My friend Ali is an avid caver and a member of the National Speleological Society. She knows how to navigate the world beneath the one you and I walk on each day. When she offered to guide a caving trip for me and a couple of our most adventurous friends, I said yes before I could form the thoughts to talk myself out of it.
America's Suburbs: A Critique & A Love Letter
I have mixed feelings about the car-dependent suburbs of America. I wish they were more walkable, community-driven, and diverse. At the same time, I have a deep nostalgia for Suburbia because it was my world for the first 19 years of my life.
What I Actually Spent on Travel This Quarter: Q1 of 2026
This post is a full breakdown with the honest numbers behind my winter travels. This month I completed two trips and purchased my flights for a third.
32 Reasons to Unplug: A Birthday Weekend in the Woods
I planned an entire Dave-centric weekend, complete day-hiking, a wooded cabin, the best burger in West Virginia, and two nights to play as many board games as he wanted.
How to Have a Car-Free Vacation in North America
Biking to brunch!? What a radical idea!
This post is for people like me: The 40% of Americans who can’t ditch their car today but are curious about what a different kind of life could unlock. Maybe, after your car-free vacation, you’ll return home a little more convinced that freedom from cars is worth building toward on a nationwide scale.
How Airlines Turned Discomfort Into a Core Business
POV: You’re crammed in the window seat with a full bladder and a grumbling stomach :’)
I am not a tall person. At five feet and one inch, I am an objectively compact traveler. I’m the size of person who airlines should theoretically have no trouble accommodating. Yet, on a recent two-hour flight, I found myself crammed into a window seat so restricted that shifting my weight felt like an act of violence against my neighbor.
The Best Movies To Indulge Your Wanderlust
Promo posters for the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty were designed by the creative agency ARSONAL
I’m all too familiar with a restless feeling, the one that has me scrolling through flight deals or daydreaming about cobblestone streets during my workday. Wanderlust doesn’t care about practical constraints like budgets or PTO.
I often find solace in movies. Iconic travel films, as with all great modes of storytelling, help me remember the weight of a backpack on my shoulders and the salty air smell of a faraway foreign coast.
I Flew Across the Country to Be Boring
Fisherman’s Wharf, on the northern waterfront, offers views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and a resident colony of sea lions.
When you travel as much as I do, there’s a persistent pressure to maximize every destination. I feel the need to see everything a city has to offer because, well, I’m a travel blogger. I’m supposed to come back to you with stories, with beautiful photos, with proof that a city is worth visiting.
But my trip to San Francisco was different. I simply rested within its labyrinth of alleyways and found the space to breathe.
What Radicalized Me
I had been taught to fear the unknown, as many Americans are taught. I was told to trust a higher power (be it God or my government or both) in spite of my own intuition. I was scared to make a mistake, to be perceived as ignorant. I was ridiculed for existing beyond the norm, even when the norm was harmful. All these factors made it tempting to stay put and avoid any experience that might humble me.
How to Curate Authentic Travel Experiences
I visited Lisbon, Portugal, during the colder off-season and still had an amazing time.
After nearly a decade of traveling, I’ve learned the art of curating authentic experiences. So read on as I outline 5 steps everyone can take to go deeper than the surface-level tourism of any place.