Traveling to exotic locations is not always a daily occurrence, but Departure Lounge, a new coffee and wine bar downtown, seeks to give customers a taste of what the world has to offer each time they step through the door.

"If you love travel, it's probably your new favorite bar in town," said Keith Waldon, founder, director and co-owner of Departure Lounge.

The business opened Aug. 18 at 311 W. Fifth St., Ste. 102. Waldon said he opened Departure Lounge after hearing from people that they were interested in a travel company that was innovative, interactive, visual, upscale and social. Along with those characteristics, people enjoyed talking about travel in a social setting, Waldon.

"When I looked at the dream list of what the travel company should be like and I looked at the question, where did they talk about travel, the concept of the Departure Lounge began to evolve in my head—to have a bar from coffee to wine to travel all the time," Waldon said.

Everything at Departure Lounge is meant to inspire the travel bug to travel in patrons. Drinks and food have been curated to feature flavor profiles of various locations. The wines come from areas around the world, including Argentina, France and Germany. Meanwhile, coffees come from places such as Costa Rica, Honduras and Bali. The business also has 22 flatscreen TVs that cycle through pictures of exotic locations.

"You can sit here and through your taste buds get a sense of other places and through your eyes start to discover destinations that maybe you haven't been to yet or revisit destinations you've been to before and have memories tied to that," Waldon said. "[Departure Lounge] sets the stage for wanderlust. It's a great place to inspire future travel around the world."

J.P. Grumbles, an Austin resident and customer of Departure Lounge, said he discovered the business by accident but has enjoyed going to the lounge.

"It's a great coffee place, and I'm sure it's a great travel place," Grumbles said.

Grumbles added that though he has not yet used the travel aspect of the business, he looks forward planning a trip with the company.

The Departure Lounge has 12 active travel advisors to help plan and schedule patron's trips. The business also is a part of the Virtuoso network of travel agencies, which Waldon said allows his company to provide additional deals and savings when planning a trip.

"We'll help anyone with any type of travel," Waldon said. "...Our focus is to help people and inspire travel. For those who are just starting off on their traveling days and if they want to start off with a day trip to San Antonio or the Hill Country, we're going to do our best to help them. For those who have traveled around the world 14 times and are looking for some new, exotic option, we'll help them as well."

For more information on Departure Lounge, visit www.departurelounge.com.