The trips that got us hooked on travel

These days, the Lonely Planet team is constantly zig-zagging across the globe, visiting new places and revisiting others we've come to hold dear. But every traveler's passion for travel started somewhere. These are the trips that made each of us say, "I want to do this for a living."

Backpacking through Europe

I had never been outside North America until I spent three months backpacking in Europe the summer after I graduated from high school. Everything about that trip was life-changing. My mom still has a postcard that I sent her: "London is great, but Paris is for me."

– Caroline Trefler, Destination Editor for Eastern USA and Canada

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Summers in Iran

Going back and forth to Iran every summer ignited my love of travel. Going to and from such vastly different cultures and parts of the world made me want to learn more about the planet and see more of it. It has made me want to see countries beyond the headlines, hear the real stories and meet the real people. Iran also fueled my love of food. There is nothing quite like an Iranian joojeh kabab, chicken kebab marinated with onion, lemon juice and saffron.

– Zara Sekhavati, Destination Editor for Middle East & Africa

A long-haul trip to Thailand

I've always loved to travel, but early in my career, I didn’t have much vacation time to travel internationally. A lot of my travel dreams were put on hold for a bit. After a long gap, I finally took a trip with friends to Thailand, and that’s when I knew I was obsessed. Something about being on the entire other side of the globe seemed magical, and it was the moment I could envision doing a longer stay on the road or living in another country.

– Melissa Yeager, Destination Editor Western USA and Canada

A first international trip to Cancún, Mexico

I was around 13 when I spotted an ad in the newspaper for a Cancún vacation for $299 a person. Our family had never been out of the country, and I cajoled my parents into agreeing. I made all the arrangements, including getting passports and booking the trip.

We were some of the last ones off the airport bus as it slowly dropped better-off passengers at glitzy seaside resorts before getting to our grimy city hotel. It was four of us in a dank room, but I didn't care. My parents rented a VW Beetle (stick shift, no air-con) for the drive to Chichén-Itzá, a pinch-me moment for my 13-year-old self who was obsessed with all ancient cultures. I've since traveled the world (usually staying at much nicer digs), but that trip remains one of my favorites. More than three decades on, I still remember eating huevos rancheros for the first time, proudly asking ¿Dónde está el casa de cambio? just like my sister taught me, and staring slack-jawed at my first Aztec pyramid.

– James Pham, Destination Editor for Southeast Asia

Experiencing the ocean on Prince Edward Island, Canada

Like many young Canadian girls who grew up in the '90s, I was obsessed with Road to Avonlea, Anne of Green Gables and absolutely everything Lucy Maud Montgomery. When I was 11, my family left our landlocked province (Alberta) and traveled on a summer vacation to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It brought the magic of the books to life. The red sand dunes and lighthouses transformed what I thought I knew about Canada and made me fall in love with the ocean. I swore that one day I'd live in a place beside the sea – which is exactly what I've spent most of my adult life doing in Australia and New Zealand.

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– Jessica Lockhart, Destination Editor for Oceania

Growing up in the Bronx

It wasn't a trip, but just growing up in the Bronx. I met people from all over the world who shared stories and food from their home countries. From that moment on, my goal was to see as many of those places as possible.

– Alicia Johnson, Destination Editor for Central America, South America and the Caribbean

A peaceful trip to Los Cabos, Mexico

My big secret is that I didn't travel until my very late 20s. My family didn't really take trips, and I was way too anxious in my early 20s to see much of the world. Enter: therapy, Lexapro and meditation, and I decided to finally just suck it up and go for it. Anyway, as far as trips that got me hooked on travel, I was lucky enough to have the chance to go to Los Cabos in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and it kind of changed me? It was a solo trip (and a press trip, thanks Lonely Planet), and I spent so many mornings alone just wandering and looking at beautiful things: giant cacti and gorgeous waves and just the way the breeze moved things. In so many ways, it was a simple trip, with fancy hotels and incredible food, but the vibe itself and the peace of it all really did it for me.

