Sara Young and her family lead an adventurous lifestyle, splitting time between the UK and Antigua, while also making time for summer travel adventures together.
In this interview, Sara shares how she transitioned from a demanding role in the luxury hotels sector to a location-independent job at a tech startup that allows her to live remotely and travel with her boyfriend and their two young sons.
She shares her insights into the logistical challenges of living between two countries, and how the family has adapted to make it work seamlessly. From warm winter workations in the Caribbean to summer family trips to the Arctic Circle, Sara also discusses the most memorable moments of their adventures, and the benefits this travel lifestyle has brought to her children.
All photos in this article are provided by Sara Young.
What is your professional background, and how did you get into that career?
I’ve done a lot of fun things for work in the past. I’ve been a waitress and bartender, a windsurfing instructor and a commercial manager for Rolls-Royce. Most recently, I’ve been a spa director in luxury hotels in the UK for many years, which I loved.
I guess my professional background is being flexible and using my skills depending on the role I’m doing. At the moment I work for a local tech startup in their sales team selling hospitality software.
Why did you decide to make a transition into location-independent work?
My work in the luxury hotels sector was a 24/7 type of role, as the spa was open every day from 6am to 11pm. When I wanted to return from maternity leave in 2021 it just wasn’t going to work as a part-time role.
Also, I needed a role that wasn’t location dependent, as our son’s dad works as a yacht captain. To keep our family together for long periods of time, I needed to be able to travel.
“Colleagues of mine have started to work remotely. One has just gone off to live in Bali for a year.”
I happened to find a role using Indeed.com. I saw that the company was growing locally and hiring, but there wasn’t a role there that suited me. Rather than wait for a role, I messaged a few people there, including the CEO, and managed to arrange a coffee to learn more about them.
When they had a role in their growing sales team I was first in line for an interview. It also really helped that the owners are sailors, and understood that I needed the position to be location independent, enabling me to travel with my boyfriend and our sons.
How easy was it for you to find a remote job? What steps did you take?
I wasn’t looking for a remote job initially, as we were just coming out of lockdown and I was specifically looking for a part-time role.
At the interview, I asked if they would be happy for me to work remotely for periods of time, and they didn’t have a problem with this. They now have a pretty robust digital nomad policy, and colleagues of mine have started to work remotely. One has just gone off to live in Bali for a year.
How did you balance work and travel in your previous job before you became fully remote?
I was able to “jiggle” things with my work schedule, which was a lot easier as I worked in hospitality. For example, I’d get all of the bank holidays in my annual leave allowance, so I could use the days when I liked.
I would also shift around my rota to maximise things for myself. For example, I would work longer days on Monday to Thursday to cover my 40 hours, then I would take Friday to Sunday off, add ten days annual leave to give me the next two weeks off, and then take the Monday to Wednesday off the following week before working 40 hours on Thursday to Sunday.
If you managed to follow that, then it should give three weeks of time off for just ten days of annual leave!
You now split your time between living and working in the UK and Antigua. How did this come about?
My boyfriend, Carl, is a yacht captain and he’s always travelled around a lot. The boat he currently manages spends the winters in the water in Antigua sailing around the Caribbean, and then in the summer it comes out of the water and stays in Antigua.
Our boys and I head out to Antigua for the winter so that we get to be a family with Carl. In May we all head home in the UK for the summer. This summer coming (2025), the boat will be in Spain, so we’ll spend our summer either near Barcelona or in Palma.
What does a typical week look like for you when you’re on a “winter workation” in Antigua?
Our eldest son, Cameron, goes to the local pre-school, so he heads off with dad around 7am to go to school. At the same time our babysitter arrives and looks after our baby, Dylan. I was on maternity last winter and used the time to start my travel blog.
Then at lunchtime, Dylan comes home and I head off with him to collect Cameron from pre-school. Carl and I both work in the mornings during the week, and then, if the boat is in the harbour, Carl has the afternoons off. He works weekend mornings too, but it’s great as we spend most afternoons together.
“I always get myself into a routine, especially as we have our children to care for.”
The afternoons are then spent enjoying ourselves, as there are loads of fun things to do. We might head to a beach and go snorkelling or paddle boarding, or we’ll go for a shady hike to spot lizards, or we’ll go sailing as we’re members of a local sailing club.
