Hey sister travelers, are you in a season where you're staring down this path of future self and you're not sure which direction to go? Almost like that Robert Frost poem about taking the road less traveled, but you're in a different season and you're not sure which way to go. You have ideas and you have opportunity now with the changes that are happening in your life. Well, I have an inspiring guest on today. Her name is Donnie Below. She founded the woman-only travel company Girls Guide to the World in 2009 with a mission to empower women of all ages to explore the world and in turn discover their true selves. Girls Guide to the World offers multiple trips across the globe and is one of the largest women-only tour operators in the world. And Donnie has visited over 84 countries herself. And it all started with a love for Paris. And she made that dream into this beautiful company and a lifestyle that she is loving. And I encourage you to listen in on our conversation and hoping you feel inspired and empowered to make those same life-changing decisions. Welcome to the show, Donnie Below from Girls' Guide to the World. So happy to have you here. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. I'd really love to hear your story, particularly of your first solo trip. Can you recall that? And why don't you tell us about that trip?
SPEAKER_01I can. I think I was in my 40s, um, and it was summer. Uh we have had a actually a place in Paris for 25 years. So it's it was we did have a place in Paris then. Um, but uh I think the kids were at camp. Um, and I remember saying to my husband, I just need like a month alone. I I was, I don't know, I think I was just overwhelmed. Could have been a midlife crisis. I don't really know what it was. It's just I remember thinking that I think I was probably blaming him for whatever I was feeling. And uh I went to Spain, um, went to France, uh, went to Amsterdam, went to all these different places. Um, and I remember probably like day two or three, and he was actually on a golf trip in Ireland. I called him and I said, Oh no, it's not you, it's me. You know, because I realized I just needed to go. I think it happens to a lot of people who are who are moms or caretakers, um, you know, trying to juggle career and and and and being a mom and being a wife and and all the things that we're trying to do to help, please, and serve others, you kind of lose yourself, right? And that is the great thing about going out alone, is you can remember, oh my gosh, I can I can exist on my own and enjoy my own company. It's it's feels like a little small miracle after being with people for countless years.
SPEAKER_00And when you came back from that trip, how did you feel differently?
SPEAKER_01I think it's it's such an empowering thing for anybody who experiences it. Um there is there's some trepidation, particularly about eating alone at night, at least when I talk to other ladies. Um I just I loved the idea of getting up in the morning and not having to ask anybody else what they wanted to do. Um, sort of just to feel my own self and rhythm and do things according to what I wanted at the moment. And that seemed very freeing. Um and um yeah, I just I was able to sort of think about myself and and how I wanted to move forward in my life. And it was really, it was really helpful. It was therapeutic, uh, it was freeing, and it was also empowering.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I've uh had that feeling too.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, I bet you have.
So, why do you think traveling solo later in life is often more transformative than when you are in your 20s or 30s?
SPEAKER_01You know, I'm not sure that is true because I didn't go solo in my 20s, so I don't have any personal reference for that. I think it's incredibly empowering uh to do it at any time in your life. And I think at any time that you have the guts to do it or have the time to do it, or you know, have the wherewithal, I'd say go for it if you're, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, whatever, whatever age. Um, but I do think that, you know, when we're younger, like in our 20s, you're trying to figure out who am I and what am I gonna do to pay the rent, you know? And then I'd like to meet a guy, you know, there's a lot of things that are going on in your 20s. Your 30s, you know, you're starting to get some of those figured out. Um, but you don't have a lot of time to go off and travel. Uh, like you couldn't take a month, probably in your 30s, unless you inherited money or or, you know, were Taylor Swift or something, you know. Uh so, and then I think that it just happens as we get older that we have more time and more money. So I think that's why you see more. I mean, the solo traveler is over 45 and most of them are female. Um, I think that's because we've spent so much time, you know, not only nurturing our careers as as the men are as well, but we get, I think we get more confident, more bolder, and then we do have more time and money as we get older, hopefully, you know, things have gone right.
