Episode Description
Sometimes people tell me they don't know where to travel solo. I want to sit with that for a moment, because I think that when most people say it, they mean something closer to: I don't trust where I want to go. The destination is usually already there. It has been there for a while. The gap between knowing what you want and actually believing that what you want is the right answer, that is where most of us get stuck.
In this episode:
- The hill in Camiguin
- Banaue and the pressure to do it right
- Ella, the damaged train, and a waterfall from the window
- The guilt of not doing enough
- Writing the place down
This episode is for you if:
- you've said "I don't know where to go" and suspected that wasn't quite the full truth
- you've arrived somewhere you really wanted to be and immediately started adding more stops, trying to make it count
- you're a woman over 40 who keeps putting off a particular destination without a clear reason why
- you travel solo or are thinking about it, and you think you need more information
In 2007, Damianne went to the Philippines because she saw a photograph of the Banaue rice terraces and something in her said yes. She didn't analyse it or make a spreadsheet. But once she was there, the pressure to do it right crept in: more stops, more sights, moving faster through a place she had chosen specifically to slow down in.
Nearly 20 years later, a trip to Ella, Sri Lanka repeated the pattern. The train she planned to take wasn't running. Her driver mentioned waterfalls. She changed her plans, found exactly what she needed, and then nearly talked herself out of it anyway because of the familiar voice telling her she was wasting Ella, that she should go see the bridge, get the photograph, do the walk.
The gap between those two moments (Camiguin in 2007 and Ella in 2026) is what this episode is really about. In both cases she already knew where she wanted to go. The harder thing was trusting it.
About Freedom Looks Like This:
Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving.
New episodes every Tuesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics.
Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com
Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community