Redefining Solo Female Travel with Kim Callender and Arabella Bowen of SoloTrvlr

Welcome back women travelers, solo travelers, travel hobbyist and travel influencers!!

In this episode, I speak with Kim Callender and Arabella Bowen, the co-founders of **SoloTrvlr**, a travel app designed to empower women by providing trusted, local advice for solo adventures. With backgrounds in tech and travel, they bring a wealth of experience to the platform. Arabella, formerly a leader at Fodor's Travel and AFAR, was inspired by her transformative solo journey through Southeast Asia. Kim, who previously worked at Google, founded SoloTrvlr to address the gap in solutions for solo women travelers. Together, they aim to make independent travel more accessible, confident, and bold for women worldwide.

Join me as we journey through Arabella's adventures of adapting to the bustling streets of Hanoi, discovering the joy in simple moments, and how these experiences inspired a career advocating for women travelers. Meanwhile, Kim shares her first trip to Belize, detailing how unexpected challenges taught her adaptability and self-trust, eventually leading her to create a startup that champions women traveling independently.

We also explore deeper topics like the role of solo travel in fostering cultural understanding and personal growth.

Finally, I invite you to support our community in Lebanon right now and donate to Tourleb. They will use the funds to:

1. Support their team members by continuing to pay them a small salary despite the lack of tourism right now;

2. Support families by buying locally and redistributing necessary products to those in need;

3. Help the NGOs, hospitals, and Red Cross (whom they trust) who are receiving displaced people;

4. Evaluate case by case to support families, children, and rescuers as needed.

Honorable Mentions

Wander Woman - Travel Book

Wanderful Community

B & H Photo Digital

85 Percent: A Wanderful Podcast

Respectful Tourism with Joelle Sfeir and Nada Raphael of Tourleb

TourLeb's PayPal: Paypal.me/aaychin

Follow Solo Trvlr App in these spaces:

Website: https://www.solotrvlr.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solotrvlrapp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solotrvlr/

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This podcast is hosted by Beth Santos, founder and CEO of Wanderful and author of Wander Woman: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World, Solo. Beth has been recognized in Business Insider as one of 17 changemakers transforming the hospitality industry, and in Conde Nast Traveller as one of 12 inspiring people to follow. She's also the godmother to the Azamara Onward cruise ship, a cafe owner and a mom of three.

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If you would love to connect with Beth, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been moved by what you heard in this week's episode of "85 Percent"? I invite you to leave an honest review of how this episode impacted you. Also, share this podcast with your travel buddy!

The 85 Percent Podcast intro, outro and transition music is named Nothing Just Happens by lemonmusicstudio and was found on Pixabay. Additional music and sound effects for this episode came from Soundstripe and/or Epidemic Sounds or is cited in the show notes. Crackers In Soup is the writer, audio editor and producer for this episode.