When long-time downtown Los Gatos businessman Ed Stahl is asked if he’ll ever retire, he shakes his head no and says, “I’m having too much fun.”
Stahl owns Travel Advisors of Los Gatos, which opened at 56 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in 1961.
If he’s not traveling, you can find Stahl at the office, booking trips for locals that he often plans to take, too.
Over the years, he’s visited 137 countries. His favorite place is Antarctica, which Stahl plans to visit for the fourth time in December.
“I went to Antarctica for the first time in the 1950s, when it was a major deal,” he said. “This Christmas I’m planning to return to Antarctica, which marks the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s final expedition.”
“I wanted to photograph a penguin and he shook his head ‘no.’ Instead, he pushed his baby forward to be photographed.”
—Ed Stahl, 89-year-old adventurer
Explorer Ernest Shackleton’s fourth and final trip to Antarctica departed England in September 1921. He died Jan. 5, 1922 in South Georgia, a stopping point that’s en route to Antarctica.
The reason Stahl loves Antarctica is simple: he loves the penguins.
“I talk to them,” he said. “One time I wanted to photograph a penguin and he shook his head ‘no.’ Instead, he pushed his baby forward to be photographed, shaking his head up and down ‘yes.’ Another time I was walking with one and I waved my arms and he flapped his stubby wings for me.”
December is summer in Antarctica, so temperatures will be in the 30s or 40s when Stahl and his entourage arrive there.
When Stahl was planning his first Antarctica trip, he asked his late wife Betty, a native Californian who “hated ice and snow,” if she wanted to go.
“She said, ‘hell no,’ so I advertised the trip in the newspaper and four women signed up. I took five women to Antarctica—Betty went and later she told people it was the best trip,” Stahl said with a grin.
His eyes sparkle as he talks about seeing “12,000 feet of snow that’s built up over millions of years.”
“It’s so beautiful. When you’re walking on glaciers you’re doing things few others have done before. I’m convinced it’s the greatest high in the world,” he said.
Stahl could discuss his travels for hours but his life in Los Gatos is equally interesting. He joined the Rotary club in 1966 and worked with other Rotarians to bring the carousel to Oak Meadow Park.
When nonprofits ask for donations for their fundraisers, there’s always a Travel Advisors’ cruise on the auction block.
Stahl also sponsors the Jazz on the Plazz Summer Concert Series, helped establish Zihuatanejo, Mexico as a Los Gatos sister city, was the 2015 Chamber of Commerce Businessperson of the Year and served on the town’s parking commission from 1972 to 2018.
“When I look back at my life, I’m amazed at what I’ve done and where I’ve been.”
—Ed Stahl, who is looking forward to his 90th birthday in October.
“They fired me because I was too old,” he laughs.
Stahl celebrates his 90th birthday in October but there’s no stopping him.
“I’ve been in town too much lately—I went to New Orleans a month ago but that’s my only trip since the pandemic,” he said.
Next March, he’ll take flight to the Dubai Expo—an $8.2 billion world’s fair.
“I think Dubai will be the most interesting fair ever because they’ve built the best of everything,” he said.
Stahl was also thrilled with a 2014 trip through the Northwest Passage, when the first passenger ship without an ice breaker went through the Passage.
“That was a dream fulfilled,” he said. “When I look back at my life I’m amazed at what I’ve done and where I’ve been.”
From making eye contact with whales to watching a mama bear teaching her cub to swim, Ed Stahl has lived a life he loves and he’s done it in a town he loves.
