Guest Bio
Amanda Black is the founder of The Solo Female Traveler Network, a global community empowering women to explore the world with confidence and connection. With over a decade of experience in immersive travel and community design, Amanda has helped thousands of women break out of their comfort zones and find belonging through adventure. Her passion for creating transformative group experiences has taken her across the globe — from remote villages to vibrant cities — always in search of meaningful human connection.
She’s also the creator of Kindred Community, a series of women-only retreats built around authentic bonding and personal growth. Amanda is a TEDx speaker whose talk, “Shared Firsts: Redesigning How We Find Belonging,” explores how strong relationships form through shared new experiences. Whether she’s leading a group trip or covered in sawdust in her woodshop at home in San Diego, Amanda brings creativity, empathy, and a deep belief in the power of community to everything she does.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Amanda about the transformative nature of solo travel and the power of women supporting women on the road. Amanda opens up about how a personal loss led her to explore the world alone — and eventually inspired her to build the largest solo female travel community in the world.
From the early challenges of organizing her first group trip to designing soulful connection retreats, Amanda shares insights into what makes travel truly life-changing. She and Jason discuss safety, resilience, and how real connection often comes not from finding your people, but from creating shared firsts with strangers who become lifelong friends.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ The Solo Female Traveler Network connects over half a million women worldwide
- ✓ Solo travel can be a powerful and safe experience for women
- ✓ Community helps travelers feel supported and confident
- ✓ Amanda’s journey began as a response to personal grief and transformation
- ✓ Group trips offer deep emotional connections and shared experiences
- ✓ Organizing tours comes with both logistical challenges and profound rewards
- ✓ Perceptions of safety are often shaped more by fear than fact
- ✓ Connection retreats focus on vulnerability, joy, and authentic bonding
- ✓ Travel is a tool for resilience, growth, and lifelong friendships
- ✓ Amanda believes meaningful connection comes from shared new experiences
What You’ll Find on The Solo Female Traveler Network
- Women-only group trips to over 20 global destinations
- A thriving online community of solo female travelers
- Kindred retreats designed for deep connection and fun
- Resources, safety tips, and empowerment for solo travel
- Authentic cultural experiences and support for women-led initiatives
Learn more about The Solo Female Traveler Network and connect with Amanda at:
https://thesolofemaletravelernetwork.com
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Thank you Amanda, for being a Expedition Partner with us.
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Tourpreneur Podcast
Hosted by Mitch Bach
Why it may fit: Best for tour operators, guides, experience designers, tourism founders, travel tech/service providers, and industry experts with practical lessons for experience-based travel businesses.
Audience: Tour operators, guides, activity providers, travel experience creators, tourism entrepreneurs, and businesses serving the tours and activities sector.
Suggested angle: Pitch a specific, useful lesson from your tourism business: growth, guest experience, guiding, tour design, storytelling, sustainability, niche positioning, partnerships, or operational improvement.
Destination On The Left
Hosted by Nicole Mahoney
Why it may fit: Best for tourism leaders, destination marketers, operators, hospitality professionals, consultants, and experience-based travel businesses with a useful collaboration, marketing, or destination-development story.
Audience: Tourism professionals, destination marketers, hospitality leaders, travel trade professionals, tourism consultants, DMOs, attractions, operators, and industry service providers.
Suggested angle: Pitch a practical tourism lesson around collaboration, destination marketing, visitor experience, partnerships, hospitality, accessibility, sustainability, travel trade, or creative growth strategy.
Destination Marketing Podcast
Hosted by Adam Stoker
Why it may fit: Best for tourism marketers, DMO leaders, travel brands, operators, consultants, and experience-based businesses with a clear lesson about attracting visitors or improving destination strategy.
Audience: Destination marketers, tourism professionals, DMOs, CVBs, tourism agencies, travel brands, hospitality marketers, and industry service providers.
Suggested angle: Pitch a specific tourism marketing lesson around destination storytelling, niche positioning, visitor experience, partnerships, content strategy, community building, sustainability, or measurable campaign results.
Zero To Travel
Hosted by Jason Moore
Why it may fit: Best for guests with strong traveler-facing stories, practical travel lessons, destination expertise, adventure experience, nomad lifestyle insight, or a compelling personal transformation through travel.
