sights and soul travel calendar

Yolanta is the force behind Sights and Soul Travels. With traveling and passion for people having always been essential in her life, designing travel experiences for women is her dream job. As the Executive Director of Sights and Soul Travels, her responsibilities include destination research, tour development and itinerary implementation, marketing and customer relations. Yolanta’s background in the arts is ever present in her choices of destinations, authenticity, and informed attention to all details. The tours which she curates are infused with spirit for life and zest for exploration, and her focus is on experiences particularly appealing to women. As an experienced world traveler, she understands the needs of women-on-the-road and is committed to making the tours enjoyable, comfortable and fun. When not planning new adventures, Yolanta enjoys being home, gardening and re-reading the classics. She can also mix a mean martini.

Latest journey : Mexico Favorite destination : South Africa Bucket list trips:  South Korea, Mongolia, Namibia What travel means to me: In 2004, Sights and Soul Travels, a tour company geared solely for women, was founded and soon it took over my life and became my great passion. With the tremendous help of our office staff of Tour Managers and Tour Coordinators and our star quality Tour Directors, I aim to create dream journeys for women. What could be better than the ability to make someone's dream come true? Because Sights and Soul Travels has become a part of my identity, I don't see travel in terms of personal journeys any more, but rather as a calling that allows me to make travel possible for other women. And I love every single day doing this.

Passion has always been at the core of our business adventure. Our expert team combines an appreciation for travel with an insider’s knowledge of destinations and experiences and we love to share the best of the world with you. How do we help you have better trips? By practicing what we preach. Yolanta has traveled to 9 countries this year, and the rest of our staff is crazy about travel as well (having collectively traveled to 10 countries this year).

Latest journey : Colombia  Favorite destination : Ecuador  Bucket list trips: Greece, Croatia, Iceland What travel means to me:   I joined Sights and Soul Travels to be able to help create memorable experiences for women who take our tours across the world. Working here has given me a chance to learn and to embrace different cultures, landscapes and increase my awareness of the world we live in. I am constantly reminded of both the beauty and the complexities we are surrounded by. I love playing a part in empowering women to travel and create memories from some of the amazing experiences that the world has to offer.

Areas of expertise: Greece, Portugal, United Kingdom, Croatia, Ireland  Favorite destination: Costa Rica Bucket list trips:  Iceland, South Africa, Thailand  What travel means to me:  Travel means the ability to bring joy and many happy memories for the years to come, and the happiest memories in my life come from the travels I have done. Working at Sights and Soul Travels, we have the opportunity to empower women to travel, encourage them to be adventurous, see new places, experience new cultures, and try new things. I joined this team to be a part of the process, where we create travel memories that last a lifetime and construct these fantastic experiences for other women. I find it fascinating to discover the history, culture, and food native to each destination, and it is my never-ending curiosity that keeps me traveling to new places every year.

Kasia manages the continuous development of the company web site. Over the last 20 years, Kasia’s passion for world cultures and ethnography, combined with her love of photography, has taken her to almost 50 countries around the world. As a world traveler and a European, she has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the differences in world’s cultures and national dynamics. But it was her background in ethnography and world cultures that inspired her to share her passion for travel with other women. 

Latest journey : The Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), Bali (Indonesia), Portugal, Switzerland Favorite destination : Peru Bucket list trips: London, Venice, Paris What travel means to me:  Traveling teaches us to expand our minds and appreciate the natural environment and the world cultures. During my travels, I’m always looking for things that connect us with other cultures, paying special attention to local people and their creations. I enjoy exploring each destination’s folklore, tales and legends, customs, music and dance. And of course, I love photographing every minute detail of what I see! Yet what transcends my surface excitement of experiencing a new destination is always the careful study of the places I see, seeing them from the perspective of our guests and figuring out how we can fit this thing or that thing into an already full itinerary. It’s always a challenge!

Sights and Soul Travels - Tours and Vacations for Women (3 testimonials)

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In business since 2005

Sights and Soul Travels, LLC is a boutique tour operator, specializing in luxury tours and vacations for women, with destinations primarily in Europe, but also in South and North America and in Africa. The small group tours incorporate sightseeing, outdoor activities, wine tastings, fine dining, spas and luxury hotels, and cultural offerings. The company is based in Germantown, MD, in the greater Washington, DC. The company owner, Yolanta Barnes, has been involved in travel and organizing various tours since 1997, and Sights and Soul Travels was founded in 2004. Every year, she accompanies 3 or 4 tours by herself to assure that the high Sights and Soul Travels' standards are adhered to. TOP 10 REASONS TO TRAVEL WITH SIGHTS AND SOUL TRAVELS     women-centered tours designed by women     personal approach of friends traveling together     tours are not subcontracted nor combined with other groups     most tours stay at only two hotels, to limit constant packing and unpacking     small groups, like-minded travel companions     relaxed pace, no rushing, no early departures     adventure and culture, combined with a vacation     a la carte dining at fine restaurants     centrally located boutique hotels     local guides brimming with knowledge and enthusiasm

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Testimonials (3)

Travel with Yolanta is simply in a class of its own. It's like traveling with a friend who passionately wants to share not only the sights but also the "soul" of the people - the culture, the history, their values and passions. At the same time, Yolanta tries to anticipate and meet your needs as a traveler. From the time she welcomes you with flowers when you arrive at an airport, train or bus station to the time of departure when she personally escorts you to the airport or train station, you feel special and well taken care of.

