Traveling solo as a woman can be both exciting and intimidating. In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, I chat with Vanessa Karel, founder of Greether, a travel tech company that connects solo female travelers with trusted local women around the world. Vanessa shares how a personal experience in Morocco led her to create a platform that now serves women in over 1,000 cities across 100+ countries. If you’ve ever wanted to explore on your own but felt unsure about your safety, this episode is for you.
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Vanessa and Greether:
Website - https://greether.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/greetherhere/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/greet.her/
X - https://x.com/Greether_app
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/greether
Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@greet.her
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon | Castbox
______________________________
Sponsored by Berries: Say goodbye to the burden of mental health notes with automated note and treatment plan creation! https://heyberries.com/therapists
Sponsored by Alma: Managing a private practice can be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn — from navigating the credentialing process, to managing finances, to finding new clients. That’s where Alma can help. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. https://helloalma.com/kym
______________________________
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Traveling Therapist podcast. Really excited to have our guest today. She's not a therapist, but she has the coolest story and the most amazing company. I cannot wait to tell you everything she's doing. Her name's Vanessa Carell.
[00:00:15] Vanessa, I'm so excited to have you here today. I would love if you would just open up and just share what brings you here today. Tell us about your business and what you do, and let's just dig into it.
[00:00:25] Vanessa: thank you so much for having me on your podcast. It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Vanessa Carll and I'm the founder of Greet Her. Greet her is a travel company that I created to help women travel safer and to have someone trustworthy that you can book wherever you go. It's almost like hiring a local best friend where are you traveling to show you around.
[00:00:48] And so the whole story began after I started traveling solo a lot. And I realized after having a really scary situation happened to me in 2020 in Morocco that there was not a service dedicated to help women navigate the world with fewer risks. And I really wanted to connect with local women and I couldn't find a way to do it easily.
[00:01:10] And I kept looking you know, on Google, like, Hey, is there something like this? I kept asking people around on female travel forums and I realized that I wasn't alone in looking for a service like this and that over 90% of women have said that their number one concern when they're traveling is their safety.
[00:01:29] And how to, remain confident even in places that aren't as, you know, welcoming to women traveling solo. So this whole journey, you know, began out of a personal need. But then I quickly on, I discovered that most women resonated with what we were building.
[00:01:47] Kym: That is amazing. This resonates for me on so many levels. One, being a traveling therapist. I luckily have a partner that I travel with, but I often, when I talk to people on the podcast that are like women by themselves in just some random country, I'm like, I don't even know if I'd have the courage to do it really, you know, to just go by myself.
[00:02:05] Just like travel the world like that. Like they're so brave to me. and that's what always comes up. It's like, you know, it's scary, it seems scary, to just travel and be alone. And what if something happens?
[00:02:15] Like, I don't know, if you talk about what happened in Morocco, I, I'd probably love to just hear about it tangentially if you'd wanna share on like how you got help and what you did, and then, you know, let's talk more about the service and all the nuances of it, because I also love the entrepreneurial aspect of what you're doing.
[00:02:32] Part of what we talk about on this podcast is entrepreneurship, because most of us basically are small business owners, the traveling therapists, you know, we own our own private practices. A lot of us have other businesses, other income streams, and almost always our products, our offerings, they come out of some sort of pain point that we've had in our own lives.
[00:02:52] So I think it's just super interesting to hear your story about, you know, gosh, something actually happened to me and it didn't go so well. And then it prompted me to wanna create this thing to help keep people safe. Like, I think that's amazing.
[00:03:03] Vanessa: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that you're right. A lot of women are scared to travel solo and that was one of the things, you know, I've completely been the opposite of that since I was very young. I started traveling when I was 17, but I'm Mexican and in the Latina culture that is very unheard of, you know, the first time you tell people I'm traveling solo, they look at you like something's wrong with you.
[00:03:24] They're like, do you need therapy? You know? So it's kind of funny and like, I think it took my parents a while, especially 'cause they were worried for me. And, you're always wondering like, is she gonna be okay?
