Suzy: Welcome to the Wander Worldschool and Slow Family Travel Podcast. I'm Suzy, a travel-loving money nerd and mom of two, and our family lives between Spain and Colorado. On this show, we discuss the stories, logistics, and finances of traveling families and the many ways to learn along the way. Today, we get to know Monica Virga Alborno. Welcome to the show, Monica. Please tell me more about you and your family.

Monica Virga Alborno: Hi, Suzy. Thanks so much for having me. I'm from New Jersey, my husband is from Saudi Arabia, and we are living in Bergen, Norway, full-time. My kids were both born here, so we are a little culturally blended family. My dog, who's behind me here, is from Kuwait; I adopted her when I lived there. So, we have a nice little blended cultural family here in our home in Norway.

Suzy: And how old are your children now? They're on the younger end.

Monica Virga Alborno: They are three and five. I have a five-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son.

Suzy: Well, thanks for the introduction. I know we'll talk a little bit more about the retreats you've run, which I'm really excited to hear more about as an opportunity for traveling families. I always like to backtrack, though, and get to know a little bit more about you before you were the "mama traveler." Tell me a little bit more about what travel was like growing up for you.

Monica Virga Alborno: I really didn't travel internationally growing up. My parents didn't get a passport until I got an international job and moved abroad. But my foundations growing up always had that adventurous spirit.

My parents, especially my father—we spent a lot of time outdoors in nature. We did a lot of tent camping, fishing, and different activities in nature like hiking. We had a boat and we would take it to a tiny island and pitch a tent to camp there off the grid for a week, which made me very curious and adventurous. I felt like I had the resilience to do things that were really out of my comfort zone. I think that's what led me to wanting to travel and feeling comfortable with it later on.

Suzy: You bring up a good point that developing a love for adventure and curiosity doesn't always require international trips that are often time-consuming and expensive. That is a skill that we can cultivate in our kids even in our home base. It's just like: what is around us? How can we get to know nature and all those things to develop curiosity? Maybe that takes off as a travel lifestyle later, or maybe it doesn't, but it is one way to cultivate that even without big international trips.

But then you traveled quite a bit for work. Tell me more about what that was like.

Monica Virga Alborno: I went to Penn State for university and studied petroleum and natural gas engineering. That took me to a global career where I was able to work for a U.S.-based Fortune 500 company. That was wonderful, but it all started while I was in university.

I was still figuring out what I was going to study—I knew I wanted to study engineering—but I worked for an entire semester on creating sustainable systems for developing countries. At the end of the semester, we traveled there. I was building a water filtration system, a slow sand filter, for a community in Kenya. At the end of the semester, the group of students in this course with me flew to Kenya. We stayed there, built our sustainable systems, and taught the local street kids how to do micro-enterprise and how to start building some of these different systems.

This is where my love for travel came from. I realized I had to somehow get this into my career because I learned so much from them, even though they were younger than me and came from a totally different background. I just learned so much about the way they see the world and the resilience they had built as street kids; they were really going the extra mile to make their own way in the world. That is also how I ended up in a global career. I was seeking opportunities with my career path to be able to work internationally and have that really baked into my career so that I knew I could explore the world while I was working.

Suzy: Absolutely. If people have a love for travel and they're in their early 20s, they wonder how to incorporate travel and work. Sometimes it seems like there could be a conflict—like work's getting in the way of travel—but if you can combine the two and work in cool places, you get an opportunity to live there, see real life, earn income, and travel on the side.

I lived in Germany for two years for work, and I really appreciated that opportunity. I love that you thought about that early on in your career to develop that interest. It's something we can think about with our kids, too. We value worldschooling and these opportunities now while they're younger, but there are also opportunities as they get older, like studying in different countries, that are on the horizon. I'd like to talk a little bit more about family travels because you have kids aged three and five. Where have you guys taken trips, and has that been primarily to the U.S. or Saudi Arabia? Do you have to visit a lot of family in these locations?

Monica Virga Alborno: My daughter was born in the middle of the pandemic, so we were doing our own thing within Norway for a while. That continued when my son was really young. We did a lot of travel within Norway. Norway is a really big country with a ton to explore. Because we're not from here, we found a lot of cool road trips. Road trips are my favorite thing to do with small kids because you can pack everything into your car and really have the comforts of home. I enjoy that a lot.

I think my son was about five months old when we did our first international trip, mainly to the States to see family. We did some travel in New Jersey, went up to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the Catskills in New York, which is where I'm hosting my retreats now. They were with me in tow when I was hosting these retreats for moms and kids and families.

