Why we're already planning 2026.

Imagine standing under the enchanting glow of the Northern Lights, or conquering the majestic peaks of Kilimanjaro, all while being part of a community that values your voice in crafting the perfect adventure. 

That's what we did with our mega big survey and on today's show I share where we'll be headed in 2026. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Adventure Trip Planning Survey Results
• 10:31 Adventure Trip Planning Update

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

I don't know about you, but lately I have found myself being feeling being. I don't know feeling is being, being is feeling. I guess I've just been feeling a little bit restless lately, and I think that's because it's been almost three months since I have had a really big adventure, a really big adventure. I used to feel like somehow I was trying to escape my life by wanting to go on really, really big adventures, but since then I've come to terms with the fact that I'm just the kind of person that has a bit of a restless spirit. I'm a wandering soul and I really love to go on huge adventures.

Speaker 1: 1:17

I am recording this podcast on Monday, february 3rd. I'm leaving on Wednesday to head to where I will be leading a Hike Like a Woman trip for a week and we're going to be doing a whole tour around Iceland. We're going to see Northern Lights, hopefully, volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, and I'm really looking forward to exploring a country that I have never visited before. I always love to cross a new country off of my list and I'm recording this podcast about a week before it's going to be released. And I'm doing that because next week I'm going to be in Iceland and I don't want the stress of trying to record a podcast episode when I'm traveling, but today I wanted to just share with you the results of our survey, if you've been following us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter. We did a massive survey in the month of January and part of that survey was in the past.

Speaker 1: 2:20

I in the past, I feel like I have just been like oh, I would like to go to this place, I'll plan a group trip here. Oh, I would like to go to this place, I'll plan a group trip here. And there hasn't been any like method to how I was planning group trips. I haven't sought input from the community about where to go on trips, and I learned a really big lesson when I got off Kilimanjaro last year. We had such a tight group of women on that trip. There are a few outliers, but for the most part the women on that trip really really came together and it really became a close sisterhood almost.

Speaker 1: 2:57

And as the conversation with that group of women continued after our trip to climb Kilimanjaro, one of the girls on the trip was like I would love to go to Patagonia and I said that sounds awesome. Let me put a trip to Patagonia together because I would love to go to Patagonia too. So I started doing some research on trips to Patagonia. I started talking to some guides. I asked members of our community who'd been on previous trips with me if they'd be interested in going to Patagonia. So I started really planning this trip to Patagonia based off the feedback that I was receiving from previous trip participants and I don't know if you know this, but 40% of our clients, of our trip participants, are repeat. So they come back for one, two, three, four multiple trips a trip every year, sometimes two trips a year with us and by seeking their input.

Speaker 1: 3:55

When I launched the Patagonia trip, it sold out within hours. I actually had to ask the guides to open up a couple more spots to that trip. I learned a lesson. The lesson that I learned was hey, don't just plan a trip because I want to go there. I need to plan a trip based off where the community wants to go.

Speaker 1: 4:12

So in December I decided that I really needed to get ahead of the travel schedule, the travel planning for the 2026 season, and part of that was I wanted to incorporate feedback from our community, all about where you wanted to go and where you wanted to travel and where you wanted to experience group trips. And where you wanted to travel and where you wanted to experience group trips. So I put together a survey, with a little help from Jenna, my assistant, and we launched that survey right before Christmas and we left that survey up all of January In fact, I think it's still up because we haven't taken it down yet. But anyway, we launched the survey and over 1500 people filled out our survey and told us where you wanted to travel and where you would be interested in going on a group trip. You gave us feedback on budget time of the year to travel so much great information. So if you filled out that survey, thank you very much. We did offer up 10 gift cards for REI, so I will be announcing those gift card winners here shortly. But the results of that survey came in the whole month of January and last week we started reviewing the results of that survey and I wanted to share what those results are with you today.

Speaker 1: 5:32

So if you're thinking, okay, you know I'm not up for a big adventure this year. I need some time to budget, I need to save up some airline miles, I need to make sure I have enough time off work, whatever, whatever, whatever by publishing our travel schedule for 2026 ahead of time. Hopefully, that will give you time to plan and prepare. So right now I have the destinations and the months selected. My next step is to hire tour guides and local tour guides in those areas, and I am going to say that the company that we've been using right now to host group trips. I'm not super satisfied with them, and one of the things that I'm not really satisfied with is I don't have a relationship with those guides. I don't know who the guides and the guiding companies are going to be until just a few days before the trip, and I don't like that. I want to be able to hire guiding companies myself and figure out if it's going to be a good fit for our community. I also want to make sure that we are hiring operators tour operators who are really good at taking care of their guides and paying them fair wages and taking care of them ethically, especially on our Kilimanjaro climb and when we're in South America. So my goal right now, and what I'm busy doing besides going to Iceland, is reaching out to local tour operators to try to make sure that we are hiring the best guides out there, while also keeping budget in mind, because our trips are not cheap. So, drum roll, here's where we are planning to go in 2026.

Speaker 1: 7:18

We're going to kick off February of 2026. We're headed back to South America. We're going to go to Chile and we're going to do the Torres del Paine, one of the circuits. I'm not sure if we're going to do the O circuit or the W circuit, but it is going to be either five days of trekking or seven days of trekking. But it is going to be either five days of trekking or seven days of trekking. And if you just Google Torres del Paine and I probably said that wrong, but Google it and you will see these beautiful mountains just pop up in your Google image search and it's going to be gorgeous. I have spent some time in Chile before and Argentina, and I just love that part of the world. So I can't wait to go back. And that's actually kind of cool because we're going to Patagonia in Argentina in October and then that will be the last trip of 2025. And then we'll turn around and head right back to South America in February.