[00:03:35] And so what happened to me was like, I was supposed to arrive to Marrakesh in the middle of pandemic when all the, you know, you remember the pandemic in 2020, how everything was just completely getting outta control travel wise and health wise, right?
[00:03:49] But anyways uh, I had a, I had got stuck in Morocco and I didn't intend to be at the place that I landed in. I landed in Casablanca and instead of arriving at 3:00 PM with someone greeting me, literally at the airport and take me to my hotel, I got detoured to Casablanca arriving at midnight without a hotel without no plans and without knowing anybody there.
[00:04:13] So all I kept doing was looking through my contacts because I travel often to see if I knew someone there. And I just didn't know anybody there, you know? And I just wanted to have some reassurance that I would be okay if the taxi driver was gonna be able to communicate with me in English and mean, turns out, not really, you know.
[00:04:30] So long story short, I had a few scary situations throughout my trip in Morocco that made me feel really upset and like, just kind of tired. Like, I wanna just be able to feel free to go wherever I want without having men follow me or harass me, or being scared to get kidnapped, you know?
[00:04:49] And I kept looking for female tour guides and I just couldn't find them. But it wasn't until I had a really cute story and kind of like. One of the things that sparked the idea of greet her when after several weeks of traveling through a Morocco I was just tired of the harassment and things like that.
[00:05:07] And so I asked my hotel host if they could send someone to greet me at the train station where I was gonna arrive, and they sent this beautiful Moroccan lady her name is Fatima, and she did not speak one word of English.
[00:05:21] Kym: Oh my goodness.
[00:05:21] Vanessa: So, but it was the most amazing experience because she was so excited to meet me at the train station and show me around her city.
[00:05:29] And we communicated through science the few words I know in Dja, which is the Moroccan language. A few words she knew in English and some Google translate, but she showed me around her city. She took photos of me, she dressed me in her clothes, and it was just the most magical experience ever.
[00:05:45] And I was like, oh my God, what if I could do this and replicate this in multiple cities? And that is what we do. Greet her is now available in over a thousand cities. In over a hundred countries. We have served many travelers who are booking women because first of all, they wanna connect with local women.
[00:06:05] Second of all, they wanna feel more confident. And also it's a great way to support the local economy of women. So we have been named as one of the most innovative female empowerment companies globally by the UN world tourism because we are supporting local women, and this is one of the most sustainable ways you can travel as a woman and also have personalized experience and be safer too.
[00:06:34] Kym: Yes. Oh my gosh. That is amazing. What an amazing story. Now, does she know that you modeled your entire company off of the wonderful experience you had with her when? When she picked you up that day?
[00:06:46] Vanessa: no, I mean, it was not just her, but like, she's one of the stories and I would love to meet her again and have her out the reader for sure.
[00:06:53] Kym: That is amazing. so I wanna hear all about it. Like, I would love to just have a walkthrough, like somebody like me. Let's say I reach out to you, I guess, through the website and say, I'm gonna be traveling to Morocco during these dates. Walk me through what, the process looks like for somebody that a female traveler that's trying to do this.
[00:07:10] Vanessa: uh, we're a travel tech company, so it's very, we have tried to make it as easy as possible. You literally go on greether.com and you browse through the locations we have. We have a search, you can put Marakesh or Peru, Lima, or Mexico City. You insert the city where you're going to, and then if it doesn't show up, it means that we don't have someone there.
[00:07:32] But we have creators in over a thousand cities and, and top of the, most of the most visited destinations. So usually we'll have someone where you're going to but if not, if it's something very niche, you can, send us our requests to find you someone, but it has to be like, your trip shouldn't be tomorrow, right?
[00:07:51] We
[00:07:51] Kym: yeah, you need a little time.
