Meet Ashley
Hi, I’m Ashley, a full-time travel writer based in Boston, MA. I’ve traveled to 30 countries on 4 continents and I formed Destination: WWII from a desire to encourage and help travelers visit WWII sites around the world.
I’ve been interested in World War II history ever since high school when we had to read Night by Elie Wiesel. After reading, I couldn’t help but want to know more. How could these things have happened? Did this stuff really happen? There’s just no way… right?
A couple of decades later and I still haven’t digested enough information; I still feel an excessive need to keep these stories alive and to learn as much as I can to do so.
I’m currently working on my master’s degree in World War II Studies at Arizona State University in conjunction with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. I couldn’t be more excited about this amazing opportunity!
World War II travel
As far as World War II travel goes, I visited my first World War II site in 2007 when I visited the Pearl Harbor memorial site and the Battleship Missouri in Honolulu. The desire to visit the places I’d read about in so many books and seen in so many movies instantly struck me. However, it was when I visited Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany a few years later that my otherwise passive hobby evolved into something to which I knew I wanted to dedicate more of my time and travels.
Since then, I’ve visited World War II sites at home and abroad and my WWII bucket list continues to grow. World War II may have ended in the 40s but it’s still very much a part of my life and travels here in the… 20s? Is that what we’re calling this decade?
About Destination: WWII
I formed Destination: WWII as a means to encourage travelers to visit World War II sites around the world and to help them in doing so. Visiting these destinations helps this incredibly complex time in history–and the millions who lost their lives–to not be forgotten, especially by younger generations. I am fully convinced there is no better way to learn about World War II than to experience these places for yourself.
Through this website and social media channels, my goal is to help you discover and visit these sites yourself and to get the most out of them that you can. I’ll do my best to accomplish this through research, logistical assistance, inspiration, and more.
More about me
I currently live in Boston, Massachusetts and am the owner, writer, and photographer of My Wanderlusty Life, an international travel blog focusing on what I call “Time Budget Travel”—helping you get the most out of a destination regardless of how little time you have available for travel. In other words: let’s move, move, move!
