Black travelers have been among the fastest demographic of individuals venturing out of the country. They spent $109.4 billion on travel in pre-pandemic 2019, according to MMGY Global’s Shifflet Travel Performance/Monitor survey, and this was a significant raise from $63 billion in 2018.
As Black travelers are experiencing the world, creating safe spaces has become a top priority, especially for Black women. Paradise + Vibe is a Black-woman-owned global travel retreat company that aims to ensure that Black women travelers can experience luxury safely and focus on their paths to wellness while also seeing themselves represented.
In 2020, Iana Edwards, a certified yoga and meditation instructor, and Kasondra McConnell, a serial entrepreneur, created a fun, accessible and approachable wellness retreat to make engaging and memorable experiences.
According to Essence, McConnell and Edwards saw that Black women were left out of the conversation regarding wellness and luxury travel. Paradise + Vibe focuses on curating an engaging experience where people can foster a better mind-body connection through yoga, guided meditation, and community. The group uses the backdrops of beautiful, culture-rich locations such as Bali, Brazil, Negril and South Africa to set the perfect setting for embarking on a spiritual journey.
The website shared that their wellness workshop topics are on point with Black women’s issues in every facet of life. They range from nutrition and healthy eating, tips for creating healthy routines, strategies to manage stress, workplace wellness tools, manifesting and journaling to help you create the life you want, and tips on striking a work-life balance and improving self-esteem.
Each retreat has a theme. The upcoming October 2023 retreat in Tulum centers around the neuroscience of love. It will cover sacred sexuality, embodied connection, orgasmic breathwork, and energetic love-making.
McConnell and Edwards don’t subscribe to the traditional idea of a retreat consisting of monotonous chanting and meditation sessions. They encourage participants to dig deeper and connect to parts of themselves they didn’t know existed. They also incorporate play and physical movement as a form of release and celebration.
“With us pushing connection as a central point of wellness, that’s not something you think about. Instead, most people say, ‘I need to eat healthy, I need to run, I need to meditate for hours a day.’ However, we at Paradise + Vibe don’t believe it,” McConnell said. “Instead, we think you should do those things because they bring a certain level of stillness, mindfulness, and joy. But also, let’s have some fun. We went to South Africa for New Year’s and didn’t want to sit around meditating all day, so we thought it’d be cool to be a section at a club and celebrate. That’s a big part of life, celebration. But we also get up, do yoga daily, and go hiking.”
Paradise + Vibe has helped participants find a better version of themselves in South Africa, Morocco, Costa Rica, Negril and most recently, Bali. This year they are taking their spiritual and physical journeys to Tulum, with Brazil as the first stop in 2024.
Martie Bowser is a journalist and public relations professional in Charlotte, NC. She enjoys amplifying the voices of POC and women that fill a void within their community. Her favorite things to cover include “person of interest” pieces, small business highlights, pop culture commentary, entertainment features, and everything about Beyoncé. Her bylines can be found in Blavity, Black Excellence, Signature Bride, Black Wall Street Times, and HipHop Weekly. Martie can be reached via email at martiebowser@detourxp.com.
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