the Creative Travel Mom: An In Depth Interview
Looking for a little travel inspiration? Look no further! Abby from Wayfaren is my go to resource for all things family and rewards travel. She is such an inspirational travel mom!
Travel Mom Abby By The Numbers
Abby is a busy mom to three young children, ages 9, 6, and 1. In addition to homeschooling her children two days a week, she manages her social media accounts and website teaching families how to travel more. Abby has a great outlook on parenting and travel. She figures parenting is always hectic and hard so why not do it in a bucketlist destination, especially when points and miles can make it so affordable!
Have You Always Loved Traveling?
Yes! My Dad grew up working for a third party company within American Airlines so we grew up doing LOTS of travel. Not a ton of international travel other than the Caribbean, but it definitely built a love and appreciation for seeing new places since a young age. I have SUCH distinct memories of so many hours spent waiting for standby on flights pre-trip…but you can’t beat flying domestically for $10!
Then once I graduated from Baylor with an elementary education degree, I knew I didn’t want to go back to Dallas. I applied with an international teaching organization and got a placement in Italy, despite knowing not a soul or the language! I lived for the most magical year in Northern Italy and spent most weekends traveling around Europe. This definitely is a huge driving force for my why behind getting my family out as experiencing the world together as much as possible!
what is one piece of advice you would give to families who are nervous to start traveling?
If it is a complete disaster, you will ALWAYS laugh about it later. Haha but no really, I truly think it is all about expectations. You have to go in KNOWING it will be hard. Knowing there will be moments where the worst possible thing happens at the worst possible moment, when the blowout happens when you have no diapers left, when the meltdown peaks at the museum. It is just part of traveling with kids, and I just try my very hardest to not let the difficult moments taint the ENTIRE trip.
The trips I was most nervous about usually end up being the most rewarding ones filled with the sweetest memories!
I always say travel begets better travelers. The more you make it a priority to vacation together, (even if that is a quick road trip getaway a few hours away!), the easier and more enjoyable and life-giving travel will become for ALL of you!
Favorite travel destination and why?
Urgh I hate this question…how do I pick?!? The Azores islands because it was SO unique and just such an untapped, other worldly corner of the earth. Norway, besides that fact that there was not a SINGLE inch of that place that isn’t jaw droppingly beautiful, this was a heritage trip of sorts for us as my husband’s family is Norwegian. I totally under estimated how special that would be! We went with the whole extended family (all 12 of us!) and it was straight up MAGIC (chaos…but a whole lot of magic)!
What’s one travel mistake you’ve made? So we can all avoid it!
If you have to give your kiddo an antibiotic right before a trip, or on a trip, always ALWAYS pair it with a probiotic. Don’t even ask me about the number of explosive diarrhea episodes our 6 month old had on the way to Hawaii. He 100% ended up naked at the end of our two flights and it was JUST as much of a disaster as it sounds lol. But we laugh about it now (sometimes) lol!
BONUS SECTION: REWARDS TRAVEL
In addition to sharing amazing family travels and recommendations, Abby is an expert on traveling on rewards and points. And doing it with a family!
How did you get started with rewards travel?
With my time in Europe having such a special place in my heart, it all started with a dream to take our kids to go live in Italy for a month. But we had NO clue financially how to make it work. That was our first time dipping our toe into points and miles before we had any idea really what we were doing. We found a killer deal to Rome and used our points to erase $1,300 worth of flight charges. Now 6 years later we’ve learned how to accumulate points more efficiently and maximize them for better and better trips each year!
We ran an travel-based ecommerce business for the last 10 years, but as things started to shift with that arm of the business I knew I wanted to start diversifying and make a shift with our social media content. So I started to share about all the creative ways we were actually affording all these trips (the inspiration behind our ecomm business in the first place) and got such a great response!
How long have you been traveling on points and miles?
We’ve been leveraging credit card points for travel for probably the last 6-8 years. However strategically building our points stash and really learning how to maximize those points for the most travel the past 3-3.5 years!
What is your biggest trip savings to date?
I think our savings on our Norway trip was MASSIVE. Instead of having to purchase 2 one way tickets each ($2000 per person), we got tickets for $226 a person and about 35,000 points. A trip that NEVER would have been remotely possible without points and miles!
What is your top tip for people getting started with travel hacking?
Start NOW. Start with ONE trip. Don’t focus to much on the value on your points, focus on what would bring you the most JOY.
What do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions about points travel?
That is somehow means you are irresponsible or ruins your credit score! We have never felt more in top of and in charge of our finances and our credit scores have NEVER been higher! And we’ve never opened more credit cards for steeply discounted vacations!
How many points do you think you accrue on average in a year? How many credit cards do you open/use?
On average maybe 1-1.5 million?! With sign up bonuses and just earnings from regular spending included. We probably open a new card (business or personal) on average every 60 days. On a daily basis, unless we can’t hit a minimum spend via “extra” expense that come up, we are usually two cards on the regular. Some people get VERY tied up in getting the absolute MOST point for every dollar spent…but man I am BUSY. I just am not in a season to have the mental space to think about that. So two high earning cards for everything is the name of the game right now.
Are there any hotels or destinations you think are particularly easy for first timers to book with points?
Hawaii and Mexico are always my top recommendations if you are first starting out!
What trips do you have planned on points for 2024?
In about a week we head to San Miguel Allende Mexico (very excited for this hidden gem!). In April, we take a small town France and Switzerland trip. In May, we are taking a kid free long weekend luxury trip to Cabo. We will be spending most of the summer in Newport for my husbands job training. And then the rest of the year (I am VERY behind on booking right now! #relatable…hopefully hah!) we are considering Costa Rica, Quebec City for a Christmas trip, and one more TBD!
Any other insight you think is important for families who want to use points and miles but feel too overwhelmed to start?
Just start by making sure you have a valuable card for travel in your wallet. I know before I go into all this, I just haphazardly chose a credit card. I had no idea what it was earning me or if it was even all that valuable. I think the Chase Sapphire Preferred is hands down the easiest and most valuable place to start as it earns you the most flexible and sought after points in the travel space. Start by just being more intentional about how you are getting money and travel BACK in your pocket for the spending you are already doing and then you can start to dream about maybe a potential nearly free trip or two (…or forever) 🙂 !
I loved getting to know Abby more. She has been such an inspiration to me on Instagram, I hope she has made you feel like being a travel mom is within reach!
Looking for more travel mom inspiration? Check out another avid rewards traveler, Amber.
