Leandra Beabout

Croatia’s pebbled beaches have long been a siren song to northern and central European vacationers, but the country’s tourism industry soared when the medieval city of Dubrovnik became a key filming location for HBO’s staggeringly popular Game of Thrones series.

Sometimes it seems easier to stick to the old “reduce, reuse, recycle” when we’re settled into the comfort of our own homes. Once we hit the tarmac or land in unfamiliar territory, we’re in vacation mode, throwing caution to the wind.

But that doesn’t mean we should, right?

As a travel writer, my work allows and necessitates frequent trips. The constant change in scenery highlights the importance of creating a consistent sense of home wherever I lay my head. But creating an atmosphere of comfort doesn’t need to be complicated. Simple, intentional preparations can make the difference between a sterile hotel room and a cozy temporary living space. Here are my favourite rituals to make anywhere feel like home.

Though I’m out of school with a work schedule free from the standard academic cycle, I flip the calendar to March each year with one thought: spring break.
It’s hard to shake the anticipation of seasonal breaks — Christmas vacation, spring break, summer holiday. No matter where or when you are in life, there’s nothing like a vacation for resetting at the tail end of winter. The best part? You don’t need to leave the county for a great trip. Each of these destinations is a passport-free flight...

While some destinations are struggling to handle the side effects of overtourism, other destinations aren’t getting enough tourism. Here’s why undertourism matters, too.
The gates of Dubrovnik, Croatia’s walled medieval center define ‘bottleneck’ as I’ve never experienced before. Roped-off sidewalk lanes defined narrow swathes of territory for those entering or fleeing the city.
The boardwalk stretched to Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring feels more like a queue than a path.
...

GOSHEN — On its website, the American Cancer Society recommends any woman between the ages of 45 and 54 get yearly mammograms. Many doctors, including those at Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, tell women to start even sooner: age 40. But for the uninsured or under-insured, preventative breast cancer screenings often seem too pricey. A Goshen Health program called HeartStrings Sisters aims to fix the problem.
Dr. Laura Morris, the medical director at Goshen Retreat Women’s Health Center, said...

This blog post for the American Council for International Studies combined a personal essay and listicle into an informational piece about Chinese New Year.

Last week I clicked on the radio in my car and the news anchor’s words caught me off guard: Guam. Attack. Nuclear.
A knot of worry gripped my throat — but when I checked my phone, but there was no message. Breathing a sigh, I listened closer and determined that while there was a threat — serious, yes — there was no missile or warhead or weapon hurtling on its way to the Pacific territory whose jungles and beaches I’d explored just last month.
See, my parents live there, on this island that wa...

Magazine article for regional publication about travel in and beyond Elkhart County, Indiana.

I’m a fairly frequent traveler, and I get a lot of comments from acquaintances about how they would love to travel too, but it costs too much money or depletes too many vacation days or takes too long to plan a great trip. The problem, I’ve found, is that some people store up all their travel dreams in one bottle, and envision for themselves a trip that is so absolutely perfect that they will never find the time or resources to make it into reality.
To me, the best trip is the trip you actual...

If you want to get lost in Venice, take a left at your hotel. Cross the bridge, but watch out for the couple with limbs intertwined, their beating hearts kept sheltered in one another’s arms. Don’t catch your sandaled foot on the stone step. It is ancient and strong, jutting out to remind you it belongs here, ever-buoyed by the waters, while you are a passing shadow in this city.
Don’t follow the thoroughfare. Instead, slip into the alley so narrow you can touch both walls with outstretched a...

Leandra Beabout taught high school English before transitioning to a brief career in newspaper journalism. She now splits her time between teaching English as a new language in the virtual classroom and writing. She attended middle school in Slovakia, taught English in Uganda, and most recently returned from a trip to Croatia. She travels and writes as often as possible.
Today’s students grow up in a world far smaller than the globe of decades past. Italian landmarks are only an Instagram scr...

Whether you’re an infrequent flier or an airline aficionado, you probably know overnight flights in economy class are no joke.
I took my first long-haul flight, a red-eye from D.C. to London, when I was 10 years old. I remember stretching across two seats (ah, the glory days when my overnight flights weren’t fully booked) and dreaming the night away until the flight attendant came by with a glass of orange juice as pink streaks of morning light began stretching across sky. Outside my window l...

GOSHEN — Meeting the needs of low-income patients has been the Center for Healing & Hope’s mission for almost two decades, long before it launched its new Goshen Resident Identification (GRID) card program.
Office manager and immigrant resource coordinator Dominique Chew said that the organization continues to identify itself foremost as an urgent care clinic.
“We are more of a medical shelter,” Chew said, describing the difference between CHH and other local clinics such as Vista Community H...

ELKHART — For Mary Russell, volunteering at SPA — the Spiritual and Personal Adjustments Women’s Ministry — is like returning home.
“This is where the true renewing of my mind took place,” she said. “Has it all been easy? No. But has it been worth it? Yes.”
SPA is an Elkhart-based residential treatment organization that helps women “achieve and maintain lives of recovery” from drug and alcohol addiction, according to executive director Carrie Zickefoose.
Russell was the program’s first gradua...