Exclusive: Amy Aberman and Hollie Levy Have 'Barely Scratched the Surface' When It Comes to Building Their Business GTG Abroad: 'We Love What We Do'

In the spring of 2023, Amy Aberman and Hollie Levy's kids were both abroad at the same time but in different countries.

"Izzy was studying in Italy (Milan) and Sam was in Spain (Barcelona). Although they rarely were visiting the same cities at the same times, they often missed each other by a weekend or two. And being travel lovers ourselves, we found ourselves helping them plan some of their travel. Knowing the two kids were visiting many of the same places, we often shared information between us. After weeks of this, we were at a mutual friend's 50th birthday and discussing yet another city both kids had recently visited, when we realized these kids had so little information to help book their travel plans — and they were traveling almost every weekend! It was a total light bulb moment when we realized there had to be a better way for these American kids living abroad to gather their information and use it to plan smart, budget-friendly, fun trips!" the duo exclusively tell Morning Honey about starting GTG Abroad.

From then, they launched GTG Abroad on social media and online in September 2023, with student ambassadors from colleges all over the U.S. helping to support the brand by making video content for Instagram and TikTok.

"We started with eight cities in Europe but now, just over a year later, we have over 50 cities in both Europe and Australia, and we are growing every day! In March of 2024, we reported over 30,000 users on our website! And on January 1, 2025, we launched our Elite Member Portal bringing new exclusive features and over $1,000 in discounts all over Europe, Australia and New Zealand," they reveal.

After witnessing their kids and their friends traveling every weekend without any travel guides, they knew there was something missing in the market that could help them when in another part of the world.

"It seemed totally disorganized and risky that these kids would end up at a bad restaurant, sketchy nightclub or worse. Once we started collecting all the guides from students and organizing them by city, the entire idea started to unfold naturally," they share. "GTG Abroad is helpful before you leave, when you're settling in, and of course, during the massive amounts of travel the students are doing throughout the semester. We rely on the Ambassadors that we 'hire' to give us feedback on all they are doing, eating, staying and partying. Therefore, all the information is student to student with GTG Abroad being the vessel that gets the information out there. Whether they are visiting the website or keeping an eye on our social media, we keep everything current so the kids have all the most up-to-the-minute information!"

GTG "offers recommendations, collected from Ambassadors and users who reach out with tips and suggestions," they note. "These recommendations are then organized by city and category. For instance, under Barcelona, you will find prompts for itineraries, dining, activities, nightlife and hotels, plus an entire section on living in Barcelona (there is a similar set up for some of the most popular home cities). The goal is to help get the students packed and ready to go, acclimated when they arrive, and then assist with all of their travels."

They add: "Our lists are different because we have stuck to the mantra of only offering suggestions from actual student travelers and limiting what we put on the website to only those places they recommend. In fact, we often ask our Ambassadors to go through our website and let us know if there is anything we should remove."

The lists "are authentically from other students so they are curated naturally," they share. "The Ambassadors are our eyes and ears and although they are doing similar stuff, we really try to give enough of a diverse recommendation list so that anyone can use GTG Abroad. One day we would love to further curate our itineraries for specific interests like art lovers, foodies, outdoorsy travelers and more."

At this time, they have 54 cities between Europe, Australia and New Zealand — with tons of lists embedded in each city. "We hope parents breathe a little better knowing there is vetted information out there that is free for their kids to access. Although we don’t pull back the curtain often, we do get feedback from parents that it is comforting knowing that GTG is run by two moms. As for the students, we know it is a help! The feedback is consistent: once they start using GTG they can’t be abroad without it," they note.

The pair, who have "more or less been stay at home moms for the last 20 years," have experience with being leaders, as Levy was in PR for many years while Aberman worked for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics before leaving the workforce.

"Amy was an art teacher. Both of us were very involved parents as our kids moved through the school system and donated a lot of our time volunteering for various school sanctioned groups. So although we were not technically working for quite some time, we were always involved. So, when the idea of GTG Abroad came about, it didn’t seem so far-fetched to create something by two moms that would help kids!" they state.

Going forward, the pair are just getting started and hope that their business continues to grow.

"We want to cover all the areas that students live abroad; Asia, South America, even Semester at Sea. We want to get the attention of not only student travelers, but all young travelers on a budget. We eventually aspire to create a similar platform for adults as well. The goal is that our users feel empowered by doing the planning themselves and being successful travelers. In terms of the students, going abroad is a very unique experience and results in a lot of maturity and feelings of capability. Most of our users have never planned a trip anywhere, and now they are traveling every week and sometimes with large groups. It is a huge responsibility! The hope is that they come away from the experience with a ton of growth," they state of their plans to expand.

They continue: "We are really excited about our new Elite Member Portal and the huge discounts we have collected for the students. We have started to really form relationships and partnerships with places we know the travelers are visiting. Our number one goal is to keep building that part of the platform. We plan to reach out to as many places that come recommended to see if they want to partner with us and offer discounts exclusive to our members. We have a lot of ideas for how to make the membership portal even more advanced by adding features we know the students will use and love. We are also always looking to grow our following on social media. With more than 300,000 students going abroad to Europe alone each year, we have barely scratched the surface!"

The lifelong friends also want to "add more and more members" on the Elite Member Portal, which is their number one goal. "We would like to gain more social followers, and more Ambassadors across all of the U.S. so we eventually have at least one rep at every university. Our ultimate goal is to be THE one brand students turn to for everything abroad…even before they know where they are going," they say.

The ladies have also learned that it's possible to "learn anything" no matter where you are in your life. "We have learned that there is a big difference between saying you could do something, and actually doing it. We have learned that we will inevitably make mistakes but as long as we learn from them, we will be better equipped to make smarter decisions the next time around. Perhaps the most important lesson we have learned is that these kids, especially our amazing Ambassadors, want their voices heard. They are all so excited to be exploring the world, and they cannot wait to tell people about it! We love being the place where their opinions, recommendations and voices matter," they share.

The best part is that their kids are "so invested in their success."

"It is because of them that we created GTG in the first place and seeing how they champion the brand on our behalf makes it all worth it! The most challenging is probably two-fold. We seriously had no idea how much work this would take or how time consuming it would be until we were so deep into it (and also kind of obsessed with it) to not keep pushing ahead. There are no non-working vacations, lunch with friends has gone out the window and our poor dogs are in serious need of more walks! We also are two adults trying to swim in a pond of ever-changing 20 year olds that can turn on something from one minute to the next. We want to make sure our content stays relevant and our users feel that we are keeping up with them!" they state.

Though working with a loved one can be tough, the two feel like they are the perfect team.

"We believe that our open line of communication and really having the same goals is the secret sauce. From day one both of us have consistently held onto the same beliefs and aspirations. And if one of us has a good idea or something good happens (like Amy connecting to Viator to score us some great discounts for the Elite Member Portal), the other one is the best cheerleader. We are not in competition with each other and really listen and discuss the path of the business every step of the way!" they gush.

They conclude: "We really love what we do and are excited for what is to come! At the moment, our focus is building our Elite Member portal, which falls right into line with our mission to continue making the abroad experience as seamless as possible for the students. We hope the students abroad tell everyone about us because the goal really is to help them have a fun, safe and stress-free adventure."