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16 Oct '11

SailRock01

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I'm a New York native who left my home to explore the world slowly and thoroughly. I’m just a little obsessed with photography, scuba diving, and reading guidebooks to countries I have no immediate plans to visit.

Continued from previous post ✨ 2018 Part II: So

Continued from previous post ✨

2018 Part II: Sold out the trip and launched two more. On our inaugural @wanderwomenretreats everyone got norovirus, we very nearly lost thousands of dollars in rented camera equipment, and everyone had the best time ever, with almost every guest becoming a repeat customer. Packed up my Thailand apartment and moved back to Upstate New York after learning my mom was dying of terminal cancer. Tried and mostly failed to balance being a present daughter and a business owner. Cancelled and postponed blog projects and retreats and started living off my savings while caretaking took the lead.

2019: Lost two dear young friends, my beloved dog, my angel mother. Asked the universe why, a lot. Channeled grief and rage into a schedule so wild I didn’t have to feel. Hired my first year-round retreats employee, accepted my first main stage solo speaking gig at a conference, scheduled blog campaigns, started planning for a caretaker retreat scholarship, and launched or had in progress over a dozen trips. Poised myself for my first six figure year.

2020: Y’all know. Moving on.

2020 Part II: JK! Lost almost all income streams and had almost all blog contracts cancelled as the world shut down. Cancelled and rescheduled ten million trips what felt like ten million times. Cried ten million tears. Experience the deepest loneliness I’ve ever known. Dealt with the most severe online criticism I’ve ever faced. Brushed myself off and launched digital retreats and workshops that allowed me to not cut back on hours for any of my staff or contractors. Cried some more. Asked the universe why, a lot.

2021: Staying humble and grateful as I try to get my groove back and my income back on track. Trying to grow my team. Trying to build my businesses into a force for good. Trying to be patient with this mercurial world.

2022: Great question 💛

Reading your comments on my last post truly moved me, and I started working on something… my first blog post back after months of an unintentional break.

It would be a shame to end the story on a cliffhanger.

Working on the next chapter. Thanks for being such a big part of the plot.

Love you guys.

2006: Stumbled on my first RTW travel blog, ran to

2006: Stumbled on my first RTW travel blog, ran to my mom’s room with my 💻 to show her. Felt truly stunned by the discovery that travel existed in long form.

2009: Sent my parents into a tailspin booking a solo ticket to Thailand at 19. Fell for a dive instructor at a beach bar on a little island with crappy internet and let him sweet talk me into doing my Open Water course. Changed my return ticket to backpack through Malaysia with a mysterious stranger, resulting in a strongly worded email from my mother about the movie Brokedown Palace. Returned to New York broke AF and started a travel blog.

2011: Turned down a job offer and left my amazing Brooklyn circle to move back to that crappy internet island, and started working glamorous odd jobs such as flyering and bartending for a lucrative $2-3USD per hour. Did a lot of deep dial-up speed Google searches on “how to cure homesickness.” Developed skin fungus, crashed my 🛵, made the closest knit group of friends I’ve ever known.

2012: Ditched the cheating boyfriend and signed up for Muay Thai to channel my rage. Got a job in underwater video with a wonderful small biz, after the big one on the island told me my work was not up to par. Worked on commission long twelve hour days to sometimes make just $30, but never didn’t make at least one sale. Fell in love with life spent below the surface.

2013: Went on my first press trip, became a divemaster, won a grant from @wdhof and hit $3K in income a month, plenty to pay rent and live like a 👑 in Thailand.

2015: Spoke at my first two conferences. Signed a deal to become one of PADI’s first Ambassadivers. Realized IG was becoming a big deal and I was never going to shine here the way I did on my blog; started thinking about pivoting to products.

2017: Attempted launching my first branded product collaboration with an insanely talented jeweler who created a beautiful product. Flopped on my end, netting very close to $0.

2018: Became a 🧘🏼‍♀️ teacher and shyly showed a friend the business plan I’d been working on for nearly a year — @wanderwomenretreats. Despite my fears, pressed publish on my dream trip to the island that started it all.

To be continued ✨

Mexico, mi amor 🙌🏻 Last month I found mysel

Mexico, mi amor 🙌🏻

Last month I found myself back in Tulum once again for a little ten day trip that was half work, half play!

