“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
Travel Expert. Social Media Storyteller. Celebrating the Extraordinary. I am a storyteller and Hip Travel Mama is my story. As a Mom, travel expert, blogger and travel and lifestyle social media and public relations firm owner, I wear a lot of hats. Here on the blog, I aim to inspire families to make travel a priority, to inspire other moms to live an extraordinary life and keep pushing their comfort zone to experience all the world has to offer. I also work with travel and online lifestyle brands to help them tell their story, connect with influential moms and bloggers and share their experiences with traditional media. Every day I wake up, I feel blessed to have these tools to connect with my community and share what inspires me, to seek out new experiences, live authentically and celebrate this life with my husband and children. This blog is a daily reminder that I am the author of my story and no one else can write it for me.
Travel planning starts in our community, and with people with whom we have shared experiences, interests and budget. Often my best vacation ideas or advice comes from a neighbor, a colleague, a mom at school, or a parent on the playground. HipTravelMama is a community of fun moms and parents who love to travel, are willing to splurge a little (or a lot) on exceptional experiences and are eager to share with other families. I hope you will follow my journey on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
—Anne Taylor Hartzell, HipTravelMama
Meet Anne Taylor Hartzell, aka HipTravel Mama
Anne Taylor Hartzell, a.k.a Hip Travel Mama, is a travel expert, frequent broadcast TV guest, travel writer, mom of two, and speaker with a passion for inspiring families to create unique travel experiences together. With more than 15 years experience building technology and travel brands, Anne Taylor Hartzell is an experienced social media marketer and blogger. Anne’s travel tips have appeared on The TODAY Show, Q13 FOX News, KING 5 News, Budget Travel, The New York Times, CNN.com, Conde Nast Traveler, and more than 30 broadcast news outlets across the country. Her blog, HipTravelMama was included in Babble’s Top 25 Travel Websites for 2012 and 2011. She also maintains an active PR and social media consultancy, Anne Taylor Communications, LLC www.annetaylorco.com
Spokesperson for hire
Anne Taylor Hartzell is a trained speaker and broadcast media spokesperson that has appeared on more than 30 broadcast media outlets across the country, including the TODAY show, Q13FOX, KING5, among others. Most recently, Anne completed a Satellite Media Tour for Expedia.com on Spring Travel Trends for 2012. Anne has a passion for style and discovering hip places to travel, stay, eat, shop and play. Email anne [at] hiptravelmama [dotcom]
What makes HipTravelMama.com different than other family travel sites?
Our focus is not on the quantity of trips you take with your kids, but the quality of your family’s travel experiences. There are as many styles and outstanding resources on traveling with kids as there are families. What you will find here is just a bit different:
- Hip Tips: Tips for smart luxury travel with or without kids, ideas for unique experiences, trips and destinations
- Hip Hotels: luxury hotel reviews, hip hotels that are kid-friendly and stylish
- Food and Wine: wine getaways, culinary experiences and the occasional recipe
- Luxe Style: Stylish and functional fashion for mom, family and the home and the occasional travel products
We also create seasonal, all-inclusive retreats for hotel partners including the annual MAMACATION event, and the more intimate, seasonal EXPERIENCE girlfriend getaways, and HipTravelMama curated spa, wine, inspiration and yoga retreats at HipTravelMama’s favorite hotels.
Meet Michele Conrad, HipTravelMama’s Social Media Guru
Michele Conrad is a marketing maven and influencer, helping brands bring a personal, authentic voice through social media storytelling and content-driven digital experiences. Michele brings 15 years of passion and experience from traditional advertising, emerging media trends, influential engagement to guerilla marketing for consumer brands such as Bing, Windows Phone and MSN. In addition to social media, Michele periodically reviews properties with her family as a HipTravelMama contributor.
Michele has received awards for her work in the social space which include – 2011 WOMMY award winner from Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and 2011 SAMMY award winner from Social Advertising, Media and Marketing Awards for conceiving and successfully implementing the largest influential consumer beta program in Microsoft history, as well as sustaining launch momentum, driving purchase consideration and engagement in digital and social media marketing. Michele has a knack for creating and managing successful integrated, worldwide go-to-market campaigns. Special focus on developing branded experiences, leveraging social media and online user communities to drive customer acquisition, loyalty and inform product improvements.
At home, Michele is a mother of 3 (9 and twin 5 year olds) that loves an organized, healthy and fabulous looking meal each evening. She thrives on bright, flavorful and seasonal ingredients and isn’t afraid to try out new recipes each week. Best part of her the day is arriving home, pouring a glass of white wine and making dinner with her family while the chaos erupts all around. Each of her kids have nightly duties: table-setter, stirring captain and the special job of grabbing herbs or veggies from the garden before all sitting down as a family for that special meal each day. Michele keeps all her weekly meals posted on her blog, Conrad Family Weekly Dinners. She hopes to inspire families that meals can be easy and delicious when planned ahead. Michele loves to travel, whether it’s taking her family to her one of her favorite destinations in Carmel or Santa Barbara, a romantic getaway with her husband to Lanai, Hawaii, or a girls weekend away to Miraval in Arizona. She loves to search and plan ahead to find the best farmers market, shopping and of course the best place to enjoy a lovely meal.
You can follow Michele’s musings on Pinterest and Twitter.
Editorial Policy
We want you to know that honesty and authenticity are the core of our recommendations and the experiences we share here on the blog. HipTravelMama may from time to time review a property, product or recommend a travel service that we use or inspires us and want to share that experience with our readers and viewers. Periodically, we may also take trips that are sponsored by a travel company, airline, hotel, tourist attraction or consumer product. If a trip or experience was sponsored or paid for, we will disclose that information within the post or review. As always, you can always expect an authentic and honest opinion about our experience like you would from a trusted friend.
Photo courtesy of SunChaser Studios.
