A Hoosier by birth, Regis St Louis grew up in a sleepy riverside town where he dreamed of big-city intrigue. He's lived all over the US (including New York City. San Francisco. Los Angeles and New Orleans), and has crossed the country by train, bus and car white visiting remote corners of America. - Favorite memories from his most recent trip include crab feasting on Maryland's eastern shore, hiking through striking state parks in west Texas, catching music jams in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and going eye-to-eye with wild horses on Assateague Island.
Regis has contributed to more than 50 Lonely Planet titles, including New York City and Washington, DC. Amy Balfour has hiked, biked and paddled her way across the US. Raised in the South, she's been visiting the Outer Banks since childhood and for this trip she backpacked along the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smokies. In New Hampshire she explored the White Mountains and tackled Mt Monadnock for the first time.
She has authored 26 guidebooks for Lonely Planet and has written for Backpacker. Redbook, Southern Living and the Washington Post. Sandra Bao has lived in Buenos Aires, New York and California, but the glorious Pacific Northwest has become her final stop. Researching this region has been a highlight of Sandra's 15-year-long authoring career with Lonely Planet, which has covered four continents and dozens of guidebooks.
She's come to appreciate the beauty of this region, how much it has to offer and how friendly people can be in those tiny towns in the middle of nowhere. After graduating from college, Sara Benson jumped on a plane to California with just one suitcase and $100 in her pocket. After driving tens of thousands of miles to every corner of the state, she settled on the sunny ride of San Francisco Bay in Oakland.