We’ve got a lot of friends out in Antigua now as we’ve been there the last three winters, so we often also have play dates and beach parties to enjoy. In March the yacht takes part in racing and the crew will often come and hang out with us, and there are cool events to do too.
What are the biggest logistical challenges in splitting your time between the UK and Antigua as a family of four?
We have a dog and he’s part of our family, but it’s just too hot in Antigua for him, so one of our challenges is finding someone to look after him. Our friends are happy to help, but it’s always a juggle when they also want to travel. The best thing we’ve found is using Trusted Housesitters.
Another challenge is that we have to find accommodation out in Antigua, which is pretty tough as it can be very expensive, as winter is the peak season. Most people prefer to let them out on a weekly basis. We’ve got a few good contacts and manage to make it work each winter.
And then finally, we have to juggle childcare. We’re really lucky that both pre-schools let us only attend for part of the year. And we managed to find a fantastic girl called Kathleen that looks after Dylan. If we didn’t have this covered then working would be tough.
How do you manage your work priorities around this lifestyle?
I am a big advocate of work–life balance – you only live once! However, I’m also a firm believer that you have to work for what you want.
In order to get our lifestyle I need to make sales and hit targets, which means that I need to remain focused when I work. I always get myself into a routine, especially as we have our children to care for.
When we were in Spain a few years ago, I was starting work at 5am whilst Cameron was asleep, and then finishing at 10am so that I could do my hours before Carl then needed to work, because we couldn’t find any local English language childcare.
You dedicate time in the summer to travelling with your family. What are some of your best memories from doing this?
There are so many! I think our recent trip to Norway was pretty epic. There’s nothing quite like when we were putting Cameron to bed and he asked to go kayaking as it was still so sunny with the midnight sun. So we said yes and ended up kayaking with Cameron in the Arctic Circle at 9pm at night with the sun still up and shining.
The water was soooo cold, but we were just having so much fun riding the waves into the beach. Travelling as a family for me is all about these random spontaneous moments!
We also had an amazing desert experience in Morocco with our kids where we went sandboarding, rode camels and had fun on quad bikes! We’d driven to Portugal and then decided to carry on and drive over to Morocco.
Nothing quite prepared us for how magical it was staying in the dessert as a family, and waking up to the sun rising over the dunes.
How do you plan your summer travel itinerary?
We’re massive fans of road trips, so we like to see where we can go that includes some epic stops and drives. Our first trip was when Cam was four months old, and we drove around part of Mexico.
The next year we did Portugal and Morocco, and then this summer it was Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
We typically try to head to places that aren’t too hot, ha ha, because we get to spend the winter being warm in Antigua.
What do you think are the biggest benefits of this travel lifestyle for your children?
Our boys are both super confident and independent. Cameron, in particular as he’s older, is so happy to socialise, chat and interact with anyone. In a playground he’ll happily start to play with any kids, even if he can’t speak their language, because kids have this unique way of just playing anyway.
Cameron is also really open to new experiences, and nothing really fazes him. Most of the time we have to tell him that he can’t try things because he needs to be a little older. He’s obsessed with the idea of doing a proper zipline, but most don’t accept children under four years old.
“Missing friends and family for kids is probably one of the hardest parts of travelling for them.”
They’re also very culturally aware. Cam will try most new foods and try to speak a few words of the local language. Even if he gets confused, it’s still lovely to see him try – for some reason he was adamant that everyone in Sweden was speaking Spanish!
What advice would you give to other families with children who are considering a travel lifestyle but feel it might be too difficult?
I guess it really depends on the age of your children, where you’re heading and what your expectations are.
Some countries are a lot easier to navigate with kids if you’re looking for things such as schooling and community to meet other families. You’d be surprised at how many sailing families head out to Antigua each year like we do!
There are also some amazing online communities for digital nomad families, where people talk about their experiences and offer advice on where has been great and what families can expect when they get there. There are also now some companies that help with accommodation, schooling and office space.
If you’re new to travelling then I’d start off relatively locally to your home country, as it means that if you’re missing home you can easily fly back or have friends and family come to see you. Missing friends and family for kids is probably one of the hardest parts of travelling for them, especially if they’re a little older and have firm friendship groups.
Our top tip is that we make these little short videos for Cameron’s friends and send them to them, and they then reply with little videos back. It’s a nice littler surprise when they come, and they really make him so happy!
If you enjoyed Sara’s story, you can check out our story stories for more inspiration from people who blend work and travel.
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