Valarie D’Elia, aka Travel With Val, is an award-winning multi-media travel journalist and content provider, specializing in Italy and ancestral travel.
Val is also a real estate and hospitality aficionado, who has purchased and renovated homes in both New York City and Florida’s Gulf Coast and soon to be buying and renovating a home in her beloved ancestral village of Castelfranco in Miscano, in Italy’s Campania region.
She was born into a family travel business dating back to 1902, when her Italian-born great-grandfather booked his friends and relatives from Naples, Italy to Ellis Island in steerage class on transatlantic oceanliners as part of the immigration wave.
Val has developed an expertise and travel savvy that is cultivated from more than a century’s worth of perspective. Among other outlets, she shared her travels through video segments airing on NY1 News for 20 years.
She was also the host of The Travel Show on the WOR Radio Network for nine years.
Among other networks, she has appeared on every hour of NBC’s Today Show as a travel expert.
At the beginning of her career, Val was a host and producer on the original Travel Channel, created by TWA’s Carl Icahn.
Val’s passion for her Italian ancestry is most evident in her documentary programming, including a story about her DNA connection to a global music figure airing on WLIW21(PBS).
Making of a Maestro” was recognized in 2018 by the NY Press Club as the best travel writing for broadcast TV and in 2019, received the Gold Award for the best video from NATJA, North American Travel Journalists Association, as well as third place in the NYWIFT online shorts festival.

Val is currently a recipient of a NIAF, National Italian American Foundation, Russo Brothers grant for a documentary underway entitled “Saving Southern Italy,” about people like her who are giving back to their Italian ancestry.

Val frequently speaks about her passion for DNA vacations and roots travel at a number of significant trade & consumer shows including NY Times Travel Show, Newsday/AAA Travel Expo, NYTrav Fest and RootsTech.