Breaking Free from the Ordinary in Group Travel

This episode explores the journey of transforming group hiking trips into five-star experiences for women travelers. With a focus on elevating every aspect of travel and partnering with ethical tour operators, we're reshaping the way we explore the great outdoors.

• Memories from a transformative trek along the Salcantay Trail 
• The importance of providing elevated experiences in group travel 
• Reassessing partnerships with tour operators 
• Gathering community feedback through a new survey 
• Highlighting exciting future destinations 
• Aligning travel practices with ethical values 

Help shape the future of our adventures by participating in our survey at hikelikeawoman.com!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Last fall when I was leading a group trip to Peru along the Salcante Trail. We had an experience on that trip that was like five star amazing, and I have been kind of critical about our guides in Peru and that trip in general over on our YouTube channel. But today I just want to talk about that five-star experience that I had in Peru and how it caused me to rethink the way that we offer group trips here at Hike Like a Woman. So it's the first night of our trek along the Salcantay Trail If you can just take your imagination to this place. We have been hiking hard uphill all day long and we got to the campsite in the late afternoon. And it's in this beautiful valley. We are surrounded by the Andes in all directions, so think about the most beautiful valley you've ever camped in. We were there. We get to the campsite and it's freezing cold. We put on every single layer that we have and then our cooks make us this great dinner. We eat dinner in this big dining tent that they've set up for us. The chef comes out when it's time for dessert and he has bananas that are on fire that he serves us and we just have this beautiful dessert. But we were all so tired, we just wanted to go to bed and I think the guides and the chef thought that we would kind of linger in the tent and talk. But everybody was so tired so we went to bed and it's really cold. So we went to bed and it's really cold and just as we were crawling into our sleeping bags, our guides went around to each tent and they handed us each a hot water bottle full of boiling hot water that we could put on our feet or hold against our bellies to warm up our torso or hold against our bellies to warm up our torso. And it was just this one thing that they did, by passing out those hot water bottles, that elevated that experience.

Speaker 1: 2:44

On that group trip and at Hike, like a Woman, we've always tried to do those little things to elevate experiences. When I was guiding backpacking trips, we would always try to show up in the morning at your tent with a mug full of hot tea or cider or hot lemonade, which is one of my favorite things to drink when I'm backpacking. And I've always thought about how can I turn this experience into something that you wouldn't expect in the backcountry, that you wouldn't expect in the backcountry. Well, recently, I had an experience with the company that we're currently using to offer group trips, and I will say that this is the last year that we are using this company to offer group trips. But I was looking at one of our upcoming adventures at the lodging options at a certain location and I can't give away too much here because I am under contract with this company, but anyway, I'm looking at the lodging experience at one of these places and I was looking on their website and I found something better. I found that we could stay in a better place.

Speaker 1: 3:58

So I approached the company that we use to host trips and I said here's the deal. I don't want to stay here, I want to stay here, and I think that this would provide a really unique five-star special experience for the women who are on this trip with me. And what I would like to do is I know the trip's already been booked, I know that it's already been paid for, but we're six months out, so I would personally like to pay out of pocket the difference so that we could instead stay in this location. I emailed that to the woman who I am in touch with, who kind of schedules and arranges our Hike Like a Woman trips. And instantly she got back to me and she said we can't do that, the trip's already been planned. And I said we can't do that, the trip's already been planned. And I said we're still six months out, it's not going to be any additional cost to my travelers and I want to make this happen. So try again.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Because I want to be able to provide, provide this elevated, five star, unique experience for the women who are on trips with me and then I. So that's that's where I am now and and I feel like every time I try to make a suggestion or recommendation about the itinerary or the lodging or the meals, instantly the answer I get is we can't do that. And that just feels a little bit icky to me when I want to provide that elevated experience, when I want to be the one that's making sure the guides are giving us hot water bottles for our feet when we camp, and make sure that someone's greeting you in the morning with a cup of tea in your tent or make sure that you're staying in this really incredible bucket list, worthy venue list, worthy venue. So I've realized over probably the past six months or so, that the current company we're using for trips is just not in alignment with my values. And that's not to say that they're a bad company. It's just that I want to provide elevated experiences.

