About Dr. J, Travel Blogger at Sidewalk Safari
I’m Jennifer Petoff, aka Dr. J, the voice and photographer behind Sidewalk Safari. I’m an American-Irish expat living in Lisbon, Portugal, and I’ve been writing this blog since 2008.
My motto has always been: Work to Live, Live to Travel, Travel for Work. For over 20 years that meant turning every business trip into a chance to see more of the world.
I write exclusively about trips I’ve personally taken and experiences I’ve actually had.
I am an expert on:
- turning business trips into bleisure trips
- European expat life and travel
- workcation travel
- building a life of travel through judicious career choices
The Travel for Work Payoff
I was a scientist once-upon-a-time and I love data, so I recently ran the numbers on the experiences that traveling for work got me:
- Over 200 business trips spanning more than 25 countries on 5 continents, including:
- North America: Canada, United States
- Europe: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
- Australia/Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
- Asia: India
- South America: Brazil
- 2 international expat assignments: in Ireland and Portugal
- Over $500,000 in estimated travel value, which I took further by extending trips (at my own expense), using points and airline / hotel elite statuses that I earned on my business trips, and exploring destinations I might never have chosen on my own
- Visited 40% of the 65 countries I’ve been to in my life so far while “on the clock”
Beyond the Blog
Sidewalk Safari isn’t the only thing I do. If you like photography, check out Doors, Glorious Doors, where I capture pictures of doors from around the world. And if you’re in tech or program management, I write about scaling teams and programs using Site Reliability Engineering principles over at The Reliable PgM.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Sidewalk Safari would not be possible without the crack travel planning skills of my husband of 30 years, Scott. Scott publishes blogs and apps that focus on achieving better work-life-travel balance on VacationCounts.
Sidewalk Safari in the Press
- A Traveling American Techie in Dublin, The Irish Stew Podcast, 2022
- Music, deer and culture: How to spend a day in Dublin for free, Nov 30, 2022, The Irish Independent
- A walking tour of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast Trail, from the man who designed it, Sep 19, 2022, San Jose Mercury News
