My Honest Wanderful Review: Is This Women’s Travel Community Worth It?
Last Updated on June 9, 2026
I’m a longtime Wanderful member, so yes, I have thoughts. Many thoughts. Possibly enough thoughts to fill a carry-on AND a personal item.
Wanderful turns 13 on May 22, 2026, which feels like the perfect excuse to finally write this review. The organization was incorporated in 2013, after starting as founder Beth Santos’s travel blog in 2009.
I joined Wanderful in 2020, when travel was in a very strange place. By “strange,” I mean many of us were baking bread, canceling trips, and pretending virtual backgrounds counted as international experiences. I even ordered an inflatable flamingo swim ring to wear during virtual cocktail hours, so yes, things were weird.
Since then, I’ve stayed a member, gotten involved locally, served in a leadership role with the Washington DC chapter hub for a while, and gotten to know Beth and several other Wanderful leaders. So this is not a “I joined yesterday and here are my first impressions” review.
This is a “I have been here long enough to know where the snacks are” review.
And the short version is this: Wanderful membership has been worth it for me because it gives me access to travel friends, online programming, local meetups, creator support, and people who don’t glaze over when I start a sentence with, “So when I was in Mexico City…”
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What Is Wanderful?
Wanderful is a women’s travel community for travelers, creators, and travel entrepreneurs who seek to make travel better for women worldwide. Wanderful connects thousands of travel-loving women online and in person, through local events, global meetups, and its signature annual Women In Travel Summit (WITS).
That sounds polished, so let me translate it into real life.
Wanderful is where you go when you want to talk about solo travel, meet women who also plan trips around food markets, ask whether a destination feels manageable alone, find local meetups, learn how to pitch travel brands, or get feedback on your travel business without explaining why travel is your entire personality.
It’s part travel community, part networking space, part professional development hub, and all sisterhood.
Who Is Wanderful For?
Wanderful has three main membership types: Traveler, Creator, and Entrepreneur.
Each one serves a slightly different person, though there is overlap. You may start as a traveler, then realize you want to write about travel, then somehow find yourself pitching brands, building a media kit, and muttering about “deliverables” into your coffee.
It happens.
Traveler Membership
The Traveler membership is best for women who want travel community, local meetups, solo travel support, online events, and access to other women who love travel.
This is the membership I think many people will connect with first. You don’t need to be a blogger, influencer, travel advisor, or business owner. You can simply be a woman who loves to travel and wants more people in your life who understand that.
One of my favorite parts of Wanderful is having built-in travel friends. I love my non-travel friends dearly, but not everyone wants the director’s cut of my latest trip. Wanderful gives me people who actually want to hear about the local food tour, the hotel, the day trip that went slightly sideways, and how I liked the new bag or travel gadget I was auditioning.
Traveler members get access to the member hub, online programming, local hubs, and events. Members can also use the hub for travel tips and resources, discounts, and finding other members nearby.
If you’re interested in solo travel but not quite ready to join, start with Wanderful’s free solo travel toolkit.
Since Wanderful has strong solo travel programming, this is also a good place to mention that I have my own solo travel resources for readers who want extra help planning their first trip, building confidence, or finding practical safety tips.
Creator Membership
The Creator membership is for travel bloggers, freelance writers, influencers, photographers, podcasters, video creators, and anyone building a travel content platform. I’ve been a creator member since I joined, and it’s one of the best things I spend my business expense dollars on.
This is where Wanderful becomes more than a social community. Creator members get programming and resources that help them build their work, pitch better, connect with brands, and learn from other creators.
Wanderful Creator members get access to a creator hub, brand and promotional opportunities, a member discount for WITS, webinars, workshops, and free access to Traveler membership.
From my experience, the Creator programming can be wildly useful. Monthly masterminds for blogging and sponsorship pitching are helpful, but some of the smaller opportunities are the ones that have made me stop and say, “Wait, this is included?”
For example, getting to pitch freelance story ideas directly to a Fodor’s editor for feedback? Unbelievable. That’s the kind of access that usually feels hidden behind three locked doors, a secret handshake, and a LinkedIn message you rewrote eleventy times.
Entrepreneur Membership
The Entrepreneur membership is for travel small business owners, including travel advisors, tour operators, founders, and service providers.