First up, I rented an incredible apartment in town and spent five days working on my two upcoming retreats to this region — a @wanderwomenretreats freediving trip 🤿 and a @highflyingretreats aerial trip with @brennabradbury! 🎪

Then I moved down to the beach and spent five days living the life celebrating my hometown bestie’s bachelorette! 🍾

While I have sooooo much more of Mexico to explore, it is always a great feeling to have a little base somewhere that feels like home! Somewhere where you catch up with friends (love ya @tulummermaid + @v.lvet) literally run into people you know on the street (hi @erikbrown13!) and have your fave street food vendors (who saw my churro seeking saga on stories 😅).

Originally I really wanted to add on a few days and go somewhere new like Coba or Puerto Morelos or Mahahual but alas — it’s a super busy year so I’ll save that for later!

I have a bunch of Tulum posts headed your way on everything from my tips for a Tulum bachelorette to what’s going on with the current travel restrictions there! However, I’m also taking requests — let me know if there’s anything you want to know about Mexico’s most infamous beach town! (Or is that Acapulco 😅)

Photo dump from a week in Philly ✌🏻 When my

Photo dump from a week in Philly ✌🏻

When my bestie @juicy_janine headed back home to Pennsylvania from Thailand with my godson in tow, I couldn’t wait to squeeze them both! Luckily my sister @oliviabaackes generously offered her house for us to crash in — and I mean, there was a toddler in the mix, so I do mean crash 😅

Kai is a pretty cute if unproductive coworker and the days passed quickly with us in front of our laptops during the day and drinking wine on the stoop and catching up on a million conversations and laughs at night!

We were very low key but I have two new recs from this trip — @barpoulet for incredible fried chicken and champagne (omg the lavender honey!) and @dizengoff_philly for a taste of Israel in Rittenhouse (bok choy hummus omg).

When those cuties headed back to the suburbs, another one arrived — @brennabradbury came to see me and check out the amazing aerial acts at @fabrikaphilly. It was such a fun night out! (And a hilariously bad morning the next day.)

The week seriously FLEW by and before I knew it, I was saying adios to Philadelphia and hopping the Amtrak to Newark for my flight down to Mexico!

I’m feeling a burst of inspiration to catch up on my Insta more so stay tuned, lots of gorgeous Tulum posts headed your way! If you don’t wanna miss one, be sure to turn on post notifications for this account. It’s the best way to beat this wacky algorithm and see the stuff you wanna see ☺️

Is summer just racing by for anyone else?!

I 🤍 (and miss you!) New York Just about a mont

I 🤍 (and miss you!) New York

Just about a month ago I spent a farewell weekend in New York, knowing, or at least thinking at the time, that it would be my last few days in the city until October — four month away from the place I’ve been spending much (most?) of my time lately.

It was an epic send off, and if you scroll to the very end you’ll see New York really left it’s mark on me! 😅

It was a crazy three nights where I had a fun reunion with the high school crew, took my niece who just moved to the city for a fun boozy brunch, and then had an epic New York night that started on a Williamsburg hotel rooftop and wound around to a Puerto Rican dive bar and landed at a Red Hook rave.

Running on fumes, and forever running late, I told my Lyft driver the next morning that I would get them whatever they wanted if they drove me through a McDonald’s drive through en route to the train station 😂 only to find all day breakfast was cancelled by 2020 (how many petitions must I sign?!) 😫 So at this point I’m both shaky hungry AND super late, and as I ran like a psycho person to not miss my train to Philadelphia, I tripped on my oversized suitcases and fell down the escalator, with one of my bags and I tumbling down to the train platform together.

Half a dozen bruises, an escalator rash a sprained labrum and a bruised rib later, I still have a daily reminder of why I need to slow the F down every time I try to raise my right arm above shoulder height 😅

I thought about just writing a glossy tribute to New York but I think tripping down a subterranean tunnel and giving myself an injury that will take months to heal after a three day fun bender is mucho more appropriate caption.

New York I love you you chaotic twisted city that’s finally back to never sleeping 🙌🏻 See ya in October… or maybe sooner 🙃

Diving in… to the future of coral conservation 💦🌎🐙

Did you know…

• Coral is an animal?
• Although reefs have survived the last five mass extinctions, they can no longer keep up with the speed of global environmental changes caused by human activity, and we have lost more than half of the world’s coral reefs in the last 30 years?
• Without immediate action, all shallow water coral reefs are projected to vanish by the end of this century?
• Coral reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion, provide jobs for local communities, are a source of food and new medicines, and over half a billion people depend on reefs for food, income, and protection?

Pretty intense, huh? And yet, in the last few years as I’ve taken my own deep dive into coral restoration and visited projects, attended seminars and taken courses all over the world from Thailand to Florida to the Dominican Republic and beyond, I have found myself wildly inspired by the spirit of dedication, creativity, and collaboration in this field.

