Hi, I’m Kathleen McQuaid Holdridge
— a lifelong traveler who believes the best stories often come from the most unexpected places.
I’ve been passionate about traveling for as long as I can remember. I loved it when each year my dad would choose where we would go on our family trip each summer. I would look through a State by State guide, hoping he’d choose one of the places I wanted to go. (I don’t think he took up any of my suggestions – times were different then.) Finally, when I got my driver’s license, I would take a trip of my own each year. I still remember my first “on my own” trip with a friend to New England from New Jersey.
Kathleen McQuaid Holdridge on a Lake Champlain lunch cruise, 2025
In the early 90s, I went Euro railing with two of my friends for a month. We stayed at a friend’s house first, in hostels, slept on trains and the ferry, and in Paris we crashed in the boy’s dorm at the University. I traveled from Ireland to France, Switzerland, Italy, Austra, Germany and back to Ireland. The month I was away was transformative and I was hooked. Growing up in the US, I was always told how different (and better) our country was. And sure, there are many places where this was and is still true, however I didn’t see much difference between how I lived and my new friends’ lives. This trip transformed me so much it changed my dreams and gave me the courage to pursue them. And, until my kids were born I used to go back to visit friends in Ireland and Germany each year.
Kathleen McQuaid on a ferry from Ireland to France, 1992
Since then, I’ve been lucky to visit many states, Canada, Mexico and a few Caribbean Islands. In the US I’ve been up and down the East Coast, visited a few states in the middle, the Southwest, California and two islands in Hawaii.
Now that I’m retired, Traveling with the McRidge’s is where I share my journeys — a travel guide with historical reflections.
If you love thoughtful travel, slow exploration, and finding wonder in unexpected places — you’ll fit right in here.
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📸 Follow along on Instagram or TikTok as I share photos and videos
Thanks for coming along for the ride, it’s super fun to share my adventures! 🙂
Newsletters and eBooks I recommend
The Daily Drop has a lot of useful tips without trying to constantly sell you something. You can explore their blog without signing up, or you can sign-up for their daily email which is very informative and also fun to read.
They have a Daily Drop Pro app for frequent travelers who want to maximize travel deals too.
“The JGOOT Way of Travel” is a very simple travel strategy. It was written by a guy who loved to travel and wanted to keep traveling after getting divorced but had taken a financial hit. It has some neat tips and concepts in it, as well as a unique viewpoint on how to find deals so you can travel for less money.
The only downside is they have a rather aggressive marketing workflow. But once you ignore enough messages they start to go away. Even with this, I think the insights are worth it.
I like to check out other travel newsletters for ideas. This one, called Adventure Fix focuses on adventure travel. It features really interesting places and ways to see those places. From kayaking through global destinations to hiking and off the radar places to tour and stays. It’s a lot of fun to read.
Bookings and Research
I use Expedia for research as well as booking stays and car rentals.
With car rentals, I found their car insurance upgrade had the best value, compared to getting the car insurance at the car rental place.
With stays, I’ve found some pretty cool independent hotels and VRBOs.
If I’m staying with family or friends somewhere more than one night, I’ll book an AirBnb. I have had great success staying with Super Hosts, especially if they manage the property themselves. Usually they are committed to making sure everything is great.
Savings
I have a Capital One Venture credit card and keep it so I can use it when I’m overseas. (There isn’t a separate transaction fee, when purchasing things out of the US.)
If you travel overseas or plan to, check it out. If you apply using my referral link and are approved, I’ll get a referral bonus.
I’m not much of a shopper, except for Holidays, so I always ignored sites like Rakuten. But…. I discovered you can stack savings on trips too! Yay. If you aren’t on Rakuten, sign-up when you plan to spend money on buying things online or booking trips online. For instance, if you login to Expedia to book your next trip and you have Rakuten enabled you can get 3% cash back.
You’ll get a reward and I do too if you use the link below to sign-up.
Software I use
My Weekly Journeys newsletter is created on Beehiiv. The software makes it easy to start your own newsletter very easily. You can start for free, and then once you get 2,500 or more subscribers you’ll then have to pay for it. What I like is that you can get yourself started and figure out your brand before committing to a fee. And then once you are ready, you can scale up and really have it take off.
Note: Some of these links are affiliate links, meaning that if you book a trip or sign-up for a software through these links, we may receive a small commission or bonus points at no additional cost to you.
