Wanderfest is just around the corner! In case you missed it, in March 2022 we’ll be heading to New Orleans for the world’s first outdoor travel festival for women. Get all the details for Wanderfest and join us for an inspiring, fun-filled weekend in this iconic city.
Eager to start celebrating and packing the best travel gear? Check out this curated list of New Orleans gifts and travel gear inspired by Wanderfest to add a little extra spark to your travel festival experience.
At Wanderfest, you can visit our Celebrate Women Marketplace, Period Tent, and our Global Beauty Tent to meet these (and more!) vendors in person. We’re also featuring some of our main stage performers and speakers who are doing awesome things!
Get excited, it’s almost Wanderfest time!!!
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Gifts to Get Ready for Wanderfest in New Orleans
1. First, Get Your Wanderfest Tickets!
The world’s first outdoor travel festival for women is happening on 12-13 March 2022, in New Orleans! Join hundreds of travel lovers from around the world for a weekend filled with inspiring speakers, live music, engaging conversations, and a soul sisterhood that will last you a lifetime.
2. And Then Book a Room for You & a Friend
Coming to Wanderfest couldn’t be easier! We have a block of rooms reserved at a discounted rate at a few different hotels nearby, so you can make the most of the camaraderie of Wanderfest by staying local.
Book for yourself or with friends to enjoy all that New Orleans and Wanderfest have to offer.
3. Give the Gift of Sisterhood with Wanderful
Do you know a wonderful woman who loves to travel? Then give her the perfect gift, a Wanderful Traveler membership, and use it to connect with other travel-loving women, join for virtual events, take advantage of special deals and discounts, and get free access to chapter events worldwide!
Now, before you start shopping, set the mood with our Women Who Travel radio station on Pandora!
Learn About + Support New Orleans Culture
4. Read & Learn from Walking Raddy by Kim Vaz-DeVille
Since 2004, the Baby Doll Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans has gone from an obscure, almost-forgotten practice to a flourishing cultural force. The original Baby Dolls were groups of black women, and some men, in the early Jim Crow era who adopted the New Orleans street masking tradition as a unique form of fun self-expression against a backdrop of racial discrimination.
This book is made up of essayists who draw on interviews, theoretical perspectives, archival material, and historical assessments to describe women’s cultural performances that take place on the streets of New Orleans. They recount the history and contemporary resurgence of the Baby Dolls while delving into the larger cultural meaning of the phenomenon.
Over 140 color photographs and personal narratives of immersive experiences provide passionate testimony of the impact of the Baby Dolls on their audiences. Fifteen artists offer statements regarding their work documenting and inspired by the tradition as it stimulates their imagination to present a practice that revitalizes the spirit.
5. Cook with Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa M. Martin
Chef Melissa Martin is on a mission to save the Cajun food she grew up with in Southern Louisiana. Mosquito Supper Club, which shares a name with Martin’s New Orleans restaurant, is a celebration of Cajun people and their recipes. Between recipes for shrimp boulettes and smothered okra, you’ll find stunning photos and stories of the fishers and farmers who continue to work and adapt as coastal erosion and rising water levels threaten the region.
Martin will give you a new appreciation for fresh seafood – and show you how to transform all those dried beans into countless comforting meals.
6. Feed the Second Line
Do you love the culture of New Orleans? Become a monthly donor of Feed the Second Line and help them build up support for the culture creators of New Orleans. Your support is love and can help fortify and preserve the city’s amazing culture.
Feed the Second Line is building a stronger safety net for New Orleans culture and creating opportunities for those who make our city a vibrant place to live and visit.
7. Donate to the Bayou Fund
The Bayou Fund is a fundraiser for some of the parishes outside New Orleans hardest hit by Hurricane Ida. The campaign is run by Chef Melissa Martin, whose hometown is Chauvin, Louisiana, and whose cookbook features “Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou”. From providing hot food to water, gas, and so much more, this is an ongoing recovery effort that you can support from anywhere in the world!
