Helen Hatzis, is the Chief Exploration Office and Co-Founder of Trip Jaunt.
Helen is a recipient of the Governor-General Award, has been honoured as one of Canada's Nicest People! A true xenophile at heart, she finds joy in traveling and delights in sharing her experiences through Trip Jaunt (formerly Weekend Jaunt), an online travel community and hub she established in 2010. Her aspiration is to inspire others to explore the world as she does!
Helen is an esteemed advisory member of the North American Travel Journalists Association.
Western Europe is experiencing an unusually intense early summer heatwave in 2026, with temperatures climbing well above seasonal norms across France, Spain, Italy, and neighboring countries. American travelers planning trips to these destinations will encounter conditions that call for thoughtful adjustments to daily routines and expectations. The situation underscores the value of advance preparation so
International visitors have arrived in force for the 2026 World Cup, and their shared videos are capturing something quietly powerful. Across US host cities, fans from Scotland, Norway, and beyond are posting moments of genuine surprise and delight at the everyday details of American life. These clips have spread quickly online, offering a fresh window
Belo Horizonte – Inhotim occupies a distinctive place among cultural destinations in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This expansive site combines a contemporary art museum with a botanical garden and functions as an open-air museum across its grounds. Visitors encounter installations that integrate with the surrounding landscape in ways few other places achieve. A Distinctive Integration of
Travelers seeking a front-row seat to one of nature’s most dramatic spectacles have a distinctive option this summer. A dedicated cruise departs from Dundee in August 2026, timed precisely for the total solar eclipse. The sailing combines the thrill of open water with the chance to witness the moon fully obscure the sun, an event
There’s a quiet kind of knowing among Colorado residents. When the weekend arrives and the urge for altitude hits, many of them don’t head toward the valet parking and the $22 cocktails. They head somewhere else entirely. Somewhere the crowds haven’t fully caught up with, the skies are just as wide, and the mountains are
Most people planning a trip to Japan still think in the same shorthand: Tokyo for the buzz, Kyoto for the temples, Osaka for the food. It’s a well-worn path, and for good reason. Those places genuinely deliver. The problem, in 2026, is that they deliver for roughly 42 million other people a year as well.
There’s a small airline flying transatlantic routes right now that most people have never heard of. It operates just a handful of aircraft, serves only a few routes, and fits fewer passengers than a typical hotel restaurant. Yet in 2024 and 2025, it outranked carriers like Lufthansa and Delta in major reader polls, generating a
Most travelers passing through southwest Virginia stay glued to I-81, window down, watching the Blue Ridge slide past without stopping. That’s a reasonable thing to do. There are a lot of miles between exits. But tucked about eight miles off that interstate, down a winding mountain road through Smyth County, sits a town that has
Hawaii sits roughly 2,400 miles off the California coast, and that distance has always made it feel like a trip that demands a serious financial commitment. The ticket prices can look shocking at first glance, especially for travelers on the East Coast or Midwest who are staring at multi-stop itineraries and hefty base fares. Yet
There’s a small town in the upper northwest corner of Illinois that most people drive past on the way to somewhere else. It sits above the Mississippi River on a series of dramatic limestone bluffs, its streets still lined with the same red brick buildings that stood during the Civil War. Most travelers scanning a
Paris – People across France are already feeling the deadly effects of an intense heat wave that has pushed temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius in many areas and left residents without relief even after sunset. The national weather service has placed more than half the country under red alert, with conditions expected to remain
Travelers stepping off the plane in Heraklion often sense they have arrived somewhere older than memory itself. Crete’s largest city sits on an island long tied to the birth of Zeus and the rise of Europe’s earliest advanced society. The combination draws visitors who want more than beaches and tavernas. A Myth That Still Shapes
