Emilie C. Harting - Freelance Writer

Paths of Irish History. Philadelphia Inquirer, The Front Page Feature in the Sunday Travel Section, May 18, 2008. We were on a hike through the western counties of Galway and Mayo, on the opposite side of the island from Dublin. Each trail was on different terrain, though at every moment I felt I was walking through Irish history, imagining life in ancient huts built into the hills… Read Article.

Finding an old Irish homestead, and new cousins. Philadelphia Inquirer, December 23, 2007. Inspired by a tattered photograph, the writer travels to Northern Ireland and unearths 400 years of family lore. Read Article.

Leading Up. Executive Traveler, Special Adventure Issue, Summer 2007. When Emilie C. Harting follows the footsteps of Mike Useem, founder of outdoor leadership programs for the Wharton School’s M.B.A program, she discovers that keeping one’s hubris in check is important not only in business, but also while climbing mountains. Read Article.

Norway, Where Nature is the Culture. Distinction. Norway is a country of fjords, deep inlets with cliffs and slopes on the sides. I have been there three times, and am already planning to return again. On a recent hiking trip with friends, I saw the flora, fauna, and geology of Norway up close, often thousands of feet up in elevation from the valleys. Read Article.

Mexico City, An Ancient Goddess in Avant Garde Dress. TravelClassics.com. Mexico City has a vast overlay of cultures and centuries. Tall modern office buildings with hues of blue, pink, even bright red on navy, rise up next to tan and yellow colonial buildings, ancient stone statues, and modern sculptures. Toltec, Aztec, Spanish and modern images meet the eye in many places. Read Article.

Light and Stone: A Walk through the Burren: Southwestern Ireland. Continental. I sit against a pile of rocks inside a ring fort on top of a crusty hill. It is a large circular room about 20 feet across and two stories high with walls of weathered stones piled one upon the other. Read Article.

Hudson River Valley Remains a Work of Art, Dallas Morning News, August, 2004, reprinted in TravelClassics.com as “On the Trail of the Hudson Valley Painters.” I stand on a wide plateau of rock at the edge of a 2000-foot cliff in the Northern Catskill Mountains of New York State and look sixty miles to the horizon to the north, east and south. Read Article.

Into Charleston’s Storied Past. Los Angeles Times. Full page. Taking a literary walk in the city’s historic district is like reading an atmospheric Southern novel, except that you get to see the scenes, not just imagine them. Read Article.

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Maine. The New York Times. The Whitehall Inn, where Edna St. Vincent Millay began her career as a poet, is nestled along a treelined road leading north from Camden, Me. Though it has been more than 70 years since the girl from the nearby fishing village of Rockland read ''Renascence'' at an August talent show for guests and employees, her legend lives on... Read Article.

Point of Inspiration:Yeats’ County Sligo, Ireland. Buffalo News (Front Page Feature). The poetry of William Butler Yeats was larger than life, his famed 'Lake Isle' much smaller. It was a sizable island of rocks and pines on a large lake. White waves, speckled by the sun, would lap at its shore. Read Article.

Living a Dream in Southern Belize. Front cover feature in May Travel Issue, Distinction. Just south of Mexico and east of Guatemala, Belize is a tropical haven replete with barrier reef, rainforest and Mayan ruins. This, our third trip to the tiny independent nation, would be spent on the... Read Article.

Exploring the Riviera Maya: Sand, Sea and Ruins on the Yucatan Coast. travelclassics.com. We were exploring the Yucatan's Riviera Maya, the corridor of beach and rainforest that runs north and south on the Caribbean Sea, starting with the unspoiled fishing village of Puerto Morelos on the northern end, and running down to the major Mayan ruin, Tulum, at the south. Read Article.

Suan Doi, a Peaceful Waystation in Northern Thailand (describes Chaing Mai temples). The Los Angeles Times. Chiang Mai is a cultural treasure trove, home to 300 temples and the center of northern Thailand's arts and crafts--a magnet for Buddhists and shoppers. I am neither. I was in Chiang Mai because my daughter, Thea, was on an Antioch College program affiliated with Chiang Mai University, and it seemed a good place for a family vacation. Read Article