Seven Questions With Travel Writer and Blogger Diana Lambdin Meyer

Welcome to the latest installment of our interview series with some of our favorite travel writers and bloggers. Today we’re chatting with Diana Lambdin Meyer, a prolific travel writer whose work can be found all over the world in a variety of publications, including our very own RoamRight travel blog. A Midwest farm girl at heart, Diana Lambdin Meyer caught the roaming bug early in life. Diana married well - to a photographer who also has the travel bug and whose work in still and video complements her words. Now based in the Kansas City area, Diana is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers who makes a full-time living on the road and at the keyboard. Read about Diana's adventures on her blog, Mojotraveler or follow her on Twitter.

Q1. How did you get into travel blogging/writing?

Diana: When I was dating the man who eventually became my husband and my photographer, he introduced the idea of travel journalism. We were working in traditional media at the time, but I sold my first freelance travel story just three weeks after we were married. It was about a backpacking trip in the Adirondacks of upstate New York.

Q2. What has been your most rewarding travel moment?

Diana: Oh, too many to count, but I think being able to follow my grandpa's footsteps through WWI France with my sister and write about the journey. We laughed and cried so much, remembering our grandpa, learning so much about WWI and all that our grandpa experienced. One of those stories earned me the title of Mark Twain Travel Writer of the Year, 2015.

Q3. Have any mishaps happened to you on the road? What was most notable?

Diana: Fortunately nothing serious, but I became seriously ill with altitude sickness on a trip to Keystone, Colorado. I had traveled in Colorado and at high elevations several times and had never had a problem with the altitude, so I didn't even realize what it was for a while. Fortunately, I was traveling with my husband who almost took me to the hospital, but instead, we drove down out of the mountains, about 5,000 feet. Within an hour, I was feeling better. 

Q4. Has travel insurance ever helped you out during your travels?

Diana: We were three days away from our first trip to South America. We were planning a week in Santiago, Chile and then a week in the Patagonia region, when my husband developed a massive number of kidney stones. He was hospitalized and quite uncomfortable for several days, so we had to cancel the trip. Travel insurance saved us more than $5,000 that time.

Q5. What’s your best travel tip you always give people?

Diana: For flatlanders traveling to high altitudes, I really emphasize the need to begin hydrating days ahead of time and not eat any foods high in carbohydrates. Always drink plenty of water before any international flight to help minimize the effects of jetlag.

Also, take several detailed photos of your luggage if you plan to check it. If the luggage is lost, most people can't name the brand of luggage they have, nor can they identify it via the forms provided by the airlines. Take plenty of pictures, inside and out, and put multiple luggage tags on it - inside and out.

Q6. If you could only ever visit one more place in your life, where would it be and why?

Diana: Oh, this is so tough, but I think it would have to be Eastern Europe. I would really like to explore Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries in greater detail. There is so much rich history there, so much depth of culture and people who have survived some of the world's worst traumas. 

But I would really like to go back to Israel as well, because it is such a beautiful, beautiful part of the world.

Q7. Please share a photo during a recent trip and give us the short backstory.

Diana: This photo is from Midway, Utah. I had just completed my first run on the nation's longest snow tubing hill at Soldier Hollow in Wasatch Mountain State Park. I hadn't been tubing in years and it was so much fun. I was laughing like a little kid when a colleague snapped this photo.

Thank you Diana for participating in our interview series, and be sure to read all of her RoamRight blog posts here!

Note: Available plans and coverages may have changed since this blog was published.