Featured on Capitol One Learn & Grow, Lifehacker.com, and BusinessTravelLife.com
Hello! We’re Kari & Alan, and we’ve been traveling together for over 18 years making memories and having amazing adventures around the globe. We’ve made world travel a priority for our family, and spend as much time as we can sharing with our children the many wonders of the world. We believe that our lives are enriched by experiencing the myriad of cultures, perspectives, and opportunities other countries have to offer. Traveling globally has helped our children understand that the entire world is accessible to them and that there are good and wonderful people in every corner of the globe.
As we’ve traveled, we’ve learned what we like and how to travel comfortably on a reasonable and relaxed budget. We’re certainly not shoestring budget travelers or digital vagabonds, and we have little desire to ever stay in a hostel. Don’t get us wrong, we applaud those that choose to see the world in this way, but we prefer to take a little more luxurious route and we believe that there are a great many of others like us. We have developed a philosophy around the value of time when we are traveling and have learned to optimize our plans so that we’re always doing more and waiting less.
When we’re not traveling, we are a regular upper middle class family living in the suburbs of Philadelphia. We both have good careers in the healthcare tech industry, but choose to devote a portion of our earnings toward traveling the world in comfort and style. We are devoted Marriott Rewards members and leverage the points we collect through their credit card to supplement our personal travel experiences.
Like many other travelers, we research our destinations, hotels, activities, and transportation exhaustively before we depart. In fact, the planning and anticipation are some of our favorite parts of the travel experience. In our research, we’ve leaned heavily on Trip Advisor, Yelp, Google, and other travel review sites to help us understand what to expect in our destinations and along the way. In nearly two decades of travel research, we’ve noticed two things: 1) people who like to travel like we do are largely underserved in the blogging community and 2) it’s impossible to know the context of Trip Advisor reviews.
Let us explain: When you read a review on a resort on Trip Advisor and it’s overwhelmingly positive, you’re likely left with a very good impression of the property. What you don’t know is the demographic, age, or travel experience of that reviewer. That 5-star review of an all-inclusive on the Riviera Maya may have been written by a 21 year old college student who’s never left the Midwest. While this is perfectly valid and wonderful, the features of a resort that delight a inexperienced coed may not be the same features that you are looking for in a quiet, relaxing family holiday.
Having been misguided a few times by similar situations, we’ve dedicated ourselves to providing honest and transparent reviews of the places we’ve been to inform others of similar tastes of what they can really expect from a given resort or luxury hotel. We give honest reviews. If a resort or product is ever sponsored, we will say so. If something is bad with a particular property or experience, we let it be known so that you can be better informed and with the hope that the property will improve.
Our sincere wish is that you will visit this site often and enjoy it as much as we enjoy contributing to it. We are eager to share the best of our adventures around the globe so that you will be encouraged to explore more of our world as well. A trip to an exotic destination doesn’t have to be a one-time “trip of a lifetime,” it should be one of many that you and your family embark on to explore the world.
Safe travels,
K&A
Articles, Publications, and Mentions
- “Travel Tips for People Flying With Kids” Capitol One Learn & Grow
- “Hotel Hacks for Business Travelers” BusinessTravelLife.com
- “How to Fall Asleep on a Plane” Lifehacker.com
Ritz - Rosé - Repeat 