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Intrepid’s latest Ladies’s Expeditions are centring girls’s voices and dismantling gender obstacles in Bhutan, Peru and Cambodia.
One thing highly effective occurs when girls collect. Perhaps it’s the sense of security and help that allows you to drop your guard and take up more room. Or the sensation of being related by a singular thread of shared understanding. It’s one of many many causes Intrepid’s Ladies’s Expeditions are so particular.
Initially launched in 2018, these adventures are designed to centre native girls and help women-owned companies all over the world by revealing the on a regular basis lives of inspiring entrepreneurs, cooks, artisans, rickshaw drivers and rug weavers, all steered by Intrepid’s feminine journey leaders.
By connecting you with musicians in Morocco or refugee-turned-momo-makers in Nepal, these journeys purpose to spark necessary conversations about gender equality. And this model of journey is resonating. In 2025, the variety of travellers on Intrepid’s Ladies’s Expeditions elevated by 32%, with 77% becoming a member of solo.
So, what’s in retailer for 2026’s three new Ladies’s Expeditions in Bhutan, Peru and Cambodia? Let’s uncover the methods they’re serving to create ripples of change.
Letting girls paved the way
In lots of elements of the world, entrenched gender roles proceed to form perceptions of ‘acceptable’ work for women and men. Males usually have extra alternatives in technical, high-risk and management roles – in the case of journey, that is very true of guiding. In the meantime, girls are over-represented within the casual financial system – that’s, work that’s not formally registered or regulated, and subsequently with out social safety or safety. Usually girls are anticipated to work in service or caregiving jobs – on prime of carrying the lion’s share of unpaid family labour.
For instance, in Cambodia, it’s uncommon to see girls behind the handlebars of a remork (the native tackle a tuk-tuk). On the brand new Ladies’s Expedition, nevertheless, you’ll meet the ladies fairly actually shifting the gears on equality. Be part of a information from social enterprise Driver Srey for a three-wheeled tour across the historical Angkor Wat temple advanced and scorching street-food markets of Siem Reap. By coaching and hiring extra feminine drivers, the non-profit helps widows, single moms and different marginalised girls to attain monetary independence whereas additionally providing safer rides to feminine passengers.
Ladies are shattering stereotypes within the mountains too. In Peru, main treks and hauling heavy tenting gear is historically males’s work. However on Intrepid’s new journey, you’ll be a part of an all-female crew on a hike to the well-preserved Inca fortress of Pumamarca, studying about their lives, triumphs and challenges as you stride previous hillside farming terraces, Quechua villages and crinkled Andean peaks.
Or head to Bhutan to floor your self with a sound bathtub within the pine forests of Bumthang Valley and climb to the sacred Paro Taktsang (Tiger’s Nest Monastery) alongside guides and porters who’ve overcome social stigma to pursue mountaineering careers.
Learn extra: Meet the refugee-turned-momo-maker in Nepal
Showcasing girls’s tales
All over the world, most recorded historical past has been written and remembered by means of a male lens. Consequently, numerous girls’s tales have been misplaced, which is why it’s necessary to shine a light-weight on those who stay within the shadows.
On the brand new Cambodia expedition, be a part of a woman-led tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Killing Fields to uncover the harrowing historical past of the Khmer Rouge regime, which claimed roughly two million lives from 1975 to 1979. Ladies labored in resistance teams and transported provides to guerrilla frontlines, enduring unimaginable struggling and later enjoying an important function in rebuilding the nation.
The nuns at Bhutan’s view-blessed Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup Lhakhang nunnery, overlooking the Punakha valley, haven’t let gender obstacles get of their manner both. Over tea and snacks, chat with a number of the 120 residents to find out about their deeply devoted religious life and what a typical day finding out conventional Buddhist teachings entails.
Ladies are additionally safeguarding cherished traditions in Peru. On the brand new expedition, you’ll journey by means of the Sacred Valley to satisfy a feminine shaman who’ll information you thru an Andean therapeutic ceremony. Utilizing coca leaves, seeds, wine and different ceremonial instruments which have been handed down by means of the generations, it’s a possibility to thank Pachamama, or Mom Earth, and cleanse the spirit.
