About Jen Rose Smith / Jen Rose Smith

Vermont writer Jen Rose Smith covers adventure and wild places from a home base in the Green Mountains. Her travel writing has appeared in the Washington Post, National Geographic Travel, CNN Travel, American Way, Nexos, Condé Nast Traveler, Backpacker, AFAR, Rolling Stone, USA Today, and Outside Online. Jen is also the author of six travel guidebooks to Vermont and New England, including the award-winning New England Road Trips.

For CNN, Jen reports on issues of health, education, and childcare.

16th October 2020

Vermont wants tourism to return — safely. But will travelers play along?

For a state whose economy relies on tourist spending, that success in slowing the spread of the virus is an opportunity — a chance to recover income lost over the spring and summer.

Washington Post • 24th September 2020

A guide to urban stargazing: What you need to start exploring the skies close to home

Weary of puzzles and streaming, I posted on a neighborhood forum in the early pandemic: Anyone have an extra telescope?

National Geographic Travel • 11th September 2020

What is ‘friluftsliv’? How an idea of outdoor living could help us this winter

Get outside, says this Norwegian concept that promises to make the pandemic’s colder months more bearable.

Washington Post • 4th September 2020

Against a backdrop of soaring small boat sales, a solo kayak trip in Vermont

A camping trip by kayak was a quest for solitude in the waning summer.

Virtuoso Life Magazine • 27th August 2020

For Heaven's Sake

Worshiping the stars on Spain's volcanic Canary Islands

Lonely Planet • 10th August 2020

Travel's new threat is undertourism

The COVID-19 pandemic has cratered tourist numbers in every corner of the map, exacting a toll on livelihoods from Lesotho to Timor-Leste.

National Geographic Travel • 17th July 2020

Mass tourism has troubled Mallorca for decades. Can it change?

Long before overtourism became a pressing concern from Barcelona to Venice, the Balearic Islands were a byword for a travel industry run amok.

Washington Post • 11th July 2020

These epic travel disasters will take the edge off your wanderlust

Poring over picture postcards, or suppressing the urge to book a plane ticket? Try a bracing round of armchair discomfort, instead.

CNN • 9th July 2020

The fringe theories long attached to UNESCO sites

"The belief that aliens built the pyramids, or in fact any ancient monument, is deeply racist," Parcak says. It's no coincidence that alien theories focus on places home to black, brown and Indigenous people, she notes.

Morning Calm • 12th June 2020

Quebec's Sugar Season

Shin-deep snow blankets the Quebec forest in early March, but sugar-maker Pierre Faucher is dreaming of milder days.

Washington Post • 16th May 2020

With the pandemic shutting borders, digital nomads find it harder to roam

For Ziegler and some other digital nomads, coronavirus is exposing the enviable lifestyle’s precariousness.

Fodors Travel Guide • 20th May 2020

The Best Elvis in Vegas Is Having the Worst Time Right Now

Not even Las Vegas, legendary for a carefree spirit that entices strangers into swapping germs in nightclubs and hotel rooms, can swing through a pandemic.

EatingWell • 25th February 2020

Cyprus Is an Island Divided

Cyprus is a land of contrasts: jaw dropping beauty next to the rough reality of territorial disputes. But no matter whether Turkish or Greek, food traditions are a vital part of family, identity and pride.

Fodors Travel Guide • 11th September 2019

Adventure travelers are obsessed with this tiny patch of jungle

The Darién Gap is a wild and beautiful place that’s become a dangerous obsession for generations of travelers.

Outside Online • 20th December 2016

Sleeping Alone in the Woods While Female

When camping alone, I have a ritual that spans two or three nights. On the first evening, I stay up late with a novel, then half-sleep until sunrise, turning my ear toward every snapping twig. If one sleepless night doesn’t exhaust me, a second is sure to do the trick. By my third solo night in the forest, I could sleep through a horror film marathon.

CNN Travel • 25th January 2018

Hiking the Sinai Trail with Egypt's Bedouin

"We want to teach our sons to work with camels, and to learn about the desert," said Tarabin guide Musallem Abu Faraj, who helped found the Sinai Trail in 2015. These are our traditions, passed down through generations."

Adventure.com • 10th June 2019

What can an economist teach travelers about risk?

After a close call on a flight over New Jersey, writer Jen Rose Smith wanted to learn more about how travelers can better deal with risk and uncertainty. So she got in touch with Allison Schrager—an economist, of all things.

CNN Travel • 29th August 2018

Bolivian chefs are trading colonial cuisine for national pride

For a handful of Bolivia's young, ambitious chefs, Amazonian caiman, altiplano potatoes and fish from Lake Titicaca have a revolutionary appeal.

American Way • 4th September 2019

Colombia is for Cyclists

We traveled to Colombia to explore the mountains and we found a country in love with bikes.

Lonely Planet • 8th January 2020

Penn Museum's refugee, immigrant guides

The divination basket rests in the climate-controlled quiet of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, half a world from the tropical heat of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)...

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