Stephen Jermanok

Stephen Jermanok
Stephen Jermanok

  • Steve Jermanok has explored close to 100 countries and written over 1,750 articles on a broad range of subjects, from art to food to adventure. He has worked as a columnist for National Geographic Adventure and Men’s Journal, contributing editor for Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, and guest editor for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. 
  • In May 2012, Steve and his wife, Lisa, launched ActiveTravels, a new type of travel agency where your travel advisor has more than likely been to that one country that excites you. Steve and Lisa have booked trips all over the globe, including the search for orangutans in Sumatra and gemstones in Estonia. Their clientele includes many people in the travel industry like Steve Kaufer, founder of TripAdvisor.
  • He resides in Boston with his wife; two children, Jake and Melanie; and a mini goldendoodle, Theo.

Experience

In 1995, Steve put more than 20,000 miles on his car as he researched and wrote Outside Magazine’s Adventure Guide to New England. It would be the first of nine travel books he would write, working with Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Discovery Channel, and other travel publishers. His latest book, New England in a Nutshell, was published the summer of 2020 to rave reviews in Forbes, Boston Globe, NBC Boston, and many other media outlets.

Steve has been blogging daily at ActiveTravels.com since 2009 and regularly for Everett Potter’s Travel Report this past decade. He has been hired for his social media package and weeklong content marketing projects by more than 40 tourism departments and outfitters, including Backroads, Abercrombie & Kent, RIU Resorts, Swiss Tourism, Ko Orina Resort, Tourism Nova Scotia, Tourism New Brunswick, Quebec Tourism, and California Tourism.

As a screenwriter, Steve collaborated with his brother Jim to pen Passionada, a sophisticated romantic comedy that was filmed in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and released by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Passionada received favorable reviews from the Los Angeles Times, the New York Observer, Roger Ebert, and Richard Roeper.

Steve has lectured at numerous travel symposiums across the country, and was the keynote speaker at the New York, Maine, Vermont, Nevada, North Dakota, Nebraska, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana Governor’s Tourism Conference. He regularly guest lectures at Emerson College and Boston University, where he was recently part of the Distinguished Lecture Series in the School of Hospitality.

Education

Steve graduated the University of Michigan with a degree in chemical engineering.

Awards and Publications

  • Steve sits on the board of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Foundation, which distributes Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards to deserving travel journalists from around the world working in print, digital, audio, video, and photography.
  • Steve’s last award from SATW was for Best Family Travel Story in 2020, based on a trip with his family to Switzerland, published in Virtuoso Traveler.
  • Steve has been profiled in The Boston Globe, Literary Traveler, and Highbrow Magazine, among others.


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