We celebrated three years of running BOOKED Trips on October 7, 2025 and we are so proud! We have hosted more than 100 women from 23 US states Canada, Kenya, and South Africa. They have ranged in age from 21 to 70 and all have brought their unique perspective and curiosity to this work. Your support means so much, particularly in this time.
BOOKED Trips curates one-of-a-kind, book-inspired travel experiences that bring stories to life. Every trip is a temporary world where each day is inspired by a quote or scene from our selected books from the places we visit to the food we eat.
This work is a love letter to storytelling. It is our ode to the writers, readers, creatives, travelers, and entrepreneurs who have shaped and reshaped our thinking about the world. What connects books and travel is the ability to transport – to move you from an individual to a collective experience. To illuminate unexpected places of shared experience and to deepen your understanding of a place or perspective by sitting with someone else’s story.
There have been great highs this year. We have invested over $134,000 into local businesses, guides, drivers and restaurant through our trips. We’ve awarded over $12,000 in travel scholarships to 3 women through our Maya Angelou Travel scholarship, and were featured in Success and Essence Magazines.
There have also been tough lows with widespread uncertainty with political shifts, frequently changing immigration laws, tariffs that have increased the costs of so many things, and job loss which have impacted our travelers. It has greatly impacted us and our community. There were times that we didn’t know whether this was the right moment to continue doing this work. But with the encouragement of so many people in our alumni and newsletter community we’re glad to still be here.
The books that have guided us:
- Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (October 2022 – Mexico City, Mexico)
- Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (May 2023 – Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic)
- The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (June 2023 – Bogota, Colombia)
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey (August 2023 – Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica)
- Intruders by Mohale Mashigo (April 2024 – Cape Town, South Africa)
- More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez (May 2024 – Mexico City, Mexico)
- The Seasons of Beento Blackbird by Akosua Busia (July 2024 – Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica)
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (October 2024 and October 2025 – Accra and Cape Coast, Ghana)
- The Great Divide by Cristina HenrÃquez (March 2025 – Panama City in Colon, Panama)
- Born A Crime by Trevor Noah (April 2025 – Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa)
- Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi (November 2025 – Marrakesh, Fez, and the Sahara desert, Morocco)
- Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez (December 2025 – Cartagena, Colombia)
Thank you to all of our on the ground partners who have taken this vision and made it a reality. Thank you to Trip de Jenny, Curiocity, Girls Trip Tours, Inclusive Morocco and Impulse Travel that have supported our 2025 trips.
A huge thanks goes to Destinee Hodge who has been a trip alumni, a thought partner, and the author whisperer as she has supported our work with publishers and authors this year as well as on the ground support during our Panama and Morocco trips. You have been a supporter of this work from inception when it was just an idea around a dinner table.
And finally, thank you to all of you. Even if you haven’t yet traveled with us, I appreciate your support from afar. Thank you for being here and I hope to see you somewhere special soon!
If you’re wondering where we’re traveling next make sure you join our FREE monthly newsletter and check out our website for full trip details: www.bookedtrips.com
