Premier gay travel writer Andrew Collins published a nice blog profile today on Savvy Navigator and his upcoming tour offerings. Needless to say, Savvy Navigator is flattered beyond belief, so here’s Andrew’s posting in its entirety:

Affluent gay-male travelers are the intended demographic of Savvy Navigator (202-904-2874), a Washington, DC-based tour operator that started business late in 2008 and is currently focusing its business on trips to South Africa.

The company headed up by former American Airlines executive Jeffrey Ward looks to be doing plenty of things correctly, right from the onset - one look as his superbly informative, user-friendly Website will tell you that. Ward blogs insightfully about a wide range of issues related to high-end GLBT and even mainstream travel, and his descriptions of upcoming trips are clear and thoroughly researched.

In 2009, Ward’s company is focusing on South Africa, with 12-day adventures available that include additional add-on excursions to Zambia’s incredible Victoria Falls. The 12-day trips, which are open to a maximum of 12 guests, start at around $7,000 per person (double-occupancy - it’s slightly pricier if you’re traveling alone), not including airfare to South Africa (but including internal flights within South Africa). These tours are expensive, but they also include accommodations and certain meals at some of Cape Town’s and Kruger National Park’s most alluring establishments, such as Le Quartier Francais, in the stunning wine country outside Cape Town, and Londolozi Private Game Reserve in Kruger NP.

You’re paying, in part, for the highly customized service, the chance to travel exclusively among fellow gay male travelers, and the considerable expertise of Jeffrey Ward, who clearly knows what he’s doing - and enjoys it, too.

Savvy Navigator’s fabulous college friend and fellow blogger, SuAnn Debbie (her blog is Blue Like the Sky), bestowed an “Your Blog is Fabulous” award and challenged SN to blog about 5 things he’s addicted to. While some gentle readers might be tempted to add otherwise inappropriate content to this list, here’s the for-now definitive Savvy-Navigator-Guilty-Pleasure inventory:

1. Real-time updates about friends via Twitter and the Facebook Status media - Savvy Navigator has always loved people’s stories, and loves the real-time updates of what his peeps are up to. A vehicle to know what folks are doing, and what’s important to them at any given moment, comprise Savvy Navigator’s newest addiction, acquired in 2008.

2. Being bossy – Yup. Having a cast on his leg for 6 weeks drove home the fact that Savvy Navigator has an insatiable need to control his immediate environment. And when others don’t always do things just the way he likes it, he can get bossy (and finds extreme pleasure in this, sometimes). The roots of this addiction probably result from having 5 younger siblings.

3. Exploring the world and sharing it with others – the best thing about the launch of Savvy Navigator Gay Tours is that SN now gets paid to travel the world and explore the latest and greatest and bring it all to others. Weather it’s a gay safari, fabulous food and wine in Cape Town, or anything else gay travel related, Savvy Navigator loves exploring it, and sharing it, as well.

4. Airline Porn – What can one say? Some favorites include Chris Sloan’s Airchive, AirFleets (yes, SN flew on N106US about 8 years before the Hudson RIver landing), FlightAware and the Great CIrcle Router. He can spend hours at a time perusing these sites and often uses them as references for his research. Mostly, however, they provide him with data to sustain his perpetual state of bossiness (see #2 above).

5. The Girls Next Door - Savvy Navigator became a huge fan of this E! show in its first season. He subsequently introduced it to the spousal unit, who also loved it, and recently cast ex-Hef girlfriend, Bridget, in his new Travel Channel series, Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches. Keep an eye out for it in March.

While this is by no means exhaustive or extensive, it certainly offers some insight as to what’s important.