Yes, You Can Find an Alcohol-Free Trip: How to Join the Sober Curious Movement

Featured image: Outdoor yoga is a popular wellness activity when women choose alcohol-free travel, like on a retreat with Dry Tripping Travel | Photo courtesy of Isabel van Zuilen

For alcohol-free women travellers, finding a group trip just got easier

by Teresa Bergen

Nondrinkers can feel trepidatious when signing up for a group trip, wondering how much their fellow travellers are going to drink. If they’re in recovery, they might fear being tempted to relapse. If they don’t drink for other reasons, they may dread obnoxious behaviour and loud late nights.

That’s why Isabel van Zuilen launched Dry Tripping Travel. Her platform brings together alcohol-free trips around the world. Her target audience is people who don’t want to drink on their vacation, whether they’re in addiction recovery, sober curious, or alcohol-free for other personal reasons. “Every retreat on Dry Tripping Travel is alcohol-free by design, not by exception,” Izzy said. “You’re not the odd one out skipping the wine pairing.”

Most of the trips include wellness activities like yoga or hiking. Many have sharing circles or personal development workshops which help groups get to know each other quickly. Whether participants choose a skiing trip in France or a one-on-one wellness retreat in Ecuador, they’re doing it alcohol-free.

The beginnings of the sober curious movement

Izzy quit drinking in May 2019 while she was in her forties and living in Spain. Like many people these days, she sought help online. “I threw myself on Instagram,” she said. “There was a big sober community on there where I met loads of people, which was amazing. Other sober or sober curious women who were interested in not drinking.” But the people in her real life still drank. She craved in-person interactions with other alcohol-free women.

After Covid lockdowns lifted, Izzy launched her own series of sober women’s retreats in Malaga. I attended one last year, and it was sweet and gorgeous—a beautiful rented villa on the beach, sound baths and padel tennis, a private chef for our group, and the delicious nonalcoholic champagne never stopped flowing. It was both relaxing and celebratory.

In 2025, Izzy moved to San Francisco and started Sobertopia, a community for nondrinking women that included both online support and in-person events like walks, cold plunges and coffee meet-ups. But at the same time, she was contemplating something more far-reaching.

“I realized that in 2021 I was one of the few organizations that offered specific alcohol-free trips,” she said. “But now there are so many more available.” She’s gathered that all into one place on Dry Tripping Travel.

What makes a good sober trip?

Not only is Izzy listing trips on her new platform, but she’s vetting them. I asked her how she can evaluate these far-flung offerings, and she said it starts with personal experience. “I’ve spent seven years on Instagram,” she said. “I have loads of Instagram friends, and many of them I’ve met in real life. I’ve been on quite a few sober retreats myself as a guest because I love to go on them. So I know a lot of retreat hosts personally. I know what they have to offer.”

Of course, what makes a good retreat is individual. Some people want more time to relax; some want adventure. Group time versus alone time is another consideration. Izzy includes as much information as possible in her listings, such as sample itineraries, background on the hosts, dietary options that can be accommodated and overall vibe. Each trip description addresses whether the group will be secluded from alcohol, or if some activities will have alcohol around. For example, when I joined Izzy’s own retreat in Malaga, our villa was alcohol-free, but we went out for a meal at a regular restaurant where other people were drinking. She made sure that the restaurant had zero-proof options for us.

“A lot of women reevaluate their relationship with alcohol in their forties and fifties,” Izzy said. “I sure did. A retreat can be the perfect way to try that on, surrounded by people who get it, without having to explain yourself.” That said, some of the trips skew younger. Izzy had a fabulous time at a Lake Tahoe retreat hosted by Laura Bojangles of Your Sober Pal Adventures and didn’t mind that the other guests were under 40. But if this sounds uncomfortable to you, research the hosts to learn about their clientele before committing.

Alcohol-free travel is about connecting

I’ve been on four group trips now for nondrinkers and find that the participants connect quickly and deeply. People in recovery are especially likely to get very real very fast—we obviously haven’t had perfect lives if we had to quit drinking, so why pretend? This makes for a supportive group dynamic and an effort to make space for people going through various mental and emotional processes. It’s not your typical package trip.

Izzy had signed up to go on Payton Kennedy’s Expand Beyond Recovery retreat in Texas. Two weeks before the retreat, Izzy’s father passed away. “I was thinking about cancelling it. But then my husband said maybe it’s the right time to go.” She found a supportive environment that helped her grieve. “It was super intense for me, but that was beautiful.”

In Dry Tripping Travel, Izzy is creating opportunities for nondrinkers to support and uplift each other as they see the world. “Alcohol-free living doesn’t have to mean giving something up and doing it alone,” she said. “That’s really the idea behind Dry Tripping Travel, and everything else I do: making this life feel connected and full, not smaller.”

More on Alcohol-Free Travel