Ten years ago Evie Farrell experienced a phenomenon that most modern parents will be familiar with: she was always busy, but rarely spending quality time with her (then) six-year-old daughter.
“I was working so hard, and she’d started school, and I just felt like we didn’t see each other,” Farrell, who is a solo mum, told Travel Weekly.
So she did something radical: she decided to go travelling.
“I got a one way ticket to the Philippines, and we set off traveling together, just with a backpack,” she said.
For Farrell, who had had a busy job in PR, journalism and media, travel wasn’t a job, it was something that she just loved to do.
She started posting pictures of her travelling with her daughter to social media and was shocked by the response from other mums.
“A lot of the women were asking me ‘how did you do it? Can I come with you? I want to give my kids this experience. How can I do it?'” Farrell said.
She began to write about her experiences in magazines and news back home and found it hit a nerve.
“I had some stories go crazily viral and built an audience,” Farrell said. Her Instagram page went from strength to strength – she now has an impressive 131,000 followers.
Solo mums were particularly inspired by her travel stories, Farrell added.
“When you’re a solo mom, you very rarely will get invited to the group holidays that two parents get… it’s not a mean thing. It’s just, we’re just overlooked. And this is, honestly, it’s universal. Every solo mom that I talk to has the same experience.”
This gap in the market inspired Farrell to start organising group travel.
“In 2019 I did a couple of group trips, and then covid started, obviously. So that all stopped,” she said.
Undeterred, Farrell started re-introducing the trips once Covid ended. This time, however, she was more prepared.
“I started developing a few trips. I got my travel agent license at that time because I wanted to be able to have the right accreditation with industry bodies, and get the right insurance and do everything really properly.”
Her business Mumpack Trips is now in its fourth year.
Reflecting on building a community before getting her travel agent licence, Farrell jokes that she did things back to front.
“It’s funny because travel’s always been my passion. I just have always just loved it… I didn’t even think to go into travel. Journalism always seemed separate. I think for me, travel wasn’t a job. It was something that I loved to do for me. But now it makes sense – I’ve been able to combine it, which is pretty amazing.”
Importantly, her trips are not just for single mums, with Farrell recognising there are many different factors that might draw mums to her trips.
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“The mums and kids trips are for any mum – solo moms come, partnered moms come because the husband is unable to travel during the school holidays or for whatever reason. Or they just want to travel with women. They just want to travel with a group and have a bunch of ready made friends for themselves and for their kids.”
With traveller confidence still recovering, some clients have raised concerns about the current climate – but Farrell says leading by example is the best response.
“Rather than me saying it’s fine, they can see that it’s fine.”
For Farrell, the belief in mum travel is personal. “I actually think it was the best years of my life,” she says. And for the growing number of mums signing up to her trips, it seems she’s not alone in that feeling.
