An Interview With a World-Traveling Flight Attendant

Today, I’m excited to introduce you to my friend Holly. When I first met Holly, I had just moved to Colorado and was looking for a job in Denver. I contacted her on Couchsurfing.com and asked if I could crash her couch and we became fast long-time friends.

In fact, Holly was the first friend from back home to visit me on the road when I started traveling full-time. And she’s one of the people I’ve been back to visit along the way.

The reason I want to introduce you to Holly today is that she’s a passionate world-traveler and has managed to build herself a career that lets her travel for fun as much at half of each month. That’s right: Holly is a flight attendant with a major airline—a job that lets you (once you’ve built up a little seniority) build your own schedule, fly cheaply, and live all over the world.

Today, Holly has agreed to answer a few quick questions for us about her life, her travel style, her favorite spots, and financing her travels:

1. Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Holly. I’m 30 and live in Denver.

2. When did you first start traveling and what made you fall in love with it?

I went to Guatemala with my best friend when I was about 22. It was refreshing to see what other cultures and parts of the world are like. We traveled within the US a lot when I was little, but this trip was my first time out of the US as an adult.

3. What kind of traveling do you like to do? (Are you an adventurer, a beach bum, a city-girl, a combination?) And who do you travel with?

I like trips to be varied. I like just walking around cities exploring and sight-seeing. I like to have time to meet local or expat people to share the experience with or to gain a less touristy perspective of the location. I’m not a huge beach person….I can only do half a day at the beach, then I want to go see things. And I travel alone, unless someone wants to go with me.

4. How often do you get to travel?

I can travel for fun about 10 to 14 days a month.

5. What kind of career do you have? Why did you choose your career and how does it impact your travel?

I work as a flight attendant. This is enabled me to travel super frequently and fairly extensively. I don’t really pay for airplane tickets, so that’s a big one.

6. How do you pick where you go next?

Generally I just pick somewhere I am interested in. I try to go when the weather is nice as well.

7. How do you save for/finance your travels?

I am pretty bad at budgeting, so it’s not really that I save money for trips…it’s that I have worked hard to eliminate superfluous bills at home. I have not paid for cable TV, internet, gym memberships, ect. ect. in years. I keep it simple: rent, phone, and car insurance.

8. What tips do you have for others who want to pursue a career that encourages and requires travel?

Hmmm, I don’t have any tips! Just that if you are a flight attendant, you don’t pay much airfare, but that can differ a lot between airlines.

9. Any favorite places?

Favorite places are Portugal and Island of Bali. Morocco gets an honorable mention.

10. Where are you off to next?

No Official plan yet, maybe Honduras or Spain next month.