Last updated November 1, 2026
Snapshot
- A wellness travel coach is a passionate traveler who turns personal expertise into guidance for others, helping clients with practical planning and with the deeper motivations behind their trips.
- Each coach chooses a niche, such as solo travel or family travel, so clients can match with someone whose background fits their own situation.
- By definition, a travel coach does not book trips, though many are also trained travel agents, and some clients come specifically to learn how to plan and book on their own budget and timeline.
- Costs depend on the individual coach, since some offer one-on-one sessions and others sell group sessions or online courses.
- The Travel Coach Network, founded by Sahara Rose De Vore, runs a certification program that it describes as the world's first and only ICF-accredited program for travel coaches, and its database helps travelers find a coach.
- The right lead time varies with what you want help with, such as mindset or research, and some coaches also offer guidance during and after the trip.
Sahara Rose De Vore is a wellness travel coach and the founder of The Travel Coach Network (TCN). She spent a decade exploring the globe and reached 84 countries by age 31.
Convinced there was more to a travel career than blogging and bookings, Sahara helped pioneer the travel coaching industry. Today, she educates and empowers ambitious travelers through her global network of travel coaches.
Sahara created the world’s first ICF-accredited certification program for travel coaches. She is also a published author and speaker whose expertise has been featured in Thrive Global, Forbes, Skift, Yahoo! Finance, USA Today and Business Insider.
In 2019, Career-Changing Women nominated Sahara as a rising female leader and innovative trailblazer in the travel industry. We caught up with her to learn why wellness travel coaching is the next big thing.
Is personal travel coaching new?
When I started my travel coaching business four years ago, there were only a few articles about travel coaching. It wasn’t a term anyone had heard yet.
Surprisingly, passionate travelers have been coaching others for decades. They just didn’t call themselves coaches.
When I recruit people into the TCN, they always say, “I’ve been doing this for a while but never knew what it was called” or “That’s exactly how I describe myself, but I didn’t know the title existed.”
Is a wellness travel coach similar to a life or career coach?
Since the term “travel coach” has gained traction over the past few years, I realized I needed to define what it means within the TCN.
Some people call themselves travel coaches simply because they coach travel agents. Within the TCN, a travel coach is a passionate traveler who builds a travel-related business authentic to their own experiences, knowledge and expertise.
Every coach chooses what they help people with when it comes to travel, because every traveler knows something unique.
For example, some are experts in travel hacking, and some have lived as expats. Others are parents or single moms, budget or luxury travelers, retirees or experienced solo travelers.
A coach’s main focus is to educate, guide, support and empower people. That can include planning, budgeting, mindset, overcoming fears, self-discovery, retreats, wellness, transformation, diving deeper into someone’s motivations for travel and so much more. It’s entirely up to each coach to decide who they help and why.
TCN members come from a wide range of backgrounds, including travel agents, life coaches, health and wellness coaches, tour operators, spiritual coaches, human resources, business travel and the medical field.
What inspired you to create The Travel Coach Network?
There are a few reasons. I graduated from a hospitality and tourism program and was uninspired by the jobs that existed in the travel industry. I then spent years hopping around the globe as an aimless backpacker.
For almost a decade, I struggled to figure out what I wanted to do with my love and knowledge of travel. But I knew I enjoyed empowering and inspiring others to make travel part of their lives on their own terms.
I also knew what I didn’t want to do. I had no interest in planning or booking trips for people.
Although my travel blog was getting attention, I struggled with writing, and I knew I didn’t want to be a travel writer or blogger. None of the travel careers that existed appealed to me.
I knew there had to be more to a travel career than blogging and bookings. I wish there had been a place like the TCN back when I was trying to figure out my own career path.
How did you identify the gap in the market?
Over the years, people came to me for travel advice and tips. I knew what I could talk about, such as solo female travel, budget travel and safety.
I also knew what I liked to talk about: the empowerment and transformation side of travel. But people would ask me about topics I couldn’t relate to, such as traveling as a Black woman or as a member of a particular religion, family travel, and traveling as a couple or a retiree.
I knew there was a whole world of travelers out there who did have the answers to those questions. They just didn’t realize they were experts on those topics yet.
I wanted to create a place that bridged the gap between travel experts and those who needed help and guidance.
When I started my own wellness travel coaching business for the corporate world, I didn’t have a person or place to turn to for guidance.
Soon after I started posting about my business, people reached out online to ask me what a travel coach is and to tell me it sounded like something they wanted to do as well.
I wanted to create a place where passionate travelers like me could learn everything they needed to know about starting and growing a coaching or travel business beyond what was already being done.
Who is your target customer?
My target audience is anyone who truly believes in the power travel has on our mind, body and soul.
That’s someone who has a passion for travel and wants to build a business around what they know and love most about it, helping the travelers they relate to or feel most inspired to help.
The TCN is also for established travel experts, like travel agents, travel advisors and tour operators, as well as experts looking to shift roles or bring coaching into how they serve their clients, like life coaches, health coaches or doctors.
Are wellness travel coaches certified? What qualifications or credentials should we look for?
There is only one way to become a certified travel coach, and that is through the TCN’s Travel Coach Certification Program.
This ICF-accredited program is the world’s first and only certification program for travel coaches.
What kind of advice can/should we ask for?
When seeking a travel coach, wellness or otherwise, the type of advice you need is entirely up to you. Everyone is looking for something different when it comes to travel.
Travel plays a role in each of our lives in a personal and unique way, which is why coaches focus on such a wide range of niches and areas of expertise.
I recommend making a list of the questions, fears, roadblocks, concerns, desires, goals and motivations you have about traveling. Then find a coach who best suits your needs.
The TCN website has a database to help you find someone who can best serve you.
Will a travel coach book the vacation (make arrangements, research flights)?
By definition, a travel coach does not book trips. That’s the specialty of a travel agent.
That doesn’t mean no coaches book trips. Many are also trained as travel agents or booking managers.
Again, it depends on the kind of help and knowledge you’re looking for.
Some travelers want to learn the skills to find and book trips on their own budget and timeframe rather than handing over complete control to someone else. That falls into the empowerment side of travel coaching as well.
Every coach chooses what they want to help people with, so some may enjoy helping with the planning, booking or research side of travel. That was just never something I wanted to include in my own work as a coach.
How far in advance of a trip should we work with a coach?
That’s entirely up to you and your needs. Figure out what you need help with, such as mindset, planning, skill building or research, to determine how long to work with your travel coach before your trip.
Some coaches also provide support during and after the trip.
Will a coach be available during the trip itself?
The fundamentals of coaching are to empower clients, draw the answers from within and put the right tools, confidence and resources into their hands, with options for ongoing support or post-trip implementation.
How much should we expect to pay for a travel coach?
Cost depends on the individual coach. Not every coach works one-on-one with clients (I don’t).
Some offer full experiences, some offer group sessions, some sell courses or online products and some solely provide education or guidance at the corporate level, as I do.
What destinations are on your list to visit next?
I’ve traveled to more than 84 countries so far, but there are always more places to explore. Honestly, I’d love to see more of the U.S. and its national parks in states like Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Oregon.
I’ve always traveled internationally and have barely seen any of the states. On the global side, I’d love to return to Israel and visit Bora Bora, New Zealand’s South Island and Jordan.
Learn more about becoming a Certified Travel Coach, joining the TCN or downloading your free Beginner’s Guide to Travel Coaching at The Travel Coach Network
