Hello! Unlike many avid travelers, I didn’t grow up with an urge to explore. Family vacations were always visits to far-flung relatives in small Midwestern towns. I can recall my father barking, “No stopping for the bathroom until I need gas!” Perhaps yours did the same.

Later, as a young adult making my own leisure-time decisions, all I needed was a beach. Any beach. My ultimate goal was a year-round suntan. Then I was talked into a group tour that sounded like the ultimate beach vacation: the French and Italian Riviera. It wasn’t, but it was so much more!

On that first “real” trip, I strolled the harbor in Portofino, one of the most romantic spots on earth. I played slot machines in Monaco and bought a darling cashmere twinset at an outdoor market in San Remo. And I developed a passion for trompe l’oeil, especially on building facades. That was the beginning of my explorations.

So far I have ventured to more than 40 countries, territories and colonies. Whenever I don’t have a trip or two in the works, I develop a condition I call “itchy feet”—curable only by an itinerary. I prefer cushy beds and recognizable foods, so I’m a bit of a diva. But I’ve been up in a hot air balloon over the Masai Mara, and I swam with whale sharks in Cancun. I don’t mind climbing 300 stairs to, say, the Basilique de Sacre Coeur in Montmartre or the Potemkin Steps in Odessa.

What’s more, after 25 years as a full-time freelance features journalist, I’ve transitioned to travel writing. This site shares my discoveries as well as my portfolio of published travel stories. I hope you’ll follow along–I’ve got many more places to go. 

And if you’re a CVB, tour operator or editor reading this, I’m for hire!

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