Wanderlux is the ultimate luxury travel expert, chronicling luxury travel experiences throughout this wide, wonderful world. Our travel experts explore five-star hotels, first class and business class flights, and bring honest reviews of our experiences on our exclusive blog. We cover luxury family travel, like the best museums for kids in New York City, and our particular expertise is in bringing to light parts of our favorite destinations you might not find otherwise, like these 3 family-friendly activities in Israel you won’t want to miss.

Wanderlux was started in 2021, but our love for travel goes back much further. From spending a summer (2004) seeing every corner of Costa Rica to living in Mexico (2009) and helping people plan their destination weddings there, to more recent world travel through the ancient ruins of Egypt and discovering the best way to experience a luxury vacation in Santorini, we’re constantly seeking out meaningful experiences that teach us more about the world and challenge our assumptions. We’ve aimed to expose our kids to the world from a young age, starting with an around-the-world trip when our oldest son was 9 months old! He got his first tooth in Thailand and took his first steps in London. 

About Us

Hi, I’m Ashley. I was born and raised in Missouri, before moving to Washington, D.C. By day, I worked as a federal government consultant, and by night, I kept up a steady freelance career writing, honing the skills that would eventually power Wanderlux. After D.C., I moved to small town Colima, Mexico (sight unseen!), where I and my then-boyfriend (now husband) Adil started a business. Life next took us to San Francisco and on to Seattle, which we have called home since 2015. After years of vacationing in Los Cabos, Mexico, we bought a home in Pescadero, Mexico in 2022, got permanent residency, and now spend a few months a year enjoying the laid-back beach life in addition to planning custom trips for our family around the world.

How We Travel

We earned our distinction as a luxury travel expert because we do typically focus on high-end travel experiences. We do this mainly through smart usage of points and miles and credit card rewards. There are many sites that teach the ins-and-outs of points hacking, and they are a great place to get started if you want to maximize “free” travel (my personal favorite is The Points Guy). We earn those points and miles through credit card spend, primarily from our other businesses. 

We love the most luxurious hotels and have stayed in many, but one of our favorite money-saving tips is to look for the best room at a lower-tier hotel. We are Marriott experts, for instance, and have chosen to book the presidential suite at a Westin over a smaller room at a Luxury Collection or St. Regis before, because the space and wow factor of the largest suite more than makes up for the trade offs in service and finishings.

We love to build trips around wine regions, and have enjoyed the Duoro Valley in Portugal, Valpolicella in Italy, Napa and Sonoma in California, and were blown away by the wine tasting in Santorini. Closer to home, we’ve explored the best wine tasting in Woodinville, Washington.

We split our travel between luxury family travel and couples-only travel, with a few friend trips sprinkled in. Our best points-redemption trips have been to the Maldives and Greece, where we lived it up for next to nothing by booking the hotels and flights on points and miles, leaving us to cover just food and activities. We can typically take one super-nice trip per year using just points and miles, and the rest are paid in full. If any of our travel or experiences are sponsored or gifted, we disclosure our relationships so you always know what you’re reading. All our reviews are honest and comprehensive – we never take payment for a positive review.

Most Popular

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Luxury Family Vacations

Looking for inspiration for luxury family vacations? Start here.

Luxury Family Vacations

Universal Studios Hollywood VIP Tour Experience Review

We are blessed to have wonderful neighbors with kids almost the same ages as our boys, and we jointly decided to spend Memorial Day...

How to Hire a Private Teacher and Travel the World

For years, my husband and I have had a dream of a location-independent lifestyle. We saw ourselves traipsing across the world, working remotely, and...

11 Fun Museums in New York City for Kids (2024)

After a few family trips, we have found a cache of fun museums in New York City that are perfect for families (and adults!)...

Want to follow along as we review high-end airline products? Take a look at Emirates first class from Newark to Athens or Emirates first class from Seattle to Dubai (can you tell we love Emirates?)

Luxury US Travel

Staying closer to home? Check out our extensive coverage on the Pacific Northwest, which we’re honored to call home. And if you are looking to stay in North America but are set on international travel, we have a ton of resources on Mexico, from the best all-inclusive resorts in Cabo to the nitty-gritty on all our lessons learned buying a home in Mexico. Stay tuned on all our lessons learned from renovating that home…we’re nearly finished but it seems the learning never ends!

Lightning Round

Get to know us a little better!

Best flight: ​Emirates first class from San Francisco to Dubai on the new Boeing 777 – the new first class cabin is honestly nicer than the private jet trips I’ve taken!

Most off-the-beaten-path trip: Achill Island in northwest Ireland, a rural, wind-swept spot of land with ruins, gorgeous views, and a lot of sheep.

Most over-hyped location: ​Punta del Este, Uruguay. I found it wildly expensive and generally underwhelming.

Hotel bucket list: Any Aman hotel but especially Amansara near the ancient temples of Siem Reap, Passalacqua in Lake Como, Italy, and Le Grand Controle in Versailles.

Best up-and-coming new destination: Skip Cabo. Check out Todos Santos and Pescadero, Mexico instead.

 

What’s Next

We’re endless dreamers over here, always looking for the best places to find luxury, local food, and a better understanding of ourselves and the world. We’re looking seriously at cruise lines for the first time, and look forward to trying this way of travel. It’s also going to be time for Disney soon before our kids are too old to fully embrace it…we did the VIP experience at Universal Studios and loved it, and look forward to comparing the VIP experience at Disneyland with Universal. 

 

Partner with Us

We welcome partnership opportunities with brands, travel operators, hotels, and airlines looking to connect with luxury travelers. We have an extensive track record of success providing well-written, actionable, and useful content for our readers that also performs well, driving traffic and conversions for our travel industry partners. Reach out to us at hello at wanderlux .com to discuss how we might collaborate.