Book New Orleans Experiences & Fun!
8. Take a Bounce Fitness Class with MoeJoe!
Join MoeJoe for a 30-minute danceout guaranteed to help you burn calories while teaching you to twerk and do a 2-step for the party. All dance levels are welcome to try!
This is a virtual class, which means you and your friends can join in on the fun from anywhere. A fun way to work out? Count us in!
9. Listen to the Songbird of New Orleans: Robin Barnes
With a voice that is as powerful with a whisper as it is with a bellow, contemporary New Orleans jazz singer Robin Barnes is here to stun audiences. Robin grew up surrounded by jazz sounds, as made evident by a #5 debut on the Traditional Jazz Albums Billboard charts in 2016, but her current sound, Robin Barnes & the Fiya Birds, is more Chaka Khan meets Ella Fitzgerald.
10. Take Virtual Workshops/Classes with Nana Sula
Nana Sula was initiated in Ghana, West Africa in 2007 at the Shrine of Impohema and has studied the mysteries of Ghana since 1992. She is currently conducting virtual workshops and classes on radical healing, honoring the divine mothers, and more!
Nana Sula is also available for house/business blessings, readings, spiritual cleansings, libations and prayers, marriage and naming ceremonies, baby christenings, spiritual counseling, spiritual baths, burial rites and funerals, spiritual workshops, retreats, sacred circles, orisha music workshops, sacred paintings, and beadwork.
Pack for Your Trip to New Orleans
11. Score Stylish Travel Accessories from Ms. Jetsetter
Grab yourself some stylish, high-quality, and yet affordable travel accessories. From a jewelry wallet to a hanging toiletries bag, convenience and customers are at the heart of these products from Ms. Jetsetter.
This is exactly what you need to pack well for a fabulous Wanderfest experience!
12. Save the Planet with Redbudsuds
Redbudsuds is a company out to help the environment one shower at a time! They have thoughtfully produced a 4-in-1 shower bar that includes shampoo, conditioner, body, and shave soap! Created especially to inspire you to go beyond a thoughtfully clean shower into living a thoughtfully clean life.
Their shower bars eliminate preservatives, parabens, phthalates, plastic packaging, trips to the recycling bin, and explosions in your suitcase or backpack. They only use only real, recognizable ingredients that are mostly organic and local when they can find them. You’ll never see palm oil on Redbudsuds ingredient deck.
Made in Ohio, they opt for a local, sustainably produced alternative, a pure locally sourced lard taken from grandma’s recipe (how cool!). The list of great qualities is endless but for every sale, one percent goes to conservation, too!
13. Pack a Travel-Friendly Towel from DryFoxCo
The towel that every traveler needs for any and every adventure! The travelPOUCHtowel air dries within minutes, they’re easy to pack, and the best part is they have a water-resistant pocket to store all your valuables in!
With different sizes and bright prints, DryFoxCo has a style to match you. You just can’t go wrong with this travel-friendly gift!
14. Wear Women-Centered Sports Apparel from Tonik Cycling
Tired of feeling frumpy in your sports gear? That’s how the founders of Tonik Cycling felt when they started prepping for their first 100-mile bike ride and found nothing but jerseys that fit like cut-down men’s tops in the same old colors. Nobody wants that!
They were inspired to create a women’s bike jersey that would fit not only cyclists but real women, too. Whether you’re a pro, cycling for fun, or not at all, Tonik has a huge range of clothing to suit your needs.
15. Pack a Travel Scarf from Waypoint Goods
Waypoint Goods is all about empowering women to travel and designing the perfect travel accessories to make that happen!
It all started with the Travel Scarf. This infinity scarf with a hidden zipper pocket became a fan favorite and has accompanied women to all 7 continents! Thousands of women have used the hidden zipper pocket to keep their passport, keys, wallet, and other essentials safe and secure! Worrying about pickpockets is a thing of the past while you stroll around looking like a local instead of a tourist.