I loved our trip, and really felt like I came away from it, relaxed, happy, and more knowledgeable about another part of our wonderful world. Thank you for making the experience one that will forever be in my memory as a 'highlight' of my life.

I had a great time in Tuscany. I liked the way you planned the trip, and have great memories and pictures to remind me of the beauty of Tuscany. Thank you so much for making my dream come true, I will definitely keep Sights and Soul in mind when planning future vacations.

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3 most popular Trips (out of 15 total)

Ha long bay to mekong delta.

Provider: Sights and Soul Travels - Tours and Vacations for Women (3 testimonials)

With its sublime physical beauty, mysteries of the ancient cultures and enduring traditions, Vietnam provides travelers with a wealth of treasures. From the traditional junks on Ha Long Bay, the exotic basket boats on the South China Sea, and the dragon boats on the Perfume River to Hue's imperial treasures and Mai Chau serene rural landscapes of vibrant, terraced rice fields tended by graceful women in straw conical hats, you will find Vietnam's tangle of sensory experiences mesmerizing.With the Ha… more

North Island And South Island (New Zealand)

The native Maori call it Aotearoa (the land of the long white cloud), but New Zealand has been called Godsland and the Paradise of the Pacific since the early 1800s. New Zealanders know they live in a paradise, and they love sharing it with visitors.The North Island and South Island Tour to New Zealand, will stay with you for ever. You simply cannot forget a place that leaves you breathless time after time, the thundering waterfalls, the tranquil lakes, the… more

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GoNOMAD Travel

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Portugal’s Silver Coast: A Perfect Women-Only Tour

What makes a perfect women-only tour.

By Stephen Hartshorne GoNOMAD Associate Editor

“Look at me, look at me, look at me now,” says The Cat in the Hat. “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.”

Designing a great tour requires a thorough knowledge of the country you’re visiting, its history, its traditions, its way of life, and what it is about it that makes people ‘click’.

You have to know where the best historic and cultural sites are, and the most enjoyable activities. And you have to know the best inns and restaurants and how to connect with the locals.

A truly great tour requires flexibility and there has to be a balance of scheduled activities and down time. And you have to know the tastes and preferences of your clientele.

But above all you need to know how to have fun, and as the Cat in the Hat points out, that takes an expert.

Ins and Outs

To learn some of the ins and outs of tour design, GoNOMAD spoke with one of the acknowledged masters of the art, Yolanta Barnes of Sights and Soul Travel .

Barnes has been designing and conducting women-only tours in Europe for the last four years, and the women who have toured with her speak with unbridled enthusiasm about her thoroughness in planning, her knowledge of the countries she visits, and her passion for travel. (See Women-Only Tours: Finding Freedom and Forming Friendships .)

Many of Barnes’ clients have taken two or three S&S tours and have formed close friendships with fellow travelers from all over the world. They stay in touch after the tours and come back again and again, bringing their mothers, sisters, cousins and friends.

To appreciate the degree of planning Barnes puts into her tours, one has only to look at her website , which includes a virtual encyclopedia of information about the history and culture of the destination countries.

A Lighthearted Approach

One of her newest tours is Lisbon and the Silver Coast in Portugal, one of her favorite countries.

“The overall theme of the tour is gaining an insight into Portuguese history, culture and nature,” she says.

“Getting to know Portugal is approached light-heartedly, hands-on, from many angles: having lunch in Queluz Palace’s baroque kitchen, sampling wines from vineyards started by the Romans, exploring Moorish fortifications, figuring out the secret Knights Templar rituals or even flirting with a good-looking fado singer.”

Barnes says the tour includes some ‘serious’ sightseeing, but many other activities as well, so travelers can experience the country through taste, feel, smell and touch.

“It is not all about following the guide, listening, and looking at the twentieth castle,” she says. “The more different elements, the better.”

A Temporary Local

Barnes says an important part of Sights and Souls tours is accommodations and dining. They avoid large hotels with busloads of tourists in favor of “intimate boutique hotels” with ambience and character.

“The food and lodging were just unbelievable,” says Jackee Swartz of Pennsylvania, who took the Silver Coast tour. “At Obidos we stayed at the queen’s castle. It just had enough rooms for the people on the tour, so we occcupied the entire castle.”

