The FLY Travel Blog

August 20, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Melissa Rodway - standing in front of a sign that says FLY. It is a summer day, and there are bikes on either side of Melissa and the sign.

I have always loved to write. As a kid, nothing would make me happier than to go down to the local card store on a beautiful summer day, and pick out a box of pretty writing paper. I would sit on our porch, basking in the sunshine, writing letter after letter to friends away on […]

Mother’s Day…From a Different Lens

June 23, 2026.Reading time 11 minutes.

Mother’s Day. Two simple words that can really stir things up. Love. Joy. Adoration. Connection. Gratefulness. Sadness. Heartbreak. Confusion. Hurt. Anger. Loss. Abandonment. Loneliness. The desire for this day to quickly come and go. All of these things can be true under the umbrella of Mother’s Day. They have been for me. From the age […]

Look Out Invisible Woman Syndrome. There’s a New Sheriff in Town.

June 23, 2026.Reading time 22 minutes.

I have been 18. 28. 38. And then, all of a sudden, 48. Fingers crossed, I will be 58, 68 and hopefully 78. And then, well, I guess the jury is out after that. As I write this now, I am 51. But my first encounter with Invisible Woman Syndrome happened at 48. There has […]

Travel Memoir: The People You Meet

July 3, 2025.Reading time 3 minutes.

In 2010, at the age of 35, I had the opportunity to leave my life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada behind for a few months to travel around Southeast Asia and China with my British boyfriend. Thanks to his work in the luxury travel industry, the trip was to be part budget/backpacker and part luxury with […]

Wadi Rum Magic

July 29, 2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

Wadi Rum Magic I had the great luck of going to Jordan about two weeks before the pandemic shut the world down in 2020. Although we are living with relative normalcy again, whenever I think about this trip over the last two years, it feels very odd to think about how freely we were moving […]

Discovering Soul Mates – Travel’s Biggest Gift

July 29, 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Discovering Soul Mates – Travel’s Biggest Gift When I was in grade 11, I went on exchange to Namur, Belgium for a few months. Namur is a French speaking city of approximately 110,00 and is the capital of Belgium’s Wallonia region. This didn’t mean a lot to me when I was in grade 11, but […]

I’m Going to Greece. Who is Coming With?

July 27, 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

I’m Going to Greece. Who is Coming With? I sat down with Tom Gehrels of Adventure Coordinators to talk about his life as a travel agent and how indispensable this relationship can be for the adventure seeker. You can read all about it here. We also took a few minutes to talk about his latest […]

For the Love of a Good Travel Agent

July 26, 2022.Reading time 25 minutes.

For the Love of a Good Travel Agent We live in a time where we can pretty much do anything we want with very little help from a human. Ask Siri. Alexa. Google. We can order groceries online, work online, exercise online….. I sat down (online) with Tom Gehrels, one of my favourite FLY Travel […]

Magical Guatemala

July 21, 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Magical Guatemala Although the photo is grainy (and is the ONLY sign that this picture wasn’t taken yesterday ), I love it because I can still feel that moment. I was thirty and on a trip around Belize and Guatemala with G Adventures. I was in love with Central America (and still am). I loved […]

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail, by Suzanne Roberts

July 7, 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail, by Suzanne Roberts Day one and hiker Suzanne Roberts was already lying in her journal. Sign me up. I am very drawn to true stories about women who take on multi-day through-hikes, be it as a solo adventure or with other females in tow. Perhaps this […]

The True A-Hole of Canada

July 4, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Sunset with streaming clouds on a lake looking at an island.

The True A-Hole of Canada When I was 18, I lived in Jasper, Alberta. It was very easy to be intoxicated by the mountains – they had such an obvious beauty and presence that was beyond what I had experienced growing up in Ontario. As things go at that age, I had an on-again off-again, […]