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What does Trout Point Lodge in East Kemptville, Nova Scotia have in common with Copenhagen’s Noma, the world’s best restaurant in 2011?

Both have been selected as members of Departures magazine’s ultra-exclusive Top 10 “foodie getaway” list of global culinary experiences worth planning a trip around.

Trout Point was cited by the upscale travel tome, a sister to Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure magazines, for its Nova Scotia Seafood Cooking School.

Lodge co-owner Vaughn Perret said he was humbled and honoured by the recognition.

“We’re very happy to be included in that grouping,” he said Thursday. “It’s quite an honour but I try not to think about it. It doesn’t change what we do.”

What the lodge does is offer a rustic but refined getaway on the banks of the Tusket River adjacent to the Tobeatic Wilderness Area that includes gourmet cooking classes, sky safaris, hiking, kayaking or simply enjoying the enveloping peace and quiet.

Trout Point is the only Nova Scotia member of Relais & Chateaux, an exclusive collection of 480 of the finest hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. The log and stone lodge has been recognized by Relais & Chateaux, which was established in France in 1954, for its best practises.

And it will be cited at an upcoming Relais & Chateaux conference in Lisbon for its innovative sky safari program, which takes guests out under the night skies to star gaze with the aid of a Saint Mary’s University astronomer — and a glass of wine.

“This is quite an honour as well,” said Perret, who co-owns the lodge with Charles Leary.

The sky safaris are designed to “extend the natural day” and capitalize on the dramatically dark skies in the Kejimkujik area, he said. “It’s very exciting.”

Perret, like Leary, is a transplanted American. He said the lodge’s international success demonstrates what the province can do.

“We live in a wonderful province with great people,” he said, noting the staff that makes the lodge work are from the local community.

“I think we do things really well and a lot of people in the community could do equally as well.”

Perret suggested that provincial tourism initiatives too often focus on chasing after outdated concepts.

“With the right encouragement, this province has extraordinary potential,” he said. “You need to understand what the rest of the world wants and what the rest of the world is doing.”

Trout Point has no televisions or in-room telephones and asks guests to sign a waiver restraining them from posting reviews or videos of their visits online.

The lodge won Parks Canada’s Sustainable Tourism Award in 2007.

The National Geographic Society singled out Trout Point’s culinary programs in its worldwide Geotourism Challenge: The Power of Place.