Speaker 1: 6:31

And when you come on a group trip with me, you know it's expensive, your vacation time is limited and if you come on a trip with me and you don't get that five star wow experience that you're going to go home and talk about for years, then I've let you down and then you won't trust me to come on another trip. And I did our. I looked at our stats last night and we actually have a 48% return rate. So almost half of women who go on adventures with me book another trip within the next two years. And that's that's so cool. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am working hard to do a better job of partnering with companies who can provide that elevated experience, like in Costa Rica. Last year when we did our couples retreat to Costa Rica. It was one of the couples was celebrating their anniversary and the guiding company put a bottle of champagne and a card and fresh flowers in their lodge on the river and it's just like those little things mean so much to me and they mean so much to you when you come on a trip with us.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So what I'm doing to kind of make things different and to adjust how I'm doing things and to make sure that we are working with the very best tour operators out there I'm changing. So I'm not going to be using the company that we've used and we have booked trips with this company through 2025. And they're not bad. So we're going to get through the year and then, starting in 2026, we're doing something different.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So right now we have a survey going on our website and instead of me just choosing from a list of potential options and then letting you know a year out when we're going to go, what I've done is I've created a survey. So head to our website, hikelikeawomancom. There you can find our survey. It takes less than 60 seconds to fill out, but on that survey I asked three questions I want to know where you'd like to go on a group trip to. I'd like to know your budget and the best times of year for you to travel, and I'm taking the information from that survey and we've had nearly 1000 people fill out that survey.

Speaker 1: 9:00

But I'm taking that information and we're going to take the top four, maybe the top five destinations, and then I'm going to look for tour operators in that region who are local tour operators, who align with my value of providing you an elevated experience. Tour operators who are going to go above and beyond what you're going to get with the average tour company. And also tour operators who do things like pay their guides living wages, treat them with kindness, dignity, respect, are ethical, have some sort of a give back mission, like our Kilimanjaro tour operator runs a center in Moshi for children without parents and and it's a woman owned guiding company. So those are kind of the things that I'm looking for when I'm going to be hiring new tour operators. So how this is going to look is right now, in the month of January, we have the survey going, so head to our website, hikelikewomancom, and take that survey and then in February that's when I'm going to spend time interviewing, vetting and hiring tour operators.

Speaker 1: 10:19

So when March rolls around, you'll be able to look and say okay, in 2026, I would like to go on this trip with Rebecca and with Hike Like a Woman, and I know that trip is going to be in April of 2026. So I know that booking is going to be open in April of 2025. So you can kind of plan and budget for potential trips. So, instead of me just randomly saying, hey, guess what, we're going to go to Peru, everything is going to be kind of set a year out, maybe even two years out, of course, and then you'll be able to book that trip eight to 12 months before the trip actually happens. This is a long winded way of me saying that I really want to make sure that I'm providing the five star experience that you deserve when you go on an adventure with me, and I would love it if you could help me by heading to our website and taking that survey so I know where you want to go.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Now, if you're curious, here are some of our top destinations. Let me see here. So people want to go do the O circuit in Chile, so a nice seven day backpacking trek. Costa Rica is high on the list Kilimanjaro, tour de Mont Blanc, iceland, cotopaxi and Everest Base Camp. So I think there's like 10 trip options and those are the leaders so far. So head to our website, hikelikeawomancom, take that survey, let me know where you want to go and then stay tuned because I'm going to be making announcements in March here on our pod, on our YouTube channel and over on our website and social media channels about where we're going to be headed in 2026. Hey, thanks so much for hanging out with me. I appreciate you. Have a great day. We'll see you next week. Bye, bye.