About Us
Susan and Scott Staples at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, British Columbia.
Susan and Scott Staples are a husband-and-wife journalist team that’s passionate about the outdoors and “soft” adventure travel: skiing (including snowcat skiing, heli-skiing and backcountry ski tours), snowshoeing, kayaking, whitewater rafting, hiking and “remote” camping top the list.
While we enjoy sleeping in a tent or lean-to under the stars, as we’ve gotten older, we’ve also discovered the bliss of pursuing outdoor activities and then returning to a cozy inn or B&B for a gourmet dinner, chatting with the other guests, and falling asleep in a big comfy bed. We often add other activities to our adventure travel, such as winery tours and festivals, so we can experience as much of a destination as possible (and perhaps even give our tired bodies a break). We are fortunate to live in northern Vermont, where we have the outdoors at our fingertips and finding adventure means simply walking out our front door. Our home ski mountain is Jay Peak Resort, Vt., where we met and now share the secrets of skiing trees and deep powder.
LetsPlanTrips.com is dedicated to helping outdoor enthusiasts plan soft adventure travel revolving around recreation in North America. We know how difficult it is to find accurate and complete information about destinations, recreational guides and outfitters, and independent travel providers. Our goal is to help you choose the vacation that’s right for you by sifting through the overload of information and providing you with expert advice. When you’re ready to try new outdoor sports, activities and destinations, we want to help you go outside your comfort zone without entering the “Yikes!” zone. As an extension of that notion, we also like to say we aim to help women—and the men who love them, when that applies—plan vacations that inspire passion for the outdoors and the sports we play in the outdoors. Everything on LetsPlanTrips.com is designed so that we are your best single resource for adventure travel research.
Susan Staples is a travel writer who has either worked in the travel industry or written about it since 1994. She spent seven years as editor of the award-winning guidebook, “Ski Snowboard America and Canada,” and its website, SkiSnowboard.com. Forbes twice named the website “Best of the Web Skiing Site” and “Forbes Favorite Best of the Web Skiing Site” while she was at the helm, most recently for Winter 2005. Before that, Susan was a staff editor at Snow Country Business and Snow Country magazines. She’s been published on MSNBC.com’s travel section and Expedia.com, and contributed to USAToday.com’s ski section. Before she was a travel writer, Susan was a news editor for the Torrington Register-Citizen in Connecticut and city editor for South County News/The Orange County Register in California. She has a master’s in journalism from University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism. Susan is a member of North American Snowsports Journalists Association (NASJA) as a journalist/editor.
Scott Staples is a photographer and a volunteer ski patroller at Jay Peak Resort, Vt. He’s recently gotten back into photography after a long hiatus. Scott has started compiling a portfolio of photography that extends from skiing at remote snowcat lodges in British Columbia to hiking in Moab and kayaking in Alaska’s Inside Passage. Through the lens of his camera, he’s learned to see the big picture, even when it’s a salamander crawling across the forest floor or a dragonfly at rest on a blade of grass. Scott is a member of North American Snowsports Journalists Association (NASJA) as a photographer/photojournalist.
Together we travel North America in search of our next adventure. Join us as you plan yours.