New Tour Company Specializes in Trips That Support Women Owned Businesses

Move over girls' trips, here come female power vacations.

While there's nothing wrong with a romcom-style girls getaway, in fact, they're often a much-needed break from the grind of everyday life, a new tour company is taking the experience of female bonding while traveling up several (fascinating) notches.

The company in question is Wild Terrains, and its mission, among other things, is to offer group travel that connects creative women with one another, while also (and this is the truly unique part) almost exclusively supporting female owned and operated businesses around the world.

Founded last year by 30-year-old Lauren Bates, Wild Terrains is the result of Bates' own frustrating and fruitless search for more meaningful travel experiences for women.

"I couldn't find a trip that had the dynamic aspects I felt should be there and the quality I felt should be there," Bates explained during a recent interview with TravelPulse. "I just felt like all of the women-only trips I was finding were seven-day yoga retreats. I like yoga. But I don't want to do it for seven days."

Wild Terrains was Bates' answer to this dilemma.

The fledgling company offers small group, women-only trips to Mexico City, Mexico, and Lisbon, Portugal thus far and most of the activities on its itineraries are exclusive to Wild Terrains and cannot be booked by the public.

In the case of its Portgual trips, that means such offerings as staying at women-owned hotels like The Lisboans in Lisbon and Duas Portas Townhouse in Porto, as well as a street art tour curated by Vanessa Teodoro, a South Africa street artist based in the city.

There's also a tasting menu dinner at Prado, (consistently ranked as one of the top restaurants in Lisbon,) with wine pairings by Portugal's top female winemakers.

Still, other days will include foraging in Lisbon with Portuguese mixologist Constanca Cordeiro, followed by a private mixology lesson using the ingredients gathered, and a visit to a local market and cooking with Ana Vicoso, owner of The Lisbon Cooking Academy.

It takes Bates hundreds of hours of research and days of on the ground legwork to curate each trip, as finding so many leading women business owners is not always an easy task, she said.

"For the Portugal trip, I went there for a month, meeting with people, scouring for opportunities," she explained. "In Mexico, there are a ton of women-owned hotels, female chefs and female entrepreneurs, it's just a matter of finding them. But in Portugal, there are very few female chefs."

Tracking down female hotel owners is also no simple accomplishment, as hotels don't usually make clear who owns them. Obtaining such information requires digging, said Bates.

But why the focus on supporting women-owned businesses exclusively?

"It's sort of a new frontier being a woman business owner," continued Bates. "It's obvious we don't have the same advantages as men in some aspects. So, it just felt important to me that if I'm bringing groups of women to another country, then the dollars we are spending should be going to support other women."

The trips also seek to provide transformative experiences in dynamic destinations and have attracted women from all walks of life, in all stages of life.

Thus far the trips have been a huge hit. The company's Mexico City itineraries are sold out for the remainder of this year. But not to worry, there will be at least 10 to 12 trips to Mexico City next year.

The Portugal departure dates meanwhile, just announced a few weeks ago, still have openings, said Bates, who plans to add a third destination to her offerings in mid- to late-2020.

Group size for the trips is 10 people maximum, as the itineraries often include staying at boutique hotels that limit numbers.

The ultimate goal of each trip, beyond supporting female business owners around the world and finding the energetic heart of the female creative communities in the destinations visited, is to give adventurous women a place to connect.

"We aim to give women not only a safe space to explore the world, but also a space to nourish their creativity and build relationships," said Bates.

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