This interview is with Kristin Matthews, Founder, Travel Writer and Content Creator, Tiny Footsteps Travel.
Kristin, as a Founder, Travel Writer, and Content Creator in the writing and editing space, how do you describe your niche in global family travel and the types of destination guides you specialize in?
I focus on destinations that I know on a deeper level and have personal experience with to draw from, in order to offer true-to-life and honest tips for my readers.
I have not expanded into sponsored trips at all (yet). Instead, I travel anonymously and provide my personal opinions and tips to my readers, so they can make decisions about their trips that are educated and informed.
What key experiences—from traveling as a single parent to leading trips as a family of four—led you to launch your own travel writing platform and shape your approach to ethical, family-focused storytelling?
In my days as a single parent, I worked full-time as a public school teacher and traveled with my young daughter during school holidays—March break, winter break, and summer.
Eventually, I got married and had a second child. I had been struggling with work stress for a while at that point, and now as a mom of two kids, I decided to take the leap to quit teaching and focus full-time on writing, which I had been doing my whole life as a hobby but now wanted to turn into my new career.
Being present as a parent is really important to me, and travel blogging allows me to do that. In addition, since I’m now self-employed, we can be more flexible about the places we visit and when we visit them.
Drawing on your research and data analysis skills, what is your step-by-step process for developing a new family destination guide from pre-trip research to on-the-ground scouting to post-trip fact-checking?
I typically research thoroughly all the things there are to do in the place we plan to visit. I write a Google Doc itinerary, which I share with my husband and oldest daughter.
I highlight the activities of interest, places to eat, and even include open hours and other notes that might be relevant. This can essentially serve as the beginning of a blog post.
Then, on the trip, we pick and choose from that list what interests us the most. I use our experiences and the opinions of my husband, myself, and my daughters to form a personal-experience-based blog post that helps other families.
You’ve written about tracking the “true trip cost” and navigating ETAs and surprise fees; how do you build a realistic family travel budget that anticipates those costs while preserving room for spontaneity?
We always have a ballpark figure in mind for what the trip will cost, and we ensure that we have those funds available to finance the trip. Since we travel often, I am now accustomed to expanding that ballpark beyond what we might have if I did not travel frequently. The more we have traveled, the better we have become at budgeting and ensuring wiggle room for spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous plans.
Given your passions for environmental protection and humanitarian relief—and your plant-forward, low-waste habits—what practical changes can families make to reduce waste and tread lighter without sacrificing local connection?
Remembering that less is always more is a great way to tread lighter and reduce overconsumption and its impact on the planet.
Our family spent two months in Europe, sharing only one large suitcase and didn’t need much extra space. Was it tight sometimes? Yes. But it made us be more intentional about what we brought with us and about the purchases we made while abroad. We bought fewer trinkets and instead focused on the good quality souvenirs and products that we really wanted. We had enough space for everything we wanted to bring back (mostly consumable items too).
How do your language skills (e.g., French and Spanish) and community-outreach mindset help you forge local connections and uncover kid-friendly experiences, and what simple tactics do you recommend for non-fluent travelers?
Knowing the local language (even though almost everyone speaks English these days) has helped us connect on a deeper level with locals in the places we visit.
For example, we were invited to a little boy’s birthday party in Cuba, which is one of my most memorable family travel experiences to date. My daughter danced with other kids to songs in Spanish. We’ve visited my extended family in Sweden, enjoyed many summer dinners on patios, and shared traditional ‘fika’ with them. These kinds of experiences, where we can get ‘right in there’ and experience life as locals do, are my favorite and most meaningful travel experiences. They’re much easier and more accessible if you speak the language.
Knowing another language unlocks a whole new window, providing new perspectives and worldviews. When you speak someone’s language, you gain insight into the way they see things—especially since so much of our thinking is tied up in the words we use to describe or talk about various topics.
What personal rules guide your social media and storytelling—what to photograph or share—to keep trips intentional, protect your children’s privacy, and respect local communities?
I don’t have strong opinions about whether other parent travel content creators share photos of their kids’ faces, but I choose not to, just in case. I also make sure that other kids’ faces aren’t very visible in any of my photos. If they are, then I put a flower sticker over them (in fact, I do this with adults too).
I’m not an expert on what deeper implications there may be for sharing faces, if any, but covering them up is just a protective measure in case it would ever be an issue!
For parents planning a first multi-country trip with kids, what itinerary design framework—covering pace, transit choices, lodging, and built-in downtime—has proven most reliable for you?
For every few busy days on the road, make sure that there is at least one day that isn’t planned. Having buffer days on the 2-month trip to Northern Europe was what made the trip sustainable and doable for both the parents and the kids.