Spots to Explore Team
- Sarah Reyes
- Vivian Holt
- Renata Alves
- + 2 freelance contributors
Sarah Reyes
Sarah Reyes founded Spots to Explore after two decades of travel, first as a backpacker, later as a guide leading small group tours across four continents. She built the site to share the kind of practical, no-fluff advice she wished she’d had earlier in her travels.
Sarah personally reviews every destination guide before it publishes, and she’s especially fond of answering reader questions about lesser-known small towns and islands.
She has a habit of turning every conversation into a “you know where you should go instead” recommendation.
When she’s not traveling or writing, Sarah spends her time hiking with her dog, tinkering with old maps, and slowly working through a very long list of regional diners she wants to try.
Vivian Holt
Vivian spent years working in destination marketing before joining Spots to Explore, where she now leads research on travel trends and reader surveys. She’s especially interested in how smaller towns and overlooked destinations get discovered.
Outside of work, she’s usually planning her next road trip or organizing her already very organized spice cabinet.
Renata Alves
Renata is our data and analytics lead, turning raw survey responses into the rankings and travel statistics readers rely on. She reads travel forums for fun, which is either a hobby or a professional hazard at this point.
Follow along on Twitter.
Company Mission
At Spots to Explore, we believe travel advice should be earned, not guessed at.
Instead of recycling generic “top 10” lists, we run our own surveys, dig into original data, and talk to people who’ve actually been where you’re thinking of going.
Our goal is simple: help you spend less time sorting through noise and more time actually enjoying your trip.
We combine firsthand research with rigorous fact-checking, so what you read here holds up.
Data: We take accuracy seriously and keep our data current.
Data sources include: original surveys we conduct, independent research, publicly available government and tourism board data, and other reputable sources.
Company
Spots to Explore launched in 2026, with our team based in the USA.