Life Beyond the Room designs meaningful, sustainable, and extraordinary travel experiences that preserve culture and tradition.
The Richness of Travel Goes Beyond the Hotel Room
Sustainable Travel Design
Sustainable tourism is a travel approach that actively contributes to the well-being and empowerment of both the traveler and the local communities visited. It is travel that preserves and celebrates the unique heritage and biodiversity of each destination while fostering a deep connection and respect for its people.
At Life Beyond the Room (LBR), we encourage our travelers to step off the beaten path, beyond the hotel room, and discover places unknown to most tourists. A sensorial™ travel concierge, LBR is dedicated to designing custom, unique itineraries for travelers seeking authentic experiences immersed in the lifestyle, flavors, and culture of each region. Our commitment to sustainability ensures that your impact is positive. You will have the trip of a lifetime while making a long-lasting positive impact on the places you visit and the people you encounter. You will meet as a guest and leave as a friend!
We believe travel broadens perspective, builds relationships, and enriches one’s life experience.
Contact us to help you plan the trip of a lifetime!
Our Story
LBR Founder Karen Costa Hattaway was born and raised in Rome. Her passion for traveling and curiosity in learning foreign languages and discovering new cultures led her to her first foreign exchange program to the United States when she was a junior in high school. After becoming fluent in English, she attended John Cabot University in Rome before pursuing a second study abroad program in California. She graduated in 2015 in journalism and communications and had the opportunity to work in television news. However, she quickly realized her heart was elsewhere. Her love and passion for her country and her language led her to take a leap of faith and start teaching Italian full-time in 2017. After spending countless hours giving travel advice to her students, several suggested she charge for the tremendous value she was providing. She founded Life Beyond the Room in 2018.
Since then, she has been on a mission to bring authentic travel experiences to her travelers through engaging, culturally-enriching and people-filled itineraries, away from the everyday masses. Her focus on sustainability and preserving the places we visit is at the forefront of every travel experience she offers. While many of her clients are first-time travelers and want to see the main sites, her goal is to make them fall in love with the country so much so that they want to return in search of a deeper experience. She encourages her travelers to step off the beaten path and discover places unknown to most tourists. While she loves all of Italy, her heart belongs to the south, specifically to the regions of Sicily and Puglia where she believes the food, the people, the culture, and history are richer than anywhere else in the country.
On a trip to Castello Aragonese d’Ischia with her mother, Karen sat in this beautiful room with a large window that overlooked pure beauty.
At the time, she was searching for a name for her concierge travel business, which evolved from her Italian lesson business.
As she reflected on the Italian way of life, La Dolce Vita, and how the richness went so far and deep…..beyond the pretty 5-star hotel room, our name, Life Beyond the Room, emerged.
Karen believes that if you do what you love, you will never have to work a day in your life! When she’s not crafting itineraries or reading books on sustainable travel, she is training Brazilian jiujitsu, doing yoga, surfing, and spending time with her family, husband Jett Hattaway, to whom she owes much of her company’s success, her two children, Kiara and Alessandro, and her dogs Pepe and Prosciutto. While LBR is based in Georgia, Karen and her family recently relocated to the beach town of Ladispoli, 30 minutes outside of Rome to closely oversee new projects and continue to expand her offerings for LBR travelers.
While LBR is based in Georgia, Karen and her family recently relocated to the beachtown of Ladispoli, 30 minutes outside of Rome to closely oversee new projects and continue to expand her offerings for LRB travelers.
Meet the Team
Our local managers live in the destination countries and speak the local languages, allowing us to create partnerships with local craftsmen, who often don’t speak English nor have a strong online presence, thus bridging the gap between tradition and the 21st-century discerning traveler.
Karen Costa Hattaway
Founder & Travel Designer
Born and raised in Rome, Karen has always had a passion for traveling and from the young age of 14, she started exploring Europe alone, seeking new adventures, learning new languages and discovering new cultures. After her journey to the United States, she decided to turn her passion into a career and created Life Beyond the Room to share her beautiful country of Italy with travelers in the most immersive and authentic way.