Visiting organisations that help girls
Ladies and ladies account for 54% of the 50 million folks trapped in trendy slavery worldwide. In Phnom Penh, Daughters of Cambodia works with survivors of intercourse trafficking, providing counselling providers and vocational programs to assist girls begin new chapters of their lives. You’ll take pleasure in a pamper session of their women-only spa, the place girls skilled by means of this system now work as magnificence and therapeutic massage therapists.
Menstrual stigma and poverty even have cascading penalties. Round 500 million girls globally don’t have entry to interval care, with many ladies resorting to improvised options like rags and leaves. In Siem Reap, be a part of the workforce at community-led initiative Undertaking G to assist pack interval kits for women in rural Cambodia and learn the way they’re serving to college students keep in class.
In Peru, girls who guardian solo usually battle to search out work because of social stigma and childcare prices. However AMA restaurant within the Sacred Valley is on a mission to alter that. An embodiment of the ‘it takes a village’ ethos, this social enterprise gives girls with jobs and a nurturing area to develop new expertise – whereas additionally welcoming their youngsters to play or do their homework. Be part of a chocolate workshop with a mom of 4 and listen to her journey of overcoming adversity as you flip cacao beans into scrumptious treats.
Learn extra: Go behind the scenes at AMA restaurant in Peru’s Sacred Valley
Backing women-owned companies
Analysis reveals that investing in girls’s financial empowerment has a knock-on impact for bettering poverty, well being and schooling outcomes for total communities.
At Nuna Raymi, an award-winning, women-owned restaurant in Cusco, you’ll dig into artistic spins on Peruvian favourites – suppose cuy (guinea pig) nuggets, trout ceviche and chimichurri quinoa. Proprietor Rocio Zuniga sources all produce from natural household farms and farmers who’re preserving ancestral styles of potato, corn and different indigenous crops, celebrating Peru’s culinary roots whereas selling truthful commerce and regenerative gastronomy. You’ll additionally meet a number of the main-character girls of Cusco’s markets. Cease by an area juice vendor to listen to her story of resilience and the way her entrepreneurship has allowed her to coach her youngsters.
Thimphu Tower Resort within the Bhutanese mountain city of Paro can also be making waves. Proprietor Tshering Wangmo reworked her household residence right into a resort, impressed by her personal battle with not being taken significantly within the hospitality business, and immediately, she’s dedicated to hiring single moms who don’t have formal coaching.
You’ll additionally expertise Bhutanese traditions at Tshering Farmhouse, a female-owned, multi-generational homestay. Right here, you’ll join along with your hosts as you distill your individual Ara (a fermented grain-based spirit that tastes a bit like Japanese sake) earlier than unwinding with an genuine hot-stone bathtub.
Centring girls artisans and their crafts
Conventional textiles tackle an entire new which means whenever you meet the gifted makers working behind the seams. Moreover, who doesn’t wish to take residence a memento that additionally helps girls’s livelihoods?
In Cambodia, the invasive water hyacinth is choking the waterways of Tonle Sap – Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake – and wreaking havoc on the native aquatic life and fishermen. However the girls at Rokhak Ladies Handicraft Centre are turning pests into revenue by harvesting the hyacinth to make luggage and rugs. Watch them flatten, twirl and knot the fibres into place earlier than sitting all the way down to make your individual basket.
However textiles aren’t simply bodily mementos, in addition they maintain centuries of cultural tales. In Bumthang, the religious heartland of Bhutan, meet a number of the gifted custodians of yathra (a handwoven textile constructed from sheep and yak wool) that’s historically handed down from mom to daughter. Hearken to the rhythmic clatter of backstrap looms as the ladies weave yarn into intricately designed rugs, throws and cushions impressed by the encircling Himalayas.
Or sit down with the Ocutuan girls within the Andean highlands for a bracelet-making workshop utilizing historical Inca-weaving strategies. Study which vegetation they use to hand-dye alpaca wool earlier than twisting the yarn into form your self, underneath the watchful eyes of your hosts. You’ll go away with a significant memento and an intimate glimpse into on a regular basis life of ladies locally.
Be part of certainly one of Intrepid’s new Ladies’s Expeditions to Bhutan, Peru and Cambodia.
