My Travel Story
My travel story did not begin with plane tickets or faraway places. It started at home, learning how to see familiar spaces differently. That curiosity followed me to college, where travel became tied to purpose, learning, and service. Somewhere along the way, the travel bug hit hard, bringing many firsts and expanding how I saw myself and the world. As an educator, travel blended into my professional life through conferences and “bleisure,” eventually leading me to solo trips and many, many microcations. Now, I find myself full circle, returning to hometown tourism with a deeper understanding that travel is less about escape and more about intention. For me, that intention is connection, context, and care.
Chapter 1: Pre-Plane Ticket — Hometown Tourism as a Child
Born and raised in New York City, Brooklyn to be exact! I grew up with my mom in humble beginnings. Like any true New Yorker, public transportation was a way of life. While we never caught a flight, we took countless bus rides through local neighborhoods and subway rides across the boroughs. One early travel memory is taking the Metro-North to Stamford, CT, with my mom to buy a Powerball ticket (we clearly did not win 😭).
My love for hometown tourism—though back then it didn’t have a name—grew from years of summer camp, taking day trips 3x times a week to NYC’s cultural sites: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, riding the trolley at the Bronx Zoo, taking the ferry to Ellis Island, climbing up the Statue of Liberty, and even riding the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building!
Chapter 2: College Travel with a Purpose
(Hint: It’s not through study abroad!)
My first true taste of travel outside NYC came through conferences, medical school visits, and summer pre-med pathway programs, designed to increase diversity in the medical workforce and support progression through medical education. These programs gave me the chance to live in a different state in the Northeast each summer, and I made the most of every opportunity to explore. It is also how I experienced my first Amtrak ride, as well as my first Greyhound & Megabus rides.
Summer 2008 (Age 18): Spent 5 weeks at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.
Summer 2009 (Age 19): Spent 6 weeks at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, PA.
Summer 2010 (Age 20): Spent 10 weeks at Boston University in Boston, MA.
College Years: I not only traveled to conferences and medical school visits across the Northeast, but also invited others to join me—opening their eyes to the possibilities that travel can offer.
- Washington, DC (Annual Medical Education Conference)
- Cambridge, MA (Harvard Medical School)
- Philadelphia, PA (University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine)
- New Haven, CT (Yale University, School of Medicine)
Chapter 3: Many Firsts — Travel Bug Bit Me HARD
I had never boarded a plane or held a passport until I was 22. Then came 2012, a year that completely changed my relationship with travel. It began in March when I flew to Indianapolis, IN, for the first time to attend the National Science Teachers Association Conference. Not only was this my first time on a plane, but it was also my first time traveling solo.
That same year, a close friend and I decided to take a two-week trip to Costa Rica. I did not even have a passport yet, but with free lodging at a local’s house, I thought, why not? This was my first summer vacation as a teacher, so this trip felt hard-earned and worth it.
Costa Rica was my first taste of authentic travel. We rode buses across the country, tried to exchange money in Spanish, and ate at local restaurants, experiencing the culture in a way no guidebook could teach. Talk about plunging deep into travel!
That school year, a professor casually mentioned that teaching is one of the best jobs because it allows for travel during breaks (and trust me, there are many). I took him literally, and that mindset sparked over a decade of nonstop exploration. It became a decade filled with many firsts: leaving the country, exploring new continents, traveling solo, joining escorted group tours, taking girls’ trips, and going on bae trips.
Chapter 4: My Bleisure Era — Teacher Conferences
Teacher conferences were my first real ticket to travel, with flights, hotels, meals, and registration all covered. Who doesn’t love that? My first trip to Indianapolis, IN, taught me what kind of traveler I am. I chase both the classic sights and hidden gems. Museums? Check. Local spots featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives?
Absolutely! I hopped on a bus to find one, inspired by a show I’d just discovered from my hotel room. That adventure sparked a lifelong habit of finding authentic experiences wherever I go.
Since then, I’ve traveled to 10+ teacher conferences and trainings, maximizing every bleisure trip. Realizing I was racking up states, it also inspired me to Journey to 50 States.
