About Travel Like a Local®: Vermont

People ask me a lot of questions. Where should we eat? Where should we stay? Is that place actually worth the drive? What would you order? What town should we visit? Who should I hire? What would you do?

I take it as a compliment, although it probably means I’m both opinionated and not particularly shy about telling you what I think.

I also love sharing what I know. I believe deeply in coming from a place of abundance. Also, I give freely of my time, ideas, energy and expertise because I’ve always believed that together we can achieve more. I’m the person who spends entirely too much time finding the perfect Christmas gift, sends you the restaurant recommendation before you remember to ask for it and genuinely gets excited when I can connect someone with a person, place or experience I think they’ll love.

That instinct to share is a big part of how Travel Like a Local® began.

I’ve Always Wanted to Find the Best of Wherever I Am

Travel has always been one of my favorite ways to experience life, but I’ve never been particularly interested in checking destinations off a list.

I want to know a place.

Put me in a new town, city or state and I immediately want to figure out where to eat, what to order, which road to drive, where to stay and what experience I would never find if I simply followed the standard tourist itinerary. For years, I obsessively researched trips, read reviews and sought out recommendations from people who actually lived in the places I was visiting. Then I contributed my own reviews because when I found something great, I wanted other people to know about it.

Eventually, I realized I was doing the exact same thing at home.

Instead of automatically heading to Maine, Boston or somewhere farther away whenever I had a free weekend, I started looking more closely at Vermont. I took different roads. Tried new restaurants. Stayed at inns an hour from home. Visited breweries and farms. Wandered through general stores. Found swimming holes, bakeries, mountain views and tiny towns I hadn’t given enough attention to before.

In 2014, that curiosity became Travel Like a Local®: Vermont.

I started it because I wanted to find the best of Vermont and share what I discovered. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined then what it would become or the community that would grow around it.

More than a decade later, I’m still exploring and this brand, Travel Like a Local®: Vermont, has become my life blood – and my greatest passion and honor.

I’m a Champion for the Vermont Way of Life

As much as I love traveling the world, one of my favorite parts of every trip is coming home to Vermont. I love this state not because I think it’s perfect, but because of the way Vermont reminds me to live – and the brand behind it all.

Even stick season has become one of my favorite times of year because it forces that slowdown. There’s something about the wood smoke, bare trees, shorter days and increasing coziness that feels like permission to stay closer to home for a while.

I’m drawn to simple pleasures in general: the smell of wood smoke, lapping waves, mountain vistas, lakes and the ocean, sunrises and sunsets, cozy slippers, fresh air, a perfectly crafted latte and a meal good enough that I’m still talking about it three days later.

That doesn’t mean I fit every Vermont stereotype. I’m not a particularly strong hiker. I never learned to ski. I’m probably the least handy person you’ll ever meet, despite constantly dreaming up another project.

Turns out, there are a lot of ways to be a Vermonter.

My Career Hasn’t Exactly Followed a Straight Line

I’ve always had a lot of energy. I like to say I’m naturally caffeinated, which is convenient considering I also really love coffee.

For a long time, I channeled that energy into climbing the corporate ladder. I built a career in marketing, communications, leadership and business in varied industries from food and wellness to educational technology and real estate, eventually realizing I was much more interested in building a life than continuing to collect titles.

Today, my professional life is intentionally difficult to summarize in a single sentence.

I’m a Vermont Realtor helping people buy and sell homes across the state. I’m a marketing and business consultant who loves helping businesses figure out what makes them different and how to communicate it. I’m a writer and content creator. I manage a popular Vermont wedding band. I’m an entrepreneur. And through Travel Like a Local®: Vermont, I get to explore the state I love while championing the people and businesses that make it worth exploring.

Real estate has also given me another reason to see every corner of Vermont. Rather than simply visiting all 252 Vermont towns, I’ve set myself a slightly more ambitious goal: I want to sell a home in every one of them.

I want to sell a home in every one of them.

For me, real estate isn’t separate from my love of Vermont. They’re deeply connected. I get to help people experience what it means to call this state home while constantly learning more about the communities, landscapes and lifestyles that make each part of Vermont different.