So for 16 or 17 years, you've had the wonderful opportunity to watch thousands of women take that first step into a solo trip. What have you learned by watching them?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think that in and what we do is we we create um experiences um for women to join solo, but they're joining a group. So it's kind of like you know, the gateway drug to complete and total solo travel, if you will. Um however, uh a lot of people like that because it feels safer and it feels like you don't you don't have to have dinner alone, but you're still taking this chance of going out there, uh seeing the world, not waiting for a friend, family member, uh, you know, loved one, partner, whatever, to say, yes, you know, I can go with you, or yes, it's okay. Um so uh I what I have seen and we've seen, you know, we've I've been doing this almost 17 years. So I've seen a lot of changes in in the on the part of uh women. I think a lot of women now don't ask anymore. They're just they're just gonna go. In the beginning, I I hear I heard a lot, uh, and we did we try and talk to everyone, almost everybody before they come. Um, but they a lot of times they'd say, Well, I have to ask my husband or my partner. And of course you've got to, you know, schedule, scheduling stuff. But um, and of course a lot of people are are single. But um, here's here's a good story for you that I think illustrates um the kind of power this this experience can have over um four women in particular. There was a lady um who was married um and and actually to someone uh fairly famous. Um last year uh she came on a trip just in the United States. We don't do too many here, but with this is a Christmas trip to Charleston, and uh she had not been out of the country or really on a plane hardly at all since the 80s. She had after her husband died, which had been almost like a decade earlier, she had become more or less a hermit, um, just really didn't go out. I think she probably was going through a lot of stuff, um which you know a lot of widows do. It's a it's a grieving process, but she kind of shut herself in. She had to uh make a trip for medical reasons um within the states, and then she said, Look, I'm not getting any younger. I'm just gonna take this leap of faith and go with this group. Uh, you know, I read the reviews, it seems good, but you know, there's always a leap of faith whenever you do anything new, right? Yeah, and so she went. Um, that trip actually is pretty short, it's like five, six days. Um, she got her feet wet. It completely changed her her life. I mean, she she basically told our trip leader that she has now since booked six trips. Uh, she's gonna be going to Italy, she's going here and there and the other place, and realizing that, you know, it's not that scary. It seems scary, especially when, you know, we're the we're our worst enemy and we shut ourselves down from, you know, out of fear, right? Out of fear of something new. Uh, well, they like me. I'm not comfortable. I used to go with him or her or my family or whatever it is. And but I think as you get older, particularly, it's well, at any time in life, it's good to keep pushing those boundaries to do something that you're a little bit afraid of because the reward is so great. You know, that feeling like, oh my God, I can do this. I don't have to sit at home anymore. Um, so I'm just that's a great um example, one of many, many, many uh where people said, you know, this has completely changed my life. I have one more quick one for you. I love stories that are. Yes, it personalizes it, you know. Um, one other lady um who's married and has two kids um older, but she was the one who always planned all the trips. And, you know, I think they were like teenagers and they were, you know, they'd go somewhere and then people would start to complain, well, I don't really like this, and I don't really want to go here, and you know, but nobody wanted to help, you know, plan these things. It's a typical kind of female quandary. And she finally said, you know what? I, you know, I I just gotta go on a trip by myself. And she she went with us um on her first trip. She met a lady there, they just hit it off. Um, now they travel together, they go on all these different trips um with us. I think they've been on some on their own. And of course she still travels with her family, but for her, it's like she said, this changed my life because I realized I didn't have to carry all the weight and all the burden. And it also kind of is putting it in perspective where she can say, you know, no, I'm not going to do everything and then have people sort of say, huh, I don't love this, you know, because that's that's hard, you know. We don't, none of us like that. We've gone, uh, you know, we've spent hundreds of hours planning something. Nobody wanted to contribute until later just to say, no, I don't like it, you know. So I'm really happy for her. But and I think it's really helped her, you know, in her in her family life too.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I love the stories and especially how you referred to group travel as the gateway drug to solo travel. And the examples you shared are great in demonstrating how these trips have actually led these women to further travels and even friendships. And I know that's kind of what you do at Girls' Guide to the World. Um, but in is there other things that you strive to do for women in your group tours?
