Creating travel experiences for people that don’t drink

Like all projects, We Love Lucid started out as nothing more than an idea; a mere suggestion, in fact, made by my half-Peruvian, half-Italian friend Miguel during a Workaway stint in Ronda, Spain. Ronda with its electric blue skies, quaint architecture and striking mountain scenery has the capacity to inspire even the most uninspired of us. It came as no surprise to discover that Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles created some of their best works there. “Why don’t you create travel experiences for people that don’t drink?”, said Miguel, eager to hear my response. Although I liked the concept, my first thought was, “How can I make this not seem lame?”. At the time I had been

sober for two years having quit booze while living and working in South Korea. I ended up in Spain after an epic bucket list journey I’d taken from Korea to Europe, all funded with the money I’d saved from partying. At that time the huge online sober movement didn’t exist as it does today. I wondered if the world was ready for a sober travel company, and could I create a brand that conveyed the positive impact that sober travel had on my life. As the weeks and months passed, my vision of alcohol-free group travel became clearer, and We Love Lucid started to take shape. I wanted to create a light and invigorating vibe; one where travellers could create new and positive experiences and could connect meaningfully with others on their wavelength.

Six months after my initial chat with Miguel, I moved to Ronda, got to work on the website and launched my first three trips in 2019. What surprised me about those first few trips was how quickly and deeply everyone bonded. I soon realised that it was the connection to others with a similar lived experience that would make the trips such a life-changing experience. This was my motivation for persevering during the travel restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic. I felt that I had uncovered something that could genuinely enrich people’s lives and I would try my utmost to see it through. Fast forward to 2022, We Love Lucid has been featured in NY Times, all major UK newspaper publications, Nat Geo and CNN Travel. Apart from the obvious sense of achievement this brings me, what we’re witnessing here is sobriety hitting the mainstream, which is fantastic as far as I’m concerned. The future is bright for sober travel as more people embrace sobriety and change their perspective about what it really means to live life to the fullest. As for me, I’m continuing to chase that which makes my heart sing. Now almost seven years sober, I’ve decided to write my sober story on Substack, something which I’ve felt compelled to do for eons. If you take anything from reading this article today, understand that no matter how flawed and broken you feel, not only is change possible but when you dare to dream big, small conversations become a reality.