I’m a traveler who explores the world with the curiosity of a journalist because I’ve been one for 20 years. I’ve let my career, curiosity and wanderlust take me to 47 U.S. states, 67 countries, six continents and counting.
I’m the founder of this website and a contributing writer to publications including Travel+Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, The Washington Post and Fodor’s Travel. I am the lead author of Lonely Planet Iceland’s 13th edition and a contributor to Lonely Planet New York City’s 13th edition, and Lonely Planet Pocket Reykjavik & Southwest Iceland.
I’m currently based in Chicago, but I have roots in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Texas. I’ve also lived in London, England; Salt Lake City, Utah, and Appleton, Wisconsin. I’m a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Texas at San Antonio and studied abroad at the London School of Economics.
This is the second time I’ve lived in Chicago, and as much as I hate cold winters I really have come to love this city. This is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own distinct vibe. As a travel writer, that makes for endless inspiration. As a resident, I love the variety of neighborhood festivals on Chicago’s summer calendar. You can find out my favorites in this interview I did with apartmentguide.com.
One of the highlights of my career has been contributing to the 11th edition of Lonely Planet Chicago, due out in January. I tell you everything you need to know about Chicago’s live music and theater scenes, reveal my favorite independent shops and let you in on some of the city’s best bars and restaurants. It was a rewarding project, and I can’t wait to see it in print.
In previous professional lives, I covered the 2008 global economic crisis for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, chronicling the bailouts of major investment banks, automakers, even a few countries.
As a local newspaper reporter for the San Antonio Express-News in San Antonio, Texas, I covered the evolution of manufacturing from San Antonio to the the southern U.S. border. I wrote about the evacuation after Hurricane Katrina and about economic development in one of the fastest growing regions of the U.S.
I’ve also worked as an editor for Yahoo Finance in New York and headed up audience development for Business Insider and Bloomberg.
Whatever my day job in journalism, I’ve always found travel stories along the way. While covering a G7 meeting in Scotland, for example, I wrote a guide to Edinburgh for The Wall Street Journal. As a head of audience development for Business Insider, I wrote about why Portugal is the perfect solo travel destination. And when I wasn’t editing for Yahoo Finance, I was writing stories like 7 Museums for 7 Days in Amsterdam.
My wanderlust—like my curiosity about the world around me—runs deep. I launched Travel with Meena because I’ve been able to make travel a way of life for myself, and I’m better because of it. Travel is something I’ve been enamored with as long as I can remember and probably related to the amount of time I spent watching Carmen Sandiego zip around the world when I was a kid.
In the years since, I’ve road tripped across the U.S., traveled Europe by rail and river boat, flown all around the world, sailed several seas and learned how to move about the planet as a petite woman of color. I’ve done things that have surprised myself, like scaling my first via ferrata in Alaska.
Through this site, I hope to help other people make travel a way of life. In the process, I’ll center the stories of travelers of color too often missing from the conversation—mine included. I’ll share actionable insights for your travels from my on-the-ground research. I’ll introduce you to the most interesting travelers of color I meet along the way and to the places and experiences that are most meaningful to me.
I love good stories, great adventures and helping other people experience the world. Through Travel with Meena, I hope to inspire you to travel and to discover the magical places you never knew you were looking for.
Work with Meena
If you’re a journalist looking to interview me as a travel expert or a tourism board or hospitality business interested in collaborating with me on sponsored content, please write meena@travelwithmeena.com.