Well, I really believe, and I've I have talked on um interviews and podcasts and stuff to people who are much more qualified than I am in terms of psychol psychologists and psychiatrists and stuff. And there's a thing called pattern interrupt. So in our daily lives at home, we tend to fall into these patterns, like I get up at this time, I have my coffee, I do this, I water the plants, whatever. And uh, but it's not great for your brain to not have to move and and pivot, right? So if you're kind of in that groove where okay, Tuesday's dry cleaning day or whatever, um we we see, and you I'm I think probably anybody who's even been on a trip to for the weekend knows this feeling. There's it's it's it is more work because you're not in that my mind is just going on autopilot, but it's good for your brain. It really is good for your brain. And it helps your mood, it helps with depression. Um, so putting yourself out there, out in the world, I think also you can learn so much about yourself when you're away from the list and the responsibilities, you can start seeing uh the world. I uh we went to Rwanda last year, it was the year before, actually, and just you know, all these, you know, really um completely different places. It's illuminating for us to see how different you can live and still be totally happy, or at least fairly happy. Uh, and I I just think it's a constant learning process. And it's also the the thing that we really push is connection. Because I think women strive, uh not strive, they they really thrive on connection. It's a human quality of like we need it. We are, you know, we're people that need bonding. And I think that you can get to know yourself better and you can connect with another culture and see, you know, the interesting things, the different ways they do it, and how you don't need to compare cultures, you can just say, oh, that's interesting, that's different. Yeah, no judgment. Um, and then because we're in a group, we go out of our way to make sure that these women bond with each other individually and as a group. So if you come, let's say with your sister, I'm gonna tell you, well, you can sit next to her the first night, but not at all the meals, because I want you to really, you know, talk to each lady and find out her story. There's always gonna be someone more talkative in the group, some more introverts, and especially those introverts, we're looking to pull them out and find out their story because they're oftentimes the most interesting ones. So, you know, we really try and train, we have about 30 other guides, uh, you know, in that sort of sisterhood bonding process, uh, you know, how can we facilitate that? You know, and then we actually ask them to sign this personal acknowledgement form. And so we it we really lay it out like we're this is what we want from the trip. Because if you can come home with, you know, you might get a souvenir of a magnet, but if you can have a new friend or three, that's amazing, exciting, and it rejuvenates your whole being, doesn't it? When you have a new friend.
SPEAKER_00I love how you emphasize connection within your group and it's like part of your mission. And women do thrive on relationships, and even me as an introvert, I need community too. I don't like being alone all the time.
SPEAKER_01And we all need alone time, but we all need that communal time too. Yeah, we need both.
SPEAKER_00I love how you earlier mentioned about the brain and travel. I've been doing actually my own kind of study on that, and I find it fascinating because I agree, like getting out of your comfort zone really forces you uh to look outside yourself, and you know, it's called neuroplasticity, is kind of what the research is saying, you know, just that that changes the wiring in your brain. You know, even when you travel, they're finding there's so much that happens, and you know, I can get into all that, but I I'm glad you brought that up because I agree with all that. I think it's um super important to force ourselves to get out of our comfort zones, and and travel can do that, and we have to turn on our brains when we travel as well. And I know you travel to a lot of places, and I'm sure you've run across that age-old, you know, worry that you know women get when they travel is is the safety issue. And I know it's a little different when you travel in a group and then you do a lot of group tours. But you know, how do you what do you say about that uh to somebody who's uh you know hesitant about traveling because of sort of the safety concern and and uh just how do you manage that even within your group tours?