During each ten-day tour, S&S travelers stay at only two hotels, eliminating the need to pack and unpack. Barnes says staying in a town for four or five days makes visitors feel more familiar with the community.

“It feels good when the owner of a small grocery store recognizes you and smiles at you,” she says.

The castle at Obidos has ten rooms, with balconies or terraces (one is a tower) overlooking the red roofs and white walls of the town. Barnes says she picked Obidos because it is “a perfect gem of a town less than two hours north of Lisbon.”

“It is surrounded by Moorish walls, has its own forbidding castle and whitewashed houses covered in flowering vines and other blooms that make you feel like you have walked into a watercolor painting.”

The hotel has a famous restaurant that draws diners from miles around. As with all S&S tours, you can order whatever you want from the menu, up to a certain limit, and then if you want a special bottle of wine, you can pay for it. And spa treatments are included in some of the tours as well.

“Getting spoiled is definitely part of the Sights and Soul experience,” Barnes says.

Other elements of the Lisbon/Silver Coast tour are painting ceramic tiles according to Moorish patterns, dining at a cliffside restaurant at the westernmost point in continental Europe, a garden tour of Sintra, where the English Romantics once waxed poetic, wine tours, architecture tours, a visit to the basilica at Fatima, the Manueline architecture, the legendary beaches…

And then, of course, there’s the seafood…

The Secret Ingredient

Barnes says sightseeing, activities, dining and accomodations are all important elements in a successful tour, but she says the secret ingredient is the company of likeminded travelers.

“By designing the tour and working out the details, we lay the foundation for a successful tour, but what makes it memorable are the women who join us for the adventure.”

Barbara Sprouls of South Carolina, who took the S&S Silver Coast tour, says she noticed Barnes took the time to find out about her well before the trip began — what her interests were, how fit she was, whether she liked to read.

“Yolanta does a great deal of research designing the tours. She puts together a syllabus before you go on the trip,” she says.

Sprouls says Barnes put her in touch with her fellow travelers by email so they could become acquainted before the trip. “We discussed the history of Portugal and its impact on the world,” she says. “It makes for a very compatible group, people who want to learn more than what’s in the guidebooks — the culture, the food, the economy, how people live today. That makes for a very interesting trip.”

“Our group was extremely compatible. We wrote daily haiku and read them on the bus.”

Jackee Swartz says she was impressed with the degree to which Barnes personalized the tour for every individual traveler. “We had someone with us who was very religious and Yolanta made sure she could go to [the shrine at] Fatima and attend a mass. It was leisure time for some people, but for that person it was extemely emotional and meaningful.”

“Some women have traveled with us two or three times,” Barnes says, “and many bring friends or family — sisters, mothers, cousins — for the second, third or fourth trip with us, so it all starts feeling like a family.”

She says the Sights and Souls clientele is becoming more international. While it used to be almost all Canadians and Americans, the company now attracts women from Australia, England, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

“I am very happy about it,” Barnes says. “It makes the experience all the more richer for everyone traveling with us. You make friends with women from all over the world.”

“Most of the women who have traveled together stay in touch after the tour, as well. They exchange photos from the trip and plan which trip to take next. Next time when they want to travel to a particular destination, they call each other and see who can go. So, as I said, it starts to feel like a big family, and I personally find it quite rewarding.”

Some women who have traveled with Sights and Soul want to return with the whole family, and Barnes is able to design custom tours for them.

Mother-Daughter Tours

Barnes says one of the most fulfilling parts of conducting tours is providing mothers and daughters with the opportunity to get to know one another better through travel, as she did with her daughters Emily and Sara.

“Being in different surroundings made me see my daughters in completely new light,” she writes on her website. “I didn’t know how amazed I would be and how proud, when I saw aspects of them that experiencing a different culture reveals. This was when I knew for sure that I needed to make this experience available to more women.”

Mother-daughter tours are a key element in the meteoric increase in women-only tours in recent years. Some women are taking their teenage daughters, others are taking their 70-year-old mothers. Barnes says traveling together allows them to get beyond their roles in the family and discover a whole new person.

“To learn about our mother’s or our daughter’s inner life, we need many opportunities to talk. Being away from the everyday reality and the endless chores provides time and space where we can really express ourselves.

“We do not talk about dishes that need to be cleaned or a boss that needs to be dealt with, we talk about what this landscape makes us think about, we talk about what touches us within a work of art, or we talk about memories that this dish brings back.

“Quite often the journeys that we take are to the center of ourselves and to the center of our relationship and the memories we create are cherished for the rest of our life.”

New Challenges

As Sights and Souls has become more and more successful, Barnes says one of the most important challenges has been finding other tour leaders who can bring the same level of commitment and passion to the job. She would like to conduct all the tours herself, but that has become impossible, so she finds women who were born and raised in destination countries who now live in the US.

