We recently connected with Rina Nehdar and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rina, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Well, in between wanting to be an astronaut, CEO of my own perfumery, and owner of the NFL Raiders, I was always writing my story or a story of the story in my head. I’ve always loved to read and can remember the first sentence I ever read. It was a Bob and Jane book, and after I read the sentence about a school bus, it was like fireworks detonating in my brain, releasing trails of endorphins.

When it was time to choose a college major, however, I had so many interests that I bounced from one to the other until I finally landed on journalism. That’s how I started to learn about my craft. When I shifted from broadcast news to print journalism, I was lucky enough to have taken enough print journalism classes that I was familiar with the expectations and able to make the transition.

Yet, a few years ago, one of my editors introduced me to travel writing and I was hooked. At that point, I listened to podcasts about travel writing, read books written by successful travel writers, and just wrote and wrote and wrote. I had to learn how to pitch stories to editors and then how to be an editor when I founded my own digital family travel magazine.

I’m still learning every day. Every time I read an article written in a way I admire, I learn something. Every time I read a description in an innovative way, I learn something. When I work with talented editors as a freelancer, I learn.

I wish I had taken magazine writing in addition to news writing and possibly gotten my Master’s degree in Journalism but experience and hard work is also very valuable.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When family travel expectations collide with reality, we’re there to pick up the pieces.

When we first started traveling with children, the panic was real. How were we going to keep them still on a multi-hour airplane ride? Where could we take them once we arrived where they’d have fun but not disturb others?

There are families with perfect children. We mostly see them on social media posts but those kids don’t live in our family. We wanted our family vacations to be the highlight of our kid’s childhood but crossing the bridge between their needs and our plans would thwart the best intended family trips.

We’ve partnered with parent writers across the country and created family travel guides to destinations intended to satisfy families with young and older kids, kids who have minds of their own that need to be stimulated and engaged. We provide itineraries for adventurous families and for families who want to chill.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest business disruptors in my lifetime were the COVID lockdowns. These overreaching policies destroyed small businesses while making billions for big corporations.

The closures hit the travel world the hardest. Hotels sat empty. Airlines stayed grounded. Restaurants switched to take-out. This meant revenue for magazines dried up as advertisers had nothing to advertise so freelance writers, like myself, had to find other opportunities.

Although LAFamilyTravel.com existed before COVID closures, we put more energy into creating what it is today during the time when travel writing freelancers weren’t working as much. We used all the travels we had taken up until then to create tips and trips for families to take in the future.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Exploring the world creates empathy and understanding that defies stereotypes and fear. When we see each other as humans adapting to their environment in a creative and admirable way, we are less likely to engage in violence and hate. Travel creates this mutual recognition and exposing children to “other” types of lifestyles promotes this worldwide harmony. That is our mission.

We want to make our ideals realistic by providing tips and trip ideas to make that possible with kids.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lafamilytravel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lafamilytravel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LAFamilyTravel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rina-baraz-nehdar/
• Twitter: https://x.com/lafamilytravel
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LAFamilyTravel

Image Credits

Rina Nehdar