Today we’d like to introduce you to Leeah Smestad.
Hi Leeah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Newberry Travel was started out of a very obvious issue we had started to spot while on vacation, specifically post-COVID.
I haven’t been a lifelong traveler – I went to Mexico a few times in high school but that was it. Once I started my first ‘real’ job, I bought a 3 week ticket to Europe! And I did the classic Euro sampler with my then friend, now husband. It was before Instagram and social media blew up cities and I had to print off directions via MapQuest to get from the airport to my hostel. In Paris on that trip, each day I bought a baguette at 9am and that lasted me through the full day of walking 25k steps and endless sights. These were the golden days of travel – that 3 week trip cost me just about $500! After this trip, I traveled to over 40 more countries and became the friend that people asked “where are you going next?” It was true love, there was no doubt that travel would be in my future and ideally a future career!
Flash forward a decade, and my husband and I had saved nearly $40k per person to go on a 4-month trip around the world. Our goal was to see all 7 continents! This was post-COVID times and tourism was booming! They called it ‘Revenge Travel’ and it felt like people were hungry and angry to check their boxes off their bucket list. We were excited to enjoy a trip that was a bit more relaxed and slower paced than past trips since we had so much time off.
It was like the rest of the world was just waiting for us, for tourists who wanted to talk to them, who wanted to get to know them. Locals were hungry for tourists to use their native language – and when we said a few words, we got laughs, hugs and invites to stay longer. Just from that simple act of kindness, of learning a few words to talk to locals where we are traveling. Surely, the bar was not that low. But it was. We enjoyed so many once in a lifetime opportunities, invites back for any future trips, birthday party invites and so much more by just being curious, kind and open minded to everyone we came across on our trip. When we got home, we realized our travel stories were so different than others we were talking too – even others who went to the same places we had gone.
That trip changed me, on many levels. But I honestly think it changed my chemistry – I started looking for opportunities to continue that curiosity and open mind into my everyday life. After a few friends had asked for some help on their trips I finally decided to give it a go!
Newberry Travel started with just a few friends and a couple of exchanged Excel files noting out some of our favorite places, with our new local friends and directions to our favorite hole in the wall restaurants. When I got asked to plan a small group trip (9 people total), I knew I was on to something that was special and there was an interested audience in this new way of traveling.
The key difference between Newberry and other travel companies was the focus on local community – which is the exact recipe that gained us so much respect during our 4-month trip. We searched for family owned or locally run hotels – often times breakfast included bread from the bakery down the road and jams from their own farms. We booked off 3rd party platforms for guided tours, knowing that there wouldn’t be a portion of their income going to this other party, all profits go to the local guide. We did the same with restaurants, often asking our new local friends their favorite places – but always making sure it was a local owner. Our experiences were always top notch and the company was even better!
Many people travel to experience a local culture without realizing their hotel stays and shopping trips to international chains are actually causing the local culture to slowly disappear. As globalization continues, we will continue to see homogenization in the cultures around the world. It is our responsibility as respectful tourists to make sure we continue to pour our money into local communities in a way that will build them up for the future. So their stories and practices can continue for generations to come, and so our family and friends can continue to experience the magic of these unique locations. It is a privilege to be able to travel, and I think that some people have forgotten that.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve owned a small business in the past, so I thought I had an idea of what I was getting into as an entrepreneur. And if you’ve ever started a business, you’ve likely had plenty of people telling you all sorts of stuff:
“Don’t do it!!”
“What a rollercoaster, but you’ll be okay”
“Starting a business is SO hard”
I heard it all, but what I didn’t hear was why I shouldn’t do it or what actually makes it so hard. Perhaps these are things each person learns on their own as they go through the entrepreneurship journey. Of course there is a HUGE learning curve with understanding the legal aspects of owning a business and even jumping over endless hurdles to get your business officially organized with your state. Then, of course there is the difficulty of doing it all – from taxes, to bookkeeping, to social media marketing, to PR and copywriting. None of these skills were anything I studied in college and often felt like I was way over my head. And this was the hardest part, my own mental strength.
What no one had warned me about was that mental health needed to stay forefront in everything you do. That running a business was going to be a long journey through my own mental health. The majority of struggles were around social media – What am I doing wrong? Why aren’t people finding me? Why am I even doing this?! Every day felt like I was yelling into a void, despite spending energy, effort and time into what I was posting. At the beginning it really does feel personal, and for me there was nothing I could really do to ease that pain other than time.
One of the other biggest struggles, also tied to mental health, is how lonely starting a business is. Sure, you may have a partner and a few best friends – but the nonstop chatter in your head about all your great ideas are not necessarily what they want to hear about. Pretty quickly I knew I needed community, and luckily my part of the country has endless options. It was very important for me to get together with other entrepreneurs, especially others at my same stage of business, to realize that what I was going through was not a singular experience. Even coworking silently next to a friend eased so much tension and loneliness. There is something very specific about building a business that includes compassion and community that cannot be built without your own compassionate community.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Newberry Travel?
Newberry Travel is a conscious travel agency, focused on ensuring your dollars stay local, that we are leaving a light footprint wherever we go and ideally leaving the city better than when we arrived.
We offer all of the standard things of a travel agency: we can book your hotel, provide a menu of options for hotels or activities for your next trip or build a custom itinerary from the ground up.
If you are overwhelmed by even starting to plan your own trip, we also offer small group trips that are already organized with Newberry Travel ethics and guidelines so you know that you’ll be joining a trip that is well vetted and organized with relaxation in mind.
We are known for international travel and introducing our clients to conscious travel. Working with us, you’ll end up having dinner in someone’s home restaurant or booking a tour with a local guide who knows how to avoid the crowds but you still get to see all the sights. While others are offering all-you-can drink yacht days, you’ll be sipping gin and enjoying a traditional sauna experience in Finland with Newberry. We’re a travel company for adults who want to truly experience the world as a local.
What sets us apart and what we are most proud of go hand in hand – Newberry Travel would not exist without our mindful approach to tourism. After leaving corporate US, this was the most important ethic my business ran by – that we would not cut corners or leave smaller businesses behind. Our Ethics and Morals are why we started our business and why we continue to run our business. And this directly translates to our relationships with our partners around the world, we are a guest in their homes and mindfulness is of upmost importance.
What’s next?
We cannot wait to launch 2027 trips! First trips go live in early March to Newberry Insiders (those on our newsletter).
While our 2026 roster is stunning and spots are already filling up. So far, the trips that are being planned for 2027 are so meticulously curated that they will be on everyone’s bucket list!
Looking into the future, we see small group trips becoming even more aligned with our company values. An industry leader in what it means to be a conscious traveler. For private clients, we will continue to build our portfolio of eco-conscious, socially responsible and kind partners around the world.
We hope you join us either as a traveler or reach out for partnership opportunities.
Pricing:
- Custom Itineraries start at $250
- Group trips start at $3000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.newberrytravel.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newberrytravel/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586155853856
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeah-smestad-4444054b/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/1BLe5vZWxqhtRsQej3izSd?si=69d908a0c9c64dfb
