Hi there! If you’re interested in knowing more about the people behind the blog, here we are.

We’re an Atlanta-based family with raging wanderlust. Carrie grew up in Canada in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain. Sam is a born-and-bred southerner from Georgia (but he weirdly only has a southern accent when he’s tired).

We both grew up traveling a lot with our families. When we got married in 2014, we decided that rather than collecting a lot of stuff, we wanted to put our time, money, and energy into travel. Though we both work regular jobs and juggle a mortgage, bills, and all that other “normal” life stuff (plus some less normal stuff, like living on a mini farm with chickens, goats, and cats!), we have cut down our costs and leveraged our limited vacation days and weekends to have some incredible experiences around the world.  We’ve gone horseback riding in Iceland, tented in Uganda, been in the bridal party of a wedding in India, watched a Broadway play in NYC, surfed in Peru, and floated down the Grand Canal in a gondola.

Then, in 2019, we experienced our biggest life change yet: we welcomed our baby girl into the world! Though for years people had warned us that travel would have to halt once babies came along, we knew we weren’t ready to throw in the travel towel. So when Claire was nine weeks old we took her on her first flight and discovered that she’s a pretty good traveler herself. Before her first birthday she took 30 flights and traveled to 11 countries. It turns out that it actually is possible to travel with a baby.

Maple & Maps was born out of our desire to document our adventures and to inspire others to make their travel dreams a reality as well.

New around here? Start with these posts:

How to Travel When You Have a Full-Time Job

How We Afford to Travel…And How You Can, Too!

15 Travel Essentials to Pack for Every Trip

17 Things to do Before Traveling Abroad

Thanks for stopping by!