When Women in Travel Build Together
The inaugural Greether × Root&Rise Female Founders Retreat
By Greether
A room where women did not have to build alone
What can happen when women building travel businesses step away from the daily demands of running them and spend time in a room with peers who understand the work? At the inaugural Greether × Root&Rise Female Founders Retreat, the answer showed up in honest conversations, new confidence, practical learning, and collaborations that continued after everyone went home.
The five-day gathering brought women founders and travel leaders to Root&Rise, an inclusive retreat in the French countryside created for women and nonbinary adults to rest, reconnect, create, and belong. The experience paired time to recharge with workshops and peer exchanges for founders at different stages of building in travel, hospitality, and wellness.
A partnership that began with sharing resources
When Greether founder Vanessa Karel and Root&Rise founder Erin McGuire met, their first instinct was to share resources as two women building businesses that were not competing with each other. They talked about the questions, lessons, and support that are easier to access when founders can learn from one another.
McGuire then suggested bringing women building in travel together for a retreat: a chance to exchange what they knew, make friendships, and create the conditions for partnerships to grow naturally. That idea became the Greether × Root&Rise Female Founders Retreat.
Greether connects women travelers with verified local women Greeter guides across more than 130 countries. Root&Rise offers an inclusive French-countryside retreat experience centered on rest, creativity, wellness, and community. Together, the co-hosts made space for women building businesses around travel to connect as people as well as founders.
“When I started Greether, I didn’t have any community. I didn’t know any other woman in my life who had a travel business. I didn’t know who to ask for help. I had to learn everything from scratch. I really wish, in my earlier days, I’d had the support this community can give.”
— Vanessa Karel, Greether founder
Why this room mattered
Women founders in travel are often building in a large industry without many peers who share their perspective. The retreat was designed to make that peer network tangible: a place to talk honestly about growth, visibility, fundraising, leadership, capacity, and the personal demands of entrepreneurship, then leave with people to call when the next question comes up.
The sessions brought practical learning into the conversation. Karel led leadership programming and shared fundraising experience. McGuire contributed her perspective on fundraising and building Root & Rise. Travel journalist and TV host Jeannette Ceja led a media session, drawing on more than 12 years covering travel, diversity, Latinos, and women in English- and Spanish-language media. She made the work of pitching and landing press feel actionable, not out of reach.
The week also left room for rest. Founders could spend time in nature, enjoy the property, choose a spa session, tarot reading, or scrapbooking, or take quiet time to meditate on their own. Women chefs prepared the group’s dinners. On the final night, a manifestation dinner invited everyone to imagine that a year had passed, meet at an airport, and share what had unfolded in their lives and businesses.
The founders and voices in the room
Erin McGuire | Root&Rise
McGuire founded Root&Rise, a French-countryside retreat and camp where women and nonbinary adults can rest, create, reconnect, and feel a sense of belonging. Her invitation to bring founders together shaped the retreat’s purpose: make room for ambition, community, and care at the same time.
“I truly believe that every time a woman steps into leadership and says yes to her own ambition, she makes it a little easier for another woman, or someone who has historically been excluded from power, to say yes to theirs.”
— Erin McGuire, Root & Rise founder
Vanessa Karel | Greether
Karel founded Greether after recognizing how isolating and uncertain travel can feel for women. She brought the founders together around a belief that women deserve trusted support, meaningful connection, and the confidence to explore the world on their own terms. At the retreat, she facilitated leadership learning and made space for founders to share the lessons behind their businesses.
Sadia Ramzan | The Muslim Women Travel Group
Ramzan was selected from more than 50 applicants from around the world for the partial scholarship supported by Women’s Work. She leads The Muslim Women Travel Group, which creates women-only travel experiences with attention to halal food, prayer, safety, and cultural understanding. Its community offers Muslim women a way to explore with companionship and support while widening the picture of who travel is for.
“The retreat reminded me that businesses like mine are both needed and valid.”
— Sadia Ramzan
Her feedback also made clear why representation matters in practice. During an off-site thermal spa visit, Ramzan could not participate in the swimwear she chose to wear. She wrote that the experience reinforced why her work matters: she would rather encounter that barrier herself, with the resilience and platform to speak about it, than have another woman face it alone and conclude that travel was not designed for her.
After the retreat, Ceja introduced Ramzan to Vogue Arabia, leading to Ramzan’s first publication with the magazine.
Vogue article → https://www.voguearabia.com/article/muslim-women-finding-community-through-travel?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Caren Martinez | Soulstice Travel Club
Martinez is building a travel club for women seeking intentional trips, community, and meaningful experiences. She came to learn from founders further along in their journeys and left with new ideas about positioning herself as a heart-led leader, networking with business peers, and pitching to media.