[00:07:53] Vanessa: Yeah, we need some time and for us to make sure that this is a destination where we would get more recurring travelers. If we make sense for us, we definitely will help you get someone there. But if not, I mean, as I said, just go and search and then it shows you the pricing based on how many hours and how many travelers.
[00:08:11] I started greet her for solo travelers, but now we do groups of women traveling together. So you can go away with your girlfriends or we also have moms who are traveling with their kids. For example, right now we have a traveler who's traveling with her son. I think he's like seven or eight, I'm not sure.
[00:08:26] And they're going to Shanghai and then Tokyo, you know, and I think they're going somewhere else after. So it really depends on what you wanna make it. But you can go with your girlfriends or your sister or your mom. We do groups up to six of women traveling together at once. Then the pricing varies according to the destination and the number of travelers and the number of hours.
[00:08:47] The least you can book at greeters two and a half hours. That's kind of great, like, to have a quick intro of the city. And then once you make your booking, you tell us what you're interested in doing there and where everything's very personalized to you. So we are one of the only services in the world that's completely designed towards women in mind.
[00:09:08] And so we know that as a woman, we want comfort. We wanna make sure that things are, you know, like shaped around who we are. So you tell us where you want her to meet you at. So most cases travelers are selecting to be met at like the hotel or airbnb or even a train station in some cities, we even allow airport meetups.
[00:09:30] So you have someone like when you land, literally take you almost by the hand to show you how to use public transportation, how to get around, which neighborhoods to visit, and you tell us what you're interested in doing there. That's very important, right? Because Kim, you probably are interested in other things I'm not, and vice versa.
[00:09:48] So you tell us, Hey, I'm going to Paris because I watched this movie and I really wanna go see this neighborhood. Or I'm going to Istanbul and I'm an artist and I only wanna do artistic things and I wanna see artists or murals.
[00:10:00] So the greeter receives this information once you're matched. She already knows this, and the best part is that you are connected to her before your trip begins. You have the most questions before so this is like a great way for you to get, kind of like a on demand friend that you're texting abroad.
[00:10:19] Like, Hey, should I bring a jacket right now in Europe? Like, definitely not. It's really hot, Or should I get a taxi from the airport to the hotel? Like, and they recommend, you know, like, no, actually just take the metro or. The buses are better. You know, I travel a lot. I've traveled to over 40 countries on my own and I still use Greet Her it's so valuable, even as a very experienced traveler, it's a great way to get like the local insights and people could argue you could get this from ChatGPT or Google.
[00:10:47] It is so different, to ask someone who actually lives there and is there day to day. Little nuances, you know? So yeah, that's pretty much how it works. And then once you arrive your greeter meets you, greets you literally and accompanies you throughout an experience that you both have agreed on, and you go together and have fun.
[00:11:07] Kym: that sounds so amazing. And could you potentially like book them every day of the week, the whole time you're like, if you're there for a week and just have them escort you along to all these different excursions and whatnot.
[00:11:17] Vanessa: have that happen a lot, and especially with senior female travelers or women who are traveling with their, kids or even the younger travelers who just are doing their first trip on their own and their parents are like, I need this for my daughter. Like, and they book them for them, you know?
[00:11:34] So yes, absolutely we have. Many occasions where they, we have multiple days where the greeter is with them, and if the greeter's not available all of the days, then we match you with another one alternative. But usually we try to accommodate you with the same person so you like build that relationship.
[00:11:50] And most times we see friendships being made too. You know, the greeters and the travelers connect so well and they bond and it's lovely. It's so beautiful to see that.
[00:12:00] Kym: so it's kind of like a matchmaking thing too. Like you kind of assess personality and, and traits that the person likes and kind of, I guess, you know, your greeters and what they like to do, and then you can match 'em that way.
[00:12:10] Vanessa: Yeah, absolutely. For example, we had um, traveler this past week in London who really wanted to learn about black history and how that has shaped London. And so we we reached out to our graders there to see who resonate with that and. We matched her with someone who knew very well about, you know, the neighborhoods about this topic and like how it could make a more enriching experience for the traveler.
