Welcome to Harbors and Havens

Welcome to Harbors and Havens, your resource for planning travel adventures to bucket list destinations. On this site, you’ll find free road trip guides, national park itineraries, and fun things to do in cities around the U.S. and Europe.

About the Editor

I'm Michelle Joy, a freelance writer based in Texas and traveling as often as possible. I started Harbors and Havens as a way to inspire others to see more of the world and offer practical advice and travel planning guides. I especially love to encourage other women to get out and travel solo!

With an American dad, a British mom, and a childhood as a missionary kid in Venezuela, I learned to appreciate other cultures from a young age. While I followed a typical path of graduating college and getting a desk job, I soon learned that a daily commute and only two weeks of leave a year were not the avenues to happiness for me. So I left my position as a magazine writer and editor in the dust and started working freelance, spending about 25% of my time traveling. So far, I've visited 25+ countries, 40+ states, and 30+ national parks.

If you want to know more about why I decided to start a travel blog, check out this post. 

Travel Style

I travel solo most of the time in North America and Europe, though I’ve also visited a few countries in Asia and lived in South America. I’m active and mildly adventurous, so I often travel fast and take a lot of road trips, scoping out what destinations I want to spend more time at in the future. Itineraries on Harbors and Havens tend to be action-packed with lots of scenery and outdoor activities.

Little villages, dramatic coastlines, and national parks are my cup of tea, but every now and then I visit bigger cities, too.