Our Wild Kyrgyzstan tour is live + Flash sale ending + Last chance for Xmas markets + Wheelchair travel
Published about 7 hours ago • 8 min read
Hello, hello Reader,
How are you doing this week?
I am finally here to let you know that our amazing trip to Kyrgyzstan is live on the website! YAY!
With all that said, as with all our tours, we welcome all women, but also know that this trip is not for everyone.
To avoid being carried away by the photos and stunning viral content on social media, without realising the type of experience we have put together or how this trip different from other trips we offer, we have decided to make bookings by application only.
This is for you, so you get the type of vacation that brings you most joy, but also for us and the women we will meet, so that we can bring a group of truly likeminded guests who are coming to have a good time, with an open mind and heart and ready to feel and connect with a culture different from their own, with genuine respect and appreciation for the people who make it possible and the other travelers in the group.
You have to be ok being a bit uncomfortable, in a destination where tourism is not everything and where plans may change.
If that is you, great! I can't wait to introduce you to our friends.
In exchange, we promise a trip with heart, where we have poured all our care into making every day feel warm, well thought out, and surrounded by people like you who will make the experience one of a kind.
In a world filled with AI, this tour will make you feel, touch, hear and be confronted with a different way of life.
Travel should be made of moments that are unrepeatable and full of magic, and this is what we hope to create with you.
Have a look at the main highlights of the trip below or read the detailed itinerary here.
Important: Our application is not about age or background but about travel style and expectations with regards to this trip, so even if you have traveled with us before, we still ask that you fill in an application.
On this week's email:
Our trip to Kyrgyzstan is live! Come have a look and apply to join if you think you will enjoy it and are passionate as we are about supporting women and going behind closed doors to learn about a culture with and open heart.
This is your last chance to book our Xmas markets tour and save 350 EUR. We are closing bookings really soon and have only 2 spots left one on each tour. Go reserve your spot now!
Come have THE best time and meet me in person in London this Saturday! Book your ticket for the best tours here and use WIT50 to get 50% off only until the end of today Wednesday 28 Oct at midnight PST.
This week's podcast episode is with Kelcie, a disabilities travel advocate who travels the world in her wheelchair, solo and with others. She walks us through the realities of traveling with a wheelchair and also the amazing things it has brought her. Her positivity and perspective on how the wheelchair has allowed her to experience many "firsts" again is the kind of positive frame with which to see the world that we all need. I highly recommend you listen to this episode.
Our Wild Kyrgyzstan trip will be an absolutely wonderful road trip through the warm lakes, high altitude mountains and land of Central Asian nomads.
We will meet more than 10 women entrepreneurs, community leaders, heritage experts and chefs keeping their traditions alive and sharing them with the younger generations and with visitors.
The landscapes will leave you speechless, but it is the people who will steal your heart.
Our trip will be led by local host Begimai, and made special by the women who will open the literal doors to their homes and thier worlds and who will cook homemade meals for us.
Dates: 7 to 26 July, 2027
Duration: 10 days / 9 nights
Where we will stay:
We are mixing luxury hotels in Bishkek with premium yurt camps, boutique hotels and a traditional nomad yurt camp.
The best parts
This trip is everything we stand for:
Supporting and spotlighting women who are making a difference for their communities.
Focusing on local, and often women owned or led
Meaningful two-way connections, not just for the traveler to take, take, take
Moments that bring awe and question everything we take for granted
Here are my favorite parts:
⛰️ The landscapes and raw nature
80-90% of Kyrgyzstan is covered in mountains. There are 40 peaks exceeding 6,000 meters and no matter where you look, mountains are always in the background.
Lucky us, this is a road trip that explores the country on a loop that starts and ends in Bishkek and crosses several regions, starting first with a VIP train trip.
As soon as we leave the capital, it will all be about lakes that feel like seas, towering mountains in all shades of green and brown, alpine crossings, and horses and livestock against the backdrop of nomadic living.