Jett Hattaway
Sales & Strategic Partnerships
Originally from Atlanta, Jett first traveled to Italy when he was 17 years old to the region of Puglia where little English was spoken and even fewer tourists visited. That trip was the beginning of a newfound passion for authentic and immersive travel. With a background in entrepreneurship and business development, he spent years in the renewable energy industry where he gained an appreciation for sustainability. Jett leads our corporate/company trips and builds partnerships with venues to accommodate larger groups and events.
Francesca Marelli
Regional manager • Europe
Francesca, originally from Lake Como, is one of our most tenured local managers. She has a passion for travel and photography and has spent years promoting some of Italy’s most iconic landscapes through her work. Fluent in both English and Italian, Francesca will take care of all the logistics of your itinerary so you can focus on the experience.
Jonathan L'epée Urbani
Small Group Leader & Photographer • Italy & France
Jonathan is a professional photographer and videographer by trade, but a passionate world traveler by nature. Originally from Switzerland, Jonathan has lived in several counties, and currently resides in Rome, Italy. He speaks English, Italian and French and his favorite place on earth is the Val D’Orcia in Tuscany.
Laura Roselle
Travel Designer & Find Your Roots Specialist
Laura became a Travel Designer and Find Your Roots Specialist after being a client of Life Beyond the Room. She has extensive experience in genealogy and has researched her own Italian heritage back to Ponzano Romano, Caserta, and Abruzzo. She learned about Italian laws and recognition of Italian citizenship and became a dual citizen.
Camilla Di Pietro
Local Manager • Italy
An adrenaline seeker, Camilla holds a Master’s Degree in Sports Management and is passionate about adventure sports. She is a track sprinter and loves incorporating running and surfing into her travels. She studied abroad in SoCal and currently resides in Rome, thrilled to welcome you and share her Eternal City with LBR travelers.
Francesco Leva
Local Manager • Italy
Born on the coast of Messina, Francesco lives on the small island of Salina, at the center of the Aeolian archipelago, where he devotes himself to hospitality at La Locanda del Postino and to promoting the protection of the sea and biodiversity of the archipelago. Francesco is passionate about his homeland and cannot wait to share it with you!
Katie Archibald-Woodward
Travel Designer
Thanks to her parents’ love of travel, culture, history, and anthropology, Katie has been traveling the globe since before she could walk. She has always felt a connection to the world and seen herself as much a global citizen as a proud Southern Californian. In addition to travel, she finds life being out in nature, doing yoga, photography, singing, dancing, eating great food, learning new languages, reading and writing poetry and having rich conversations.
Athena Corcoran-Tadd
Local Manager • Portugal
An avid traveler and lover of languages, different flavors, and unexpected adventures, Athena has lived in seven countries and traveled to many more. With the aid of almost 6 languages (German is hard but she’s really trying…), she continues to explore the ways in which local languages open doors. Always looking towards the next horizon, Athena even spent 7 months sailing a ship during lockdown! She currently resides in Lisbon and loves sharing Portugal’s secrets with our travelers!
Thomas Farrow
Local Manager • The UK
At a young age, Tom started traveling all over Europe with his father, going on various adventures hiking the Alps. This fueled his passion for nature and mountaineering which led to his solo summit of Mont Blanc years later. He currently lives in Manchester and loves going to the peak district for weekend hikes. Tom manages our UK trips and leads our most intrepid travelers on adventurous hikes!
Mia Yakel
Local Manager • Costa Rica
Mia is an energy healer, yoga instructor, and professional photographer. Her passion has led her to study all over the globe, both in the healing and visual arts! She currently resides in Costa Rica and is eager to share the culture and beauty of this land with others.
Abigail White
Travel Designer
Abigail has had a lifetime love of exploration and experiences. After traveling to all 7 continents and over 58 countries, her greatest joy is sharing this passion with others. As a seeker of both adventure and culture, you are just as likely to find Abigail at the Opera in Vienna as diving with the Great Whites in South Africa. Of all the destinations she has traveled to, Italy where she was married, will always be close to her heart!