About Chasing ADNVTR
Founded by Gretchen Stuppy Carlson, Chasing ADVNTR is a travel planning independent agency that helps people plan better adventure travel experiences around the world.
Gretchen has traveled extensively with her family and has direct, first-hand knowledge of many of the best adventure destinations around the world. Here on Chasing ADVNTR, you will find destination guides, how-tos on adventure travel, and travel consultation services to help you get out and explore more! We offer multi-level of travel planning support from do it yourself itineraries to indepth personalize travel planning.
Our goal is to help you create your dream experience to destinations around the world. We pride ourselves on our intentional process that starts with listening carefully to what our clients want and customizing experiences based on you unique preferences. Whether you are planning the family trip of a lifetime to Italy, want a destination wedding in St Lucia, or are looking for an authentic travel tour we will help you create the perfect experience.
Chasing ADVNTR specializes in adventure travel and is committed to supporting sustainable and responsible travel. This commitment extends from supporting local communities and cultures to ethical animal encounters and environmental stewardship. We do not promote travel experiences that don’t meet align with this commitment.
Want to Get in Touch? Visit our Contact Page or email me at gretchen@chasingadvntr.com
Gretchen Carlson (Owner of Chasing ADNVTR)
Gretchen has over 15 years of experience working with kids and teens in outdoor education and adventure travel and many year of planning adventure travel. She has worked in the outdoor education world as a Captain and Program Manager aboard tall ships with organizations like Salish Sea Expeditions, Sea Education Association and the Gundalow Company. She is passionate about providing people with experiences that connect them to others, the earth, and themselves. She believes that travel, especially adventure travel, will inspire the next generation of global citizens, leaders, and explorers.
In addition to working in outdoor education, Gretchen is an avid adventurer, currently exploring the world with her own three kids and sharing the experiences and advice of family travel here at Chasing ADVNTR Travel. She loves to climb, hike, backpack, sail, ski, kayak, bike and more! She is the primary voice on this site, and does most of the writing and photography and travel planning
When she’s not traveling, you can find she is painting and growing flowers.
Our Story
On a boat in Key West, I first met Dave. It was a fleeting moment, a quick introduction as I boarded a ship for 6 weeks at sea as part of the Sea Education Association college semester program. Two years later, we were re-introduced through his cousin (my college roommate). The timing was in one part terrible as we were both graduating from college and getting ready to go off in different directions and on the other hand, defining for the life we would build together.
For the first 5 years, we dated, we both worked short-term contracts on educationally focused sail training tall ships. Each season would find us moving from boat to boat, teaching leadership, science, and sail training. We both had our US Coast Guard license and worked as Captains, Mates, Deckhands, and Scientists, sometimes together and sometimes apart for months at a time.
Between contracts, we would travel (mostly domestically on a budget) or move somewhere for a few months. We spent 3 months skiing in Breckenridge, 9 months living in Boulder, and 1 month sailing up into British Columbia. Our sailing contracts took us to sea for 3 hours up to 6 weeks up and down the East and West coast of North America, throughout the Caribbean, and out to Bermuda to Tahiti and Hawaii.
When we decided to get married – we imagined we would just strap the kids on our backs and bring them along wherever we went. This was eventually true, but it took a lot of work and imagination to get enjoy traveling as a family. Our first years of marriage we settled down a bit. We moved to North Carolina, went to graduate school, taught, bought a house, got a dog, and within a year of getting married in 2007, we had twins: Hadley and Fin.
We quickly learned that you absolutely can adventure with young kids, it just looks a bit different! We moved to update New York for a year and then spent 6 months in France when the twins were little where we ate lots of gelato and explored Europe with our 2 year olds.
After our 3rd child (Freja) was born, our travel slowed down for a few years as we worked to pay off student loans and manage 3 kids under 4 at home. We used this time to dive deeper into our other passion to start a large vegetable garden, raise chickens and bees and grow our own fruit trees. When we’re home, we spend a lot of time tending our homestead which now includes goats and chickens at our current home in New Hampshire. We also share about our adventures Backyard Farming.
We are not full-time travelers, although we do have some plans for more extensive travel in the future. This means we’ve worked hard to create systems to balance what we love at home with what we love on the road. It isn’t always easy to have animals and a old farmhouse and commitments and also travel, but a few years ago we recognized that adventure travel was a priority and we made an effort to identify and address the obstacles that were holding us back.
Our kids have grown up with an adventure travel mindset and while they aren’t on board with every adventure we throw out there, they are growing up to be brave, adventurous, and open-minded. We believe strongly in getting our kids outside and travelling together.
Read exactly How We Plan Adventure Travel.
Start Your Adventure
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When I’m not out exploring with my family, you can also find me writing about Backyard Farming from her home in NH or write on Amazing Charcuterie Boards.
