$500 OFF Galapagos + 🥴 Avoid disappointment: What a solo trip is not

Hi Reader,

How is your week going?

I am home for a few days before our first tour to Madagascar which I am super duper excited for 😁😁😁😁

Summer is officially over since we crossed the solstice, but the temperatures and vibes are still very much the same here, even though everyone is back at work so the mood is a bit less festive than a couple of weeks ago.

The beaches are full, the sun is shinning and this week is my town's second "fiesta" which translates into concerts, celebrations, street parades, folk dances, fireworks, late nights and breakfast churros. It all feels like one last party before autumn sets in 😬

📩 On this week's email:

Get $500 off our 2026 Galapagos tour courtesy or our new trimaran collaboration. Offer only valid for booking made before the end of the month, 30th September.
What a solo trip is not. Avoid disappointment by setting your expectations right about what a solo trip is and is not.
Last chance to book a 2025 trip with us, we have just 10 spots left on all of this year's tours.

$500 OFF our Galapagos expedition trip of a lifetime

We are always looking to improve our trips, be it by changing hotels to newly opened or renovated ones, by adding or removing activities as they evolve and change, or by making small changes to itineraries to make them better.

For the Galapagos, we have decided to upgrade our ship and this new collaboration comes with a launch offer to help make that trip of of a lifetime a reality: $500 OFF if you book before the end of September.

Here are the highlights of the trip

Upgraded premium ship. A luxury trimaran instead of a catamaran, the only one on the Galapagos. This means it is more stable and it has larger cabins and bathrooms. Fantastic personalised service of the onboard crew, great chef-prepared meals, all dietary requirements catered for, new gear and wet suits, all equipment (kayaks, life vests, etc.). Plus indoor and outdoor seating, AC, rooftop deck with heated jacuzzi and sun loungers to relax and watch the Milky Way.
Smallest group. A maximum of 14 guests, that is the smallest group size visiting the islands, so we have the flexibility to jump in the water if we spot a pod of dolphins, a manta gliding or any other animal. We will all be together and will be able to react at a moment's notice to the magic the Galapagos can bring.
Female local naturalist guide with in-depth knowledge of the islands. It is hard to beat the knowledge that naturalist guides on the Galapagos have of the wildlife and flora. The companies we are partnering with for this trip and for the cruise are both local and female owned.
Best itinerary and time of year to visit. We've done all the research for you. Our itinerary will allow us to see all the wildlife that is endemic to Galapagos in the best time of the year to visit. Best visibility, warm weather that is not super hot or cold (water temp will be warmest in Dec), great visibility and calmest seas. See dolphins, sea lions, rays and mantas, penguins, lots of tropical fish, sharks, sea turtles and giant tortoises, boobies, frigate birds, gulls, pelicans, owls and maybe even some whales.
Optional stress-free add ons: Leave us to take care of all the logistics for you. 3 extra nights in Quito with a day touring the oldest colonial city in Latin America, flights to the Galapagos, airport transfers from / to your international flight and to / from the Galapagos flight, the local tourist card that is mandatory to visit the islands plus the park fees, all paid for and taken care of by us.

Details of the offer:

Bookings need to be made before the end of the month (30th September).
Offer applies to new and existing bookings. If you are already a guest on this trip, we will reach out to apply the discount to you too.
Mention the offer when booking your spot

BOOK GALAPAGOS CRUISE

What a solo trip is not

The boom in solo travel in the last 5 years has also created an entire world of tiktokers and Instagrammers that are putting forward an idea of what a solo trips should look like.

This creates a host of expectations for those embarking on their first solo trip that are often unrealistic.

Movies such as Eat.Pray.Love and alike have built on the idea that a solo trip is a transformative experience, that you will come back with love stories to fill book pages and a renewed sense of self.

This week, I wanted to debunk some of these ideas with the objective of letting you know that even if your solo trip is not life changing or the beginning of a writer career, there is nothing wrong with it. You didn't "do" solo travel wrong and there is nothing incorrect about the way your solo trip went.

We need to stop having these unrealistic expectations on what a solo trip should and should not be and how changed or reborn we should feel after that.

Here are some of the many things a solo trip probably is not:

A replacement for therapy

Have you seen those memes which illustrate that when you go on a trip, your problems come with you?

That's right, traveling solo is NOT going to solve your life's traumas or mental health challenges.

It will give you perspective, mental space and distance, which is very much needed to understand and process most of life's challenges, but it will not cure your mental health problems, or solve your marriage issues or help you overcome your depression.

You will still be you, with your problems and worries, but in a new destination.

The distance a solo trip provides, the opportunity to see your problems with renewed joy and peace and the perspective given by a different way to see the world will certainly help you recognise the challenges you are going through and perhaps lay the first stone to processing and overcoming them, but it will not make the problems go away.

You may also come back with a heart full of beautiful moments and memories and a new sense of self love and empowerment which may help you tackle issues with more confidence and belief in your own abilities.