SPEAKER_01I think it's a great uh thing that you bring up because I think that's uh we've done some you know surveys and that is people's number one concern, particularly people who haven't traveled as much, right? Um because I really believe by and large, even though right now we're we're we're living in a in a pretty hectic time in terms of there's wars going on and craziness, but most people are decent. Most places are there's a really a lot of places that we travel that are quite a bit safer than our own country of the United States, anyway. Um so I like to um for people that are um concerned about safety issues, um, and I'm I here's a little anecdotal story. I had a lady, um, this is a number of years ago, probably pre-COVID, and she she really um, you know, was part of a unit. She was long a long-term married lady, and this was a photography trip, photography focused trip to Paris. And she said, Well, I'm you know, she's from the South, I'm really excited about going. My husband's worried. Um, and I said, What's he worried about? Well, my safety. And I said, Well, what is it in particular, you know, in Paris? Uh, you know, for let's focus in on what it is. Because I think the free-floating fear that we get from the news and stuff is just general anxiety. I was trying, like, okay, let's figure out what it what is it in particular. That's true. You know, is it uh fear of terrorism, uh pickpockets, you know, what what is it? Well, that was the time when they had those yellow vest um uh guys who were who were um protesting um a hike in uh the taxes and on gas or something. And then one that you know they had they had uh caused some strife in Paris. I think one person died. Uh so you know it was a time, this is now three or four months later. Anyway, what I like to do is say, okay, let's look, let's look at this statistically. And I found um, and you know, as we know, we can find a lot of stuff on the internet. A lot of people have gone, figured all this stuff out for us. But I I found a guy in Germany who who did a really um close analysis of you know the safety of European cities versus including you know protests versus the safety of, you know, uh actually we I did an exact analysis of where she lived, which was like in a rural part of uh North Carolina. Anyway, it turns out statistically, her husband is much less safe than she is when she goes to Paris. And she's like, okay, that'll do, you know. Um, because sometimes we really have to name the fear and then figure out what's the worst case scenario. Well, people are a lot of people are very frightened of um getting lost in the airport, missing a flight. You know, there's a lot of anxiety around flying now because it's you know, it's not any fun really. Um, and so I said, Well, the worst thing that happens is you miss the flight or you get lost and you go to the info desk and you ask, you know. Um, those kind of small uh fears are really great to try and um to to just go anyway and then look at the different things that you can do and kind of pre-prepare. But in terms of like general safety, how do we protect the ladies that come with us? We don't go someplace that's not safe. I mean, that's just the bottom line. Um, so we do have a trip to the UAE. We're you know, we're we're waiting and seeing on that. I'm not going to put my clients in danger. Um that's not good for business. Um, but it is a lot safer um to be in a group. If you're gonna walk to dinner and it's nighttime and maybe you're um, you know, in Oaxaca, Mexico, um, you're in a group, um, and actually it's quite a safe town, but um you're in a group, it's much, much it feels safer and it is safer than just walking solo. Um, that said, I don't want to discourage any woman ever to go out there and, you know, travel solo because it is really empowering and really exciting. Yes, yes, I totally agree. Of course, yeah, obviously, right?
SPEAKER_00I'm not sure if you notice, but I find that when uh a woman has been traveling solo uh more and more, they um worry less about the safety. I'm not saying they ignore it, but I think um, you know, like you had mentioned in your story, that you discover that people are kind and that it's not it's not as bad as it as the media says it is, you know, it it's safer than most people think. And, you know, we've also developed this confidence and awareness through our travels that it doesn't become this elephant in the room, kind of like this thing that we highly focus on. Um, and I I don't know if you've discovered that or not, but I have found that in myself, and I've been traveling solo for several, several years, and I'm sure you have that that becomes less of a concern of mine. Um, you know, like for example, my friend and I went to Paris um April of 2023, and it was during a time they were protesting, of course, um, some something to do with um like garbage and stuff like that, and it was perfectly fine. And people kept asking, are you still going? And we're like, Yes, we're still going. And it actually turned out to be perfectly fine. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I don't I think that we don't want as much as possible, we don't want to pen ourselves in or prevent ourselves from experiencing joy, you know, and from experiencing life, because this could be our only life. We don't know for sure. But we went, we kind of assumed that this could be it. And the if you go into a lot of what ifs, uh I always think about it because I we were living in New York when the towers were hit, you know, during 9 11. And people would say, Well, I don't want to travel here or there because this is the terrorism. I said, Well, they you know, we've got major terrorism in The United States, not just foreign, but domestic. So it's really not that safe of a place. We just think it's safe because we know it, right? Um, you know, uh it's all very easy to Google the safe statistics of safety or all around the world. So, you know, we we make sure that we go to places uh that are that are safe or at least as safe as here, and you know, and and and you know, knock on wood, everything's been fine. What what I I do like to uh we basically tell everyone you must get trip insurance though, and that that is really not from the safety point of view, but the the the most likely thing to happen is that you are gonna get sick, or you might need to stay home because somebody else in the family needs you, or you trip and fall on on, you know, so you really need a trip insurance. I think that's the the the smartest thing to do if you're concerned about safety.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let's pivot to something happier. Uh tell me how many countries you have visited and what has been the most transformative trip you've done so far?
