{"id":74165,"date":"2019-09-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/women-only-adventure-travel-is-surging\/"},"modified":"2019-09-01T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T11:00:00","slug":"women-only-adventure-travel-is-surging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/women-only-adventure-travel-is-surging\/","title":{"rendered":"Women-only adventure travel is surging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Registration
Registration for REI\u2019s women-specific travel adventures more than doubled from 2018 to 2019. One of the trips the company offers is its San Juan Islands Women\u2019s Kayaking Weekend.<\/span>Courtesy of REI via Washington Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It was August 2017, and Sonya Pevzner stood on a small ledge, halfway up Washington\u2019s imposing Mount Shuksan. With eight hours of climbing in the rearview mirror, only a single belay pitch stood between her and solid ground. Nervous jitters coursed through her body, leftovers from the stressful rappelling. But she felt something else, too: elation.<\/p>\n

She glanced around the ledge and saw a handful of women \u2013 no men \u2013 packed together to accommodate each other in the cramped space. They came from different backgrounds and different parts of the country, and each had her own reason for being perched thousands of feet up the face of a mountain. But none of that mattered. They were in this together.<\/p>\n

For Pevzner, 27, a blogger and multimedia storyteller, an all-female course was the perfect way to experience mountaineering for the first time. She didn\u2019t seek out an adventure designed for women only; she stumbled upon it while chatting with a friend. But, once she thought about it, she realized it was the safest space for her to learn a new skill set.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingle-identity spaces are incredibly powerful for finding kinship,\u201d Pevzner says. They free people \u201cfrom the power dynamics\u201d that she thinks exist in mixed groups.<\/p>\n

She isn\u2019t alone. Megan Behrbaum, manager of strategic communications at REI, said 59% of travelers on REI excursions in 2018 were women. Moreover, registrations for REI\u2019s women-specific travel adventures \u2013 which launched two years ago \u2013 more than doubled from 2018 to 2019. Women are experiencing the world like never before \u2013 and in the company of other women.<\/p>\n

\"Registration
Registration for REI\u2019s women-specific travel adventures more than doubled from 2018 to 2019. The company\u2019s Greek Islands Women\u2019s Adventure involves hiking and yoga.<\/span>Courtesy of REI via Washington Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Becky Marcelliano, outdoor marketing manager for adventure brand Salomon, says a special kind of magic happens in female-only groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cConversations tend to be more open and vulnerable, empowerment creates a landscape of growth and friendship and emotional intelligence tends to lead the space. In co-ed spaces, this strength tends to be shadowed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Salomon recently hosted a series of all-female trips in Europe to celebrate the launch of its new women\u2019s line. But Marcelliano is quick to say that this is not just about the gear; it is a companywide movement that isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to encourage women to go their own way; find their own path; discover balance in being sweaty, brave, beautiful, loud, funny or courageous,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Elinor Fish is the founder of Run Wild Retreats, a company dedicated to all-female running experiences with itineraries in Iceland, Spain, Ireland, Italy and the United States. She, too, has noticed an increase in business but says the intersection of adventure and wellness travel seems to be the sweet spot.<\/p>\n

The Wellness Tourism Association defines wellness travel as travel that allows people to \u201cmaintain, enhance or kick-start a healthy lifestyle.\u201d Such trips focus on healthy food, fitness and nature. In short, these trips aren\u2019t for women who want to sit on the beach for a week.<\/p>\n

\"Participants
Participants in REI\u2019s Machu Picchu Women\u2019s Lares Lodge Trek in Peru.<\/span>Courtesy of REI via Washington Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWomen come away with a greater understanding of their own power, and that carries over into how they conduct themselves\u201d when they return, she says. \u201cWhen women feel strong and powerful in their personal lives, they are able to show up and contribute more to the broader society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anastasia Allison founded Kulapalooza for this reason. The inaugural women-only weekend retreat is set to take place in Washington\u2019s North Cascades in October, with workshops focusing on outdoor skills, adventure and art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally spent my life trying to prove myself to people all the time and never realized that self-fulfillment doesn\u2019t come from anywhere externally,\u201d Allison says. \u201cIf we can cultivate an environment where women can reconnect with themselves, I believe they will discover self-love that empowers them in the real world, whether that is in their career, with their friends or at home with their partners and children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fish says that the women she hosts are not traveling because they have surplus free time. In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite: women are busier than ever, juggling relationships, children and careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy clients are very successful in their careers but they are realizing that they need to focus on their wellness, too,\u201d Fish says. \u201cThey know stress is an epidemic, so they are seeking out these travel experiences with other women in the hopes of returning home refreshed and restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Pevzner: She says she was spiraling toward suicide-level depression when she climbed Mount Shuksan, largely because of resurfacing memories and emotions about the death of her father when she was a child. She didn\u2019t expect her traveling adventure to assuage those feelings, but it helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing we had in common was our shared experiences as women and how that affects our perspectives,\u201d Pevzner says. \u201cWe all walked away from Shuksan with our own ideas of how we relate to the world at large, and that is one thing we will always have in common. Like, even if there is nothing else, we always have that. And that is powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All-female travel is surging in popularity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74165"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}