– Rachel Lewis, Senior Social Media Manager

A high school field trip to Italy

In high school, my tiny (~20-person) Italian class took a trip to Italy with our teacher, who was from outside Florence or Rome, I believe. Our biology teacher tagged along because she was also from Italy. She took us to her hometown of Lucca, a gorgeous Renaissance-era walled city in Tuscany, where she sat us rowdy teens down at a tiny restaurant her friend owned, and I had some of the most interesting seafood I'd ever eaten. They threw the whole menu at us kids with a level of joy and warmth I've found all across Italy and beyond on my travels. People wanting to share their food, their lives, their joys with strangers – I've been hooked ever since.

– Shalayne Pulia, Social Contributor Manager

Visiting cousins across the US and Canada

I've traveled all my life, so there's not one trip that got me hooked. But I would say that visiting my cousins in different parts of the US and Canada during my summer vacations really made me excited about travel once the school year was over. The places I lived during those summers included Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Kissimmee/Orlando, Philadelphia and Toronto. It was a blessing having cousins everywhere.

– Matt Paco, Senior Producer

Family camping trips in Ireland and France

When I was young, we took camping holidays as a family. My parents would see the weather forecast was to be good, and that was it: the car was loaded up with tent and gear, and off we'd go, all six of us. We camped all around Ireland, sometimes with extended family. We went to France a couple of times, too. The adventure of exploring a new campsite, making new friends and eating food cooked on our outdoor two-ring gas stove never got old. I think I caught the travel bug during those camping trips.

– Amy Lynch, Destination Editor for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia

A field trip to Guatemala and Belize

I'm a third-culture kid who grew up in the UAE and Singapore, so I was pretty much raised traveling. If I had to pick, though, I'd choose the field trip I took to Guatemala and Belize while I was an undergraduate geology student. We camped on beaches, swam in unreal turquoise pools at Semuc Champey, lazed in hot springs and roasted marshmallows on Pacaya (a volcano). It was one of those jam-packed trips where the privilege of stretching dollars was aptly met with the ravenous hunger of wanting to do and see everything that comes with being in your 20s. It changed how I travel. 

– Akanksha Singh, Destination Editor for Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent

Volunteering in Nicaragua

I went to Nicaragua at 17 to live with a family in Managua and volunteer at a legal aid organization when I was in college. I loved Nicaragua – I was shy, but it brought me out of my shell and made me resourceful in so many ways. I'll always remember how the city smelled and my consistent breakfast of instant coffee and cookies on the way to Spanish class.

– Pia Peterson Haggarty, Photo Director

A young woman's first European tour

I grew up traveling with my family, so it is ingrained in my soul that I must get out of town at least twice a year. But the first time I realized I really loved it was when I was 20 years old and spent a month hopping around Europe with my friends before we started our study abroad programs. From Greece to Italy to Switzerland, it was the first time a trip was completely my own, and I could decide exactly where I wanted to go. I fell in love with the planning process of traveling and the feeling of all your hard work coming to fruition. Watching the sunset from the rooftop of my Airbnb in Mykonos, I knew this was something I wanted to experience all over the world.

– Chamidae Ford, Digital Editor

Living in Switzerland and Italy

I was lucky enough to start traveling at a young age, but I really started traveling when I lived in Switzerland and Italy for two years after high school. Planning trips from start to finish – and sometimes solo – was freeing but also allowed for a new sense of adventure (especially on a budget and without wi-fi most times).

– Serina Patel, Lifecycle & Digital Programming Lead

Family camping trips in Alabama

I never even left the US until my senior year of college, but name a campsite in Alabama (and sometimes Georgia), and my family’s most likely pitched a tent there. Many a spring break of my childhood was spent beside a campfire, wading in creeks and dilly-dallying on trails, like those around Cheaha Mountain, Cloudland Canyon State Park and DeSoto State Park. It wasn’t the most dramatic scenery, but it had everything: tall pine-covered hills, pocket-sized waterfalls and plenty of room for a child’s imagination. If my parents proposed one of these trips today, it wouldn’t get the same enthusiastic response. (Hello, we children have incomes now! Let’s book a hotel!) But I credit my love of the outdoors and willingness to try anything once to those camping adventures.

– Ann Douglas Lott, Digital Editor