About Our Writers

Beth Kanter is a travel writer who specializes in all things D.C. She is the author of Day Trips from Washington, D.C: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler and the forthcoming Food Lovers’ Guide to Washington, D.C. Her articles and essays have also appeared in a wide variety of publications including Parents, Wondertime, Shape, Kiwi, and the Chicago Tribune. You can visit her online at www.bethkanter.com. She updated the Where to Stay chapter.

Allison Lombardo—bureaucrat by weekday, city explorer by weekend—makes sure her weekends and evenings are packed with action in the city she loves. A Dupont Circle denizen for many years, Allison’s adventures take her all over the city to old gems and also unexpected discoveries. She updated the Nightlife, Sports and Outdoors, and the Performing Arts chapters.

A fourth-generation Washingtonian, freelance writer Kathryn McKay is the author of Fodor’s Around Washington, D.C. with Kids and the updater of the Monuments and Memorials, Shopping, and Side Trips chapters. She has written for many local publications, including Bethesda magazine, Northern Virginia magazine, the Washington Times, and the Washington Post.

Born and raised in Virginia, Mike Lillis now lives in Washington, D.C., where he covers politics for The Hill newspaper. Many weekends find him in a canoe, paddling the rocky streams of the region. He updated the Experience Washington, D.C. chapter.

Cathy Sharpe, a freelance writer with more than 20 years of experience in travel, has lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington since 1998. She loves seeing the metro area’s wonders through the eyes of her four children. She updated the Official Washington chapter.

Where to Eat updater Elana Schor was bit by the Washington bug at age eight, when she first applied to become a Capitol tour guide. She still delights in showing D.C. newbies the ropes as a staff reporter for Greenwire and restaurant reviewer for The Hill newspaper. A six-year resident of the capital, she has also covered politics for Talking Points Memo and the Guardian newspaper.

Renee Sklarew lives in Bethesda—think Brooklyn to Manhattan—and loves Washington, D.C., for many reasons, most particularly because she is a museum junkie: her kids often complain that they should be allowed to go to an amusement park instead of constantly being dragged to museums on the weekends (“But I know they will thank me someday, and, in fact, the older one already does”). She has covered museums and neighborhoods in some of her other work, including her travel articles for Northern Virginia Magazine (another DC suburb), the DC Examiner, and, for a national audience, Adventure Biking, Park & Recreation Magazine, and Running Times. She even won an essay contest in The Washington Post once called “Why I Love My Hometown”—about Washington naturally. For this edition, she updated our Museums chapter and our Neighborhoods chapter.