liberal American city.

About Ronald Holden

Born to European parents, Ronald attended schools in Portland, Ore., Geneva, Switzerland, and graduated from Yale University. He got into broadcasting while serving in the US Army, hosted a talk show, anchored newscasts, and ended up managing TV newsrooms in Seattle and Baltimore. For a time, he lived with his family in a French village and began writing about wine, food and travel.

He has written five guidebooks to the wine country of Washington and Oregon. For many years, his travel company, France In Your Glass, organized wine-related travel to the French vineyards, hosted by international wine experts.

Ronald Holden Suggests:

Seattle: Up Close with Ronald Holden

After raising a family in one of Seattle's leafy neighborhoods, I moved downtown. I love it here, no car, no hassles. I'm midway between the Pike Place Market and the Space Needle, with literally scores of cafés and restaurants within easy walking distance.

When you come to visit, I'll take you to the best happy hour (at Cascadia), the best sushi (Shiro's), the best wine bar (Le Pichet), the best martini bar (Alexandria's), the best espresso bar (Bellissimo) ... We'll go into the kitchen at Mistral and meet Seattle's best chef, William Belickis. We'll go down to Pioneer Square for lunch at Salumi and I'll introduce you to Armandino Batali (Mario's dad). I'll show you Seattle's magnificent new downtown library and introduce you to its dynamic director.

We'll hang out at the Triple Door or Tula's or the District Lounge and listen to jazz and salsa music performed by my friends Ludmilla, Nattie and Diego. We might visit artists in their studios, Isa d'Arleans right here in Belltown, or Nina Michaelenko in Rainier Beach.

We'll go to tastings and press conferences together. If I'm on an assignment, you'll come along. If I'm on deadline for my column, we'll make the rounds of bars and bistros and catch up on gossip.

Comments from Ronald's Guests

"I came to Seattle expecting to find a cultural desert. Instead I found Ronald. The first three people he introduced me to spoke, and he showed me."

— Michel Royer, Villeneuve-sur-Saone

"In the course of one afternoon, Ronald made me see, made me taste things about food and wine Iíd never imagined."

— Wilma Washington, St. Petersburg, FL

"Hanging out with Ronald is like taking a roller-coaster ride through downtown."

— Art & Donna Stanford, Tempe, AZ

design element design element