On my recent trip to DR, I was lucky enough to dive the coral nursery of @waveofchange with Macarena Blanco, the young female director of science at @iberostar — brava for every part of that sentence!

They use extremely similar methods to @coralrestorationfoundation, who I am sharing my current retreat with on my stories right now.

It’s unclear what the future holds for our beautiful oceans. And I’m so glad that so many brilliant people far wiser than I are dedicating their energy to answering that question. But I do feel quite sure that the first step is for every single one of us to start to care!

And whatever gets you there, from visiting a coral lab at your hotel on vacation to watching an eye-opening Netflix documentary to reading this post on Instagram, we’re one tiny step closer.

Love you, ocean blue!

Vibe check post ✨ How’s everyone feeling about

Vibe check post ✨ How’s everyone feeling about travel right now? 
I’ve had some crazy highs lately, times I think wow, we made it! I’m back to running @wanderwomenretreats that fill my heart with joy, I’m back to working campaigns like this one where I was able to bring my lil sis along like the old days, I’m back to a packed calendar of back-to-back flights and adventures and work and opportunities.

But, there are plenty of reminders that the world is still healing and not everywhere is as lucky as we are to be relatively open and operating. One of my bachelorettes and one of my weddings were rescheduled for next year. Israel just announced that they were not opening August 1st as planned, canceling my trip there in a few weeks and really bruising my heart in the process. And I’m on the brink of cancelling my own birthday trip for this year, centered around Dia De Los Muertos, as it seems unlikely Oaxaca will move forward with full-blown celebrations.

I do think I’m going to stick to my plan to go to England pre-retreats, though I am bummed they haven’t lifted the quarantine for vaccinated travelers. Oh well, I can spend five days snuggling with my friends (your hosts don’t have to quarantine with you, luckily) and then have a few days of freedom!

I’m also really in the thick of booking my two and a half weeks in France post-retreats, and just manifesting that it stays open-armed! (Tips for Nice, St. Tropez, Languedoc, Narbonne, Champagne, Paris… hit me up!)

Mostly I am beside myself with excitement over my Middle East retreats. So many friends I can’t wait to hug, foods I can’t wait to eat, and incredible guests I can’t wait to meet!

I guess, overall, I’m just riding the waves, staying flexible, seeing what happens, and while I do often find myself wistful where the days when the world seemed limitless, I know I’m happiest when I focus on what’s right in front of me in the moment.

Now, tell me what’s up with you and your travels!

Let’s create a #WaveofChange! 🌊 I’ve been

Let’s create a #WaveofChange! 🌊

I’ve been in the tourism industry long enough to have gotten pretty jaded about hotels claims to be “eco” — cool, you don’t change the towels every day.

So, I found myself almost giddy as I started researching the @WaveofChange movement — @Iberostar’s commitment to going green, based on three pillars: total elimination of single-use plastics, responsible fish consumption, and effort to improve coastal health.

The progressive they’ve made already is incredible, but their long term goals are truly impressive:

♻️ Single-use plastic free by 2020, waste free with 0KG to landfills by 2025, and carbon neutral by 2030!

🐙 Seafood consumption is 100% responsible by 2025!

🐠 All ecosystems that surround Iberostar properties are improving in ecological health alongside profitable tourism by 2030!

Can you imagine if every all-inclusive on earth committed to serving food and beverages without single use plastics? Can you imagine if every restaurant on earth committed to MSC and ASC* certification standards? Can you imagine if every multi-National chain committed to carbon neutrality?

This wave would become a tsunami ✨

Grateful for spending a #WorldOceansDay planting mangroves, cleaning a beach, diving a coral nursery (that’s a post of its own!) and being inspired by truly industry disrupting ideas.

Thanks, #iberostar 🙏🏻

What’s most important to YOU when choosing accom

What’s most important to YOU when choosing accommodation?
Location, price, amenities, design, ethos?

I loved the design of this modern, beachside resort, one of many in the @iberostar complex in Bávaro, Dominican Republic!

When it comes to hotels, I look for bright, modern, and fun! (And TBH, adults-only if possible 😅) I’m very much inspired by my surroundings and have been known to take the art off the walls in an Airbnb if I don’t like it 🤣

Luckily the rooms here left me smitten! 💛

I feel like luxury level is less of a deal breaker for me. I’d rather stay at a fun + funky design hostel than a fancy but stuffy luxury resort. I’m just always looking for something unique!

What’s your big decision maker when it comes to searching for the perfect place to stay?

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