About Us

The short answer? Because I love travel!

In 1997 I begged my mom and dad to let me go on a study abroad program with my high school in Costa Rica. At 17 years old I hardly knew what I wanted to do with my life, but after my time in Costa Rica, I knew whatever it was I grew up to be had to involve traveling. Frequently.

It was another eight years before I traveled internationally again, and in 2005 that meant scrimping and saving massively to be able to take one or two international trips each year. I bought a timeshare and started traveling every May to Sint Maarten. That first international trip renewed my love of travel.

My first trip to Italy was with my friend Jess in 2006 and we both literally saved and planned for the trip for months. And nearly one year to the day later, I had saved up for another trip to Italy and France, this time with my mom.

I was hooked. I prayed for something- anything! – to bring me abroad. And then it finally happened in 2009. My dream to live in Italy finally came true when my ex-husband’s job took us to Italy. Parts of living in Italy were just as I had always imagined it would be; other parts were a complete cultural adjustment. It was a week after we moved to Italy that I started the blog, which was originally called Living in Italy and only on Blogspot, as a hobby and a way to keep our friends and family that we’d left behind in the US up to date on our new life. But I found I blogged a whole lot more about all the trips we were suddenly taking. A weekend could be a trip to other countries, like Austria, Germany and Switzerland. My location in northern Italy even afforded us the opportunity for day trips to nearby countries like Slovenia and Croatia.

As my country count began to grow, I found I was answering more and more questions about where to go, what to see, what to do and how to get there. I thought why not share this knowledge? A huge smile spread across my face as I considered how I could help even a handful of people to step beyond the same old things to see in do in the guide books and instead include some truly unique experiences in their travels.

It felt like a calling thanks to strangers that (for reasons I’ll never know when I look back on those old lame posts) read my blog. I built a website over about a week in the beginning of 2012. And here I are more than ten years later doing this professionally with far more readers and (I think) far better information.

I moved to Italy in 2009 for my ex-husband’s job. When his assignment in Italy ended in 2016, I wasn’t ready to return to the United States and had considered France as a place I would eventually like to live.

I came to Bordeaux for the first time in 2015 on a press trip with Viking River Cruises to write about their Chateaux, Rivers and Wine cruise and fell in love with Bordeaux. About six months later, I was planning a move to Bordeaux and was applying for my French visas. It was also a bit of a strategic business decision to move to Bordeaux, because at the time it still wasn’t on the radar of many American travelers. There wasn’t a lot of information online about what to do in Bordeaux in English. I could have moved somewhere else where there’s a bigger English-speaking expat community, like Paris, but it would have been nearly impossible for me to stand out from the crowd of writers and photographers already living in Paris.

I’m a professional travel blogger, and you can think of this website like a digital magazine. My brand, Luxe Adventure Traveler, is a registered company and I’m a full time entrepreneur in the travel space. I earn my living from my travel blog in a variety of ways like: ad revenue, commission through affiliate sales when you make purchases and book tours, flights and hotels through my affiliate links in our articles, licensing my photography, public speaking engagements and working on brand campaigns.

I wish we could keep my site ad free, but in order to keep my content free and have the freedom to create awesome content in line with my own travel style, ad revenue is an important piece of my overall revenue. If the ads really bother you that much, you can block them with a free ad blocker.

No. I work with a lot of destinations and brands, but only if I’m certain I’ll love them. Sometimes I’m paid a fee for certain deliverables like providing a specific number of photographs, creating a video or writing content for the brand in addition to a fully hosted trip. Sometimes I work with brands and destinations on an exchange of services basis, where the destination/brand has fully paid for the trip in order for me to be able to create content for my site. Most of the time I also just pay for my own travel and consider it an expense of running my business.

