About

Hi there, I’m Jennifer! Welcome to die Fernweherin. I’ve been organizing incredible vacations for myself & my husband for over ten years now, and I hope to help you do the same. Whether you’re like me—a perfectionist who relishes the intricacies of planning trips—or more like my husband Cam—someone who loves to travel but gets mired in the little details—you’re in the right place. For vacation inspiration, detailed itineraries, comprehensive how-to guides, and a ton of travel tips, I’ve got you covered. Please subscribe to receive notifications about new posts, packing lists to accompany all of my itineraries, and more!

What’s in a name?

Fernweh is a German word that has no direct translation in English. The closest approximation is “far sickness” (as in the opposite of homesickness), but it goes beyond that. To feel ferweh means that you experience a bone-deep ache to be someplace far away, a longing for travel that runs through your veins like blood.

I’ve always loved to travel. From camping in the Canadian Rockies as a child, to staying with a host family in France the summer after junior high, I always had some degree of wanderlust (another German loanword, by the way). When I met my now-husband in high school, one of the things we bonded over was our desire to see the world. When we moved in together, one of the first things we did was come up with a list of the top 20 destinations we wanted to visit by the time we turned 40.

After ten years of slowly chipping away at said list, 2020 hit. Our bucket-list vacation to the Galapagos was cancelled literally hours after we landed in Ecuador, and I was plunged back into my job as a RN in the ICU at an inner-city hospital, watching helplessly as all hope of respite from a job that had completely & utterly burnt me out receded further and further out of reach. The desire to be away became all-encompassing; wanderlust turned to fernweh, and I became die Fernweherin (the woman who aches for far away places).

A new beginning

So that’s how I got to where I am today. It was, to be explicit, a fucking tough road. If I was to do it over again, I’d definitely do some things differently. But I’m here now, and I’m embracing my globetrotter self. Come hell or high water, I’m finally going to chase my dream of becoming a full-time writer (and traveller).

Have you also felt yourself yearning for travel? Maybe you’ve always been a fellow Fernweher(in) and you’re looking for travel inspiration or tips on specific destinations now that things are opening up again. Or maybe, like many others, you experienced an awakening of wanderlust during the pandemic, and you want to start travelling but you don’t know where or how to begin. Whatever the reason you’ve come here, I want to help you turn your fantasies into reality!