The Soft Adventure Manifesto:
Why I Travel This Way (And Why You Should Too)
I am standing at the top of a waterfall in Costa Rica, harnessed into a rappelling rig, listening to the sound of moving water falling 100 ft beneath me to a pool I cannot see. The jungle is doing what Costa Rican jungle does — expanding in every direction, green on green on green, monkeys howling from somewhere in the distance. My husband and kids are beside me. The seven-year-old is bouncing on her heels, energized by cautious optimism. The ten-year-old is pretending to be calm but his wringing hands give him away. The twelve-year-old is peering down the face of the waterfall trying not to smile.
Our guide gives us the instructions and my oldest son backs toward the edge. And then one-by-one, we rappel down a waterfall in the middle of a rainforest, and meet at the bottom, all of us laughing. Pure JOY!
I am a 35-plus mom from Texas. I have three kids with three very different opinions about most things, including whether a given vacation has sufficient Wi-Fi. I am not an athlete. I grew up in a family in which most vacations included of hiking, but I also spent the majority of those vacations complaining about said hikes. I am a person who planned this trip between school pickups, who researched excursion operators at 10pm with a bowl of ice cream and 27 browser tabs, and who genuinely wasn’t sure, right up until that morning, whether rappelling down a waterfall was something we were actually going to do.
Standing at the bottom — soaked, exhilarated, already being asked by my seven-year-old if we could do it again — I understood something I’ve been trying to articulate ever since: this is what it is to feel alive. So for those who want more from a trip than a good tan and a swim-up bar, who are curious about the world, who are ready to stop waiting for some future version of themselves, take heart. Book the trip.
That’s what this blog is about. Welcome to JourneyWell.
What Soft Adventure Actually Means
I want to start with clarification, because I think the word adventure can be very misleading.
It tends to conjure images of people who are younger than you, more in shape, and probably don’t have kids in tow. Their obviously doctored but #nofilterneeded pictures fill your Instagram feed and leave you feeling a little less-than.
That is one kind of adventure. It is not the kind I’m talking about.
There is another kind —more accessible, and more realistic for the way most of us actually live. It might not be flashy, but it is the kind of travel that I believe changes people in the ways that matter most, and it is something you can do, at whatever age and fitness level and family configuration you have.
I call it soft adventure. Here’s what I mean.
Soft adventure is travel where you are intentionally mentally and physically engaged with the place you’re in — it’s the difference between doing something and watching something. Between being somewhere and experiencing it.
In Costa Rica, soft adventure looks like zip-lining above a rainforest canopy, rappelling down a waterfall, and hiking through jungle so dense and alive that you can’t help but absorb it’s energy. In Switzerland, it looks like hiking an alpine ridge, paragliding off limestone cliffs, or stopping for lunch at a dairy farm so small it doesn’t have a name — just a handwritten sign along a trail pointing you in the right direction. In the Catskills in October, it looks like a trail through trees on fire with color, a hidden river nobody else seems to know about, and a small town with a funky vibe that you can’t get at home.
None of those things required a sherpa. None of them required a training plan. None of them required leaving behind your family, or sacrificing your desire for a proper meal and comfortable bed at the end of the day.
They just required showing up and saying yes to the place you were in.
| Soft adventure IS | Soft adventure ISN’T |
|---|---|
| Active and physically engaged | Extreme sports or technical climbing |
| Immersed in local culture and landscape | Roughing it or camping without amenities |
| Intentionally planned, not over-engineered | Budget backpacking or hostel travel |
| Accessible to most fitness levels | Reserved for the young and fearless |
| Compatible with kids, partners, and real life | Something you need to work up to |
| Ending with a great meal and a good bed | Incompatible with comfort or recovery |
The question soft adventure asks is simple: are you actually here? Are you present in this place, in this moment? Are you going to go home with a story, or just a tan?
If you want the story — and I think you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this — then soft adventure is yours. Let’s talk about who it’s really for.
Who This Is For
I want to talk to you for a second. Not a hypothetical reader — you.
You’re probably somewhere in your late 30s or 40s. You are organized, capable, and good at a lot of things. You take care of a lot of people. You have kids — maybe they’re still in elementary school, maybe they’re solidly in the eye-rolling teenage years, maybe both at the same time, which is its own particular adventure. You travel with your family and, when you can swing it, you get away with your partner too.