Uh I've been to 88 right now. Um it's gonna be 90 by the end of the year, maybe more than that. Um I just heard about a century club. I don't know if you know about that. When people that are approaching us 100 countries, you can join some international club and they have meetings. Anyway, that sounded kind of fun. Um, but I have a client who's been to um 175, so yeah, she's like been all kinds of places that I never even considered. Yeah. Um, you know, I think that every place transforms you in some way, and that's what is you know, what you want. Absolutely, you want it to affect you. And there's very few places that I've been that I did not uh really like. Um the the place that I'm really kind of enamored with currently, and I do like to date around, obviously, uh when it comes to countries. Um, but I love Japan. Japan is just um an incredible place uh because of the culture. The culture is fascinating to me. I could live there for a couple of years just to soak in the depth of the culture, the history, you know, the fact that they have sort of two intertwining religions, um, Shintoism and Buddhism, and and and and just the politeness of the people, the care uh and thought uh behind everything, uh the the you know the aesthetic beauty and the the the striving always for perfection. I know you know that's not a perfect place, they have their problems like every place, but um really uh an incredible place. Uh absolutely I've been I'm in totally enamored by Japan. Um on the another another hand, um, India was probably the most difficult place I've ever traveled. Um, not so much because of poverty. I helped start a not-for-profit in South Africa, and I spent a lot of time in the townships there. So that's extreme poverty. Um but uh it's it's it's it's so there's so many people there. You know, it is really uh overwhelmed by people and trash. At the time, the first time I went, and that was right when Modi was running the very first time, and I went by myself uh to do some Ayurvedic um doing some healing, Ayurvedic healing. And um, and I went the wrong time of year, it was too hot. Um, I didn't I tend to do a lot of research for clients, and then for me, I'm like, oh, let's just go here, you know, I'm like very spur of the moment. Yeah, exactly. Um, so it was like 110 degrees every day. Um, but what what I I'm proud of myself in a way that I did is that even though I really disliked that first trip, and you know, I could go on about that, but it was one of the first places where I was just dying to get back on the plane. And a lot of people have that, you know, I love it or I hate it reaction with India. And I said, after I got back home after a few months, I said, that's not fair to paint, you know, you had one bad trip to this huge, like really important country that has, you know, just ancient rituals. I mean, it's just unfair to paint that with such a broad brush. I don't like India. You know, it's small-minded. So I gave it another shot a couple of years later. I went on someone else's tour, and it was photography safari, which was great because that sort of gives you when you're photographing things, you have a little bit of um protection sort of from the the craziness and the masses. Um, I liked it a lot more. It was a difficult time um in the world at that moment. They had some a financial thing that they shut down the banks. There's just some hiccups, let's say, on the trip. So the third time I went to India, and it was for um kinds of charming things. Yes, exactly. I went for um a friend's wedding, and of course, it's a really amazing gift to get to go to an Indian wedding. I mean, they just they know how to put on a wedding, man, and it's it's incredible. And it was my best friend's son, and you know, my whole family was there. And then we did some other travel because my husband had never been there. And I was like, oh, I get it. Now I'm I'm seeing it. I I I understand. Uh, but you know, it's just like a relationship, right? Country, some countries are easy. Uh, you know, a lot of people have a problem with Paris because they feel the Parisians are, you know, they're just they're different than us, right? That's not true for the rest of France, but you know, Italy is easy. I mean, everyone falls in with Italy. India is a little more difficult. It takes us, it takes a little bit longer, like that introvert. You know, you really have to delve deep and try harder. Now, not everybody has the time, the energy to try three times. Uh, but you know, I'm really glad I did. It's incredible. I'm glad you redeemed it. Yes, yeah. But that have had a a lot of um effect on me because I realized that, you know, it it doesn't have to be easy to uh be important experience.
