My Experience with Sober Travel Retreats

I often get asked, “What is it like to go to a sober retreat?”

I have had many sober retreat experiences, and I’m happy to share my feedback. 

In this blog, I will be reviewing 3 specific retreats: Brave Recovery Coaching, Sober in the City - Zero Proof Experiences, and the SheRecovers Annual Conference. These are three very different experiences with different goals, taken at different points on my alcohol free journey. 

Spoiler alert, they were all fantastic. TLDR.  

My first ever sober retreat was a female hiking retreat in Sedona, AZ hosted by Brave Recovery Coaching. I was an acquaintance of the host, Carrie May, a Certified Recovery Coach and Nurse Practitioner. I had met two other attendees briefly at a previous local event. I didn’t really know anyone, and I really didn’t know what to expect. I was very nervous because I wasn’t friends with any of the attendees. I was basically going alone. I ended up flying and driving...

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A Sober American In Paris

When I was just starting out on my sober journey, I had this voice in my head, Let’s call that voice by name, the Wine Witch. She tried to sabotage me every step of the way. 

When I would see some progress (maybe 4 days of alcohol-free), she would start screaming at me:

 

 “What are you going to do?

Not drink?

Like, really not drink?

Like not even drinking when you get to Paris?

Come on!” 

 

Then the real me would hear that Wine Witch. I would think about sitting at one of those black and white striped woven wicker bistro chairs outside a Parisian cafe, surrounded by women in black berets, leaving red lipstick marks on their long skinny cigarettes, and little fluffy dogs on the ground next to their high-heeled feet, sipping a strong afternoon red or a crisp bubbly champagne from the region. Women living the dream just being fabulous and sitting and sipping from sun up until sundown. Did I want to be part of that? Yes, I did. Could I...

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First Vacation After Quitting Drinking

I am celebrating 2 year sober. 

Looking back, I'd like to tell my fragile newly sober self the lessons I've learned. 

I hope it comforts you to know that ditching the drink is really uncomfortable. 

That doesn't mean you are doing it wrong. 

You won't always feels the discomfort you feel now. 

I'd like to share my first sober vacation with you.  

I was only a month sober when I took my family on a Spring Break beach vacation.

At the time, when I was counting the days, if not hours, being sober.

A month felt like a really long time.

When I started on my quit drinking again experiment,

I didn’t even know if I would make it 5 days without alcohol.

After 30 Days I was ready for the dramatic before and after picture. 

It felt like I changed everything in 30 days. 

Now, after 2 years into this alcohol free life, I know that at 30 days I was still a fragile baby bird, in my sobriety. 

At 30 days sober, after mostly staying...

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