You look at your family, and maybe your yourself, and realize that time finite. There is only so much you can do in this one life that we are given. So how do you make the most of the time you have. How do you maximize meaningful moments? You’ve done the resort. You had fun. But somewhere on day three, floating in a pool while a DJ played in the background, you thought: I want to do more.
Most of the beautiful travel inspo pics you come across are of women enjoying bucket-list experiences. They make you feel something— not intimidation exactly, but a kind of wistfulness. Like that life is for a different kind of person. A person without a nine-year-old who wants to know if there’s a waterpark. Who isn’t weighed down by the pull of work and responsibility.
I know the objections. I’ve had every single one of them.
The logistics feel overwhelming. Planning an adventure trip isn’t like booking a resort where everything is handed to you in a welcome packet. There are national park reservations and shuttle systems and trail conditions to consider. I know. That’s exactly why this blog exists — so I can do that thinking for you and hand you the part that actually matters: the trip.
The kids won’t go for it. My boys — twelve and fourteen — have, at various points, expressed their strong preference for Wi-Fi over wilderness. My daughter has lobbied hard for the beach. And then we went to Costa Rica. We went to the Catskills. We dragged them to places they’d never heard of and couldn’t locate on a map, and every single time, something happened out there that they still talk about. You do not have to choose between travel your kids will tolerate and travel that fills you up. The right trip does both.
It feels too far outside my comfort zone. Soft adventure, by definition, meets you where you are. There are beginner trails in every national park. There are guided excursions where someone else handles every logistical detail and all you have to do is show up in good shoes. There are trips that are active and immersive and genuinely adventurous that also end with a great meal and a comfortable bed. The comfort zone expands a little every time — and that, honestly, is the whole point.
Adventure shouldn’t be intimidating. It should be the thing that makes your family feel most alive.
Why I Started JourneyWell
I didn’t set out to become a travel blogger. I set out to take my family to Costa Rica.
It was our kids’ first real international trip. We wanted something more than a resort — we wanted them to see something real. A different culture. Wildlife that wasn’t in a zoo. Food that tasted like the place it came from.
What I didn’t expect was how it would change all of us. Not in a dramatic, life-altering way — in the quieter way that matters more. My kids talked about Costa Rica for months. The zip-line and rappelling, for sure — but also the little things. The sloth that snacked in the tree above us on the beach. The family that ran our AirB&B. The afternoon we got caught in a downpour on a trail and just laughed. They came home a little more curious, and a little more open.
Then we went to Switzerland. Just my husband and me. Alpine hikes. Paragliding — which is way less terrifying and way more peaceful than it sounds. Lunch at a dairy farm we just happened upon. I kept thinking: why does no one talk about this version of Europe? The version where you earn the view.
And then the Catskills last fall. A road trip with the whole family, a weekend of hiking, and apple picking, and small towns and peak foliage. It was a quintessential autumnal experience that my kids still talk about.
I started JourneyWell because I kept thinking about all the women in my life — friends, other moms, colleagues — who wanted this kind of travel and didn’t think it was available to them. Those who were waiting until their kids were older, until they were fitter, until they felt braver. Those who were planning another resort trip because it felt like a safer, less encumbered and logistically challenging option. And I think about the women who already love this kind of travel but they need some inspiration.
You don’t have to wait. You just have to know where to start. That’s what I’m here for.
The JourneyWell Philosophy
As someone who has felt the difference between a trip that fills you up and one that just passes the time, here are a few things I believe about travel:
What to Expect from JourneyWell
JourneyWell is built around five pillars — the five things I think everyone actually needs in order to travel well.
To Sum it Up
Here’s the thing about that trip to the Catskills. We almost didn’t go. We almost went to our lakehouse for the weekend because it was the easier option. It didn’t require any planning and we knew it would be restful. At the last minute we changed our minds, booked the flight, and had the kind of weekend our family will probably talk about for years.
Some of the most memorable experiences of my life have happened on trails rated easy and excursions marketed to families. Exhaustion is not the measure of meaning. Engagement is. Sometimes it just requires going somewhere new.
That’s what this is about. I’m glad you’re here.
Journey Well!
-Erica
P.S: Next, I’m publishing the first installment of the 50-State Journey: Utah. National parks, beginner-friendly trails, a fantastic food scene, and one of the most unique landscapes on earth. If you’ve been wondering whether your family could handle a national park trip, Utah is the answer, and I’ll show you exactly how to do it.
P.S.S: If you missed them, be sure check out my guide for planning a Soft Adventure trip as well as my list of 8 must-see destinations and ideas.
