The Ice-cream Manifesto for The Thriving Traveler

Know your Intention

Do you know your travel “why”? What’s the deeper purpose of the trip?

We believe intention is the seed of action and the act of travel is no different. Every Thrivers Lane journey begins with intention. It is at the heart of everything we curate.

We help you clarify your “why” and use it to guide your choice of destination, who you travel with, how you travel, and what you do when you’re in your destination.

Having clear intentions for your trip will set you up for success. When you know what you want from your trip, you’re more likely to seek out experiences that nurture your intention.

And the best part? When things don’t go exactly to plan, keeping a firm eye on your intention means you’ll be better equipped to deal with challenges - part and parcel of the travel experience - in your stride.

The focus on intention doesn’t end when the trip ends. After you return home, we’ll prompt you to reflect on your trip so you can make meaning of your journey and turn those epic travel experiences into lifelong memories you can cherish forever.

Be Curious. Feed Your Creativity

The very act of traveling itself can be inspiring and transformative.

Traveling with a curious mind, an open heart, and a creative spirit can give you insights into yourself, others, and the world around you that are difficult to access in your day to day life.

Being curious and feeding your creativity can introduce you to new and exciting ways of experiencing your destination. Whether you want to engage in familiar pursuits in a new place, or learn something new while you travel, our journeys encourage you to challenge your assumptions, open yourself up to awe, wonder, and joy, and to interact with people whose experiences and perspectives are different from yours.

At Thrivers Lane, we know all our travelers are different - what floats your boat won’t necessarily float mine - so our trips are designed to help you tap into your curiosity and creativity, so the journey can be as unique as you are.

Don’t just see it - Learn about it! Experience it!

Many of life’s most meaningful experiences are those in which you actively participate. Travel is no different. Unlike concierges, who cater to your every whim and desire, we are travel consultants, advisors and trip directors who work collaboratively with you to co-create, plan, and host unique trips. Active participation starts from your first interaction with us. We are the experts in thriving and travel, but you are the expert of “YOU”. What does fun mean to you? What kinds of adventures are you craving? What have you always wanted to try? What have you always wanted to learn more about? In what ways do you want to expand your knowledge? What are some hobbies and interests that you’d like to re-discover? What’s one experience you could have while traveling that would feed your soul?

At Thrivers Lane, we curate, plan, and host trips, but you won’t find the journey on a silver platter. The journey is yours to own. Our journeys are designed to encourage you to fully immerse yourself in the places, spaces, and goings-on in your destination. During the trip planning process, we’ll suggest experiences that will help you to leverage the full power of your senses - Seeing things. Smelling things. Hearing things. Tasting things. Touching things - while you travel.

To fully immerse yourself on your trip, you’ll slow down, leaving behind the frenzy of wanting to see and do too much. We’ll help you prioritize a few keystone experiences, focusing on depth over breadth, quality over quantity.

Reconnect with yourself. Connect with others. Wake up to the wider world.

🍦 Reconnecting with yourself

When was the last time you took a step back to really focus on and connect with yourself? Which of your needs aren’t being met? What emotions haven’t you acknowledged? What values aren’t you aligning with in your day-to-day life?

Too often, we don’t know the answers to these questions because we haven't reflected on them in a long time. In our non-stop daily lives, many of us use busyness as armor which keeps us from connecting with ourselves in a meaningful way on a regular basis.

Travel is a unique opportunity to slow down and get back in touch with yourself.

At Thrivers Lane, our journeys leave space and time for reflection and opportunities for you to reconnect with yourself.

🍦 Connecting with others

Never before in human history have we been so plugged-in. Technology - particularly social media – have made it possible for us to be reachable at all times. But being reachable 24/7 isn’t the same as being connected. And being connected isn’t the same as connecting. Connecting doesn’t happen by accident. Connecting requires time and space but at its heart, it's something we do - actively, intentionally.

Our journeys include time, space, and activities designed to help you connect meaningfully with the family and others in the group who are traveling with you, as well as new people you may meet on your journey.

🍦 Connecting with your wider world

“Travel is more than a holiday. It gives us new experiences, acts as our greatest teacher, makes our lives more meaningful, and connects us with a global family.” - Rick Steves

When you travel with Thrivers Lane, you’ll get to immerse yourself in the uniqueness and diversity of our beautiful world. We’ll suggest activities that allow you to get out of your comfort zone, to see the world through different lenses, to witness other ways of being, and get up close and personal with others whose perspectives and lived experiences may be different from you own.

With most of us living in urban and suburban environments, and spending most of our time in front of screens, we’re spending less and less time outdoors. Traveling gives us an amazing opportunity to switch things up. Every trip we curate will point you to places and spaces where you can spend structured and unstructured time connecting with the natural world.

🍦 Disconnect to connect

On all our journeys, we encourage you to plug deeply into your travel experience by unplugging from your devices for the duration of your trip. For Trips which we personally host, we require all travelers to agree and adhere to our “Be Present” policy.

Rejuvenation (Slow down, unplug)

🍦 Slow down

“I need a vacation to recover from my vacation” is NOT something you’ll say when you go on one of our journeys. We believe that no one should return home from vacation exhausted, depleted or feeling more tired than before they left.

