Alison Stein Wellner

Alison Stein Wellner is a writer who is on lifelong mission to explore every corner of the globe. She grew up in Manhattan and her over-protective mother once asked her, “Why do you need to travel? We have everything here!”. So Alison’s now dutifully working on a very comprehensive answer to that question. There is no place on the planet that’s too big, too small, or too far away that she hasn’t found interesting and wouldn’t consider visiting. (To the horror of her mother.)

On her journeys, she likes to eat and drink, learn about local history, look at architecture, contemplate urban design and neighborhoods, learn about art and artists and design, and squeeze in a little (or a lot of) shopping, especially for jewelry. She’s also very interested in spiritual growth and luxury and sees no conflict between the two. She’s by no means a natural athlete but often finds herself in over her head, whether it’s backpacking in the backwoods of Wyoming or ziplining through the rainforest canopy in Honduras.

She’s the culinary travel guide for About.com, and a blogger for Luxist. Over the years, she’s written for Boston Magazine, Business Traveler, BusinessWeek, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Continental, Fast Company, Glamour, Ladies’ Home Journal, Men's Journal, Money, Mother Jones, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Reason, Robb Report, Sierra Magazine, TheStreet.com USA Weekend, The Washington Post, Working Mother, Yankee, Yoga Journal, among other places. She’s been a New York Times Professional Fellow and a National Press Foundation Fellow, and her articles have won awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the American Society of Business Press Editors.

Oh, and she's been a contributing editor at Inc., and editor-at-large at American Demographics magazine.

She still lives in Manhattan, although she spent about eight years living outside of the city, in various non-urban spots throughout the Northeast. She always really enjoys coming home, which is stocked with husband Phil, a brilliant and tough and may she add, super-cute, attorney and their two fabulous cats, Buzz and Jack.