Audience: Travelers, aspiring long-term travelers, digital nomads, backpackers, adventure travelers, career-break travelers, and people seeking deeper or more independent travel experiences.
Suggested angle: Pitch a traveler-focused story or practical lesson around meaningful travel, adventure, destination immersion, career breaks, long-term travel, responsible travel, personal transformation, or travel lifestyle design.
Amateur Traveler
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Travel With Meaning
Hosted by Mike Schibel
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Audience: Travelers, hospitality professionals, outdoor enthusiasts, creatives, entrepreneurs, travel storytellers, and people interested in meaningful, experience-driven travel.
Suggested angle: Pitch a personal story about how travel changed your life, career, worldview, business, community, or relationship with nature, with a clear emotional hook and useful takeaway for travelers.
The Thoughtful Travel Podcast
Hosted by Amanda Kendle
Why it may fit: Best for travelers, guides, writers, creators, operators, educators, and tourism professionals with reflective stories about culture, connection, slow travel, responsible tourism, or personal growth through travel.
Audience: Thoughtful travelers, slow travelers, cultural travelers, travel storytellers, bloggers, writers, photographers, educators, and people interested in deeper travel experiences.
Suggested angle: Pitch a story tied to one clear travel theme: meeting locals, slow travel, culture shock, getting lost, responsible travel, memorable travel moments, travel lessons, or how one journey changed your perspective.
Armchair Explorer
Hosted by Aaron Millar
Why it may fit: Best for guests with a truly strong adventure story, expedition background, conservation journey, wilderness guiding experience, remote destination expertise, or dramatic traveler-facing narrative.
Audience: Adventure travelers, outdoor enthusiasts, armchair explorers, expedition fans, travel storytellers, conservation-minded travelers, and people drawn to immersive travel narratives.
Suggested angle: Pitch one specific, high-stakes travel story with a clear beginning, tension, turning point, and takeaway, not a general business bio or promotional destination pitch.
Women Who Travel
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Why it may fit: Best for female-identifying travelers, guides, founders, writers, creators, conservation voices, hospitality leaders, and destination experts with a strong personal travel story or useful perspective for women travelers.
Audience: Women travelers, solo travelers, culturally curious travelers, outdoor/adventure travelers, Condé Nast Traveler readers, and people interested in personal stories about how women experience the world.
Suggested angle: Women travelers, solo travelers, culturally curious travelers, outdoor/adventure travelers, Condé Nast Traveler readers, and people interested in personal stories about how women experience the world.
Unpacked by AFAR
Hosted by Aislyn Greene
Why it may fit: Best for credible travel experts, operators, guides, conservation voices, hospitality leaders, and destination specialists with practical insight for thoughtful travelers.
Audience: Thoughtful travelers, AFAR readers, travel planners, cultural travelers, sustainability-minded travelers, destination researchers, and people who want smarter travel advice.
Suggested angle: Pitch a timely, expert-led travel question: ethical wildlife tourism, community-based travel, overtourism, local culture, sustainability, destination decision-making, guiding standards, or how travelers can choose better experiences.
Active Travel Adventures
Hosted by Kit Parks
Why it may fit: Best for guides, operators, destination experts, active travel companies, outdoor educators, and travelers with practical advice or stories around hiking, biking, paddling, walking, or soft adventure travel.
Audience: Active travelers, adventure travelers, hikers, bikers, paddlers, walkers, pilgrimage travelers, national park visitors, and travelers over 50 seeking doable active vacations.
Suggested angle: Pitch a specific active travel destination or experience with practical planning advice, difficulty level, training tips, safety considerations, cultural context, and why it is doable for reasonably fit travelers.
Tour Pro Talks
Hosted by Genevieve White
Why it may fit: This is a strong fit for guests with practical tourism experience, founder stories, destination expertise, guiding knowledge, or useful lessons for tour operators and travel professionals.
Audience: Tour operators, guides, DMCs, travel advisors, tourism marketers, and small to mid-sized travel businesses interested in practical industry conversations and better guest communication.
Suggested angle: Position the guest around a practical tourism lesson, founder/operator story, destination expertise, or a conversation that helps tour professionals better connect with their ideal guests.
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