SPEAKER_00Like you said, every trip can transform you and open your eyes to something new and a different way of thinking, and I would imagine, especially in India.
SPEAKER_01Have you been? No, I haven't. Okay, all right. Well, uh we now have a trip to India, so I think I found the the best way to do it. I found a female guide, which is very hard to find in India. And I have a lady that goes who's an Ayurvedic practitioner. She's beautiful, she's from Mexico, and she just sort of sets the calm tone, which you need. You need some somebody to keep you calm in the midst of this chaos. And of course, we do go to some really calm and the hotels are amazing, uh, that you need to find your inner calm there, especially in Old Delhi. That's the wildest place you'll ever go.
SPEAKER_00Speaking of trips, uh tell us what you have coming up in the Girls Guide to the World tours and where we can find that information, and maybe even where we could uh find uh uh you and more information about you.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for asking that. So this year, I told you we've been around for over 16 years. So uh we have 85 trips to 50 countries this year. So this is our biggest offering ever. Yeah, 85 trips, yeah. Some people will ask me still, you're and you're leading all of them? Well, of course not. I'm either it's not possible, it's not physically possible. Um and also I'm trying to stay married. So um I'm doing about five or six this year, and I've got about 30 other guides. Um, but it's really um it's really exciting to to have such a broad um band of places that people can go. Um and we have a lot of variety of trips. So um, you know, if for here's uh some outliers, for instance, uh Finland. Um I read um an article about Finland. I was on some deep dive on the internet as we all get um when when we're traveling or you know, traveling in our mind and and and and thinking about trying to plan to plan, trying to plan what's next, what what you know what's inspiring. Yes, but um, you know, they get voted the happiest country in the world. Uh this has been eight years now in a row. And I thought, well, wouldn't it be fun to do sort of an investigative trip as to why? Why are they the happiest people? So what we do is we go there, we did it first last year. It was so amazing. And actually, I just got back from at uh chasing the Northern Lights to Finland and uh Norway trip, which was great. But um, we entered, we basically interviewed and we sat down and we spoke with about six, seven different women, people from education to politics to entrepreneurs to hospitality people, designers. Um and we asked that we, you know, we talked to them, we learned about what they're doing, but we asked them that question why do you feel and that nobody feels like you know skipping down the street happy all day, every day. That's you know, impossible. But they did say they felt like they were fairly content. And I think, wow, that that, you know, but it's a it's a myriad of factors, and um, I actually wrote a whole article about it. Um, but it's I like the idea of creating a trip with a framework like that. You know, um, how do you how do you see a country? Like what's the it I don't want to just go someplace and check off the four places that everybody else sees, you know, and certain places you got to go do this. There's certain things you have to do, you know, when you're in, you gotta go at least once you've got to go to the Eiffel Tower when you're in Paris. But that doesn't mean you need to just do the touristy things and not find the true heart and soul of the place. So we love to find and meet with women, particularly in the more exotic places. In in in Thailand, in Peru, um, you know, in uh in Rwanda, we like to sit down with women uh in Morocco. We do this, women in those countries to figure out what is their life like, you know, and it's obviously different than ours, but what's wonderful, and I think the other amazing thing about travel is that you end up thinking, you know, this person, yeah, they may look different, they may dress different, they may eat different, they may have different, you know, rules around marriage and this, that, and the other thing, but you know, we're just alike in so many ways. And I think that is that other sort of deep part of bonding that you can have, connection with somebody who, you know, you're just it's just amazing that you even got to meet, you know. Uh, we met with a group of women entrepreneurs in Bhutan and we had a lunch together, and each person in the group told, including our ladies, told their sort of entrepreneurial or work story. And then it was just so beautiful to to hear, you know, how they some of these women have just you know survived something that is almost unbelievable, and they've opened their their own little restaurant or whatever they're doing. So