But no matter whether I’m traveling on someone else’s dime or my own, a lot of research goes in to the trip before hand. I have a certain travel style and always want to ensure my trips are a mix of luxury and adventure. Getting to know the local food, wine, beer and spirits are also really important to me so that’s an aspect I always make sure is present in our trips. And as Coco is always along for the adventure, I specifically seek out dog-friendly hotels, activities and restaurants.

Let’s get something straight: I never, ever travel for free. It’s not as easy as going on holiday and snapping some photos, then writing up a travel diary later. Traveling as media involves exhausting, grueling schedules. I’m working and that means dragging myself out of bed before the sunrise to get certain photos when the light is best and popular sites aren’t yet invaded with tourists. It means stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things I might not typically do in order to have first hand knowledge of that experience. It means eating things I might not normally eat to learn about local food. It means a packed schedule that is often non-stop from early morning to very late at night and includes touring hotels, interviewing proprietors and taking loads of notes all while photographing and creating video.

It’s a job and if it’s one you truly think you’re passionate about venturing in to, then I really recommend that you sit down and create a business plan from the start. Consider what you’ll name your travel blog carefully, because you won’t necessarily like traveling on a tight budget forever and the day will definitely come when you won’t be a twenty-something anymore.

I don’t offer any, but there are courses out there designed to teach you the aspects of running a travel blog as a business and you should really consider investing in one. Understanding how to design a website for usability and aesthetics, SEO (search engine optimization), social media marketing, photography and/or videography, writing, public relations and accounting are all skills you’ll need to master in order to run a success travel blog that generates an income you can comfortably live on.

It’s like starting any other business. There are start-up costs and you won’t turn a profit for at least a year. You need to reach minimum unique monthly visitor numbers to do things that generate revenue like joining an ad network, joining affiliate programs and working with brands.

That’s a question that is really tough for a lot of travel bloggers and travel writers to answer, because we travel an inordinate amount. But I do actually have a few favorites.

My top five are Iceland, France, the Caribbean (yes, this is more a region of the world but we love every island we’ve been to so far there), Seychelles and Jordan.

As much as I’d love to be an expert on every single country in the world, there’s still loads of countries I haven’t been to. At my last count, we’ve only visited somewhere around 60 countries to date.

If I’ve been there, I’ve probably written about it. I’ve got a handy Destinations page where you can see every country I’ve been to and browse through everything I’ve written about that country by clicking on the country from the interactive map. I honestly don’t keep any secrets! I’m there to research and bring back all the information to help you plan your own trip to <insert country> easier. Please start there.

Of course, I’m happy to answer questions you might have. But also keep in mind that I get hundreds of emails daily from readers planning trips and brands sharing their latest news. I also have a busy travel schedule and don’t always have time to respond to every email, comment and social media message as quickly as you might hope I will.

I’m not in the business of putting myself in unsafe situations and I certainly wouldn’t ever promote a destination I didn’t feel was safe.

That said, safety is relative. No matter whether you’re running out to the grocery store in your home town or traveling abroad, it’s important to be aware of your surroundings. Bad things can happen anywhere and it’s impossible to predict them.

I will say that I take the US State Department’s travel advisories and warnings with a huge grain of salt. Nearly all countries in Europe rank far higher and mostly in the top 50 of the safest countries as ranked annually by the Global Peace Index. The United States ranked 114th in terms of safety in the most recent Global Peace Index, just to give a little perspective.

I’m from Erie, Pennsylvania and Coco was born near Beaune in the Burgundy region of Frane.

I use several, actually. Primarily I use a Canon EOS 80D DSLR body with a . This camera body is lighter than our Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, but has a lot of similar capabilities for when I’m traveling on city breaks and has built-in wifi so I can easily connect to my iPhone and download photos from the camera or use my iPhones as a remote. The Canon EOS 5D Mark IV is much better suited for Northern Light and night sky photography though.

I also use a Canon Power Shot S90 with the Canon WP-DC35 underwater housing for snorkeling and scuba diving.

