We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Thrapp a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Leah , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Flipflops and Adventures was created out of a gap I observed between what the options I saw offered in my job as a travel agent, and the service that I desired to provide and that my clients were requesting. I worked for over a decade as a travel agent and have had a lifelong case of wanderlust that I channeled into a career and then my dream job. Our family has always loved to travel together and when we had our first child, it only made us value creating memories together more than ever before! We made many conscious choices in our lifestyle and jobs to allow us to prioritize experiences over things.

When we traveled as a family, we mostly chose to seek out authentic experiences in the destinations. I love to find places where we can get to experience the local food and culture outside of the main tourist hubs. For example, one of our favorite types of accommodations in Italy is to seek out an agriturismo (a working farm that also offers rooms and farm to table food to visitors). Many of our friends and family as well as my clients were interested to learn more about our travels, so I began Flipflops and Adventures as a blog. I used it to chronicle our adventures and answer logistical questions about what it was like to travel frequently as a family while working and homeschooling and exploring with our kids.

Eventually many of my clients were also following me on social media and started to ask me how I could plan a trip for them similar to the ones that they had seen me sharing about on social media. It was a question that I wrestled with because I felt that most of the options that were available were not the way that I wanted to offer a package to my clients. There were tour companies that were big groups in a large tour bus with action packed schedules, hitting many tourist highlights in a rapid fire manner. There was also the option for a self driven tour on their own or a completely private, which is very expensive. But I really wanted to be able to book something that was in between. I kept looking for something that I could make very customized to incorporate the do-not-miss experience and sights, curated and memorable accommodations, hand selected dining experiences, but to also incorporate a balance of free time to explore on their own, all in an affordably priced and approachable package. I could never quite seem to find an option that would have the ideal combination of all of the elements I wanted. One day it struck me. What if I just used my knowledge and experience to curate the experiences that I wanted to share with people and I personally escorted them while partnering with locals to create the tour I wished to offer?

I started reaching out to my local contacts and putting a Tuscany tour together and by the end of the week I had my first tour ready to go. The question just remained whether other people would be excited about my idea and would join me, so I started sharing it and posted it on my social media and in about a month it was sold out! It was so exciting to see people wanted to adventure with me and the first tour was a hit! I met some amazing new clients and had some old friends on the trip as well. Everyone wanted more adventures and options, so I started to dream bigger and Flipflops and Adventures grew into the official Curated Tour company that it is today. We now offer tours to Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Mexico, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya with an every growing destination list. We have gone from driving tours to chartered and crewed yachts to private luxury safaris and we have endless ideas for new places to explore in interesting new ways!

Leah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My passion for travel came from my lifelong love of reading. I loved historical fiction and I built an ever growing list of places I needed to see in person after reading about the fascinating and important things that happened in so many beautiful destinations. All of the reading about the significant events and characters through history, plus the beautiful destinations where the events took place created my incurable case of wanderlust. I was inspired to visit the places I had read about and imagined for so long and I wanted to experience what it was really like when I was there to explore. What did they eat? Where did they live? What are the holidays or rituals that are most important to their culture? What makes the destination unique?

I have channeled my curiosity and love of exploration into curating my tours for Flipflops and Adventures. I use those types of questions as I plan the itineraries. We search for the most authentically local accommodations. Sometimes that means staying in an agriturismo in Tuscany and taking the time to tour the farm and winery and learn about the organic farming. Or it may mean staying in a boutique hotel with a whiskey library in Scotland owned by a family who has been integral to the distillation and production of whiskey for generations. It can also mean that we stay in a restored castle that has been restored into an amazing 5 star luxury hotel. I scout out locations ahead of time to make sure we eat in restaurants who serve the traditional, locally sourced and and distinctive to the region. I always make it a priority to step out of the typical tourist track and the well known big cities so that we can head out to the countryside and the small villages or lesser known spots to have interesting and exciting experiences. We hire local guides and ask them to share their favorite places with us, what makes it unique and what makes them love their home.

We constantly and consistently seek out unique and authentic experiences for our tours. I love to include them in the itinerary and I also love to slip in extra experiences as a surprise for the guests. Some of the favorites from recent tours have been a falconry experience in the gardens of a castle hotel in Ireland, a visit to a real Masai village to learn about their culture face to face and visit the village homes and schools in Tanzania, cooking class in Tuscany, and a private fireworks show after dinner on the beach on the island of Hydra in Greece.

I provide a service that allows my guests to join me and trust that they will have a week that was thoughtfully curated with attention to detail that will fulfill their wish to create amazing memories with people that they love and new friends they gained along the way.

Flipflops and Adventures is set apart by the careful balance we offer in our tours. We always make sure that there is an abundance of exceptional activities and experiences, and that there is also plenty of downtime built in to permit the guests to make the day their own. Someone may want to visit a museum, or climb the tallest tower to take in the view, while others may sit in the piazza and taste wines while people watching or have a romantic meal with their partner. Whatever it is that the guest prefers, we want to ensure that their experience is perfect for them!

I am most proud of the rate of repeat clients that I have had consistently since we began our tours. I have a wonderful core group of clients who support Flipflops and Adventures and cheer me on, and even submit requests for future tours because they trust that I will plan a tour to the next place they want to go. It is truly humbling to have guests who continue to trust me with their vacation time and memories. I am committed whole heartedly to curating my tours that help my guests create unforgettable memories together. I get my greatest job satisfaction from witnessing someone get emotional as they realize that they will treasure this moment for the rest of their life or to have facilitated someone putting a big, long awaited check on their bucket list!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I set a goal for myself to build my social media following to help expand my business and network. I grew my audience naturally through consistently showing up and being real. I make a conscious choice to not only show the perfect side of myself of what life filled with lots of international travel with 2 kids is like. I think alot of us have become jaded about what we see from people and businesses on social media because it often doesnt feel genuine. Of course, there are tons of fun and happy moments because I am running a company filled with fun and adventure. But I choose to also share flight delays and cancellations, covid test struggles, and the occasional toddler tantrum!

While I am traveling, I love to just live in the moment and soak up the experiences to the maximum. That often means that I my hair is up in a ponytail and might not be freshly washed and that I probably dont have makeup on, and that I didnt pack a ball gown in my carry on so that I could get the most glamorous picture. But I still post those pictures because we those makeup free memories may not be glamorous, but they are precious! People love to do business with people they feel like they can relate to and that translates to trust. So I encourage you to show up as you on your social media and show off the best your business has to offer always! But also, share who you are what makes up your “why” and drives the passion behind your business. In my experience, even if it grows more slowly than some of the methods out there, you will grow and audience and attract followers that are engaged and want to hear what YOU have to offer them.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

My best source of new clients has always been word of mouth and social media, Facebook in particular. This goes back to showing who I am and the person behind the brand. I think that by managing my own social media and engaging with my audience in an authentic way, I have established a community of clients that are tailored to what we offer. People who have been following along for years usually have a good idea of what to expect and are interested in exactly that. I like to use my platform to initially qualify clients by showing details like live videos of room tours, what we ate, who else is on the tour with me and what a typical day looks like. When clients feel that they have connected with me through the years and that I have been honest with them, and that people they know have had a great experience with my company, it translates to trust and then bookings and referrals.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/flipflopsandadventures
• Facebook: facebook.com/flipflopsandadventures