NextTribe: Places We Love

Hi, there. Jeannie Ralston again. I’m writing these emails because Marcy Mitchell (who used to write them) sends really important emails to travelers that specifically relate to their trips. We want to make sure her emails are always opened!

So if you have a trip booked with us or are curious about our trips, make sure you open all the emails that come from [email protected]. Also anything from WeTravel, our payment platform.

Onward and Upward!

I will be sending you these destination-focused emails once a month on Tuesdays. Sometimes they’ll be about places we travel to, and other times about places we hope to visit in the future.

Your response to these emails gives us a good indication of your interest in a particular trip or destination.

And if you’re not a traveler, we hope you’ll see these newsletters as an extension of NextTribe magazine. We’ll try to keep them fun, interesting, and relevant for bold women our age, the types of women who enjoy our magazine!

Asheville, Appalachia, and the Blue Ridge Mountains

Close your eyes and picture a woman aged 45+ from Appalachia. What do you see? And why do you think you see her that way? Could it be the way the South in general—and Appalachia in particular—have been portrayed in the culture and in the media? 

Technically the Appalachian region (BTW, it’s pronounced “apple-LAT-cha” NOT “apple-LAY-cha”) extends from New York to Mississippi, Ohio to Georgia. That’s how the federal government defines it. But when you think of Appalachia, you may be thinking of the movies Coal Miner’s Daughter, or Deliverance, the Hulu series about opioids Dopesick, or Barbara Kingsolver’s latest bestseller, Demon Copperhead. Altogether they don’t tell the full story of the area, not the part we know.

I grew up in East Tennessee, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jeannie Edmunds was raised in rural Southside Virginia a few hours east of these mountains, yet close enough to have been exposed to the fascinating mountain culture. This is an area where you can find the most enthralling blue grass music, folk art that you rarely see anywhere else, passionately proud people who can trace their heritage to Scotland and Ireland.

We both moved on. I returned often to visit my family in Tennessee and to report and write a story for National Geographic entitled, “In The Heart of Appalachia” (published in February 1993, before articles were stored online, but if you get hold of that issue, you can find it).

Between the two of us, we’ve lived in New York, Mexico, Texas, Korea, and California, and we’ve worked and traveled around the world. But you can’t beat the Southern out of either one of us (though my accent is probably a little thicker than hers!)

Southern hospitality and southern charm—that’s our brand!

That’s why we both feel so comfortable in a place like Asheville, North Carolina.

Jeannie E. lived in the mountains outside of Asheville in the early 00s. And I’ve now made it my home. As any Southern hostess would, I’m eager to entertain newcomers, and we have room for a few more on our Insider Asheville Fall Adventure for 3 glorious nights—October 20-23—at what should be peak fall foliage time, when the mountains are spread thick in spice-rack colorsshades of paprika, mustard, tumeric.

Asheville: Land of the Sky

In the late 1800s, Asheville boosters came up with the slogan “Land of the Sky,” because there are so many elevations in and around the city where you can experience sweeping vistas, where purple ridges meet an expanse of blue. Asheville has long been a mecca for visitors, thanks to its clean mountain air and mild temperatures (even in the slog of summer).

The Grove Park Inn, where I always take guests these days, once attracted the likes of Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison. One man—George Vanderbilt—became so enamored of the area he purchased 125,000 acres and built the most impressive home in America—Biltmore Estate, which now sits on 8,000 acres (much of the original property was given to the federal government to create Pisgah National Forest).

It’s a sweet, small, human-scale little city with a lot of personality and charm. What is it about the town that attracts our kind of women?

Some highlights:

You could put together your own itinerary and have a mighty fine time, but you’d miss the magic of a NextTribe trip. Here’s the article one of our travelers wrote after coming on last year’s trip.

Highlights:

Whether you plan your own trip or you come with us, Asheville makes for a nice 3-day getaway.

But so long as there are a few spots left, why not come along with the NextTribe gang? Traveling solo? No problem. Lots of our travelers are solo. If you want a roommate, we’ll find you one!

Jeannie Ralston, CEO and Co-Founder

P.S. NEWSFLASH: We’ve extend early bird pricing for Cuba. Prices are going up by $400 on August 1st. Save your spot with a $500 deposit today!

Don’t Hesitate: Upcoming Trips with Limited Openings

Many of our 2024 trips have sold out! I’ve you’ve been on the fence, time to book the last spots:

• 1 spot for Santa Fe, New Mexico (Sept. 24-27)

• 2 spots for San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Oct 28-Nov 4)

• 2 spots for Tuscany, Italy (December 13-20)

• Vietnam is now SOLD OUT.