Unless you are one of the group, chances are that you don’t give much thought to the difficulties that plus size travelers face.
In “25 Things Nobody Tells You About Traveling While Fat” Lia Garcia writes that, “Traveling while fat comes with its own set of big ol’ challenges. Like, no skinny person has ever stopped before booking a flight off to some exotic destination to google “am I too fat to fly?” or “will I fit in an airplane seat?”.
That’s not to mention the intimidating pools and beaches and other worries like not being able to find clothes that fit and not being able to participate in certain activities. Questions like, what if the spa bathrobes don’t fit? What if the rides at an amusement park cannot accommodate bigger bodies and the only way to find that out is by waiting in line for an hour and then unsuccessfully trying to board? What if the airline loses your bag and there are no stores at your destination with clothes that fit?
For those who face these worries vacation can be anything but relaxing, it is often stressful and disappointing. According to Carla Sosenko, it can also be dehumanizing.
Now a small but growing market catering to size-inclusive travel (often aimed exclusively at women) is seeking to bring joy, community and reassurance to people in bigger bodies at price points on par with standard group trips.
The benefits of going on a size-inclusive trip are multilayered, according to participants and numerous tour operators. Emotionally, a traveler knows right away that her peers have also chosen a trip designed around body acceptance.
Logistically, it means everything has been planned with accessibility in mind, like dinners at restaurants with chairs that are spacious, supportive and comfortable.
The travel industry has been slow to accommodate. When it comes to adventure-based excursions, like zip-lining and white-water rafting, many bigger people have assumed that exclusionary weight limits are unavoidable and for our own safety. But a zip line can be designed to support any weight. The Chubby Diaries blogger, Jeff Jenkins, whose National Geographic travel show, “Never Say Never With Jeff Jenkins,” premieres July 9, said that all it takes is an innovative mindset to make activities inclusive: “People move literal tons of lumber with zip lines. No human weighs a ton.”
But now finally, there are some travel companies helping to change the landscape, making it easier for plus size people to enjoy travel.
Stellavision Travel https://www.stellavisiontravel.com/
This company describes itself as, “A feminist-minded, moveable, touring, meeting-point where like-minded people connect. Our greatest joy is bringing together diverse female travelers that share a cultural curiosity, open minds, kind hearts and a passion for authentic experiences.”
Zoe Stella Shapiro, founder and CEO, who identifies as plus-size, teamed up with fat fashion advocate Christina Winkelmann to organize their inaugural size-inclusive tour of southern Italy, which will kick off on July 15-29, ($5,650). For Sara Courson, who traveled with the 2022 group, the size-inclusive aspect was the clincher. “I gained weight during the pandemic, and I had been nervous about going abroad,” she said. Instead of being anxious that people would be irritated by “that one fat lady on the trip,” she was comforted knowing she’d most likely be with people who accepted her. The trip will run again in 2024.
Swipe Fat https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/spain/spain-with-swipe-fat-oct-2023
Nicci Nunez and Alex Stewart met through mutual friends, and in October 2020 started the Swipe Fat podcast, which now has 20,000 monthly listeners. “At that time nobody was doing a podcast exclusively about dating while plus-size” and the particular anxieties in the age of apps, Nunez said.
Their connection and openness on the podcast led the Chicago-based duo to host meet-ups, which led to travel. The trips, which do not feature a dating component and are for anyone who identifies as a woman, are planned through TrovaTrip, a platform that teams up with influencers to organize travel.
Like every other travel coordinator interviewed, they spoke of the instantly magical effect of being around like-minded (and -bodied) peers. “During beach day on our Greece trip, somebody came over and was like, ‘I just want to tell you how transformative this has been.’ That was just three days in,” Nunez said.
Fat Girls Travel, Too! http://www.fatgirlstraveltoo.com/#/
Ashley Wall (aka simplycurvee), the founder of Fat Girls Travel, Too!, and her business partner, Natalie Robinson, have always been comfortable and confident in their bodies, which they know is not everyone’s experience. The goal of their women-only trips, Robinson said, is for people “to travel unapologetically.” That means loads of research and extremely tight curation by both women to find alternatives to excursions that are not immediately accessible to people in bigger bodies.
The company’s inaugural trip was in 2019, to Havana, where a group will return Dec. 7-11 ($2,500), with Bali, Indonesia, before that (Oct. 1-9, $3,597) and two trips to Cartagena, Colombia, after (Dec. 7-11, $2,550; March 3-8, 2024, $2,950). The number of participants on the tours will range from 6 to 12, “so everyone feels as though they’re being catered to,” Wall said. One recent Fat Girls traveler, said Robinson, had a groundbreaking experience akin to the one Nunez described: “It was the first time she ever wore a two-piece bathing suit.”