There will be red canyons, rainbow canyons, gorges with deep blue rivers, emerald green pine trees, blue mountains, high altitude glaciers, lakes and meadows, this is a trip for nature lovers.
But we won't stay in the car, we will walk around red and rainbow canyons, watch horses, sheep and cows roam freely in the fields and mountains and surround ourselves with the most wondrous landscapes.
Many of Kyrgyz traditions and heritage took a back seat during the Soviet Union but women across the country are painstakingly bringing them back with love and detail.
We will learn about the:
40m elechek turban-like head wear married women wear
Beautiful modern versions of Kyrgyz nomad dress pieces
Yurts individually built and assembled
Products made with natural dyes and herbs and plants found in Kyrgyzstan
Dungan food and the addictive fried dough that is part of every meal
..and so much more.
🐎 Song Kul Lake - Nomad live and horses
The pearl of Kyrgyzstan is an alpine lake located 3,000 meters above sea level that is home to nomad families and their horses and livestock every summer.
Hundreds of families bring their animals to graze in the green pastures when the weather warms up and pack up their entire lives again in September.
Our time by the lake will be spent with the nomad families, learning about what yurt life is like, how they live off their livestock and horses and about the foods and traditions they are preserving.
We will also ride horses in the most peaceful landscapes, around the mirror-like lake and the high mountains around it.
We will spend a morning soaking in the natural hot springs in Ak Suu, surrounded by high mountains, pine trees and flowing glacier water rivers.
The water comes naturally hot and is spread over several pools at various temperatures. The best way to enjoy the magical surroundings.
🧣 Artisans and handicraft makers
Kyrgyzstan women are keeping their crafts alive and bringing back a lot of the handicrafts that were put in the back burner during Soviet times or modernity.
Felt carpets, silk and felt scarves, silk embroidery, natural dyes made from plants and herbs, cosmetics infused with essential oils, leather work, fashion and apparel, bread baking and traditional cooking...all opening their lives to us.
Golden eagles are strong and incredibly smart animals trained to help hunters with small prey animals such as foxes or even wolves.
They are another member of the hunter's family and are trained since young age until they are released back into the wild when they reach maturity.
Historically used to hunt for food, they are now helping the Government keep animals of prey in balance and for their prey.
The art of eagle hunting is an ancient tradition hunters are happy to share with visitors.
🍜 All of the food...
I was so wrong when I came to Kyrgyzstan..the food is rich, delicious, extremely diverse and just all around wonderful.
There will be opportunities to try foods you probably have never come across before like edible earth, fermented mare's milk or dry cheese, and your new favorite snack: borsok (fried dough) with jam and sour cream.
There will also be lots of sweet tea, fruit compote, sweets.
We will let Kyrgyzstan show us its love for food throughout the trip.
Ready to book the trip you'll talk about for years to come?
Episode #30: Wheelchair travel - Unseen challenges and joys
This episode closed Season 1 of the Solo Female Travelers Podcast and it could not be a better way to close our first 30 episodes.
Meg and Kelcie talk about the joys and the challenges of wheelchair travel in what is an eye opening conversation for any able bodied person to start seeing travel differently.
Within the first minute of the conversation, Kelcie already reminds us that it is very likely that we will all be less abled in our late lives at some point, and that we may also need accessibility and help, and this gives a whole new perspective to the wheelchair travel that she has been doing for the last 7 years since being diagnosed with a rare disease.
She also ends on another wonderful way to frame her new situation and how experiencing the world in a wheelchair has brought back the possibility of experiencing many "firsts" again, like learning to sky which she did when she was a toddler and cannot remember but has had the chance to learn again sitting down.
What an encouraging, positive and wonderful way to look at accessible travel. I highly recommend you listen to this episode.
Check out all the details of the podcast here, listen to the episode and start following us [Solo Female Travelers Podcast] on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss an episode:
