Ritchelle had the degrees. She had the career. What she did not have was a travel circle that showed up. “I was really over people saying they wanted to go on trips,” she remembers, “and then when it came time to really start paying, people just start dropping out like flies. Let’s push that back to next year, let’s push that back to next year. Sometimes we don’t even know if we have next year.”
So in 2014, she stopped waiting. She found Travel Divas, looked at the website, and every doubt she had was answered by photos and videos of women already out there living. She booked. Thirteen trips later, she is a Diamond VIP who has stood in the rice fields of Bali, had lunch inside the Eiffel Tower, and spent a night in a 24-hour spa in Milan.
But if you ask her which trip changed her the most, she does not hesitate. Dubai.
The Trip That Rewrote The Map In Her Head
Ritchelle comes from a military and law enforcement family. For most of her life, the Middle East meant one thing: danger. “I always looked at the Middle East as a place where we have enemies and aren’t safe,” she says. “And Dubai is none of those things.”
What she found instead was a city that greeted her warmly, respected her faith, and never asked her to look over her shoulder. “I feel completely safe in Dubai. Actually safer than I feel in the US,” she says. “I left there with a new respect and a deeper understanding of what type of country Dubai really is, outside of what the media and people who have never been there tell you it is.”
She has been back at least nine or ten times since. She has lost count. She is going again next month.
And Dubai keeps giving her firsts. On one visit she went scuba diving in an underwater city, where she shot pool and played chess on the ocean floor. Read that again.
What It Feels Like To Arrive With Us
Ritchelle expected her first Travel Divas trip to be a regular tour group: headphones, a guide, some chitchat, then home. “It turned out to be more like I had joined a sorority,” she says. “Oh, you need a picture with that background? You need the sunset in the back? OK, I got your back sis. You need me to watch your bag while you go try this on? I got you sis.”
Then there is the moment she says happens on every single trip. “When we walk in a room, people stop and take notice. One host is clearing the way as a sea of classy, beautifully melanated women enter the space, and the other host is snapping pictures. The best way I can describe that feeling is YES, we have arrived and NO, you can’t sit with us.”
Thirteen trips in, what has she learned to leave at home? “The need to control every detail. Just go with the flow and follow the good vibes.”
Her Word To The Woman Still Waiting
Ritchelle has heard every reason to wait, because she used to live them. Her answer now is simple.
“Take the trip Sis! You’ll never forget the memories you make, but you’ll regret the great times you missed.”
Dubai is calling, and our Dubai trips are open for booking. Come see the city that changed Ritchelle’s whole map.
