Journey for Good

Want to travel in a way that’s authentic, transformative, and has a positive impact on both you and the community you’re traveling to?

Roaming the Americas is a growing resource for authentic and responsible travel in the United States and Latin America. It’s for travelers who want to plan deep travel experiences that have a positive impact but don’t quite know where to start.

Because let’s be honest, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes.

Traveling responsibly is not another thing to add to the list of All the Things You “Should” Be Doing—I’m not a big fan of that list here. It’s a mindset of traveling to connect, learn, and share experiences across cultures, all while seeking to minimize our negative impact on the local culture, economy, and environment.

If you’re the kind of person who wants to give a prescription of exactly what steps must be followed to “travel responsibly,” this might not be the place for you. But if you’re sometimes overwhelmed by All the Things, you are our people. If you want to incorporate more sustainability into your everyday life—including local and international travel—this is where it’s at.

Here in the RTA community, we don’t always get it right, and we don’t think responsible travel is about following a step-by-step rulebook. We make cultural blunders and realize our Westernness all.the.time. We’re not striving for perfection, but we’ve got a mindset that’s ready to learn and seeking to do better.

Hang around for a bit to discover travel that engages with culture, supports local communities, and protects the environment. (Just what the heck is responsible travel, anyway? Check out this post for more!)

Roaming the Americas offers:

• practical resources to help you plan responsible travel in the U.S. and Latin America
• stories that inspire you to get out and explore
• photography tips to help capture your journey in an authentic and respectful way

Welcome to the journey!

Who dreamed up this space?

Hey! I’m Naomi Liz—a writer, photographer, and lover of all things Latin America. I’m a small-town girl from Maine, transplanted to the Philadelphia area, and I’ve been traipsing around Latin America for the past 14 years whenever I’ve had the chance.

I’m enamored by language, and I’m forever chasing down this crazy elusive goal of becoming fluent in Spanish. At various points in my travels, I’ve picked up my camera and my pen to not just document what I’ve experienced, but to communicate something about what it felt like to be in those places.

In 2004 I studied abroad in Costa Rica, and it was a catalyst in transforming the way I see travel. Aside from the experience of living with my Tico family, I was pushed out of my comfort zone continuously with assignments that required me to dig below the surface of my assumptions. I had to approach people on the streets and ask them about current events, race relations, immigration, and more—in Spanish. What. I’m an introvert, guys. It was terrifying.

But it also taught me that the beauty of travel isn’t just in seeing new landscapes or tasting exotic foods—culture itself lives in the people who shape it and are continually shaped by it. So for me, travel is all about building relationships across the globe. I don’t just want to see new lands; I want to meet the people who make places unique, to be changed by them, and to carry their stories with me throughout life.

If all of that sounds exotic and terrifying and totally out of reach, I’m here to tell you that it’s not that hard. These kinds of travel experiences aren’t that difficult to find, and I’m here to spark some ideas, give you inspiration to get out there and engage, and give you plenty of useful resources for planning your trips.

 

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