But if you return to the same difficult marriage and the same mental health challenges, your solo trip was not a failure.

Your ticket to lifelong friendships

Australian and Kiwi friends made in Vanuatu

One of the most common posts in the group is that of members looking to meet others.

We reject more than 10 posts a day about this topic, because we created a subgroup just for meetups.

Humans are social animals and we like to meet new people, connect and share.

A solo trip has also been dubbed the best way to make friends, and 60% women say they travel solo to meet people, as per our Annual Solo Female Travel survey.

The reality is that most of us will not really make new friends on our solo trip, at best, you will meet someone with whom you will share a few fun hours and will then add to your preferred social media network and follow for years to come, only to never cross paths again.

My Facebook is full of people I've met in the last 25 years; Some of them, I stay in touch with online and exchange messages from time to time, others I only congratulate on their birthday, but most of them become the memory of a fun time shared.

I can count the real friendships I've met on my travels, after 25 years of ultra-frequent traveling, with one hand. And they were not the result of a few hours diving or going on a food tour, they were someone I shared at least a week-long trip.

When traveling solo, the quality and intensity of new connections is over-hyped.

We feel like we have just met our soulmate, and I am not talking about love, but about friendships.

We are in a good mood, we are overstimulated by everything new around us, we are in a new environment where nobody knows us, and we are ourselves just as we are, without the burden of "what will they think about me" or the gaze of other people's expectations.

It all feels much deeper and more meaningful because they were also built during a time when we were being challenged, because traveling constantly challenges us in small and big ways.

The friendships we make in those circumstance feel like they will stand the passing of time.

Then the trip ends and we go back to our routine and daily life, and those experiences shared with a stranger stay as great memories, but making time to see someone who probably lives miles away and with whom we ma have little in common is though, because it is difficult to build a real friendship with someone you don't share life's moments with.

If you come home without having made any such deep connections or friendships for life, you did nothing wrong on your solo trip.

PS We see lots of REAL and time-tested friendships made on our tours, but that is because the group spends a week to 14 days together, not an afternoon.

A life changing experience

Solo travel, and travel, is often described as "life-changing".

Social media is filled with posts, of mostly women, who share how a solo trip changed them completely and made them swap careers, leave their toxic relationship, change jobs or revisit the way they live.

This happens, and it happened to me on my 2 month South pacific sabbatical, but not during a typical 1 week vacation, but on a longer career break, gap year or sabbatical, during which you have time and space to reconsider your life's choices and consider other ways to view the world.

A vacation or short solo trip can definitively change your perspective and the way you see many things, but it is not likely to change who you are.

Most life-changing trips are long ones, experiences that spanned weeks or maybe even months, where you immerse in a different culture, have quality time to get to know yourself and gain distance from your lifestyle, not a short period of time during which you have no time to even get to know yourself enough to realise you need, should or can change.

Coming home the same person you left, without the urge to leave your partner, your job or your lifestyle is perfectly fine and normal.

Do you bring gifts for your hosts or guides? What have you brought in the past? What have you been gifted on your travels?

Last chance to travel with us in 2025!

We are closing bookings for this year's tours, so if you are keen to travel with us, book your spot now:

🔔 1 SPOT left on our Oaxaca 12 to 18 October tour (📸 photographer onboard) and 2 SPOTS left on our 9 to 15 November tour => BOOK OAXACA
🔔 2 SPOTS left on our Xmas markets tour 22 to 29 November => BOOK XMAS MARKETS
🔔 4 SPOTS left on our Cuba tour for New Year's Eve, the celebration you needed! => BOOK CUBA

=> You can also see the FULL CALENDAR of tours.

Photo of the week

Last week's photo

This famous Egyptian temple is a fitting choice for last's weeks photo because it is the burial temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the only female Pharaoh buried in the Valley of the Kings. She is an icon in Ancient Egyptian history.

Many of you guessed this one, congrats to Julia, Noemi, Laila,...!

Can you guess this week's photo?

In case you missed it

Travel news, community discussions and other important things to know:

The UK Foreign Office now advises against all travel to areas in the east of Kenya, including the border with Somalia, and now advises against all but essential travel to some neighbouring areas, including the tourist beach town of Lamu. More here
Uber introduces safari rides to Nairobi National Park. I used to work in Nairobi years ago and one of the most fun days we had was when we decided to go on a safari before going to work. You can take your own car (in this case our driver) into the park, and do a few game drives before going to the office. Uber now offers this. More here.
Women share the lengths they go to feel safe in the subway. Read here.
American woman travels to Ireland to find love at Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival. Read here.
Did you know that in Hawaii you can post a coconut to anywhere in the US? Just hand it over to a post office and write the recipient's address on it. More here.
How Tuvalu plans to stay alive after the tiny island nation sinks under raising seas. This really small country of 10,000 inhabitants is literally disappearing under water. I visited in 2019 and was shocked by how low the overall island is, a mere 2-3 feet above sea level in some parts and under water when there is a high ride. With rising seas and global warming, the country may not be there real soon. More here.