Hey, I'm River!

Before my very first solo trip, a transatlantic cruise from Rome to Orlando, I cried.

I'm not talking about getting a little nervous before vacation. I was genuinely terrified of arriving in a foreign country and not knowing what to do.

How would I get from the airport to a hotel? How would I get cell service so I could use Google Translate? How was I supposed to keep track of all my luggage without getting robbed? And what happened if something went wrong and I had nobody there to help me?

So I did what seemed logical at the time. I booked my flight to Rome for the SAME DAY my cruise departed. 😂

Instead of dealing with all those unknowns, I risked missing a transatlantic cruise and paid the cruise line's premium for a bus straight from the airport to the port. At the time, that felt safer.

Looking back, I was trading one risk for another. I just didn't know enough to understand my options.

That was December 2023. And let me tell you, things have changed!

Not all of it on ships, either. I've traveled through China independently and on a group tour, spent over a month in Brazil, explored Southeast Asia, and made Da Nang, Vietnam, my home base. And I haven't exactly stopped traveling.

But here's the thing. I'm not fearless.

There are still places I'm not comfortable visiting alone. There are situations I avoid. I still research things, make mistakes, and occasionally spend more money than I intended.

The difference is that now I know how to figure things out.

And that's a skill I believe anyone can develop.

Why Travel Tapas?

My dad died in his early forties. I only ever saw him take one vacation.

That stuck with me.

I've always wanted financial freedom, but not just for the sake of having money in the bank. I wanted to build a life with room in it. Room to travel. Room to explore. Room to spend time doing things I love, without waiting for some magical point in the future when everything is perfect.

I've spent years building businesses in the pet grooming industry. I built and sold two, and I still run my own. Along the way, I've learned a lot about designing work around the life I want, rather than building a life around work. And travel has become a huge part of that.

I love travel. I don't love how complicated people make it.

On one side, you've got influencers showing you gorgeous luxury vacations that cost more than a used car. On the other, you've got people telling you you're wasting money if you don't stay in the cheapest hostel, take the local bus, or cram everything into a backpack.

And somewhere in the middle are the rest of us. We want to see the world. We want to be comfortable. We want to be smart with our money. And we'd really appreciate someone explaining how things actually work!

That's why I created Travel Tapas.

What's with the name?

Think about going out for tapas. You don't have to order one enormous meal. You get to try little bites of different things, discover what you like, and maybe get adventurous enough to try something you never would have ordered otherwise.

I think travel can work the same way.

You don't have to quit your job and move to Vietnam tomorrow. Maybe you start with a cruise. Maybe it's a week somewhere new. Maybe it's your first solo international trip.

Or maybe you're already a pretty experienced traveler and want to learn how to stretch your money further, travel more often, or spend a few months living abroad.

There's no single right way to do this. You get to choose what works for you.

One bite at a time.

What you'll find at Travel Tapas

We'll talk about cruising, hotels, travel rewards, destinations, transportation, safety, budgeting, packing, living abroad, and all those little things nobody thinks to explain.

We'll talk about how to make travel more comfortable without automatically spending a fortune. And we'll talk about the bigger picture, too. Because sometimes the question isn't just where you want to travel. It's how to create more room in your life for the experiences you want to have.

My goal is to help you become a more competent, capable, and confident traveler: to understand your options, learn how to make decisions, and feel more resourceful when something unfamiliar comes your way.

Because I know what it's like to be the woman who says, "I could never do that." And I know how amazing it feels when you finally get to say, "I've got this."

Welcome to Travel Tapas!
River