Meg O’Connor

Freelance Travel Writer, Travel Lemming

Meg O’Connor is a travel writer, adventurer, and marine scientist. For years, Meg traveled the world on Navy vessels as a civilian scientist, making port stops in Bahrain, Oman, Japan, Crete, and Spain. These days, her travel is usually on solid ground. She lives on Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans, Louisiana.

🏠 Local to: Connecticut, Louisiana

🌟 Favorite Destinations: Key West, Florida; Cadiz, Spain; Cork, Ireland; Tucson, Arizona

🎓 Education: Williams College (B.A. Philosophy and B.A Geology, 2014); Louisiana State University (M.S. Geosciences, 2017)

✔️ Fun Facts:Named after the main character from A Wrinkle in Time. Went on a rafting trip in the Alaska wilderness to collect dinosaur fossils for a museum. Travels with a small, leather chess board.

Meet Meg

Meg O’Connor inside the Casa Manteca in Cadiz, Spain — My favorite taberna in Cadiz, Spain: Casa Manteca

Meg O’Connor smiling for a photo with a street art in Rotterdam, Netherlands — Street art in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Meg O’Connor smiling for a photo with the Stephen King’s house on her background — Stephen King’s house in Bangor, Maine

Meg O’Connor enjoying her day on a beach in Cadiz, Spain — Exploring a beach in Cadiz, Spain

📚 What was Your Favorite Travel Experience or Story?

After spending a month in the Netherlands for a hydrology class, I only had one week to travel to random bucket list spots in Europe before heading home. I took a train from Amsterdam and during my mad dash across Paris to switch trains, I had time for a glass of wine and some chocolate mousse at a famous cafe.

I continued onward to Roscoff, which is in the Brittany region of France on the English Channel. I spent a day exploring a small, rocky island off the shore of Roscoff. The next day, I boarded an overnight ferry that crossed the Channel to Cork, Ireland.

On the ferry, I made friends with an elderly man named Hector, and the next day, Hector offered to drive me to my B&B in Cork. He wasn’t the best at driving on the left, and there was a lot of screaming and cursing from both of us in a total of 4 languages.

An Irish lady from Dublin accidentally danced onto my foot in stiletto heels in a Cork pub, fracturing it. I didn’t let this slow me down, though, and wouldn’t trade that trip in for an intact metatarsal!

🗺️ What’s Your #1 Expert Travel Tip?

Don’t be afraid to explore on your own. Keep safety in mind, of course, but don’t be too worried about boredom or awkwardness. I’ve done ghost tours, pub crawls, and sit-down restaurants as a solo traveler.

I can often be found with a book on the train or in the pub. But when I’m not sure I’m living in the moment, I ask myself the following prompt: what’s a detail about this place I wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t paying attention? When I do this, I often remember that place forever.