Veronica Stoddart is USA Today’s deputy managing editor for travel, where she sets policy and oversees a staff of reporters and editors and freelance columnists who produce travel content for print and online. Previously, she was the founding editor of Caribbean Travel & Life magazine, which she edited for 10 years. She has worked as a contract editor for the National Geographic Society, as travel editor of Americas magazine and contributed to National Geographic Traveler, Islands and numerous other publications during more than 25 years in travel journalism. A travel addict, she has visited some 90 countries, reporting from many of them. Stoddart is a graduate of Wellesley College.
Where is your hometown?
Bogotá, Colombia
Where do you live now?
Washington, D.C.
Is there one place in the world you would recommend that people visit for life-enriching experiences?
As the intersection of cultures and religions, history and modernity, politics and passion, Jerusalem has no peer. After several visits there over the years, I've found it never fails to fascinate, provoke, inspire, challenge and profoundly move me -- all at the same time. This cradle of the three great monotheistic religions has been fought over and prayed over for 4,000 years -- and is still inflamed by obsessions that make it one of the most intense places on earth. History and faith are magnified here, converging and clashing on a global scale. Consider that the city has been captured and recaptured more than two dozen times: by Egyptians, ancient Israelites, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Turks, British, Jordanians and modern Israelis. Yet in a kind of cosmic joke, Jerusalem means "city of peace." The startling contradictions play out on a daily basis. I still remember being transported by the sweet strains of "Amazing Grace" sung by Protestant worshipers at the crusader-built St. Anne's Church while haggling with a Palestinian street vendor as fatigue-clad Israeli soldiers strutted by, automatic weapons slung casually over their shoulders. In Jerusalem, such encounters are simply commonplace.
Where was your last work project?
A cruise on the Danube River, through Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany.
Do you have a most awe-inspiring vacation experience?
That would have to be climbing 19,000-foot Mount Kilimanjaro (but close behind: visiting the Grand Canyon and Iguazu Falls). I made the climb in the ’70s, before it became a right of passage for adventuresome travelers. It was a five-day trek of bunking in crude huts and caves along the way and watching five distinct climatic zones meld one into one another -- from the hot equatorial savannah through forest, heather and desert to the frigid glacier at Uhuru Peak. We were instructed to walk as slowly as possible -- and then even slower -- to acclimate gradually to the high altitude, about as high as you can go without oxygen. But the crowning glory was waking at 2 a.m. for the final grueling push to the summit, timed to coincide with the rising sun. After scrambling up the frozen scree and ascending above the clouds to Africa's highest point, it felt as if the world stretched out forever, glowing in the early morning light.
When you travel somewhere unusual, what do you do to feel that you have truly experienced a culture?
My strongest entrees into a culture are through its food and its folk art, which I've collected since running a handicraft export business in Niger years ago. I love seeking out village artisans and market craftspeople for how their charming handmade wares reveal a glimpse into their folk culture. I love probing for the provenance and back story about each one. No matter the destination, I always manage to find some object that calls to me in a visceral and sometimes surprising way -- be it a 100-year-old religious glass painting in Romania, or an enormous hammered-metal "tree of life" in Haiti, or a riotously painted and carved wooden retablo in Peru, or beaded and mirrored elephant figurines in Thailand. The bonus, of course, is that each whimsical piece carries with it a special memory back home.
But just as important for me is the local cuisine, which uniquely synthesizes a locale's geography, history, creativity, tradition and aesthetic sense. It says it all -- in one delectable mouthful. And there’s nothing more evocative of a place than eating its food at home, long after the trip is over. Besides, what’s more fun than trying new culinary delights?
In your travels, have you found any heritage or cultural place that made you say “This is where I belong,” “This place defines me” or “I am home,” “I must spend more time here?”
Italy, Italy, Italy. I've been many times -- Milan, Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, Amalfi and points in between -- and never tire of it. Italy has it all: art and architecture, cuisine and culture, scenery and history and the most enviable lifestyle. It's where I learned to cook (from a Tuscan chef), conceived a daughter, first heard open-air opera (in Cortona) and got hooked on gorgeous hand-painted pottery.
Is there one heritage site or destination that you always wanted to visit, but never had the time?
Too many to count, but high on the list are Tibet (Potala Palace), South Africa (Cape Town), Jordan (Petra) and Prague (hard to believe I haven't been yet).
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