Anne Banas

Editor, BBC Travel (BBC.com/travel)

Anne is the Editor of BBC Travel, BBC.com's award-winning Travel vertical, where she creates original, engaging and sharable content for a global audience. Previously, Anne was the executive editor and face of SmarterTravel.com (a Tripadvisor company). As a sought after travel expert, Anne has appeared on major broadcast programs like ABC Nightline, The Early Show, Good Morning America and CNN. Anne's commentary has also been featured among leading media outlets, including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and Condé Nast Traveller. Her travel stories have appeared on USAToday.com, ABC News and Boston.com.

Also a trained pastry chef, Anne graduated with high honours in the Professional Pastry Program at The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in 2012, and was granted the Jean Creveux (MOF) Award for outstanding skill with sugar. And while her main focus was pastry arts guided by a French master patissier, she also rounded out her culinary education with rotations in savoury cooking, wine/sommelier training and food and recipe writing. Her recipes have been published on HuffPost Taste.

When it comes to travel and lifestyle, Anne is most passionate about local cuisine and culture, as well as sustainability, and she especially enjoys traveling to Europe, the U.K., the Caribbean, remote islands and even her own backyard. When she's not at the office or traveling, she's usually visiting local farms and markets, uncovering hidden restaurant gems, gardening, taking food photos or developing recipes in her "test kitchen."

Anne received her undergraduate degree from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and studied abroad at Trinity College, Oxford University. She's an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), where she has served on the Board of Directors as Chair of Editors Council, and is currently a director of the SATW Foundation.