Well… this pivot wasn’t on my bingo card

Hi friends,

I’ve been meaning to get my monthly newsletter out, but it’s been a little chaotic over here. As much as I’d love to be writing about recent travels and sending you my travel favorites, I want to give you a real update on my upcoming Jordan group trip.

This one is hard.

When I first put this trip together, it felt like everything had come full circle. I remember standing at Ajloun Castle in northern Jordan when a man selling tea told me,

“You’ll be back. I can feel it.”

It stayed with me, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. I started planning an epic trip with TourHero. I really put my heart and soul into this.

Then this trip sold out, after marketing it all summer and fall.

Thirteen women said yes to traveling with me to Jordan. I was excited. Honestly, I was proud. It felt like something I had been working toward for a long time was actually happening. As a military spouse who moves constantly, this felt like the beginning of something tangible, something that could move with me from base to base, overseas or not.

And then the situation in the region changed.

I’m not going to pretend this is about fear of Jordan itself. It’s not. Jordan is an incredible country.

What changed for me was everything around it.

I found myself in the middle of conflicting information. Government advisories painting a grim picture. Meanwhile, the platform I partnered with reassured me that it is safe on the ground (because you know the other influencer they worked with recently said it was)

The local operator is ready to move forward and receive guests.

Meanwhile, my group is split—some still want to go, some don't, and others just want clear answers so they can make a decision.

And that’s where everything has broken down...

I started asking questions that, as a host, I shouldn’t have to navigate alone:
What happens if flights stop operating?
What happens if borders close?
What happens if people get stuck?

I haven't gotten clear, aligned answers. So now some of my group feel like they are forced to go.

And that’s the part I can’t ignore.

So as of right now, I’ve made the decision to pull all of my group tours with TourHero while I reassess how I move forward. You'll no longer find any of the tours listed on my website.

If you have reserved a spot on any of my upcoming trips to Iceland, Portugal, or the Dolomites, please keep an eye on your inbox for next steps.

I can’t in good faith move forward without clear contingency plans and a structure that actually supports travelers if something changes like this, or at least a little bit of empathy and guidance with a clear protocol moving forward.

I also want to say this plainly:

I’m sad. I feel like I spend most of my time being that resilient military spouse and just need to "soldier on"....

I worked hard on this. I cared about it. And it’s difficult to watch something you built shift so quickly because of things completely out of your control. I feel like I am back at square one.

At the same time, I’m not going to ignore what’s happening in the region. There are real people and families impacted. Lives are being lost, and people are being displaced. That breaks my heart.

As a military spouse, this hits close to home. My community is being pulled into something that many of us hoped we wouldn’t see again.

That’s a lot to process.

Lastly, if I could give you any advice at all for the rest of the year:

Please take travel insurance seriously. Look into the details. Understand what is and isn’t covered. If you can, look into Cancel For Any Reason coverage.

(thankfully, most of my participants had travel insurance, but are running into some roadblocks.)

Because when things shift, and they can, you don’t want to be figuring that out after the fact. Buy that travel insurance immediately, and call them when things start to break down.

I’ll be sharing more soon about future trips and how I’m approaching them differently.

Thank you for being here and trusting me while I figure this out.

Best,
Kimberly

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