At Thrivers Lane, every trip we curate is designed to help you leave behind the frenzy of wanting to see and do too much. Our itineraries are designed to help you prioritize a few keystone experiences, focusing on depth over breadth, quality over quantity.

During the trip design process if rejuvenation is your main reason for traveling, we’ll start by choosing an idyllic location that’s perfect for unwinding.

Next, we’ll help you leave the rat race behind for the duration of your trip by creating an itinerary that allows you to experience your location at a leisurely pace, leaving quality time for relaxation, rest, and sleep.

Instead of taking a picture of your toes as you lie on a crowded beach, you’ll be lying in a hammock as you rock to sleep with the sound of the laughing waves and the gentle whisper of the breeze as your only background noise.

You’ll leave stress and anxiety behind as you feel the drops of dew on your skin, the fresh smell of wet leaves, and the feeling of the earth beneath your feet as you ground yourself on a walk through the woods.

If a bathtub, hot tub, sauna, facial, or hair and nail treatments are what you’re after, we have a curated list of Spa Hotels and day spas in your destination where you’ll be so pampered and relaxed you’ll never want to leave.

When you do manage to tear yourself away and eventually return home, you’ll feel restored, recharged, energized and rejuvenated with elevated levels of well-being.

🍦 Disconnect to connect

For bespoke vacations we curate for families and groups, we encourage you to plug deeply into your travel experience by unplugging from your devices for the duration of your trip.

For our Retreats and Group Trips which we personally host, we require all travelers to agree and adhere to our “Be Present” policy.

Eat joyfully. Eat locally. Eat with others.

We believe that food has the power to nourish us in many ways. We don't eat just to live or to be heathy. We also eat because eating is one of life’s greatest joys.

Imagine yourself in a new destination, eating something you’ve never tried before - or familiar foods with a unique twist. What a wonderful way to feed your body, mind, and soul while traveling!

At Thrivers Lane, our journeys are designed to help you eat joyfully, eat locally, and connect deeply while eating with others. We introduce you to places and spaces where you can eat local, seasonal food that’s both nourishing, and scrumptious and practice local food cultures - like eating leisurely and with others - as yet another way to immerse yourself into life in your destination.

Be flexible. Embrace reality. Travel responsibly.

🍦 Adaptability

We all want “a perfect vacation”. But the truth is that a vacation doesn’t have to be perfect to be an amazing, life changing experience. Starting the trip with realistic expectations is key to traveling well. The Thriving Traveler is adaptable and takes things in their stride, adjusting to situations as they arise. In travel, as in everyday life, it’s important to remember that challenges on the journey can be great opportunities to build resilience and self-sufficiency.

🍦 Authenticity

“When we travel, we take our holiday in somebody else’s home” - Responsible Travel

At Thrivers Lane, we aim to create opportunities for travelers to immerse themselves in the real lived experiences of local people. It’s important to recognize that this reality may be different from your expectations of what is “authentic” and reality isn’t always pleasant or comfortable.

An authentic travel experience is not a sanitized travel experience - there is always a tension between the experiences you want to have and the needs and realities of a place that local people call home.

At Thrivers Lane, we believe that travel experiences don’t need to be sanitized to be enjoyable, meaningful, and rejuvenating. We believe that authenticity in travel can be found in the spaces between how local people actually live and travelers' expectations and intentions.

We aim to make it easy for you to travel responsibly {Link to responsible travel} by curating itineraries that provide opportunities for hands-on experiences which support local communities and organizations while minimizing the negative impacts of travel on local peoples and the environment. Our itineraries strive for a balance between spontaneous versus curated activities. We leave space in the itinerary with unplanned time for you to stumble upon unexpected moments and have unscripted experiences.

Authenticity also means being open to engaging with the non-dominant perspectives of a place and its people. Our itineraries engage with diverse storytellers who bring their unique experiences to the table.

To avoid over-tourism and over-crowded destinations, we travel off-peak to popular destinations and take you off the beaten path to lesser known places during peak travel season.

Move. Move. Move!

Movement is inextricably linked to thriving and high levels of well-being. We also believe that movement is the gateway to getting the most out of travel. That’s why we incorporate movement into each and every Thrivers Lane trip we curate.

Our itineraries are designed for active travelers and incorporate things like taking public transportation, renting a bike, and doing walking tours because we think these are some of the best ways to experience a place while traveling.

For those wanting to immerse themselves even more, going to a local gym and taking a yoga class in a local studio while you’re on vacation are all great ways of moving and immersing yourself in the local community.

If you want to immerse yourself even more, why not try movement that you never have before?! Rock climbing, indoor surfing, croquet - the sky’s the limit!

If movement is a critical part of your everyday life at home, why not work with us to build a trip around it? Whether your physical activity of choice is walking, running, cycling, tennis, pickle ball, golfer, yoga another sport, we LOVE curating trips that have movement at their core.

P.S. Want to explore Scotland and play grass-court tennis at a boutique hotel owned by none other than the Wimbledon Champion Andy Murray? We’ve got you covered!