And I do drone photography and use both the DJI Mavic Pro and DJI Phantom 4. I use the Mavic Pro much more because it collapses down and is much easier to travel with.

Yes, yes I do.

And further more, depending on the country you’re traveling to, the airline agent checking you in for your international flight and the border control will also feel it’s a problem.

Many countries require that you have six months validity on your passport from your return ticket date. It’s not a gray area. It doesn’t matter what kind of mood the airline agent is in. It doesn’t matter what kind of mood border control is in. Airline agents will refuse to even check you in, and, if you somehow make it past one that just didn’t check close enough, you will be turned right around at the border. At your own expense.

Americans can check the entry requirements for every country in the world at travel.state.gov.

If you do run in to the situation in which you discover your passport is about to expire or you don’t have enough consecutive blank pages, you’ll need to expedite your passport. The State Department outlines what to do in life and death emergency situations, for traveling within 2-3 weeks and more.

They very well might.

Low cost airline gate agents in particular are notorious for their laser-eye like superpowers in spotting a bag that they just know won’t fit in that little metal measuring device that the airline didn’t install just for kicks and giggles. Budget airlines can operate on the cheap for a reason – they greatly reduce operating costs by running with the absolute minimum number of necessary ground staff, stripping out all non-essential services, adding more seats and flying only one type of aircraft.

That means that the staff knows their planes like they know the back of their hand. And a skeleton crew means higher stress in dealing with passengers, so that gate agent probably has reason to be crabby.

Want to avoid those ridiculously high fees for being forced to gate check your bag? There’s a very simple solution: read the airline’s baggage policy and ensure your bag meets the size and weight requirements. Including the wheels and handles, because those parts will need to fit in that awful metal measuring device should the gate agent tell you that you need to jam it down in there.

Every airline has their own baggage rules about how many bags you can carry on, the weight and size. But just to help you out, here are some of the popular ones we regularly answer questions about:

• RyanAir Baggage Allowance
• EasyJet Baggage Allowance
• Delta Baggage Allowance
• Icelandair Baggage Allowance

Frankly, low cost airlines aren’t always worth it if you need to travel with a load of stuff. The fees add up quickly when you need to start checking bags, so always price check both the regular airlines against low cost airlines when you’re planning your trip.

It sure could be, but the bigger problem with not having an IDP is if you’re pulled over.

Most countries do not recognize a US driver’s license as valid form of identification, but most will accept an IDP. And an IDP is just about the easiest travel document you can get and the cheapest to obtain.

Many car rental companies won’t ask for it when renting you the car and your friend may have told you they were never asked. But if you’re stopped by the police and asked to present your documents, you can risk fines up to hundreds of dollars.

Getting an IDP is really easy and only costs $15, so there’s no reason to risk not having it. Just print out this application form from AAA and visit their nearest office with two passport photos, your application, your valid US driver’s license and your payment. Congratulations! You will receive your IDP on the spot.

If you don’t have access to a AAA office near you, you can mail in your application with two passport photos each signed on the back, a copy front and back of your valid US driver’s license and a check or money order for $15. Mail it to the address on the application form. It takes 4-6 weeks to receive it when submitting your application by mail.

The most common one we hear about is receiving a ticket for not having a vignette. A vignette is a mandatory road tax sticker that is valid for a certain period of time and is used in several European countries on motorways.

Some vignettes, like in Switzerland, are only sold for the calendar year and the car rental company may include the vignette with the rental. But, just as it is your responsibility to know entry requirements for countries you plan to travel to, it is also your responsibility to know the rules of the road in countries you plan on driving in.

Toll Tickets is a great website for verifying vignettes, emission stickers and any other requirements like compulsory snow chains during specified time periods and safety vests and flares being present in the car.

Just because you didn’t check that everything that was supposed to be in the car actually was there when you pulled off the car rental lot, doesn’t make the rental car company responsible for any fines you incur when you get pulled over. And “I didn’t know” doesn’t fly with foreign police.