[00:12:36] And the traveler was so happy that she booked her another day because she was like, I wanna learn more about this. So we try to match make as much as possible. But of course the first priority is that they're available on the date and the time you want them. You know, it's for you.
[00:12:49] Kym: Yes. Yes, definitely. So I, I'm super curious, like, how do you find the greeters? How do you vet them are they like local tour guides already? I'm just like curious, how does that process work?
[00:13:00] Vanessa: That's a great question. So we prioritize female tour guides, but unfortunately in the world there is not many and. That is one of the reasons why we call them greeters and not guides, is because we wanted to open it to local women who could also offer a great experience and you know, not necessarily need to be a, guide.
[00:13:21] Because we're not necessarily selling what tour guides usually sell, which is like the history of this place, and if Kim goes tomorrow, she'll get the same story. You know, if I go to today, I'll get the same story you'll get. Like, that's too boring for us.
[00:13:36] Kym: Yeah, I totally resonate with that. I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
[00:13:40] Vanessa: And like, that's already done well, if that's you want, you can find that, you know? But what we want is just local women who have experience in tourism. Or customer service or have in some way been part of a the tourism industry or express interest in it, and they must speak English and they must go through a verification process. We have a software integrated to Greet Her that verifies user persona.
[00:14:06] Makes sure that they're not in any blacklist. We don't need them to be um, make sure that their ID matches. And then also they have to go through an onboarding interview with our team. And so every time they have that we have a new greet, we make sure that they are actually a good fit. it's free to apply, but of course they have to go through all these screening.
[00:14:25] And as a traveler, you also have to go through verification. But this is more similar to a ride sharing app where you verify yourself, you know, because we wanna make sure that we are covering both sides of our marketplace.
[00:14:37] Kym: Yeah, keeping them safe too, the greeters, I would imagine. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Wow, that's so interesting to me. 'cause I, you know, I'm thinking about the traveling therapist, right? A lot of them are all over the world and a lot of them are really burned out, you know, burned out being therapists.
[00:14:51] So, hearing you talk about this, I'm like, they probably would find that pretty cool too, to be able to like, do something like this. You know, therapists are, good socializers and, like to help people and all of that, you know?
[00:15:01] So I was just thinking might be interesting, you know, for a traveling therapist that's burned out and it's, 'cause I, all the time we're posting the traveling therapist group, people are like, I'm tired of being a therapist.
[00:15:10] What else can I do? You know, so hearing this, I'm like, oh, that's really interesting. And a lot of 'em live all over the world, so,
[00:15:17] Vanessa: Yes. I forgot to mention they must have lived there at least eight months. We prioritize one year and 'cause we don't want our travelers to arrive to a greeter and the greeters getting lost or still figuring out the city, or doesn't understand how the city works. So I think we have that range, you know, like.
[00:15:35] You must have a least now feel like a local really. And experts are great greeters because they understand what it's like to arrive to a new place, and they see the city with a completely different, you know, perspective than a native local, you know?
[00:15:50] So we do encourage your listeners if they resonate with all of the things that I just mentioned to apply to be a greeter, but also to just greet her as a, as they're traveling, right? Because it's a great way to get introduced to a city. It doesn't have to be necessarily touristic stuff. You can also say, Hey, I'm moving to Barcelona. I wanna find out which neighborhood is better for me to live in. Or I wanna find the place where it has the best gym. Or like, things like this, you know?
[00:16:19] Many students, for example, or digital nomads who use great her for that reason, like as an introduction to a place. And it's also like a, a hack to make your first friend in that place too, you know?
[00:16:30] Kym: Oh, that's so smart. Yeah. so somebody like me would just like build a profile, I guess, on greet her. Is that how it, okay.
[00:16:37] Vanessa: Yeah. You create your own profile on greether.com and you tell us what your interests are, and if you have an upcoming trip, you can tell us about that. But you don't have to necessarily be traveling to be part of the community right away. And then you know, we also host meetups and workshops and things like that and events throughout the year.