Speaker 1: 8:10

So very excited about that, I think in March 2026, we're going to do something a little different, and I have been getting a lot of requests about a yoga, wellness, meditation kind of retreat with some downtime to do some soul searching and lots of, you know, journaling, reading good books, all of those kinds of things. And so, instead of doing our typical adventure trip to Costa Rica, which is like whitewater rafting and zip lining and all that fun stuff, we are going to instead be doing a yoga and wellness retreat to Costa Rica. In June of 2026. We are headed to Scotland and we are going to hike the West Highland Way. In August, we are going to head to the Alps and we're going to do the Tour de Mont Blanc, and this is another really long hundred mile trek through some of the most iconic mountains in Europe.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And my goal, like I, want to do the full 100 mile trek, and so I think what we might do is break that up into sections so you might be able to join us for the first part of the trek or the second part of the trek or the entire trek, but I'd like to have work with a guide that can provide that flexibility for someone who might be like, oh, I only want to hike for four days. Maybe 50 miles is more my speed than 100 miles, then I want to make sure that that's being offered. So hopefully we will be able to offer that in kind of a package where you can pick from two sections or choose the entire route and then in the end of September we are going to be headed back to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and we're going to be doing a full moon summit. I hope to be standing on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro on a full moon and I've thought about Kilimanjaro and you know it's such a beautiful, magical experience, and I actually wasn't going to do a group climb up Mount Kilimanjaro In 2026, I was going to take a year off and not go to Tanzania, partially because we still have a lot of spots open for this year's Kilimanjaro climb and it hasn't sold out as quickly as it did last year.

Speaker 1: 10:31

But I've gotten several emails and messages from women who are saying I really want to climb Kilimanjaro but I need more than a year to get ready, and so because of that, I feel like I need to just offer Kilimanjaro every single year, and that's fine, because I love climbing Kilimanjaro and I love Tanzania and I love it's just an incredible, magical, amazing experience. And if it takes two years to get ready to climb Kilimanjaro. I just want to make sure that I'm providing women that time that they need to get ready. So Kilimanjaro next or September of 2026 will be the final trip that we're going to offer in 2026. So we will be doing five trips in 2026. I was also only going to lead four trips in 2026.

Speaker 1: 11:22

But you know, the survey results were so good and so powerful and I got so many great comments from women who are just super excited to go on adventures with us that I had to, I had to offer five trips. So that's kind of the plan and along with that I want to mention that in 2026, we have like there's there's big expeditions. You know, the circuit in Chile, the West Highland Way Trail, the Tour de Mont Blanc, kilimanjaro. Those are four very like heavy duty hiking, intense kind of routes and I want to make sure that when you book a trip with us you're getting really good support as you're preparing mentally and physically for these big climbs and big adventures. I was actually kind of surprised to see that some of the more like van tour kind of the lighter adventure trips like Alaska and Yellowstone, I was surprised to see that those weren't higher in the ranking, that people who filled out the survey really wanted, these big epic adventures like these bucket list adventures, adventures that you wouldn't just go on for a family vacation.

Speaker 1: 12:40

So because those big adventures are on the calendar, I want to make sure that I'm helping you get ready for these trips. So if you're thinking, you know, hey, maybe I would like to do the Tour de Mont Blanc and I want to do the full 100 miles and it sounds amazing, but I'm not sure how to get ready, I'm going to start offering monthly group coaching calls. So these will be free calls where you can join a group, and the goal is to have a group together for three months, six months, 12 months, whatever, leading up to the big trip. So when you booking for the trips won't start until 11 months before the trip begins, but so so the goal is like, let's say, I'm interested in going to Scotland and I want to get ready to go to Scotland, so I'll join a coaching call and hop on coaching calls for three months or six months, then I'll book the trip when the trip opens and then, once the trip is booked, then you can join our Slack page, our Slack group. We create little groups for all of our trip participants before the trip so that you can get to know other trip participants. And we do some calls and some coaching and stuff like that. So it's kind of like you're thinking about joining the trip, you haven't booked the trip but you kind of want some coaching. So we'll talk about things like mindset, some grit, we'll talk about eating, sleeping, altitude stuff. If we're going to be, we're going to be definitely dealing with altitude on Kilimanjaro, maybe a little bit in the Alps too, and then we'll talk about physical training and we'll just all support each other as we prepare physically and mentally for these incredible adventures. So that kind of wraps up the 2026 travel planning. I think this is going to be something that I continue to do every January Just put out a massive survey and say where do you want to go next year?

Speaker 1: 14:42

Because the results were so incredible and I got so much great information. So if you fill out the survey, once again, thank you very much. If you're thinking, hey, I'd love to go on a trip with you, but I don't want to wait until 2026. Most of our trips this year are sold out, except for Costa Rica. We still have three rooms available for our trip to Costa Rica. You can pay a little bit extra and get your own room, or you can book the trip and we will find a roommate for you, or you can grab a friend which is probably the best way to do it and book the trip, and then that's lots of fun when you can go on a trip with a friend, and we also.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Right now we have seven openings for our Kilimanjaro climb in August. August 20th through the 28th we are headed back to Tanzania. We are doing the Machame route, which is the best route up Kilimanjaro, and there is still plenty of time to train and get ready for that climb. In fact, I'm not starting my Kilimanjaro specific training until March, so there is plenty of time to join us for that adventure, and it is incredible. So there you go. Just kind of a little update on what's going on here. Once again, thanks for hanging out with me here at Hike Like a Woman, and hopefully we'll see you on a big adventure in the future or maybe on some of our coaching calls if you're thinking about a trip or in our Slack group when you book a trip with us. That's all I have. Thanks so much, have a great week and I'll see you next time.