This membership includes access to the traveler, creator, and entrepreneur hubs. Wanderful Entrepreneur members can share business updates with its community of 3,500+ members, including 700+ travel content creators, and attend monthly business masterminds.
The Entrepreneur membership is a better fit if travel is part of your business model and goes beyond the Creator level. It gives members a place to ask questions, promote offerings, get feedback, and learn from other women building travel-related businesses.
Programming includes masterminds for sponsorship pitching, travel agents, tour operators, and other business-focused topics. It is useful if you want peers who understand both the joy and the chaos of working in travel.
My Experience as a Wanderful Member Since 2020
I joined Wanderful in 2020, which was either the worst time to join a travel community or the best time, depending on how you look at it.
No, we were not hopping on planes like usual. But we were craving connection, ideas, support, and proof that travel would still be part of our lives in some form.
Wanderful gave me that. I got a referral code from another creator I followed for a free ticket to that year’s online WITS, and had decided to become a member before the summit was over.
Over time, it became more than another online membership I forgot to cancel. It became a place where I could meet people locally, join conversations online, learn practical skills, and connect with women who were just as excited to talk about travel as I was.
I’m also part of the Washington DC chapter hub, where we have local meetups at least quarterly. I even had a leadership role in the DC chapter for a while, which gave me a closer look at how much work goes into keeping a community active.
(Spoiler: it’s more than picking a restaurant and hoping people show up.)
Local meetups have been one of the best parts of the membership for me. There’s a difference between chatting with people online and sitting across from someone who says, “Oh, I’ve been there. Here’s what I would do differently next time.”
Local Hubs: A Huge Part of the Value
Wanderful has local hubs in 35+ cities worldwide, across North America, Europe, and beyond. The hubs make the membership feel less like a website and more like an actual community.
As a DC member, I appreciate having events close to home. It’s also useful when you are visiting another city and want local insight from women who live there. I’ve met up for dinner with members visiting from out of the area, and even had a photo meetup for DC’s cherry blossom peak bloom with a creator from New York City.
A good local hub can help you:
- Meet other travel-loving women near you
- Get destination advice from locals
- Attend meetups at home or while traveling
- Feel connected between trips
For me, the DC chapter has been one of the strongest reasons to stay involved. Travel friendships are easier to build when you have regular chances to meet people offline, ideally over food, because all good community-building should involve snacks.
Online Programming: More Useful Than You Might Expect
Wanderful also has online programming, which is helpful if you don’t live near an active hub or if your schedule, like mine, looks like it was made by someone who can’t turn down invitations.
For Traveler members, there are monthly meetups for solo travelers, midlife travelers, and 60+ travelers, plus a book club, quarterly new member sessions, and a monthly virtual fireside chat with Beth Santos.
For Creator members, our monthly masterminds include blogging and sponsorship pitching, plus quarterly masterminds for freelance writing pitching and Pinterest strategy. (Sometimes the mastermind topics cycle; before our current meetings with the Senior Strategic Partner Manager of Content Partnerships at Pinterest, we had quarterly sessions with the Community Partner Manager at YouTube Shorts.)
Entrepreneur members have masterminds for sponsorship pitching, travel agents, tour operators, and business-building topics, plus the member hub where small business owners can promote their work and get feedback.
This is one of the main reasons I think Wanderful works better when you actually participate. If you join and never open the hub, never attend an event, and never introduce yourself, you may wonder where the value is.
But if you show up, ask questions, attend sessions, and use the resources, the membership becomes much more useful.
Not sure which membership is the best fit? Start with Wanderful’s membership webinar.
WITS: Wanderful’s Big Travel Creator Event
Wanderful also hosts WITS, the Women in Travel Summit, an industry-leading event for women creators, marketers, and media in travel.
WITS takes place in a different U.S. destination each year, which means it is both a conference and a reason to explore another city. Creator members also get a member discount to the summit.
For creators and travel professionals, WITS is one of the biggest reasons to pay attention to Wanderful. It brings together creators, brands, tourism boards, small businesses, and industry leaders in one place.
Translation: it is a networking event, learning opportunity, reunion, and “wait, I follow you on Instagram” moment all in one.
Travel and Adventure Shows
Wanderful also has in-person programming around several stops of the Travel and Adventure Show each year.
