Valarie D'Elia has been packing her bags and jumping on airplanes, ships and trains for as long as she can remember.

She comes from a family of travel agents who predate the flight of the Wright Brothers by a year. Her great grandfather started D'Elia Travel, Bridgeport, CT, in 1902 by booking his relatives from Italy to Ellis Island on trans-Atlantic voyages in steerage class.

Today, Valarie continues the D'Elia travel tradition for a fourth generation in her career as a broadcast travel commentator appearing on national and local media outlets including NBC's “Today Show,” CNBC, Fox News and “The Early Show” on CBS. She is also a featured speaker at the New York Times Travel Show and makes numerous other public appearances.

On New York television, she is seen as the travel correspondent for NY1 News with her featured segments, Travel with Val. For nine years, Valarie was the host of “The Travel Show” on the WOR Radio Network.

D'Elia spent five years covering the globe for The Travel Channel as a producer/ reporter, developing and presenting news and feature reports on hundreds of domestic and international destinations. She also was the host/producer of TWA's monthly in-flight video, Ambassador Theater.

As the director of production for HBO's Visitor Information Network, D'Elia was responsible for a hotel TV channel providing tourist information for guests in 10 major U.S. cities. Other TV credits include the Outdoor Life Network, CNN's Travel Guide and CNN's Airport Network. She has been quoted in major national publications such as The New York Times, Cigar Aficionado, Woman's Day, Redbook, Reader's Digest's New Choices and Family PC. D'Elia appeared on the cover of the New York Resident and was profiled in the Italian-American publication Oggi.

D'Elia began her broadcast career as a radio news anchor in Miami while a junior at the University of Miami. She went on to anchor and report for several radio stations in the New York metropolitan area before earning her master's degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

She can be contacted through her website at www.travelwithval.com.