“They are really interested in making women on the tour fall in love in their native country and they are passionate about the destinations where they travel.”

Now that her business is a big success, we asked, is it still fun?

“When I accompany the group, I enjoy it as much as everyone else,” she says. “I have been very lucky, I guess. So far all my groups have been really good and I have made many, many friends.

“I have enjoyed much laughter, much wonderment and at times I was moved to tears along with other travelers in my groups, and you know that nothing makes you closer to another human than traveling together.

“There is also satisfaction in sharing all the marvels out there, natural and man-made, and satisfaction in seeing people as they gain understanding that we are all the same. Despite politics, religions, and governments, people are just people, whether they speak English, Turkish, Portuguese or Russian, and nothing makes you realize it as much as travel does.

“So yes, I am having fun.”

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Sights And Soul Travel Calendar . Start a don't forget to take. list. What makes for great women only tours.

Japan is a symbiosis of past and present, and this voyage aims to prove it. Sights & soul travels, tours and vacations for women, germantown, maryland.

The Sights And Souls Silver Coast Tour Includes A Fado Music Performance.

Whether you want to explore the stunning landscapes of iceland, experience the.

Women In Obidos, Portugal With Sights And Soul Travel.

Japan is a symbiosis of past and present, and this voyage aims to prove it.

Sights And Soul Travels | 3 Followers On Linkedin.

Images references :, “it is not all about following the guide, listening, and looking at the twentieth castle,” she says..

Tours and vacations for women by sights and soul travels, llc is a boutique tour operator, specializing in luxury tours and vacations for women, with destinations primarily.

Start A Don't Forget To Take. List.

The company owner, yolanta barnes, has been involved in travel and organizing various tours since 1997, and sights and soul travels was founded in 2004.

During The Visit, The Group Will See The Famous Sights And.

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Sights and soul travel calendar.

Are you a woman looking for a travel adventure? Sights and Soul Travel offers a calendar of trips designed for female travelers who seek to explore exotic and fascinating destinations with like-minded women. This travel company is different from other tour operators because it focuses on small groups, personalized attention, and cultural immersion. In this article, we will introduce you to the Sights and Soul Travel Calendar and explain why it is an excellent choice for female travelers.

About Sights and Soul Travel

Sights and Soul Travel was founded by Yolanta Barnes, a seasoned traveler who wanted to create a travel company that would cater to the needs and desires of women. The company’s mission is to offer enriching and transformative travel experiences that bring women together in a supportive and adventurous environment.

The trips are designed for small groups of up to 16 women, and each itinerary is carefully crafted to include a balance of cultural immersion, sightseeing, relaxation, and fun activities. The company’s philosophy is to provide a stress-free and safe environment in which women can explore the world, make new friends, and create lasting memories.

The Sights and Soul Travel Calendar

The Sights and Soul Travel Calendar offers a wide range of trips to destinations all over the world. Whether you want to explore the stunning landscapes of Iceland, experience the vibrant culture of Cuba, or go on a safari in Tanzania, there’s a trip for you. The calendar is updated regularly, and new destinations and itineraries are added based on customer feedback and requests.

The trips are categorized into three main types: cultural tours, adventure tours, and wellness retreats. Cultural tours focus on exploring the history, art, architecture, and traditions of a destination. Adventure tours include activities like hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, and wildlife viewing. Wellness retreats are designed to offer a relaxing and rejuvenating experience, with activities like yoga, meditation, spa treatments, and healthy cuisine.

Why Choose Sights and Soul Travel?

There are many reasons why Sights and Soul Travel is an excellent choice for female travelers. Here are some of the benefits of traveling with this company:

• Small groups: With a maximum of 16 women per trip, you’ll get to know your fellow travelers and make new friends.
• Expert guides: Sights and Soul Travel works with experienced and knowledgeable guides who will provide you with insights and information about the destinations you visit.
• Cultural immersion: The itineraries are designed to include authentic and immersive cultural experiences, such as meeting locals, attending festivals, or participating in traditional activities.
• Personalized attention: The company’s staff will take care of all the details of your trip, from arranging transportation to booking accommodations and activities. You can sit back and relax while they handle everything for you.
• Safety and security: Sights and Soul Travel takes safety very seriously and provides 24/7 emergency support during the trips. You can travel with peace of mind, knowing that you’re in good hands.

Sights and Soul Travel offers a unique and exciting way for women to explore the world, make new friends, and create unforgettable memories. Whether you’re interested in culture, adventure, wellness, or simply having fun, there’s a trip for you on the Sights and Soul Travel Calendar. The company’s commitment to small groups, personalized attention, and cultural immersion sets it apart from other tour operators, and makes it an excellent choice for female travelers.

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