The trips we remember aren’t always the ones with the most landmarks. They’re the ones built around culture, connection, and stories you can’t stop telling when you get home. Travel advisor and blogger Eleanor, founder of Elevate Your Escapes, explains how “meaningful travel” happens when you stop treating a destination like a checklist and start chasing moments that feel personal: a conversation with a local bartender, a neighborhood you wander without a plan, or a meal that becomes a core memory. For travelers who want unforgettable adventures, the goal isn’t perfect efficiency, it’s emotional impact and the kind of travel experiences that still come up years later.
Thanks to Elevate Your Escapes for the photos
Eleanor’s path shows how quickly a travel identity can change. She grew up in Brooklyn surrounded by diversity and great food, but didn’t travel widely as a kid beyond family trips like Florida and Disney. Her spark came later, especially with a 2019 Costa Rica trip that blended group travel with solo travel. That mix helped her build confidence while still getting the social energy of a group, and it even created lasting friendships that turned into repeat travel partners. If you’re new to solo female travel or hesitant about going alone, her model is practical: start with a reputable group itinerary, then add a few solo days before or after to explore at your own pace.
Her favorite travel style is a hybrid: comfort plus curiosity. She loves luxury travel like cruises for true rest, but she also prioritizes foodie travel, street food, and cultural immersion. Europe keeps calling her back because it delivers an unbeatable combination of history, art, walkable neighborhoods, and food culture, with Greece and Spain standing out for hospitality and energy. Yet she’s honest about the mental side of long solo stretches. Feeling lonely can hit hardest during quiet moments like meals, especially when you’re burned out or at a crossroads at home. Her best fix is intentional community on the road: food tours, small group activities, and simply learning to start conversations.
Building a travel business changed the way she travels. Launching Elevate Your Escapes as both a blog and full service travel agency started as a side project, then snowballed into a six-figure agency alongside a corporate marketing job. Eventually a layoff and severance runway gave her the push to go full time, and she now balances entrepreneurship with top-tier client service. The tradeoff is that “work mode” can follow you anywhere: creating content, testing hotels for clients, evaluating cruise lines you wouldn’t pick personally, and choosing destinations that make sense for sales. Her long-term goal is scaling with support so she can focus on designing dream itineraries instead of admin.
Practical travel planning runs through everything she shares. Trips don’t always go as planned: cruise ports change due to weather, ships may have to tender, and European train strikes can force last-minute itinerary changes. Her solution is conservative timing, strong on-the-ground partners, and a firm stance on travel insurance to cover disruptions, medical issues, and lost luggage. For clients, her process starts with a real consultation, then research and a proposal, then booking and ongoing support all the way to a pre-departure call and a post-trip recap. The takeaway for any traveler is simple: meaningful travel is part mindset and part preparation, and the best adventures start when you’re willing to get a little uncomfortable and still say yes. 
Eleanor is an award-winning travel advisor and blogger at Elevate Your Escapes travel company, covering Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, Africa, and beyond. She is an avid traveler herself and has visited 70 countries.
Each year, she helps hundreds of clients plan vacations, celebrations, birthdays, honeymoons, and more, all across the world. Eleanor from Elevate Your Escapes is a Top 30 First Mate (Travel Agent) with Virgin Voyages, and partners with many luxury ocean cruise, river cruise, and land-based companies. She has earned numerous agency awards, and has also been named a Future Leader in Travel. Be sure and visit www.elevateyourescapes.com to learn more.
