Lis Larson is longtime member of the AdventureSmith family and an integral part of our marketing, communications and content. Her SEO experience and content management skills landed her at AdventureSmith nearly 15 years ago. Since that time, she’s reached all 7 continents and brings that depth of experience (and her unique way with words) to captivate and connect you to places and cultures around the world.
Hi, I’m Lis
I help small ship cruising get on your bucket list.
Lis’s path to adventure travel started while working as managing editor for a regional magazine. It was there that she began telling stories of the places and people that made it shine.
Today we’re proud to call her one of AdventureSmith’s longest-tenured employees. Since Lis started with our company in 2012, she’s been on dozens of expedition cruises, read thousands of our client testimonials and, thus, intimately knows what valuable stories this style of travel has to tell. Some highlights of her work here include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO): Ensuring travelers who seek our style find us online
- Trend forecasting: Connecting both travelers and the media with current trends
- Brand ideation: Bringing AdventureSmith’s expert voice into all our marketing efforts
- Tradeshow representation: Representing AdventureSmith annually at trade events worldwide
- Staff training: Harnessing intel from 20- to 128-guest ships, 7 continents, 21 countries & counting
Featured Media
Lis regularly works with writers on everything from showcasing deals that don’t sacrifice trip experience to telling the stories of people, places and notable ships. One of her recent achievements involved working with an expedition guide and a writer for over a year to bring it all together with pitching the story, scheduling interviews and custom illustrations. She also oversees messaging for our award applications that include Conde Nast Traveler‘s Top Travel Specialist & Sunset Magazine‘s Travel Awards.
- Frugal Traveler Column (The New York Times, Nov 2025)
- What It’s Like to be an Expedition Leader on the World’s Most Remote Cruises (Conde Nast Traveler, Aug 2025)
- Panelist for Adventure America 2025 (U.S. Dept of Commerce, Mar 2025)
Content, Editorial & Travel Experience
- Freelance copyeditor & proofreader, including multi-year contracts with the Center for Basque Studies Press, helping a culture preserve and tell its stories to an English-reading audience
- Content manager for a online outdoor gear retailer, maintaining SEO-driven product listings, blogs and social/video for maximum organic traffic reach
- Managing editor of Tahoe Quarterly Magazine in a decade-long tenure that included managing an annual home awards, travel section & regional guides
- Assistant guide & llama wrangler for an outfitter in Escalante, Utah, trained in wilderness first aid (WFA) through NOLS
- Lifestyle model, multiple shoots for Apple, Inc. & other brands, working with art directors & location scouts to best tell visual stories in an outdoor setting
- Bachelor’s of science in English & Spanish, double majored in two languages and studied abroad in Madrid, Spain
- Traveled to all 7 continents, reached seventh in 2019 (fun fact: it wasn’t Antarctica)
Personal Roots & Hobbies
Lis maintains a sideline creative edge with her love for travel sketching, block printing and sending/making her own postcards. Her philanthropic passions center around animal rights and safety with volunteer stints focused on wild animal rescue.
Travel is of course a big part of her personal life too. Her wild wanderings have included hitchhiking in New Zealand, officiating a wedding in Tulum, driving down the entire Baja California Peninsula and taking Zapcat F1 racing skiffs around the southwest coast of St. Croix with her 4-year-old aboard. Connect with Lis on on LinkedIn and follow her travels and sketches at @lislarsontravel.
Travel Expertise Straight From the Field
Travel is central to Lis’s work at AdventureSmith. Wherever she goes, there’s a resulting story, review, Instagram reel and/or detailed staff training. This sampling of stories brings Lis’s depth of experience to you:
