The Carry On is a weekly newsletter about travel — including guides, expert recommendations, and industry insights. 

The Carry On is a weekly newsletter about travel — including guides, expert recommendations, and industry insights. 

I’m Regan Stephens, a travel writer, contributing to dozens of print and digital outlets. I ate reindeer tartare and brown cheese ice cream on a cruise along the Norwegian coast for Food & Wine, I trekked on an oyster safari in Denmark’s Wadden Sea for Travel + Leisure, and I’ve talked to Dolly Parton about her go-to room service order for Conde Nast Traveler. 

I’m also building a start-up with my husband, Eric, who was a product manager at Etsy before leaving to work on his own SAAS business. It’s called Saltete, and it’s a publishing platform (like Substack!) for creating and selling your own travel guides. 

A decade into writing professionally — and a year into running a travel guide publishing platform — I’m sharing some of my favorite places to go, insights about an ever-evolving industry, and tips for how to travel smarter, both from me and from some of the smartest and savviest experts in the business. 

Subscribe for articles like my One Great Trip series, where a cool and curious traveler shares insider tips from a recent memorable vacation, plus 11 things I from learned spending 2 months in Rome with 3 kids, travel photographers’ best tricks for taking a better iPhone photo, and how to spend a long weekend in Iceland. 

Thank you for reading!