About Us

Jeff and Ginny Orenstein abaord a private car at Tampa Union Station.

We (Jeffrey R. (Jeff) Orenstein, Ph.D. and Virginia (Ginny) Orenstein) live in gorgeous Lakewood Ranch, a mere eight miles from the Gulf Of Mexico and 20 minutes from downtown Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida.

Jeff has a Ph.D. in political science and taught for 25 years at a large Midwestern University.  When he “retired” from teaching, he became a newspaper editor and then a magazine publisher. He’s written several books and hundreds and hundreds of articles. His syndicated column, Simply Smart Travel, is published monthly.

Ginny has a degree in accounting, is a C.P.A. (no longer practicing) and was the Chief Financial Officer of large companies in steel, tires and building products distribution.

And yes, we walk our talk. We’re both over 50 and love to travel to locations that range from the exotic to the commonplace, although we’ve never found any place to be really commonplace once we looked around.

We’re also pretty good photographers and love to share our photos and travel tips and observations with the world. That’s why we started Simply Smart Travel.