These events usually include a Wanderful booth where members can meet prospective members, a solo travel “tips from the experts” panel featuring members, and a member meetup.
I like this kind of programming because it gives members a casual way to connect without committing to a full conference. You can stop by, meet people, ask questions, and remember that the internet is not the only place where travel people live.
Global Meetups and Trips
Another part of Wanderful that I love is the global meetup model.
I attended the first global meetup in Mexico City for Dia de Muertos, and it was one of those experiences that reminded me why community travel can be so meaningful. You get the structure of a group experience, but with people who are there for the same reason: to connect, learn, and experience a place with care.
Since then, Wanderful global meetups have taken members to places like Prague, Oaxaca, Bogota, India, and even Antarctica.
Yes, Antarctica.
Because apparently some Wanderful members heard “meetup” and thought, “Great, but can we add penguins?”
Respect.
What I Like Most About Wanderful
The biggest reason I have stayed a member is simple: the people.
I like having travel friends who understand why I want to compare itineraries, discuss travel gear, recap a trip, ask for local recommendations, or talk through a story idea.
I also like that Wanderful is useful whether you are traveling for fun, building a creator platform, or running a travel business. The membership can grow with you.
When I joined, I was looking for connection. Over time, I found local community, creator resources, professional opportunities, and people I genuinely enjoy seeing online and in person.
And because I have been involved long enough to know Beth and other leaders, I can say the community is not just a logo and a login page. There are real people behind it who care about making travel better for women.
What to Know Before Joining
Wanderful is not a magic travel fairy godmother.
You won’t join and immediately receive a perfect itinerary, a group of best friends, six brand deals, and a mysteriously upgraded hotel room.
If that membership exists, please send me the link and let’s be besties.
Wanderful works best when you participate: join conversations, attend a virtual meetup or local event, or ask a question in the hub. Even if you just introduce yourself there, even if it feels awkward.
A few things to keep in mind:
- Local hub activity may vary by city.
- Creator and Entrepreneur members will get more value if they treat it like a relationship-building space, not just a resource library.
- You may need to try a few events before you find your corner of the community.
That said, I think the variety is a strength. Some people want travel friends. Some want business help. Some want writing feedback. Some want a meetup where they can talk about travel without apologizing for talking about travel.
And some people, like me, want all of those groups.
Is Wanderful Worth It?
For me, yes.
I joined Wanderful in 2020, and I am still here because it gives me community, practical programming, local connections, and access to people and resources I wouldn’t have found as easily on my own.
Wanderful is worth considering if you want more than travel tips. It’s especially useful if you want community around the way you travel, create, or work in the travel industry.
Join as a Traveler if you want travel friends, local meetups, solo travel support, online events, and a place to ask questions.
Join as a Creator if you’re building a travel blog, writing career, content platform, or brand partnerships.
Join as an Entrepreneur if you own a travel business and want peer support, visibility, feedback, and business-focused programming.
For me, the best part is still the built-in travel community. I have people to meet up with, learn from, and talk to about travel, which is good because my non-travel friends deserve a break from my “one time in Bogota” stories. (Probably.)
Either way, Wanderful gets it.
You can learn more and join here: Wanderful membership
FAQ About Wanderful
No. Wanderful has strong solo travel programming, but it is not only for solo travelers. It is for women travelers, creators, and travel business owners.
No. The Traveler membership is for women who want travel community, local meetups, and online programming. Creator membership is a better fit if you are building travel content.
Wanderful has Traveler, Creator, and Entrepreneur memberships. Traveler is best for community and travel support. Creator adds resources for travel content creators. Entrepreneur is for travel small business owners.
Yes. Wanderful has local hubs in 35+ cities across the U.S. and worldwide, including Washington, DC.
WITS is the Women in Travel Summit, Wanderful’s major event for women travel creators, marketers, media, and travel professionals.
It depends on how you use it. If you want to meet other women travelers, attend events, join online programming, and access creator or business support, Wanderful can be a strong fit.
Wanderful is centered on women travelers, but its community also includes nonbinary and gender-diverse travelers. I’d describe it as a space for women and gender-diverse people who connect with Wanderful’s mission of making travel better, safer, and more equitable.
Not ready for membership yet? Start with Wanderful’s free solo travel toolkit, then check out my resources like tips for solo female travelers and where to go for your first solo trip for more practical planning help.