“It means it’s possible and I can become a thriving founder.”
— Caren Martinez
The retreat also connected Martinez with potential partners for her next stage of growth.
Radiance Basden | Rooted in Radiance
Basden brought a wellbeing perspective to the retreat, leading a breathwork and anti-burnout session. Her work helped make the week’s balance of ambition and restoration concrete. After the retreat, she and the founder of Liberal Girlfriends Travel Club began collaborating.
Learn more about Rooted in Radiance → https://www.rootedinradiance.com/
Erin Jabrocki | Liberal Girlfriends Travel Club
Jabrocki has built a community for liberal women and nonbinary travelers who seek joy through travel and want their values to shape how they move through the world. She described a room where founders shared quickly and generously, without treating one another as competition.
“Feeling safe to be vulnerable, the way everyone was SO quick to share and collab, the lack of scarcity mindsets in the room, the sheer FORCE of the women I was surrounded by.”
— Erin Jabrocki
Ceja’s media session particularly stayed with her. Jabrocki wrote that the practical steps showed her that being published was realistic, and that the experience “cracked my creative flow wide open.”
Jeannette Ceja | Jet Set with Jeannette
Ceja is a travel journalist and TV host who covers travel in English and Spanish-language media. She came to share her experience telling stories about diversity, Latinos, and women in travel, and led a session on media and press. Her practical guidance gave the founders a clearer path from a story idea to a pitch.
“Empowering, grateful and life-changing.”
— Jeannette Ceja
Learn more about Jet Set with Jeannette → https://jetsetwithjeannette.com/
A scholarship that opened the door
More than 50 people from around the world applied for the retreat scholarship. Ramzan was selected for the way her work is expanding travel opportunities for Muslim women and helping them feel accompanied and supported as they explore the world. Women’s Work provided partial scholarship support, helping make it possible for her to join the group.
Founded by Iris Serbanescu, wmnsWORK is a six-month, equity-free tourism business accelerator for women and nonbinary entrepreneurs. Its program brings together education, mentorship, expert advice, and community to support early-stage tourism businesses.
“I wanted Women’s Work to be a catalyst on the founder’s journey for someone who needed it to step into a retreat space and get the support and community from other women.”
— Iris Serbanescu, founder of wmnsWORK
Serbanescu also described why time away with peers can make a difference for founders:
“Retreats are like this magical closed container where the outside world doesn’t exist. Something alchemical happens when you’re with other people that understand your lived experience, and that has the most profound impact on your business … Like retreats collapse time. Like you could spend three months trying to solve a problem on your own, or you can go on a retreat and be in the company of other women and talk about things that you wouldn’t normally talk about day to day and find the solution you’ve been looking for in two hours.”
— Iris Serbanescu
For women and nonbinary entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses in tourism, wmnsWORK offers a six-month, equity-free accelerator providing education, mentorship, expert guidance, and a supportive community of founders. Learn more and apply here for the wmnsWORK Tourism Accelerator – Cohort 8.
Learn more about wmnsWORK → https://wmnswork.com/
The connections kept moving after the retreat
The retreat was intended to be a room for exchanging resources and building friendships, with the hope that those relationships might lead to partnerships. That exchange continued after the founders returned home. Introductions helped Ramzan reach Vogue Arabia. The founders of Rooted in Radiance and Liberal Girlfriends Travel Club began collaborating. Martinez met potential partners for her travel club. And Greether later announced partnerships with The Muslim Women Travel Group.
Those outcomes grew from the trust built in the room: founders sharing contacts, hard-won knowledge, and encouragement without assuming that someone else’s success diminished their own. The relationships have continued beyond the retreat, with women cheering on one another’s next steps and continuing to learn from each other.
The beginning of a wider community
The inaugural gathering grew from a simple idea: founders should not have to figure everything out alone. Karel remembers building Greether without a community of women in travel to ask for advice. McGuire imagined a place where founders could share resources and build relationships. Together, they created a first version of that room, and the women who joined filled it with their own expertise, candor, ambition, and generosity.
The first edition also offered lessons for what comes next. Participants asked for more structured time to solve current business challenges together and clearer planning around some parts of the schedule. That feedback will help the retreat evolve while protecting what founders valued most: honest exchange, meaningful rest, and the feeling that they do not have to build alone.
For women building in travel, hospitality, or wellness who want to hear about a future Greether × Root&Rise gathering, stay connected with Greether and Root&Rise. The founders’ retreat began with one conversation and a willingness to share resources. The connections made in one room can open doors long after everyone has gone home.
