Say Ciao! to Our Director of Marketing, Lisa Frederick

This post is part of a series celebrating Ciao Bambino team members who have reached milestones with the company. Enjoy getting to know our team in-depth!

For Lisa Frederick, the idea of traveling anywhere with a young family, especially abroad, was daunting. And like many parents, she scoured the internet for resources and ideas. When she stumbled on Ciao Bambino, she knew she’d landed in the right place. “I was struck by how useful and relatable the content was,” Lisa says. “It made traveling with a young child sound like an adventure rather than an overwhelming process.”

That info and reassurance made her feel confident enough to plan and book the first international family trip with her husband and then-6-year-old son. Their week in Germany and Austria was a huge success, and upon her return, she got more than just a memorable family vacation to show for it.

Flash forward to 2025, and Lisa’s relationship with Ciao Bambino has evolved over the past 12 years — she started as a Travel Advisor, transitioned into a role as blog editor and now serves as the company’s Director of Marketing, helping CEO Amie O’Shaughnessy shape brand messaging while creating influential and informative content for families just like hers.

Our writer sat down with Lisa for a chat about her time at Ciao Bambino, favorite trips and the influence of AI, among other things.

Q&A: Lisa Frederick, Director of Marketing

Kimberley Lovato: Have you always been a traveler?

Lisa Frederick: Other than visiting France and Spain with school classmates, my travel experience growing up was within the U.S. Our vacations were typically beach getaways, road trips and visits to extended family — we saw a lot of the country that way. International travel as an adult was a bit of a new world for me. When I was just out of college, I worked for a lifestyle magazine in Atlanta, and was happily surprised to find that travel was a big part of our coverage. At the time, I had no idea that there were things like press trips or that travel could be part of an editorial career. I got bitten hard by the travel bug and couldn’t get enough.

KL: So, how did you end up at Ciao Bambino?

LF: I was a regular user of the blog, a reader and a lurker on the hotel reviews. About six months after I got back from Germany and Austria, I sent Amie an email asking if she needed anyone to contribute editorial content. To my surprise, she got back to me and said what she needed most was someone to help restart Ciao Bambino’s trip planning services. I was game, and thankfully, so was she.

KL: How serendipitous! Do you recall a standout trip you planned?

LF: The first one was the most memorable. It was a multi-family trip to Italy, and when my clients got back, they raved about their experience. This was way before we had relationships with as vast a network of on-the-ground partners as we do now, and I’d been able to arrange a couple of super-special off-path activities for them. Not long after their return, they got in touch again and expressed interest in planning another trip with us. It was really validating — I don’t think I exhaled all the way until that moment.

KL: From a trip planner to Director of Marketing — how did that happen?

LF: I have to credit Amie. After about a year and a half, I told her that while I was so appreciative of her taking a chance on me as a trip planner, I didn’t feel like it was my wheelhouse — my passion lies in the communications sphere. She truly cares about each team member’s success and happiness, and she worked with me to find a contributing role with the blog that was a better fit.

I took some time to return to the magazine industry, and when I was ready for a change in 2024, I was thrilled that the moment was right for me to rejoin the team full-time as Director of Marketing. I’ve always loved the culture Amie has created for Ciao Bambino and it’s wonderful to be part of it again. Not only does she have a clear and positive vision, but she also believes deeply in our mission and fosters an environment that’s encouraging and empowering, with enough challenge for growth. It shows in what she does every day as well as in her relationships with those of us on the CB team.

KL: Can you tell me about some of your favorite family travel memories?

LF: That first trip to Germany and Austria with our son is one of them. It sounds cliché, but there really is nothing like seeing another country through your child’s eyes for the first time. Watching him interact with local kids, getting into the food — there are so many moments I’ll never forget. He even learned a few German phrases and loved trying them out on hotel staff and restaurant servers. Our first trip to Italy blew us away, particularly Rome. It’s still my favorite city in the world. And our visit to Kauai about 10 years ago was packed full of adventures we all talk about to this day, like a helicopter tour that landed at the waterfall from the opening scenes of Jurassic Park.

Now that my son is a young adult, it’s harder for us to travel together given our busy schedules, but we’ve done our best to keep up our longtime tradition of taking a mother-son trip once a year. And he and my husband take a father-son trip, too. We’ve had some amazing one-on-one time together.