Conferences led me to visit (all expenses paid!):
- Denver, CO
- Colorado Springs, CO
- San Diego, CA
- Aurora, IL (visited Chicago, IL)
- Boston, MA
- New Haven, CT
- Wilmington, DE
- Albany, NY
- Washington, DC
- Nashville, TN
- Indianapolis, IN
- Columbia, SC (visited Myrtle Beach)
- Sandusky, OH (visited Cleveland, OH & Lake Erie islands)
Chapter 5: My Solo Microcation Queen Era — Maximize PTO
Beyond bleisure trips, I wanted to maximize my personal vacations and PTO, partly to make up for the 22 years I didn’t have a passport. As a first-generation American, traveling felt like catching up—especially compared to a colleague who had visited 80 countries. I also did not want to wait for a man to come to the picture to travel. That’s how my solo Microcation Queen era began.
Working in schools provided me with long breaks, such as summers and holidays, but trips were costly, and PTO was restrictive. Even three-day weekends had to be used wisely. I learned to leverage every holiday, adding mini-getaways to nearby cities like Philadelphia or Baltimore. Those microcations offered the same adrenaline rush as extended trips, but at a fraction of the cost, so I leaned into them as a way to reclaim my time.
Then a man came into the picture (we’re married!), and instead of slowing me down, he encouraged my solo trips to Morocco and Haiti while we committed to couples traveling, some of our baecations getting national exposure.
When I transitioned into nonprofit work, I had fewer days off but gained far more flexibility, which allowed me to take even more microcations. However, my husband still had a limited schedule as an educator. Solo travel became both an escape from the demands of work and a source of adventure. Between 2012 and 2024, I went from visiting zero countries and just five states to exploring nearly 40 states and 35 countries.
It was during this period, in 2016, that I launched the Franny the Traveler blog as a platform to share my travel recommendations and tips.
Chapter 6: My Hometown Tourism Era (Again)
Like many of us, the pandemic forced us to pause. As an adventurer, I needed a new way to get my travel fix, so I decided to become a tourist in my own city. This was not entirely new. Hometown tourism has been part of me since I was six, as I shared in Chapter 1, but the pandemic gave me the chance to reengage with it intentionally. A full circle moment.
During that time, I explored all five boroughs of New York City, revisiting childhood favorites like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Bronx Zoo, and even walking across the Brooklyn Bridge again. I took day trips to parts of New Jersey and other parts of New York State, including Long Island’s North Fork and the Hudson Valley. I also enjoyed long weekend getaways to Albany and Niagara Falls. While I may have scratched the surface in the past, I have now explored these places more deeply.
This approach even led to an opportunity to write an article for Free Tours by Foot about being a tourist in your own city. While the pandemic is over, I continue to carry this style of travel into the present day.
Chapter 7: The Present — My Conscious Black Travel Era
Across every type of trip I take, one theme anchors my journey: conscious Black travel.
That passion is deeply tied to my love of history. I was never satisfied with the Haitian Revolution being reduced to a one-liner in my 6th-grade textbook or a paragraph in high school. It wasn’t until college—where I majored in history with a focus on colonization—that everything shifted. Courses like Caribbean History, The Sociology of Inequality, and Race in the Making of the United States made it painfully clear how much my K–12 education had left out. It didn’t help that every history teacher I had was white.
Travel changed that. Museums taught me the local stories too “small” for textbooks. Black history walking tours revealed the narratives that only locals and lived experience can tell. The more I learned, the more I wanted to keep learning—and to share what I found. The educated educating the educated.
But it didn’t stop at history. I wanted my dollars to reflect my values: to support Black businesses, show up for Black communities, and make my impact tangible, not just intellectual. As I shared my journey, more people became curious, not just about the history, but about my Traveling While experience.
That inspired me to show others how to travel with intention. In 2022, I published my Support BLACK™ framework, which guides travelers to: seek out Black-owned businesses, learn the local Black history, notice how a place amplifies Black voices, and celebrate events that uplift Black culture.
Today, I’m a living example of this work in action, which is why I call myself Your Educator in Motion™. And my hope is that through my blog—and my journey—you feel inspired to begin your own conscious Black travel era.