Where are you based?

I'm based north of San Francisco, about halfway between the city and the Napa and Sonoma valleys. I'm a California native, with family all over the northern half of the state, so I'm familiar with many areas of northern California. And my daughters live in Portland, Oregon, and Brooklyn, so I feel like a semi-resident of both those wonderful places I visit so often. I also make a practice of whisking them off to explore with me, and we've taken some amazing trips all over New York and Oregon, so lately I've been writing about those areas too.

What topics and places do you cover?

My background is classic journalism, with specialties in investigative journalism, science, and health reporting, so I am experienced in deep research and bring those interests into my travel writing. I also still cover health, mental health, science, and the environment for several publications. As a travel writer, I am best known for writing about the outdoors, active and adventure travel, national parks, wildlife, sustainable travel, and wellness. In recent years, I've also been writing a lot about history, archaeology, and culture/craft, including indigenous history and culture. I write about food, but primarily from a cultural standpoint, such as the backstories of traditional foods, the revitalization of native cuisines, etc. I'm not your go-to for coverage of new chefs, new menus, restaurant openings, and that sort of food writing. A lot of other people are great at that! The same goes for wine - I don't consider myself a wine writer per se, and don't feel qualified to review wines, but I write about wineries a fair amount in the context of wine country destination travel. I also like to write about specific wines with interesting histories, innovative sustainability efforts by vineyards and wineries, and winemakers with interesting backstories.

What outlets do you usually pitch (and write for)?

I write for a lot of different magazines, including National Geographic, AARP, various AAA magazines, The Points Guy, Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian, Afar, Fodor's, and Sierra. Some of these I write for frequently, and some less regularly, and as many other writers have noted, my publications frequently change due to the comings and goings of editors. I am always working actively to cultivate new editorial relationships, which may take some back and forth. So one thing to consider is that I may have publications that I am actively pitching, and editors who are responding to my pitches, even if you don't see clips in Muckrack yet for that publication. 

I have my own website, www.Health-Conscious-Travel.com, which I've managed for a long time but kept in the background. Now, with readers turning more often to personalized recommendations from writers they trust, I'm focusing on my website more, which allows me to write about trips and topics that I really care about but haven't found a home for. My bios for many of the major magazines I write for link directly to www.Health-Conscious-Travel.com, so readers who like my stories in AARP, The Points Guy, etc., can follow me there. 

Are you in-house or freelance (or both)?

I am entirely freelance and have been for more than 20 years. I work full-time and fully support myself as a journalist without additional income, so that determines the types of stories I write and, to some extent, the publications I write for. 

What is your approach to press trips?

I very much appreciate media trip opportunities. Like many full-time freelance journalists, my budget does not allow for much self-financed travel, and I would not be able to take the trips that generate my best stories without the generous support of my PR and destination friends. I am quite selective, basing my decisions partly on personal interest, but also on whether I feel there is strong potential to place stories in my regular outlets. I do not guarantee specific coverage under any circumstances, as I have found from long experience that it can backfire on everyone - journalist, PR company, DMO, and editor. Life and editorial needs are just too unpredictable! That said, it is not worth my time to take trips and not place stories, so I work very hard to place stories, and my track record is very good. Also, if it's a destination I haven't visited before, I will find my story ideas ON the trip - anything I come up with ahead of time is likely to be too general to interest my editors. Occasionally, something gets in the way - a destination suffers a change that makes it less attractive to editors, destination coverage becomes over-saturated, too many stories come out on a certain place or trend - but even then, I wait it out. I've published stories as much as three years after a trip if the world comes around to being interested again! 

I'm taking more individual press trips than ever before, because they work so much better for my specific interests and story angles. Most people don't want to hike as far as I do, or go see every quirky, historic site in a town! And if I can bring someone with me, that makes my stories more relatable to readers, because a lot of people travel with partners, friends, kids, and dogs. One thing that comes up a lot with these is timeliness - I'm often trying to plan them on short notice, especially if it's a destination within driving distance or a short, inexpensive flight, because an editor has asked for a story with a three-week deadline, or a window has suddenly opened up in my calendar, or I learn about an event I want to attend. It's really helpful if we can set something up within a few weeks - if a DMO can't accommodate without six weeks' notice, I'm not going to make my deadline, and I may give up on the trip or story and choose something else.

What are your professional pet peeves?