We also did some other trips; my daughter and I went to Marrakech, Morocco. My sister is actually married to a Moroccan, so we went there for their wedding. We did a little solo trip, just her and me. We were there for a Moroccan wedding, which was incredible.

I would say right now, for my travel, I have been to over 80 countries. I've been an expat for 14 years, living in the Middle East and Africa and now Scandinavia since 2018. When you travel that much for 14 years, at some point, you want to have some tethering. You need to have some foundation to really make it sustainable, which I know you're big on as well.

For us, Norway is our home now. We're very integrated here, but we are also immigrants. My kids are worldschooling every single day because they're getting to know this other way of life. Their uncle is Moroccan, their father is Saudi Arabian, their mom is American, and their auntie is living in Southern France. They're getting exposed to all these different ways of life just from visiting family and from going to their local kindergarten here, where it's spoken in Norwegian and they're fully bilingual at three and five.

Suzy: You're right. The cool thing is that when you are in one location for longer, you really do get to be part of that community. It feels more like home and less like traveling, but then you can incorporate different cultures and perspectives. Tell me more about the education piece. You're just starting out on your schooling with your kids up in Norway. What does that look like? And I'd love to hear about languages, too.

Monica Virga Alborno: We've been here since 2018, so we have residency cards. Our children have the opportunity at one year old to start something called Barnehage, which in Scandinavia—specifically Norway—they call kindergarten. It starts from age one until you turn six, and then at six, you start grade school.

A little after they turned a year old, they both started in that program. They were only learning English at home until they went there, but when we dropped them off, the staff only spoke to them in Norwegian. They've never taken an academic Norwegian class, but they're both fully fluent. They tell us all the time in reviews at the Barnehage that their level of understanding and speaking—the dialogue and grammar—is so good you can't tell they're not from here. They completely fit in or even excel in the language. It's cool to see they've just learned it from communicating with their friends.

That is the reason we fell in love with Norway. We didn't choose to come here; our company initially moved us here after we were in Sub-Saharan Africa. I wanted to start a family, and it's hard when you're living in a country where there's malaria, dengue fever, and Zika—all things that make it really high risk. We ended up in Norway and just fell in love with that simpler, slower, nature-based outdoor lifestyle.

That's exactly what their kindergarten is all about. They are outside in the rain or the snow, whatever it might be. Dropping them off this morning, they had rain suits, snowsuits, snow boots, and rain boots. My son is still taking naps, so he naps outside in his stroller. You've probably seen social media videos of kids napping outside in their strollers; he has a subzero sleeping bag that goes in his stroller. It's what we're touching on with worldschooling: building resilience, curiosity, and adventure.

At this young age, they are going on foraging excursions and learning to literally fall down and pick themselves back up again, as well as how to work as a team. They also do things inside; they have a kitchen in the Barnehage, so they cook fresh meals. I can't rave about it enough; I am obsessed with it.

It's very affordable, too—around $300 a month for me to send both kids for eight hours a day, which is insane for the level of care and support they get. I also didn't mention that I had about a year of paid maternity leave, and my husband had about five months of paid paternity leave, which was amazing for integrating us into the family systems here.

I haven't experienced grade school firsthand yet, but I know where the school is. There's not a lot of standardized testing or homework compared to the U.S. There isn't a letter or number grade given until they get almost into middle school; it's more like individualized feedback given verbally. I've worked with a lot of Norwegians here, and they're all brilliant and well-educated from the public school system. I'll have to report back in a couple of years, but so far, it all sounds good.

Suzy: It sounds like an amazing opportunity to be outside. I would do that in a heartbeat. You mentioned your company—you and your husband both worked for this company. What has been difficult about working for a company in a different country than where you're from?

Monica Virga Alborno: My husband grew up in Saudi Arabia and got his university degree in Florida. Then we both worked for the same American-based global engineering company, which has over 100,000 employees in over 80 countries. We were both working in Kuwait and then a couple of different places in Sub-Saharan Africa for five years.

I found it important to orient myself: know the emergency contact, find someone at work I could rely on, and figure out where the grocery store and transportation were. I had to check if I had hot water or fresh water to drink because often you can't drink from the sink. The second thing was to start talking to people, especially the locals and expats who've lived there for a while, because they will teach you so much and generally want to help.

Suzy: That's a great tip for anyone who's going to be in a place longer: spend some time asking those questions of people who have already been through it.

Monica Virga Alborno: Don't be afraid to talk to people. A lot of us are a bit afraid to do that now because we do things online so much more.

Suzy: That's a really good point. Language can sometimes play a role in how willing we are to talk to people. I assume there are quite a few English speakers in Norway because I have the perception that Scandinavians speak four languages perfectly. But even if you don't speak the local language yet, most people want to help if you have questions. Is it true that almost everyone in Norway speaks some level of English? And what other languages do they learn?

