Solo Travel Adventures: Faith-Rooted Intentional Travel for Christian Women Over 50

Grief can feel like you’re fine one minute and flat on the floor the next and that swing can make you wonder if you’re “doing it wrong.” I’m Cheryl Esch, and I’m sharing a personal, honest look at loss through two very different stories: losing my mom to breast cancer and, more recently, losing my dad after years of Alzheimer’s. When someone fades in front of you, grief starts early, arrive...

Guilt can sneak in the moment we even consider stepping away. If you’ve ever wondered whether resting is selfish, whether spending money on yourself is wrong, or whether you should be doing something “more productive,” you’re not alone and you’re not failing. We name the hidden pressure so many Christian women carry, especially in midlife, when years of caregiving, serving, working, and staying availab...

Fall has a way of telling the truth. The light changes, the air shifts, and suddenly you can feel that something in you is changing too. Today I’m sharing what’s been on my heart as we move into a new season on the calendar, after a lunar eclipse, and even toward a new year on the Hebrew calendar. If you’ve sensed a spiritual nudge to slow down, listen, and reassess, you’re not alone.

We talk about mi...

I explore sabbatical travel as an intentional way to step away for rest, renewal, and listening for God without the usual noise of home. I share why more than a week matters, what a “radical sabbatical” can look like, and how to plan it with purpose instead of escape. 
• what sabbatical travel means and why it is growing 
• Sabbath roots and a biblical rhythm of work and rest 
• why leaving home ...

Small towns can feel like a time machine and a deep breath at the same time. I’ve been drawn to quieter places lately, and I want to share what I’m learning as I explore small town travel in the USA as both a solo traveler and a travel coach. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to trade traffic and endless errands for a slower pace, friendlier hellos, and a main street you can actually walk, you’ll...

You can feel it building for weeks: the pressure in your chest, the restlessness, the thought that if you could just get away everything would finally make sense. We’re talking about that temptation to use travel as an escape and the sobering truth that your deeper struggles don’t stay behind when the trip ends.

I share a personal story from a June road trip and what I’ve been wrestling with around my livin...

The World Cup is not just a tournament, it is a moving map. Watching fans show up with songs, costumes, and total pride for their home countries reminded me how quickly a game can turn into real travel inspiration. Even if soccer is not your thing, the feeling is hard to miss: community, curiosity, and that sudden urge to look up a country you had not considered in years.

We talk about how big global events shine a spotlight...

Your 23-year-old self might have measured a trip by how fast you could pack, how far you could drive, and how many friends you could squeeze into a weekend. But as we hit midlife, travel often stops being about proving we are adventurous and starts being about getting honest with what we need. I’m Cheryl Esch, and I’m exploring a question that keeps coming up when I watch younger travelers move through the world with pu...

What would change if you treated your next solo road trip like a daily conversation with God instead of a race from one stop to the next? I just got back from a 15-day U.S. road trip that surprised me in the best ways, and it started with one intentional prayer: give me a truth, a promise, a word each day while I travel. I didn’t expect how clearly those “daily nuggets” would show up once I made the space to liste...

Loneliness can sneak in after divorce and an empty nest, not as a dramatic breakdown, but as a quiet feeling you carry while you still do your job, return calls, and tell everyone you’re okay. I’m Cheryl Esch, a travel coach and solo travel advocate, and I’m sharing what I wish more women said out loud: you can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone. When big life transitions pile up at once, grie...

You can do everything “right” and still wake up wondering who you are. When your identity has been stitched to relationships, responsibilities, and everyone else’s expectations, a major life change can leave you feeling emotionally numb, stuck, and exhausted. We get real about that moment and why it’s more common than most of us admit.

We talk about how solo travel can become a practical path to self-...

Travel keeps getting blamed on “not enough money,” but that excuse falls apart the moment you can actually see your numbers. We sit down with Vanessa and Shana from Budget Besties, master financial coaches who work with women earning good money and still feeling stuck, stressed, or ashamed about budgeting. They make the B-word feel less like a punishment and more like a plan that gives you real permission to spend on wh...

Hawaii isn’t one thing. It can be a surf town, a volcanic summit that feels like the moon, a rainforest with waterfalls, and a quiet stretch of beach that makes you forget what day it is. On my first trip to Hawaii, I head to Maui and use one guiding question to make sense of it all: why would someone choose Hawaii over any other “paradise” on the map? What I learn comes as much from conversations as it does from ...

A sleepless night. A divorce after 32 years. A job listing that makes zero sense on paper. Then Kuwait shows up on the screen and Danielle Hebert takes the leap. What starts as a desperate need for space turns into two years of solo living abroad that reshapes her confidence, her faith, and the way she sees the world.

We talk through the practical realities of moving to a Muslim-majority country as a midlife woman: what Dani...

Fear can sound responsible, even wise, until you realize it’s quietly making your decisions for you. If you’ve felt that tension between wanting to take a solo trip and hearing the anxious loop of “what if something goes wrong,” I’m speaking straight to that moment. We get honest about the difference between real safety awareness and the internal fear that grows in the unknown, especially for women who...

Your travel style didn’t start when you booked your first grown-up trip. It started the first time you learned what “new” feels like. We’re digging into the idea of a travel origin story and how childhood experiences can shape your adult relationship with road trips, adventure travel, and even solo travel confidence.

I share one of the most defining trips of my life: a four-to-five-week RV road trip a...

Your suitcase is packed, your itinerary is tight, and your mind is already racing ahead to everything that could go wrong. We have been there. That’s why we’re talking about the link between Christian travel and prayer while traveling and how bringing God into the process can change not just your trip, but your peace.

We explore travel and prayer as two journeys that move you in different directions: one across t...

You can feel it when travel stops being about seeing more and starts being about becoming more. I’m Cheryl Esch, and I’m sharing the pull I’ve been sitting with lately: the desire for a deeper, quieter kind of solo travel that resets me from the inside out, not just for a weekend, but in a way that lingers.

I talk honestly about the Camino de Santiago and the part people don’t always say out loud. I w...

You can feel it when life gets too crowded with roles: mom, partner, caretaker, employee, planner. The calendar stays full, but you start to wonder where you went. That’s why this conversation with Doni Belau, founder of Girl's Guide to the World, hits so hard. She shares what happened when she finally took a month to travel on her own and discovered something simple and life-changing: she could enjoy her own company again, m...