About

The purpose of Red Jacket Travels is to tell you that travel and adventure is always accessible. 

Hello! My name is Aaron Raubvogel and I’ve loved to travel my entire life. I had been all over the world by the time I graduated high school, but I never had to completely rely on myself because I was always with a group or my family. As a high school graduation present to myself, I decided to spend a week alone traveling around Switzerland and discovered a whole new person. 

When I traveled solo for the first time, I found a part of myself that I didn’t know I had. As an introvert, I became more outgoing and talked to more people. I discovered that I am a problem solver and ingenuous. But perhaps most of all, I learned how to be myself and comfortable in my own skin. I had officially left my comfort zone, and I didn’t want to ever go back.

I thought of the name “Red Jacket Travels” after that life-changing trip to Switzerland. While searching through photos to post on Instagram, I found a commonality in all of my photos: a red, North Face jacket. I remember having grabbed the jacket sort-of last minute while packing for Switzerland. It was about 4 years old at the time and collecting dust in my closet. To honor the trip that started the rest of my life, I decided on the name “Red Jacket Travels.”

Since my 2017 Switzerland trip, I lived in 3 different cities (SF Bay Area, Washington, DC and Buenos Aires), traveled extensively on my own (to Costa Rica, Chile, and more), plus visited every metro station in DC (yes, all 91 of them). 

I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Currently, I live in Washington, DC and study Public Relations and Spanish at American University.