About Travel Classics
Travel Classics kicked off some 33 years ago in New York’s Hudson Valley as a small networking event for top magazine editors and writers. Since then, it has developed into an exclusive community of journalists and tourism professionals, all of whom share a passion for storytelling, people, and cultures. Travel Classics hosts two boutique gatherings a year, one international and one domestic, in places as diverse as New Zealand and Arizona.
Maren Rudolph
Founder and President
Cathy Hansen
Conference Director
Kerry Lyons
Media & Marketing Lead
Maren Rudolph
Founder and President
Maren Rudolph was raised in Colorado and Kansas, graduated from DePauw University, where she spent her junior year in France, studying history at the University of Strasbourg. A fellowship led her to grad school (also history) at Tulane. One day in New Orleans, she walked into the editorial offices of the Times Picayune and persuaded the paper to give her a full-time job. It was the experience of a lifetime — covering murders at night and teaching Voltaire in the afternoons. While at Tulane, she fell in love with a guy in the business school. They began their married life in South Korea and Japan — a glorious five-year stint where they started a family and Maren began travel writing. Years later, after settling in New York’s Hudson Valley, Maren pulled together some editor and writer friends, convinced them to join a little conference in 1994 at a place called Troutbeck. The motley gathering grew into the prestigious international conference of today, known as Travel Classics.
Cathy Hansen
Conference Director
Cathy Hansen joined Travel Classics in 2015 not knowing what an enriching second career awaited! Over the years her role has evolved from assistant to Director, taking a leading role in all aspects of conference planning. A graduate of Middlebury College, she worked in print production at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art before taking a break to raise two boys. Cathy is also a chronic volunteer and has served in many leadership roles for charitable organizations in her community of Irvington, New York. She is lucky to spend summers in Maine and always has a jigsaw puzzle underway.