Before All of That, I Had Some Pretty Great Jobs

My résumé makes a little more sense when you realize I’ve always been interested in experiences.

I’ve been a breakfast cook, innkeeper, bartender and cocktail waitress at a luxury dude ranch in Montana (Triple Creek Ranch if you’re curious…). During college, I dug clams and picked blueberries in Downeast Maine. I’ve worked in publishing and marketing, led teams and businesses, built brands and eventually created businesses of my own.

I studied art history, which probably explains at least some of my obsession with beautiful places, old buildings and the stories behind what I’m looking at.

And writing has always been part of my life. It is quite literally in my genes. I come from a family of dictionary editors, children’s book writers and journalists. I’ve spent much of my professional career writing for other people and businesses, and now I get to spend more time writing for myself, too.

I’m even working on my first fiction book, a romance set in Vermont, because apparently I needed another project.

I Believe Life Is for Experiencing

If there’s one idea connecting all the seemingly unrelated parts of my life, it’s this:

I want to experience as much of it as I can. I want to eat the thing I’ve never tried. Stay somewhere unusual. Meet someone whose life looks completely different from mine. Take the road I’ve never driven. Learn the history behind an old building. Watch the sunrise. Jump in the lake. Order the special. Go somewhere simply because someone told me, “You have to see this.”

My big why in life is collecting new experiences, not things.

That curiosity is probably why I’ve changed careers, started businesses, traveled so much, explored Vermont relentlessly and continue to say yes to things even when I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.

I am here to experience it all. Preferably with good food along the way.

For the record, I could probably survive indefinitely on Caesar salad, pizza and chocolate chip cookies.

Generosity Is a Big Part of Who I Am

For all my ambition and energy, what matters most to me is people.

My love language is acts of service, with a healthy dose of quality time. I love helping, connecting, recommending, solving problems and making someone’s day a little easier or more interesting.

I believe there is enough opportunity to go around. Enough business. Enough ideas. Enough success. Enough room at the table.

That philosophy shows up in the way I work, the way I approach my businesses and the way I’ve built Travel Like a Local®: Vermont. When I find something wonderful, my instinct isn’t to keep it to myself. It’s to tell someone about it.

Maybe that’s a restaurant that deserves a line out the door. Maybe it’s a small inn someone has poured their life into. Maybe it’s a Vermont maker creating something extraordinary. Maybe it’s a beautiful corner of the state that makes someone stop and appreciate where they are.

Sharing those things gives them more value, not less.

A Few More Things About Me

I’m ambitious, curious, opinionated, generous with what I know and almost always planning whatever comes next.

But I’ve also learned that some of the best experiences aren’t the biggest ones.

Sometimes they’re sitting outside with coffee in the morning. Driving a Vermont dirt road with nowhere you urgently need to be. Finding a restaurant you know you’ll return to before you’ve even finished dinner. Watching the mountains change color. Sitting beside the water. Spending time with people you love.

The older I get, the more I realize that a good life is made up of those simple pleasures.

And That Brings Me Back to Travel Like a Local®: Vermont

What started in 2014 as a personal project to document the Vermont places I loved has become something much bigger than I imagined.

Travel Like a Local®: Vermont is for travelers planning their first trip, locals who want to rediscover their own backyard and Vermont dreamers who simply can’t get enough of this place.

But it is also deeply personal.

Every restaurant I recommend, road I drive, inn I stay in, business owner I meet and experience I share becomes another piece of my own relationship with Vermont.

More than a decade into this project, I still haven’t run out of places I want to see.

I don’t think I ever will. And that’s the point of Travel Like a Local®: Vermont.

So whether you’ve lived in Vermont your entire life, just moved here, visit every year or are sitting hundreds of miles away dreaming about your next trip, I’m glad you’re here.

I hope Travel Like a Local®: Vermont inspires you to try something new, support someone local, take a different road, slow down and notice where you are, and collect a few more experiences of your own along the way.

Because if I’ve learned anything from exploring Vermont, it’s that there’s almost always something worth discovering around the next corner.

Say hello

Tips to share, an idea for a review, or a question about Vermont? Write to me here and I’ll get back to you.

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