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Email
matthew.meltzer@gmail.com
Matt Meltzer is the odd U.S. Marine who’ll admit he wasn’t in special forces. He was, in fact, a mechanic who worked on Humvees, a fact that’s impressed exactly no one at a bar but does get the occasional “thank you for your service.”
After leaving active duty, Matt attended the University of Miami, he majored in business management then began, working at a supplement company in Orange County, California. There, he began writing the company’s monthly newsletter discussing new products with natural food stores. Within the first month, the company received more complaints about the “unnecessary and, frankly, inappropriate sarcasm” in the newsletter than it had gotten in its 20-year history.
He returned to South Florida, where he managed a gym in Palmetto Bay and was subsequently fired because he spent too much time working on his blog. He continued the blog, bartended at the Clevelander, wrote an expose for MiamiBeach411.com on working at The Clevelander, got fired from the Clevelander, and went to grad school at the University of Florida.
While at UF he completed an Ironman triathlon in 2009. He also received a master’s degree in mass communication, with a specialty in journalism. He then immediately put that degree to use running the dorms for the Miami City Ballet school, supervising 25 teenage ballet dancers in a hotel in South Beach.
In addition to running the dorms, he published pieces in Cosmopolitan Magazine and taught business writing, public relations, and writing for digital media at the University of Miami. At UM he was also a member of the boxing team.
He began as the Miami Editor for Thrillist in 2013, reporting on bars, restaurants, and culture in South Florida before moving on to the travel section in 2015. He went on to join the staff at Matador Network covering travel in 2018. He’s also contributed to the Globe & Mail, Conde Nast Traveler, TimeOut, Fodor’s, Hertz Car Rental, Mashed, The List, Fifty Grand, and a number of other publications. He is a regular guest on Linda Gassenheimer’s Food News & Views on WDNA, and has even barbed with Pail Castronovo as a guest on the Paul and Young Ron show a few times.
In 2020, Matt won Gold, two Bronze, and Honorable Mention awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association, as well as Gold in the Lowell Thomas Competition from the Society of American Travel Writers. In 2021, he was honored by the State of South Dakota with the A.H. Pankow Award for outstanding media coverage of the state. He currently lives in Miami.