Monica Virga Alborno: There are two dialects of Norwegian and then the Sami indigenous people up north, so there are three languages. Most of them speak some German because of the Germanic roots in Norwegian. They'll speak a couple of languages, though the Danish, Norwegians, and Swedes sometimes say they don't understand each other, but they kind of do.

They generally all speak English because their population is so small that they would only be able to communicate with each other otherwise. Instead, they choose to be able to communicate with the whole world. It's been difficult for me to learn Norwegian because they switch to English so easily to practice.

Like you were saying about sparking up a conversation: for families listening, the playground is a great place. You see families sitting on a bench or on their phones, and that's a great place to talk to people.

Suzy: Very true. The other perception of Scandinavian countries is that they're very expensive. Is it different living there? I'm also curious if they adjust salary based on where you live or if it's based on the position.

Monica Virga Alborno: The company I was working for is well-versed in relocating people and incentivizing them to go to specific countries. Living in Sub-Saharan Africa had a higher risk and hardship, so they pay a geographical coefficient. I received a base salary, a bonus, and an additional 60% coefficient for living in that hardship.

When working in specific countries, they apply an EMBO, which is like a universal tax all international mobile employees pay, and then the company distributes the tax for the employees. Because in Saudi Arabia, at one point, the citizens don't pay tax at all—it's 0%. But in other countries, it can be really high. So they were distributing it out so that employees were incentivized to go work in every country. Because you have talent, and you're bringing people to certain countries for developmental reasons or to fill competency gaps.

In Norway, we moved to a European mobile status and eventually a residency contract. We pay almost 40% in taxes here, but the salaries are adjusted to local wages based on education, seniority, and the economy.

As for whether Scandinavia is expensive—yes, it is. We pay high taxes, but the services we receive are well worth it. The quality of life and public systems are amazing. The main thing we spend money on is food; our bill is about $2,000 a month, which is a lot. But we don't pay anything for healthcare, and the benefits for prenatal care, maternity/paternity leave, and vacation are great. Schooling is affordable, and the quality of public school is so high that people don't go to private schools. When you add it all up, it's expensive, but the well-being and systems for people, like the elderly, are worth it.

My neighbors in their 80s still hike and take the bus to the grocery store. To me, that means something good is happening here.

Suzy: You have to look at it holistically. I've heard things like beer can be expensive in Norway, but public transit is affordable. I'm breaking out all the stereotypes because I'm fascinated! The winters are cold and dark—how do you survive? Is the lifestyle so pleasant it makes it manageable, or do the kids just get used to it?

Monica Virga Alborno: We're not all the way in the north, but even so, the dark hours are crazy. Right now, the sun sets around 3:00 PM and doesn't come up until almost 10:00 AM. You might go months without seeing a yellow sun.

We cope because people live outdoors no matter the weather. On nice days, there's no question—we are outside. Fish oil is big here; people take it every day. We also crave citrus for the Vitamin C and Omega-3s. Also, alcohol and sugar are heavily taxed so residents don't consume as much of things that aren't good for the mind and body.

Suzy: That makes sense. Talking about health and taking care of ourselves: you do a lot with retreats. When did Wander Wild start, and how has that transition been to doing this full-time?

Monica Virga Alborno: Wander Wild Family Retreats started in 2021. It came out of me becoming a mom in 2020 during the pandemic in Norway. The systems here are incredible, but nothing prepares you for motherhood. I had some birth trauma and a difficult postpartum period.

Because of the pandemic, our family couldn't visit us, and we were still new to the country without a support system. My parents couldn't see me until my daughter was nine months old. But everything teaches you a lesson. Wander Wild wouldn't exist without that experience. I was searching for a community and a holistic space that offered meaning, nature, nourishing food, and wellness, where I could bring my baby and have intentional childcare.

When I couldn't find anything, I realized I had to do it myself. I was an engineer and had been in management roles for a long time, managing operations across 26 countries, so I knew I could put this together. I've learned so much about myself through entrepreneurship.

Since 2021, we've hosted hundreds of moms and kids. We're doing our first family retreat this year where dads are invited. A mom told me last year how nice it was to have her sons there, and it's not common for boys and men to be invited into such nurturing spaces. We have to include the guys, too, because dads go through a lot as a focal point in the household.

Our retreats are currently in the States—upstate New York and Florida—because you don't have to go far to wander wild. I wanted to make it accessible for people who can drive or take a short flight without international complexity. We welcome kids from six weeks old up to about 11 years old. It's about being welcomed with open arms and finding space to know yourself in this chapter of life.

