Women’s Travel Fest comes to San Francisco encouraging women to set out on adventure and how to do it on a shoestring
A whole new generation of women is carrying a different kind of baggage than their mothers and it doesn’t always involve kids and a husband.
The women attending the second annual Women’s Travel Fest being hosted in San Francisco in 2015 will be carrying backpacks and wheeling well-worn suitcases battered from crossing boarders and continents around the world.
The first-annual Women’s Travel Fest sold out with 500 women actually getting in and a line of women winding around the block hoping to get into the festival in New York in 2014, says Kelly Lewis, founder of Go! Girl Guides and the Women’s Travel Fest.
“It was amazing,” gushed Kelly, 28. “Last year’s event was really magical and empowering and very special for us.”
“There is some really amazing energy that comes when you gather [up to] 500 women together to talk about traveling and really supporting one another,” she continues.
Still wowed by the experience, Kelly is bringing back the amazing energy that came from the 500 women who attended the one day symposium while planning the Women’s Travel Fest 2015.
“We are just so excited to have created this really beautiful community of female travelers and we can’t wait until the 2015 festival in San Francisco,” says Kelly.
The next Women’s Travel Fest will be hosted in San Francisco, February 27 – March 1.
Early bird tickets are on sale now through the end of the month starting at $75 entrance to one day plus the pre-party up to $125 for a three day weekend pass, including all opening and closing parties.
“We just have an incredible, super duper inspirational lineup this year,” says Kelly, talking excitedly about the featured speakers and her two most anticipated panel discussions. “We are very excited to be working with these women.”
Featured speakers are award-winning journalist Laura Ling currently at E! Network: E! Investigates and Society X with Laura Ling and formerly at Current TV; Patricia Schultz, is the author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, the second edition: Completely Revised and Updated with Over 200 New Entries
Additionally, Kelly can’t wait to see the “Go Further for Less: Budget Travel Tips” and “Breaking Free to Travel: Changing the Landscape” panel discussions.
The “Go Further for Less” panel features an Kaeli Conforti, digital editor at Budget Travel Magazine, Deidre Mathis, an author and traveler who traveled the world for 12 months on $10,000, and Courtney Scott, senior editor for Travelocity. These ladies will share the tricks they have up their sleeves and tips they’ve learned on the road.
“We really want to be able to show … that it’s possible to go further for less,” says Kelly.
The “Breaking Free to Travel” panelists will share their stories of overcoming personal obsticals – leaving dead-end jobs, unhappy marriages or defying societal expectations a la Eat, Pray, Love – in order to travel and how they did it.
It’s about, “their story on how they left those situations and they are now traveling and doing things that they love,” says Kelly, hoping that other women will be inspired to get unstuck and live fulfilling lives through incredible journeys.
Other panels and workshops include: “Accessible Travel,” “Budget Travel Hacking Tips,” “Career Breaks,” “Dangerous Territory with A Broad Abroad,” “Family Travel,” “LGBT Travel,” “Make Em’ Jealous,” “Making Travel A Career,” “Philanthropy Abroad,” “Staying Safe Abroad,” “Travel Tools and Essentials,” and “Travel Writing.”
“What we really want is for people to walk away feeling like really inspired and empowered to go out there and see the world, so we look at venues and cities that kind of foster that spirit,” says Kelly about why her team chose San Francisco to host the 2015 Women’s Travel Fest.
Women Will Wander
“What we’ve seen recently is that women are really interested in going further and going to more remote locations,” Kelly points out from her observations and what women she is connected with have told her.
Women indicated a similar desire in Girls That Roam’s Women’s Travel Survey in 2013, but they weren’t poo pooing Europe and other popular destinations either. Women still wanted to experience art and culture that is when they aren’t camped out on a remote beach somewhere in the world.
Kelly agrees, Europe and some of the other well-traveled destinations will remain on the top of women travelers list, but the goal and focus of the Women’s Travel Fest is to demystify women’s desires to explore lesser known destinations or to go down roads less traveled, which women want to do.
“That’s kind of the whole point of this event is to talk about those things that are scary [and] make them not scary,” says Kelly.
She takes it one step beyond encouraging other women to take that plunge stepping off into the unknown by showing them “how you can have those adventures.”
“We are going to talk about that openly,” continues Kelly talking excitedly about Patricia at Yahoo Travel’s adventures skiing in Afghanistan and her adventures in Myanmar.
Who knew Afghanistan is a “really popular ski destination?” Kelly asks.
“It’s going to be really fun to hear about these experiences,” says Kelly.
The three-day event will be hosted at the San Francisco Design Center, 101 Henry Adams Street in San Francisco, February 27 – March 1, 2015. Early-bird passes range from $75 for a one day pass plus the pre-party to $125 for a weekend pass. Prices go up after November 29 to $50 for the second pass to workshops only to $175 for a weekend pass.
Get your passes here: www.eventbrite.com/e/womens-travel-fest-2015-tickets-9759277261.
Festival attendees from out of town can choose to stay at the host accommodation HI-SF Downtown Hostel of Hostelling International USA.
“This is a unique choice that we’ve made not to go the traditional hotel route, because we want folks to really experience San Francisco as a traveler would,” says Kelly, pointing out that her team chose HI-SF Downtown Hostel because of its cleanliness and affordability (very important to women travelers) and they offer breakfast.
“They just really embrace the travel culture,” says Kelly.
Full Disclosure: Girls That Roam is a media sponsor of the Women’s Travel Fest.
To book your trip to San Francisco for the Women’s Travel Fest 2015, contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at Travel Advisors of Los Gatos at 408-354-6531at or .
To contract an original article, purchase reprints or become a media partner, contact .