16. Buy Intentionally from Threads Worldwide
Threads partners with artisans around the world to create a growing market for their handmade goods. By partnering with artisan cooperatives and businesses, they create dignified jobs for women who need them. Through the fair trade of artisan jewelry, women from Uganda to Ecuador have watched their dreams become a reality: dreams of sending their children to school, accessing healthcare, and making their homes safer.
In the United States, Threads Worldwide invites women to launch their own social impact business as Threads Socialpreneurs. Together with Threads Hosts who open their homes to host Gatherings, these women create a space for a global shopping experience. They share stories of our Artisan Partners as they educate people on the life-changing power of fair trade.
17. Rock Gorgeous Handmade Jewelry from Lux Reve
Kristin Cahill — the owner and designer of Lux Reve — brings each unique piece of jewelry alive with her own hands. All Lux Reve pieces are made from sterling silver, gold-filled wire, and sheet metal. Kristin hand-cuts, shapes, hammers, and adorns each piece herself with precious gemstones and beads collected through her travels giving each piece an elegant but also unique organic feel to them.
18. Be Period-Ready with Funk It Wellness
Your menstrual cycle is a window into your overall health. Funk It Wellness uses seed cycling, which combines ancient practices with modern research to give you long-term PMS relief through real food. It’s as simple as tracking your cycle, choosing your seed blend, and adding 2 tablespoons a day to the foods you already love!
As a woman-owned wellness brand and a small business, Funk It Wellness is passionate about helping their customers in any way they can. They strive to not only be your source for seed cycling, but also for education on women’s health issues.
Plan Future Travels to New Orleans and Beyond
19. Plan a Trip With Global Family Travels
Global Family Travels’ mission is to Learn, Serve and Immerse, using travel to build cultural bridges and to foster global citizens. In partnership with local and global non-profit organizations, we organize sustainable adventures in support of many United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
20. Plan a Trip with Origin Travels
Origin Travels is a small-group adventure travel company that connects solo female travelers with off-the-beaten-path places. Their itineraries are designed for the traveler looking for a safe way to explore the lesser-traveled parts of this world, authentically, and in her own way.
Origin Travels trips works with local merchants, artisans, chefs, philosophers, guides, and visionaries to create real + epic experiences for travelers. From learning the ancient art of ceremonial cacao making from Gigi in Guatemala, to watching the hands of Nena grate coconuts that have sustained her Costa Rican family for generations, Origin Travels is committed to crafting itineraries around opportunities to meet with incredible women who are changing their communities.
21. Join the Community at Lotus Sojourns
Lotus Sojourns gives adventurous, mindful women an opportunity to be a part of a global community connected by aligned values and transformational experiences. They do this through culturally immersive journeys that combine responsible practices, adventure travel, and guided personal growth into transformational travel experiences.
Travel From Home Even After Your Trip
22. Travel Through Scent with Adoratherapy
Woman-owned ADORAtherapy goes beyond perfume to bring you natural fragrances for your moods. Their handmade aroma perfumes are organic, vegan, cruelty-free, and formulated with the highest grade essential oils. No alcohol, no synthetics, or unhealthy chemicals.
23. Read Wally The Wandering Wallaby by Lauren Pelkey
Wally The Wandering Wallaby is a children’s brand and book series dedicated to inspiring travel, igniting a curiosity about the world, and fostering an understanding of the world’s many different cultures.
24. Enjoy Travel-Inspired Home Decor from Shelley Coar Photography
Shelley seeks serendipity and wanderlust in her photographs. Through her pictures, she hopes to show you the world as she sees it! Shelley’s specialty is landscape photography for hotels, real estate, tourism operators, and venues. Travel from home with her beautiful prints decorating your walls!
Once you’re done shopping and your bags are packed, meet us in New Orleans! We can’t wait to celebrate all things travel with you at Wanderfest.
Looking for travel inspiration? Wanderful is a global community for travel-loving women. Connect with us!
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