WHO I AM

I’m Rachel, a travel writer, educator, marketing and content creator, and your travel advisor.

Probe the Globe started as a place to share the world’s stories, and it’s grown into something bigger: a space for people who believe travel isn’t just about getting somewhere. It’s about what opens up when you do.

Travel has been a passion for as long as I can remember.

In college, I spent a summer teaching English in Israel. I studied abroad in Spain for a semester, and right after graduating, I practiced my Spanish and volunteered in Costa Rica for a few months.

That love of travel, trying new things, meeting people, and learning about culture, food, nature, and different ways of life has never left. If anything, it’s grown.

Teaching has been just as constant. I’ve tutored students, taught math in the classroom, and spent years helping business owners understand marketing strategy. I’ve presented at meetings, in news segments, and at conferences on topics ranging from money-saving tips, business growth, and, as a breast cancer survivor, cancer survivorship.

Presenting, explaining, and opening something up for someone brings me such joy.

At some point, I stopped thinking of travel content and teaching as two separate things. Both are about showing people something they couldn’t quite understand or see before.

WHY TRAVEL MATTERS MORE THAN EVER

There’s a paradox I keep thinking about. We’re more connected than any generation in history, with phones in our pockets, every friend a tap away, the entire world accessible in seconds. And yet people have never felt more isolated. We scroll through other people’s highlight reels but rarely feel the kind of connection that actually fills you up.

Travel reconnects you with yourself. It creates shared experiences with the people you travel with, the kind that become the stories you tell for years. And it connects you to people around the world in a way that reminds you, over and over, how much we all have in common underneath the surface differences.

My dream has always been to help people experience exactly that. To open eyes, widen perspectives, and give people the kind of trip that changes something inside of them.

HOW I TRAVEL — AND WHO I HELP

I’ve traveled many different ways, for many different reasons.

My travel life isn’t one-dimensional, and that’s probably why I connect with so many different kinds of travelers. I’ve planned long family road trips spanning weeks and multiple states. I’ve done city-hopping through Western Europe before smartphones existed (how did we do that, anyway?), and somehow made every connection and got home with everything, plus more than I started with.

My son’s baseball tournaments took us all around Texas, and even Nebraska and Florida. I planned a last-minute college visit trip with just a personal item as luggage (and yes, I can help you with packing tips). I’ve done couples’ trips to Costa Rica, a week in Thailand, a multi-family ski trip to Colorado, and an all-inclusive stay at a five-star resort in the Dominican Republic using credit card points.

There have been girls’ getaways with friends and family that became more meaningful than anyone expected, including one to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where we discovered my great-grandfather’s original last name before it was changed when he came to America. And, let’s throw in some medical tourism, including a week-long visit to the Mayo Clinic.

I’ve been invited on press trips as a travel journalist, staying in beautiful hotels and experiencing places that earned a permanent spot on my list.

TRAVEL AS CELEBRATION

Some trips mark the end of something hard. Others mark the beginning of something new.

Some of the most meaningful trips I’ve ever planned weren’t built around a destination. They were built around a moment. After I finished treatment for breast cancer, we went to Hawaii, funded almost entirely on credit card points accumulated during my medical bills.

When my aunt completed her own cancer treatment, we celebrated with an Alaskan cruise.

These weren’t just vacations. They meant so much more.

Milestones and accomplishments deserve to be marked. Finishing treatment. Graduating. Retiring. A big birthday. An anniversary that almost didn’t make it. An empty nest. A fresh start. Travel has a way of making those moments feel real, felt, and remembered, not just posted and scrolled past.

Through all of it, I’ve done the planning, the research, the logistics, the itinerary building. I love all of it. Which is exactly why I understand what it takes, and why I’m good at doing it for other people.

WAIT — DO I EVEN NEED A TRAVEL ADVISOR?

I’ll be upfront: I’ve always been a DIY traveler. I love the research, the planning, the building of a perfect itinerary. For a long time, I didn’t really see the point of using a travel advisor when I could do it myself.

But here’s what I’ve learned: booking through a travel advisor most often doesn’t cost you more. In fact, it frequently gets you more, like room upgrades, early check-in or late checkout, complimentary transfers, welcome amenities, and access to perks that aren’t available when you book directly. And you have someone in your corner if something goes wrong, with a whole network of experienced advisors, tools, and supplier relationships behind them.

Not everyone has the time or the resources to do the deep research that makes a trip really work. And even if you do, sometimes it’s just nice to have someone who’s been there, knows the questions to ask, and can tell you what’s actually worth it versus what just photographs well.

I’m here to do as much or as little as you need. You can hand me the whole thing, or just run your plan by me for a gut check. Either way, the goal is the same: you get the most out of the time and money you spend.

MY APPROACH

I listen first. Then I build around that.

Every trip starts with a real conversation. Where do you want to go? What do you want to feel? What are you getting away from, and what are you hoping to find?

I ask those questions because the answers are what actually make a trip work.

My travel style is connection-first. I’m drawn to places with a story, food scenes, boutique hotels with soul, and experiences that make you understand something about the world you didn’t before.

Whether you’re planning a multigenerational family adventure, a solo reset, a milestone celebration, a girls’ trip with your college friends, or a baseball road trip across California, I want you to love and get as much out of travel as I do. Even if you’re bringing angsty teenagers. I have experience with that too.

Ready to plan something worth remembering?

Tell me where you’ve always wanted to go. I’ll listen, strategize, and build something around that.

And if you have absolutely no idea where to go? That’s okay too — honestly, it’s one of my favorite starting points. Tell me what you want to feel, and we’ll figure out the destination together.

Let’s Start Planning