Hi!
This is Heather. I started this freewheeling business.
Here’s how it happened.
I started sending people freewheeling in 2015 but my first big job in the travel industry started the summer of 2008.
I was only a year out from college graduation and had just returned from a year of living, playing, and working in the Galapagos Islands. An anthropology professor from my old university contacted me with questions about the place. She was scheduled to take a class of students to the archipelago for a January Term abroad. This was a lifelong dream trip for the professor and she wanted to see and experience as much as humanly possible during the time available there. We met and spent a few hours talking, she was full of questions and I was ecstatic to talk about the place I had spent the last year falling in love with. The program the university had found and planned to purchase included just 7 days on the islands and was extremely expensive. She asked me if I thought they could do it better — could they see more and spend more time there for the same price? — to which I responded, “ABSOLUTELY. Let me get you in touch with some people.” I started to write down names of friends who operated extraordinary travel ops in the Galapagos. She stopped me, looked me right in my 22 year old face and said, “No. I mean, can YOU do this better? Can YOU take us there?” I said yes. That’s how at the age of 23, I planned, coordinated, and led over 20 students and faculty through Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands for over 20 days.
I think back on that trip and it feels surreal. Somehow I learned how to design an itinerary, sell an itinerary, buy flights in bulk, wire and reserve services abroad, not to mention navigate liability, travel insurance policies, business bank accounts, and physically care for the adventures of a group of angsty college freshmen and their quirky professors for a month. I loved it. I sometimes don’t believe it happened, but then I see a photo or hear from one of the students, and I look back at the itinerary and remember that I wrote that adventure into reality.
Helping others to experience and see new things brings me so much joy, I can’t even explain it!
So, fast forward nearly a decade — after going to grad school to become a physician assistant and secure my role in a “practical helping profession” — I was so happy when friends asked me to plan a trip for them.
It was Ashley and Ben’s second anniversary. They planned to take a long weekend trip every single anniversary for the rest of their lives, but they wanted the destination to be a TOTAL surprise.
They had attempted to do this on their own for their first anniversary. They showed up at the airport with carry-ons packed, stood at the counter and said, “We’ll take your cheapest ticket outta here!” They were disappointed when the Delta rep told them “uh… that’s not how this works. You name the place, I’ll search, and tell you the price.” They ended up in Boston. They loved it, but they weren’t surprised.
So the next year, I got to send them wherever I wanted to. They wouldn’t know where they were headed until they got to the airport and opened an envelope with the plan.
Surprise! You’re going to Breckenridge, Colorado!
Surprise! You’re going to Petoskey, Michigan!
Surprise! You’re going to New York City!
Surprise! You’re going to San Diego!
It’s been fun. For me. And for them.
Looking forward to surprising you with something fun too.
xoxo,
Heather Rich
freethinking founder of FREEWHEEL TRAVEL