The first is probably the same for everyone - the request or requirement for guaranteed coverage in order to join a media trip. I've missed out on some great trips because of this issue, and my editors have missed the opportunity for great stories. But I've found from hard experience that making promises is just a really bad idea for everyone. 

Another issue with media trips that has come up for me is changing itineraries or the inability to personalize them. If I'm taking a trip with the idea of placing wildlife or hiking stories, and the hike or wildlife excursion gets canceled, I'm going to have a much harder time pitching. And I don't write much about beer, for example, so I really don't need to be on the brewery tour - it would be beneficial to everyone if I were excused to go to the garden or wildlife preserve that others aren't up for. Lastly, the long, late-night dinners are sometimes a problem for me, since as a freelancer I'm likely working while I travel. It is really nice if someone is flexible enough to excuse me so I don't have to work til 2 am, then get up at 6 to be on the bus by 7, which happens way too often.

This is a minor one, but it would be nice if my in-box were not as clogged with emails about new menus at a hotel restaurant, or new hotel packages that are too holiday- or season-specific to have evergreen potential. But I do understand that it's a lot of work to put together news and story angles, and it's not always possible to select carefully from mailing lists when sending out information. And I'd rather receive mis-targeted press releases and emails than to drop off someone's list and miss a valuable story idea or trip invitation so this is not a big deal.

In your past professional life, you were …

I've pretty much always been a journalist, going back to editing and writing for my high school newspaper. After getting my master's in Journalism, I was a magazine editor for ten years, working my way up from Associate Editor to Executive Editor at a music magazine, a tech magazine, a parenting magazine, a health magazine, and San Francisco, the city magazine. That's where I started covering travel. I went freelance after leaving an executive editor position at a tech magazine and haven't looked back. But I've had stints writing reports and project summaries for an environmental engineering company and writing for numerous health and pharmacy companies, health insurers, and health tech companies. 

Where would you like to return to?

My ultimate repeat country is Türkiye - I've been there 5 times, and I still have many more regions I want to visit. I also love Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Poland, and would happily return to all. I have visited Guatemala and Costa Rica several times each and Mexico many, many times, and am always ready to go back.

What's on your bucket list?

Seeing the Egyptian pyramids, hopefully sailing down the Nile on a traditional boat. Antarctica, the Arctic, and the Galapagos, the more adventurous the trip, the better. Scotland, Georgia, Morocco, and going back to central Asia. I loved Uzbekistan and would love to go back and also visit the other 'Stans.

Domestically, there are many national parks and monuments I still need to visit, and I'd like to do more camper van road trips.

Where do you travel for fun?

I do a lot of camping and road-tripping around California, the West, and the Pacific Northwest, and I never tire of it. And glamping is the best invention ever! I love traveling with my fiancé and my daughters, and we've been to Crete, Poland, Türkiye, Greece, Belize, Ireland, Mexico, and Costa Rica together.

Your funniest (or most harrowing) travel story is …

Honestly, a couple is pretty dark - you can get yourself in some dicey situations doing adventure travel! A fun memory is a recent media trip to Ireland, in which my fiancé and I - both huge music lovers - had planned to sneak away to some pubs in the late evenings to catch traditional Irish music sessions. But other folks on the trip got wind and asked to join, and pretty sure we were dragging an entourage into some pretty crazy local pubs night after night! 

What advice would you give your younger professional self?

To be more proactive and self-directed in choosing the topics I wrote about. And to reach higher!  I left my editorial jobs with many strong connections, which have proved extremely valuable. But that did lead me to write primarily about what other people asked me to write about for a long time. It took me a long time to discover my interests in history and archaeology, for instance. I had so many magazines I dreamed of writing for, like National Geographic and Smithsonian, and I wish I'd had more confidence to pitch them sooner.

What nugget would you like to add that we haven't touched on?

I'd like to say that strong, long-term relationships between writers, editors, PR professionals, and DMOs are symbiotic and benefit everyone, and they're very valuable! I have destinations I've returned to again and again because my PR and DMO friends are so supportive and easy to work with, and others I've given up on because the process is just too cumbersome, slow, or requires commitments I'm not comfortable making. And I avoid writing about places I haven't been as much as possible. So if I've been somewhere and liked it, I'm going to draw from that for my "best" stories over and over again. 

How best should people contact you?

Find me on my TravMedia profile here. I'm terrible at noticing social media DMs, so those are likely to get slow responses.