[00:16:58] So it's good to be part of the community. If this is something that resonates with you, it's completely free to sign up.
[00:17:03] Kym: Oh, that is amazing. I can't wait to sign up
[00:17:06] Vanessa: Yeah.
[00:17:07] Kym: to, and just see what all you offer. I mean, it just sounds really cool and it seems like you'd have like really the inside scoop on resources, like you said, like gym or, you know, I like to make pottery. Like maybe you know about a pottery studio in Morocco that, you know, that maybe is off the beaten path. Like that kind of thing. Yeah.
[00:17:24] Vanessa: Absolutely.
[00:17:25] Kym: That is amazing. So the keeping them safe, I really like that part too. That's really a big thing, and I mean, it sounds like you've got these security checks and all of that. And would the greeter like go with you on, public transportation or they just like, here's how you use the bus, or is it like a whole like, full service, like, I'm just gonna go with you all day and walk you through this process and then when we're done, you're just gonna know how to do all this kind of thing?
[00:17:47] Vanessa: No, they'll come with you. That's why you're paying them for, for that, right? You pay them to go with you. Of course we encourage using public transportation for sustainable reasons. But if the traveler wants to hire private transportation, she, she's more than welcome to.
[00:18:01] But in most cases, you know, the greeters and the travelers are walking a lot. That's what you do when you travel, right? Like you walk and use some public transportation. So it really depends on how you make it.
[00:18:11] And the safety aspect, it really is reducing safety risk. There's no one company in the, in the world that can ensure you a hundred percent safety. Right. But I kept seeing, I mean, scenarios where, you know, people had to trust. there's something I call a travel luck. And I've had luck. I have many luck throughout my trips. Thankfully. But how do you replicate that? And I think that's what Greet Her enables you to be able to trust strangers, right?
[00:18:39] Because we're doing all the work that we can. As much as we can, to know that this is someone you can trust right when you're abroad, because when you're traveling, you get approached by people. And if you're a woman by yourself especially, you don't know what the intentions behind sometimes they are, right?
[00:18:57] At least we're putting filters here and like that gives a lot of peace of mind. You as a therapist know, you know, these are kind of like setting up yourself for success to have a, kind of like a relaxing experience, right? So it's, I think Greet Her is more like comfort and peace of mind and just like feel good vibes.
[00:19:15] You know? It's like I know I have someone who will answer when I arrive. Sometimes you're traveling to the other side of the world and by the time you text people back home, they're sleeping right. Time differences. Well, at least you have someone there who's like, Hey, oh my God. You know, my, the last bus left and like, I don't know what to do.
[00:19:36] I'm in the middle Istanbul, like, what should I, so you have someone to reach out to. That for me was like the game changer. And like now my little sister travels solo and I remember her first solo trip. I was just like. So at least, you know, it's like she's gonna have a greeter, like I can chill, you know, sit back.
[00:19:53] And I think my parents love that. I feel greet her, you know, too. And now I see parents using, greet her for their kids, for their daughters, and it's so beautiful. But also the aspect of having, we've had travelers up to 80 years old, traveling solo it's amazing because when you, when you get older, the way you travel is different.
[00:20:13] You have mobility issues sometimes or you wanna slow travel. And so we have the most amazing travelers, who are so adventurous no matter what their age is, and they're finding Greet Her to be just a great resource, you know, and add on to their experiences.
[00:20:30] Kym: Oh my gosh. What an amazing service you've created.
[00:20:33] Vanessa: Thank you, Kim.
[00:20:33] Kym: It's really, really cool. So are there any like, um, I know your ears to the ground. I'm just wondering like what are travel trends right now? Or are there any like, activities that people are just loving right now that maybe my listeners would be like, oh my gosh, I would love to go to, you know, Morocco and do this experience that one of your other clients has already done, that kind of thing.