Suzy: How did you pick Florida and New York?

Monica Virga Alborno: Being from New Jersey, I feel I know the Northeastern mom really well, so our community started there. With Florida, I spent a lot of time traveling there growing up. A lot of people go to Orlando or Disney, which is fun but commercial and expensive.

I acted on my intuition to do "Wild Florida." I pick places with a luxury component that feel elevated and decadent because families rarely get welcomed into spaces like that. Usually, family travel is messy and crowded. I want to place families in nature because we're so disconnected by screens. Florida has amazing flora and fauna. It's a quick flight for Northeastern moms who want somewhere warmer.

We're getting ready for a snowy winter retreat in New York, then the Florida retreat over Easter weekend, and a summer one in Hudson Valley. We're even doing a goat therapy walk this winter to support a local sanctuary.

Suzy: What does a typical day look like?

Monica Virga Alborno: We start with breakfast—whole foods developed by a private chef. In Hudson Valley, our chef owns a cafe called Chakra Bowls and knows how to cook whole foods that kids actually love.

After breakfast, we have movement for the moms while the kids go to a childcare program. For the moms, it's something that gives them fire and confidence, or maybe some slow Yin yoga depending on the season. The kids do a forest school-inspired Montessori program in nature. Even in winter, they're in snow gear doing snow art or yoga.

Then the moms have a cacao circle to share in a safe space. We all meet for a communal lunch, then do an afternoon activity like the goat therapy walk. In the summer, we have pool days with made-to-order smoothies.

In the evenings, we have a communal dinner with a "wedding vibe" but kid-proof. Then the kids have a projector movie or light play while we watch baby monitors, and the moms do an evening silent walk, a campfire, or a sound journey. For the family retreat, dads have their own sharing circle, Qi Gong, and cold therapy. It's a "connection retreat" about yourself, your loved ones, and nature.

Suzy: I love the combination of relaxation and intentional time. What are the dates for the 2026 retreats?

Monica Virga Alborno: We have three retreats in 2026. February 14th through 17th in Hudson Valley, New York; the family retreat in Wild Florida from April 3rd through 6th (Easter weekend); and a midsummer retreat July 9th through 12th in Hudson Valley. The New York ones are almost sold out, but we have more room in Florida because the property is larger—though we limit it to 25 families to keep it intimate.

Suzy: Sign up quickly! What a fun opportunity for families. I'd love to hear about the challenges and the positive parts of living abroad or running your retreats.

Monica Virga Alborno: I'm not downplaying anything happening in the States; people feel they need change and innovation. That's a driver for moving abroad. But moving doesn't necessarily change things in your home country. Every country has its history and its battles. Some countries are far worse off on a daily basis than America.

I used to see children with their bones sticking out looking for food. That stays with you. When you see the world, you just want to figure out how to make it better. For me, that’s Wander Wild. I left the security of corporate life to serve families and help them come back to one another amidst the chaos of the world.

It's important to be honest about why you're moving and what you want out of it. It’s not a trend to fill a hole; it takes resilience to live outside your comfort zone.

Suzy: Very true. It stretches us. What about the positive parts?

Monica Virga Alborno: The positives? This is worldschooling. I've manifest where we live—next to the sea with mountains and snow. And I wanted globally rooted kids. The people I met in Africa and across the world have become family.

I want my kids to have a global view of people and places. They are curious and will walk up to strangers (safely!) to ask questions. They’re excited for our 2026 travels. They are resilient and intellectually curious. That’s the big win for me.

Suzy: Such a cool opportunity. Before we wrap up: the lightning round! Best or worst food you've tried?

Monica Virga Alborno: My sister and I did a backpacking trip through Zambia and Zimbabwe years ago. We did a homestay where they made fried crickets. Very crunchy!

Suzy: One item you can’t travel without?

Monica Virga Alborno: A foldable stroller. I’m obsessed with the YoYo. Anything you can bring on the airplane without dropping it off at security is a game-changer.

Suzy: If you could teleport anywhere right now?

Monica Virga Alborno: I’ve been craving "me time." I’d teleport back to my honeymoon in Bora Bora. Sitting in an overwater bungalow, spa treatments, and fresh fish—it was so luxurious and relaxing.

Suzy: Sounds delightful. Where can people learn more about you?

Monica Virga Alborno: You can go to wanderwildfamilyretreats.com or listen to the Wand Her Wild podcast.

Suzy: I love it. I've enjoyed your episodes about living in Norway. I'll link everything in the show notes. Thank you so much, Monica!

Monica Virga Alborno: Thank you for having me!

Suzy: Thank you so much.