By Robert W. Dalton
Whatever your destination, McCown Bridges Griffin ’10 can get you there in style.
Griffin is the owner of Escargot Travel. She started the company in 2021 and operates it out of her Spartanburg home. Escargot is a full-service agency that specializes in custom luxury travel experiences around the world.
Griffin spent nearly eight years working at the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry in Charleston, S.C., starting as a marketing coordinator before being promoted to director of marketing. While there, she, her husband, Jeffrey Griffin ’10, and their children traveled often. By Griffin’s count, they’ve logged more than 700,000 miles, visiting six continents and 52 countries.
Their daughter, Eliza, got her first passport when she was 3 weeks old.
“She’s now 4 years old, and she likes being at home,” Griffin says with a laugh.
When the museum was shut down by COVID-19 in 2020, Griffin began thinking about a career change.
“I spent 2020 looking at how I could do travel, how I could take that passion and hobby and help others,” she says. “I got a lot of messages from people reaching out to ask how we traveled with kids. I had several people say they couldn’t even take their kids to the grocery store, and we were taking ours to another country.”
The family also was looking to make a move, and they decided to return to the town where they spent their college years.
“It’s nice to plug back into the Spartanburg community,” Griffin says.
She adds that her travel experiences, along with her training and personal connections in the travel industry, set Escargot apart from other agencies.
“Our clients appreciate my personal experience, knowing the culture and people of different places,” she says. “I’m able to offer experiences and perks that clients can’t find on their own.”
Griffin says Escargot is growing faster than she imagined it would. She’s OK with that.
“This has always been in the back of my mind,” Griffin says. “I love travel, and it’s great to be able to work at something that doesn’t feel like work.”