[00:20:52] Vanessa: I think trends, yeah. Are happening for sure. Italy still remains to be the most booked for us. And, but I keep talking about mass tourism and how important it is to be aware of, you know, like not overcrowding places. And so there's so many other destinations where we have greeters. We have greeters in Tanzania.
[00:21:13] We have greeters in Estonia. We have greeters in some parts of Asia that are more undiscovered, you know. We have travelers who have gone to Machu Picchu with their greeter. We've had travelers who've gone to Bolivia. So like it really, you know, there's a world of opportunities. But I think what I've seen is a lot of slower travel is happening, which I love.
[00:21:36] Slow traveling is like, not just, you know, and I say this as I just came back from a multi-country hopping europe, but it's exhausting. It's literally exhausting and you need a lot of time after to process. And I think slow travel for those, you've never heard the term, it just means really just focusing on one region and staying there for as much as you can instead of packing multiple destinations.
[00:22:03] I try to do that at least once a year. I'm now happily married, but I still travel solo even though I have a partner and at least once a year I do a trip that's now for work in which I try to go to a new place and slow travel and just like rent on Airbnb or whatever and just stay grounded.
[00:22:22] And it's so different. That experience is so different to when you go for like two days to Paris, right? It's like, oh, you just see the Eiffel Tower
[00:22:30] Kym: everything. You gotta rush
[00:22:31] Vanessa: and you're out. You don't really get to see what the day to day life is and starts noticing the little challenges that people are facing every day there.
[00:22:41] And then we're, we're seeing slow travelers using Greet Her and it's beautiful. You know? It's awesome to see that because. Is also a great way to, you know, get to know about a cultural way more, you know? And you travel a lot too, right? Kim? Do. Is that
[00:22:55] Kym: Yeah, we're all over the place for sure. But I love this idea and I like the slow travel too. And we're more and more the more we do it, the more like slowly we're doing things we used to just try to rush through. But it is exhausting, you know? It's like, oh my gosh, I just need a month.
[00:23:09] Just, I don't care where, just like recoup like all my energy and just like get my bearings back, you know, sometimes. 'cause it can be really discombobulating, you know. Well, thank you for coming on and sharing this.
[00:23:22] definitely this is a game changer for somebody like me that's kind of scared to do solo travel. I mean, admittedly, I say it on this podcast all the time, like, I'm always in amazement when people are just like, oh, I've been, I've been off for six years by myself in like 40 countries or whatever.
[00:23:34] It's just. It still blows my mind, so I love that something like this is available to us women travelers. Yeah.
[00:23:41] Vanessa: I think once you do it, you're gonna be surprised. And I recommend solo traveling for all women because it gives you a sense of realizing that you don't need anybody but yourself to find these really fulfilling moments. And it really is like the full expression of freedom.
[00:24:02] And you have to be okay with who you are as yourself and like, like yourself and hanging out with yourself and make, you have to make so many decisions on your own, which can be tiring sometimes. But once you start traveling solo, there's no coming back. Like you're like, oh my God. And I love it.
[00:24:18] Kym: not done this already?
[00:24:19] Vanessa: Yes. And I hope you do. One day, I really hope you,
[00:24:23] Kym: I I definitely have been thinking I need to just take like a month somewhere and just do it. Yeah.
[00:24:28] Vanessa: Yeah, absolutely. You'll, you'll be excited after that.
[00:24:32] Kym: Well, thanks so much for taking the time today. I really appreciate you coming and telling us about Greet Her.
[00:24:36] Vanessa: thank you, Kim, for the space and you know, I think, traveling, it really is therapeutic and it's like really fulfilling and you really do look inwards. You know, it's one of the times where you have to like. Really focus on your own thoughts and like what's happening and you learn about yourself so much.
[00:24:54] So I really recommend it as a therapist or just a regular person. I think it's really, it's magical you traveling as a whole, but like solo traveling especially.
[00:25:04] Kym: That's amazing. Thank you so much.