Laura Del Rosso is a journalist who specializes in travel industry trends and business issues of hotels, destinations, cruise lines, travel technology companies, meeting planners, travel agencies and tour operators.

She is contributing editor for Travel Weekly, a leading travel industry newsmagazine, where she was west coast bureau chief for 16 years. She has been a full-time freelance journalist since 2003.

Her first book, award-winning Great Escapes: Northern California, about day trips and weekend getaways within a four-hour drive of the San Francisco Bay Area, was published by Countryman Press/Norton. It is available in bookstores, including Amazon.com. As a companion to the book, she's blogging about her travels in Northern California.