KL: It sounds like you’ve experienced what Ciao Bambino does best.

LF: Absolutely. When people come to Ciao Bambino, they’re not just hiring someone for a hotel booking or a one-off purchase; they’re taking the first steps toward a longtime partnership. They benefit not only from the relationship with their Advisor but from a wider support network, since collaboration and information sharing are integral to the CB culture. I think another thing that sets us apart is our diverse content and experience around all ages and stages of traveling families. We plan trips for parents with babies, toddlers, teens, adult children who are getting married and having families of their own, plus things like honeymoons, girls’ getaways and trips with grandchildren. I love that some of the clients who started working with us when they had little kids are now coming to us for help with empty-nest travel and defining what that looks like for them. You’ll see our blog is segmented in the same way too. It’s a big reason our clients are so loyal — we’ve been with them for years and years, and we’re continuing to create lasting memories for them no matter what stage of life they’re in.

KL: As a marketing professional, how is AI changing your role?

LF: The foundations of marketing haven’t really changed. You still need to know your target audience and understand the specific problems you’re solving for them. You still need a strategy backed up by research and testing, and strong communication skills to deploy that strategy across a variety of platforms. That said, we’re looking toward AI as an incredible tool to help us tap into those fundamentals and use them to elevate our brand. We’ve always been a data-driven agency, so AI allows us to take advantage of our data in order to gain deeper insights and tailor travel opportunities to what our clients are telling us they want most. Staying nimble and evolving with these capabilities as they emerge is more critical than ever, and also more exciting.

KL: How are you leveraging some of these tools at Ciao Bambino?

LF: A lot is going on that I can’t speak to in detail yet, but we’re actively developing ways to harness the power of AI and use it to help make quick work of tedious tasks. We’d like to streamline some of the more labor-intensive parts of our travel planning process so our Advisors have more bandwidth for what they excel at, which is crafting the custom itineraries and experiences that our clients expect and love. It lets us all work more efficiently and frees up time to focus on the human element of travel planning. That connection is what helps us absorb the nuances that make our travel design so exceptional.

KL: You have the unusual perspective of having been both a trip planner and now a marketer of the company’s trip planning services. What advice do you give to potential travelers who’ve never worked with Ciao Bambino!?

LF: It’s very tempting to think you can do it all yourself. You can book your accommodations. You can Google the top activities in your destination. You can even use ChatGPT to create an itinerary. However, what you’re missing is the human connection and personalization that we deliver. Luxury travel planning is about relationships, and our Advisors take the time to get to know your family and your travel preferences — we create itineraries that cater to your unique needs and desires because we understand what’s meaningful to you. We are also connected to the world’s best guides and service providers, who offer some really extraordinary local experiences that you can’t Google and wouldn’t be able to access on your own. We’re repeat clients for any of the suppliers we use and our clients get better services because of that. When it comes to booking hotels, we can secure perks like complimentary room upgrades, breakfast credits and resort credits at many properties.

Additionally, I can’t overstate how much peace of mind there is in knowing someone has your back if things go wrong, which happens despite the best-laid plans. Instead of spending your precious vacation time dealing with a chatbot, you’ve got a human professional a phone call away who can step in and work toward a solution. You won’t get that from AI.

KL: What’s next on your travel bucket list?

LF: I think the better question is what isn’t on my list. I’m an Anglophile and a medieval history buff, so Wales has been top of mind for a while, especially the Edward I castles in the north. I’ve been intrigued by the Isles of Lewis and Harris off the west coast of Scotland — they look so unspoiled and pristine, and they appear to have beautiful beaches with blue water, which is not something you would think of in Scotland. New Zealand and South Korea are also on the list, and I’ve never been to Africa, so the Seychelles, Namibia and Botswana are my top three choices there. There are very few places in the world I categorically wouldn’t want to go.

Relevant Links: 

Browse what’s new on the Ciao Bambino blog

Meet the members of our Ciao Bambino team

18 summer vacations to take before your kids grow up

10 family vacations that will change kids forever

Photos courtesy of Lisa Frederick except where noted.

Editor’s note: This post was accurate when published. We advise checking independently for the latest information and updates. Ciao Bambino does not accept responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in, or for any actions taken based on, the information presented.