About Me

Hi my name is Mary Monahan. I am a 20 something city dweller born and raised for a large part of my life in the suburbs of NY. My mother while a naturalized citizen of the U.S. is of Ecuadorian/Spanish descent and my father a native New Yorker of Irish descent spoke fluent Russian for his long tenured career in the military. Needless to say I grew up in a very international household. I spent my summers with family in Ecuador but outside of that – my travel experiences were limited – still though, my parents international backgrounds heavily influenced my insatiable curiosity of other cultures and love for travel.

Other things I’m obsessed with… my Yelp Elite Status, Sweets, planning Cultural Sundays, my Passion Planner, Organization, fun random facts

Why write this blog?

To put it simply I love to travel. After spending on the ridiculous rent I pay to live in Manhattan as well as other things I need to survive – I spend most of my discretionary financial resources on traveling. I get my kicks by intensely researching, and planning every adventure I can with the allotted 17 PTO days I get from work and then some (by this I mean long weekend trips). I want to be able to share my knowledge and learning’s with those looking for it.

My international background both personally and professionally make me look at the world two fold. My travel experiences are no exception to this. I am not just another customer when I travel but my business driven analytical mind drives me to think of the business opportunities and implications of the customer experience. I like to think of myself as a ‘mystery diner’ of all things travel related if you will – all of which I hope will help you, my fellow travelers, plan for your travels better while also helping provide businesses with useful insight on the customer experience.

What I hope you get out of this

I want this to become a destination and resource for travelers who, like myself, are looking for guidance on their travels from where to eat to what tourist destinations to hit up and which ones to avoid. Many blogs, lets get real, make you read through quite a bit of jargon – which can be a enjoyable if you have the time but sometimes you’re looking for a quick answer.

The Blog Structure is simple. It allows the user to click through and page jump depending on the level of convenience they are looking for …

1. Long Story: if you want to kill some time with me and read through my experience
2. Short Story: if you’re looking for some quick insight on where to stay, what to eat, how to get around etc…

Business reviews that provide meaningful and actionable insights and takeaways in order to improve customer/user experience.

**Pledge:  If my post doesn’t afford the answer you’re looking for – please feel free to reach out to me via the Contact Page. I am a master researcher – I’ll be your Dear Abby of Travel and get back to you within 24 hrs with detailed findings and advice.

Interested in hearing what else I have to say?
I’m an avid reviewer on Yelp: Yelp Reviews
I’ve been known to tweet from time to time: Twitter
I really love capturing a moment: Instagram