I think that is something I'm most excited about. Um allowing uh having the chance to have that opportunity, I think is really special. But uh to answer your question, I definitely went on a ramble there, but um It's all good, it's all good. Yeah, we're going to China this year for the first time. Very excited about that, and it's a culinary journey through China. Um, we're doing actually it's happening right now. We've done we're doing two trips to the Galapagos. Um, so uh we rented a chartered a private yacht, so it's all you know for us. And there's just eight rooms, they have eight cabins and they all have balconies. So it's you know, the Galapagos is one of the most exciting. Have you ever been? It's just oh my god, that's oh that's major bucket list. It's it's just incredible. What's great is that the boats are owned by women, uh, two women, and then there's uh they're going afterwards to the Amazon. Also, the lodge is owned by women. Um, so I'm always trying to champion it, women entrepreneurs as much as possible in all these various places. Um, we got a trip to Madagascar to see the lemurs. Um, so you know, I think we have 21 new trips this year.
SPEAKER_00Wow, that's incredible. So, can they find out about these trips on your website?
SPEAKER_01Yes. So everything happens at girlsguide to the world.com. From there, you can find, you know, our Facebook, our Instagram, our Pinterest. And we also have a private um uh group that you can join on Facebook called um uh the Girls Traveling Sisterhood. But it's it's you can find it on the website. You can uh just join. You just have to answer some questions. But that's a place where we I don't do any advertising. I just it's just a place for women to sort of cheer each other on, whether they want to come with us, whether they want to go totally solo, join another group. But we just want to be out there encouraging women to travel in any way they can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I love what you're doing through your tours for women and empowering them with the whole solo travel idea, but also just the importance of community and how you stress that even in your group tours. So I really appreciate that as you know, as women, we do th thrive more on that connection and feel more comfortable around other women. Even you mentioned hiring just women for your tours and how important that is for you as a company.
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. And I know a lot of the ladies who've come on my trips um have gone on trips. Um, you know, obviously there's tons and tons of great travel companies out there, and and many of them are, you know, whoever signs up. So it's men, and then there's men and women, usually couples, and then there's uh then most of the solo people are women. Uh, you see that on cruises, you see that, yeah, it's just that's what how it works for some reason. And um they feel a little awkward sometimes, you know. You feel like the fifth wheel, and you always have to, you're you're having to put yourself out. It's it's a lot of work. Um you know, I've done it myself and I don't dislike it, but I think it's it's more difficult than women just automatically when we're there, and plus we do, you know, icebreakers and we do all these different things to make people feel comfortable and safe, and and you know, uh it is it's just so nice not to have to plan anything, and then just being able to convert to, you know, freely. Uh and people, it's like you give them a glass of wine, not obviously it or a mock tail, and the first night everybody's cackling and laughing and telling their stories, and by the end of the week, people feel really close, like sisters. Um, I went to boarding school and I just loved it because I was a only, not an only child, but I was the one left at home because they were all older. And there's just nothing better than being in a group of ladies. It's so, it's so wonderful. It feels very nurturing. Uh so uh I I I wish for everyone that they can have that experience, whether it's with us or with another company, um, because it's so it's so glorious. And then to have keep connected, some of these ladies will go on other trips, they have reunions like at someone's house, they'll go visit each other. It's it's adorable, and it just makes that's kind of the heart and soul of why I get up every morning and do this.
SPEAKER_00Well, Donnie, thank you for sharing your heart and your mission, uh your tour group, and how inspiring your stories have been, even to me. And I hope the same thing for other women, just as you hope for your ladies that join you on your tour group. And we will I will make sure I include all that information in the show notes of where they could connect and find out more about your tours.
SPEAKER_01Wonderful, wonderful. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.