There are a lot of travel trends underfoot – creativity travel, beer travel, serendipity travel just a few of them. But a much more serious and focused trend I’ve noticed is spiritual travel, ie. a vacation with a mission. And by mission, I mean: you, only better (at least by the time you come back). The idea behind a spiritual travel tour is that you journey someplace where you can get uplifted in some way, enlightened, grow — as well as do all the usual things you can do on a vacation, like see exotic locales and really relax.
I sat down recently with a company who’s making their reputation by offering this kind of travel experience, Spirit Quest Tours, to find out what founders Greg Roach and Halle Eavelyn had been smoking, and if I could get some, too…
So you’re obviously tour operators, but how did you end up in spiritual travel?
Greg: Well, we had a multimedia company, and I was doing a little spiritual seeking, and we decided to take a tour of Egypt, our first group travel experience.
Halle: Yeah, I was really just looking for a vacation, frankly.
Greg: But instead, we both had these mind-blowing experiences that literally changed our lives forever.
Halle: Mine happened first, in the middle of the trip. I met a woman on our cruise ship who was something of a shaman, a spiritual guide. And I told her, one night at dinner, that I was an atheist and I was afraid of death. So she did a meditation with me, right there at the dinner table, where she told me I had a soul. But she never said it out loud – I could just hear it in my head, and my heart – it was as if she told each individual cell of my being. I was flooded with the awareness of my soul, and I have never doubted this for one second since. I’m writing a spiritual travel memoir about that trip, actually.
Greg: And then a few days later, I was meditating in Abydos, one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt, when I moved over into a shaft of sunlight, and was immediately struck by this awareness of God, as everything, everywhere. It was literally the most profound moment of my life. Of course (laughs) it screwed me up big time for a while. But now I am so grateful!
Andy – It’s funny how serendipity strikes. It may sound funny telling the story, but to those who have had like experiences, it all sounds very familiar.
I can imagine being in the world of spiritual travel you get some pretty amazing stories! Any profound shifts or almost-unexplainable events people have had on your tours?
Greg: Let’s see… there was the accountant who had been the fall guy for a crooked businessman and had gone to prison. In the middle of the trip, he suddenly realized the meaning his life had, and how he could spend the rest of his life helping other people avoid the mistakes he had made, and live better lives.
Halle: There was a Catholic woman who was terribly estranged from her spiritual, yet not religious, daughter. And on her tour, she realized her daughter’s beliefs were okay, even though they weren’t hers. She accepted her daughter’s faith, and it brought them closer together – she was so relieved!
Greg: There was a guy who came with us to Egypt and spontaneously remembered a past lifetime as a sculptor for one of the Pharaohs. And a guy who had terrible chronic shoulder pain – we did a spiritual clearing for him, and he came looking for us the next day. He was dripping wet from being in the pool, but he was ecstatic. He had been able to do the butterfly stroke for the first time in three years, just an amazing shift.
Halle: One of my favorite stories is from the first tour we did in Bali. There was a woman on the trip who had been divorced almost a decade, but still felt tremendous guilt. On the trip, in one incredible moment, she completely healed from that whole awful time and crossed into the next portion of her life. She was so excited she went back home and started using her maiden name again, which was a huge deal, since she had taken her ex’s name over twenty years earlier.
Andy – I’ve always felt like travel can be a life-changing experience, having had it change my own life! So these stories are not a surprise. They’re strangely heartwarming, if for no other reason that to have confirmation that people in the world CAN find whatever it is they’re looking for – even if they don’t know they’re looking, or know what they’re looking for. 
Do you feel that spiritual travel only caters to certain people, or are these types of experiences open to anyone with an “open mind” so to speak?
Halle: Spiritual travel, at least as Spirit Quest Tours does it, caters to a high-end traveler who expects a four- or five-star experience. That said, the spiritual side is just not what people think it is. It’s not religion, or God, or anything even really “organized.” We’ve had husbands and wives and partners of “seekers” who came with us, and who were not at ALL into spirituality – atheists, agnostics, folks who were just not interested. And then on the trip, these people are the ones who experience the most profound awakenings. I suspect it’s because they aren’t in their own way, they have no preexisting expectations. (In case you want more proof, I was this person over a decade ago when I went to Egypt the first time – I’ve seen it dozens of time since!)
What places to you think are the best options for spiritual travel? I’m sure there are some obvious ones on your list, but do you think that people can have life-changing spiritual experiences anywhere in the world, even if its a staycation in their own hometown?
Greg: I think any place is good, so long as you can get out of your day-to-day world. If you can do that in your current environment, great, but most people can’t. There’s something about unplugging completely from your everyday life that distances you from all the drama back at home, which we take for granted while we’re there. With distance comes perspective, a reawakening of dreams the door was shut on a long time ago, and an easier time connecting with our intuition of what’s best for us individually. There is no greater gift that we can give ourselves, in my opinion, than the grace that comes with this new perspective, even if it’s just for a week or two.
AMEN. I couldn’t agree more. A change of scenery works wonders for a lot of problems, including ones you didn’t know you had.
So what’s coming up for the Spirit Questers?
Halle: Well, we’ve got some awesome trips on our web site, but the most exciting one for me is the Eat Pray Love Bali trip I’m leading in May, based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir, Eat Pray Love.
Greg: Yeah, Julia Roberts is starring in the movie this summer, it’s that popular.
Halle: The Eat Pray Love Bali trip is a week, which is much more reasonable for people to take off than the year the author did. You can eat Italian food (like Liz did in Italy), learn to pray like the Balinese Hindus and take yoga or meditation every day (like she did in India), and visit Ketut Liyer – Liz’s Balinese shaman – and Wayan the Healer (like she did in Bali). So we’ve got all our bases covered, including having you stay in a four star eco-resort. It’s going to be amazing!
Greg: We’re also starting a line of luxury photo safaris with an internationally known photographer. The first one’s to Egypt in November, and you’ll travel the Nile in a private cruise ship that only holds 16 passengers.
Halle: Ooh, did I mention the spa treatments in Bali?
Halle and Greg, thanks for taking time out of your whirlwind travel schedule to share your stories. This interview has forced me to sit and reflect about a lot of things, and for that I am thankful for you sharing your spiritual travel experiences!
To find our more about Halle & Greg’s tours, visit their website, Spirit Quest Tours. Halle and Greg each have their own blog as well about their spiritual travel experiences. Halle’s is Confessions of a Cruise Director and Greg’s is Pilgrim’s Progress.
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My most spiritual experiences have happened during solo travel, and mainly in Greece, but I’ve also felt spiritual connections in places like Old Sarum, England and in the magical land of Guatemala. In Greece and at Old Sarum I felt a real connection to a past life. The Old Sarum experience is the setting of one of my works in progress “Dragons in the Sky” and some of my spiritual experiences in Greece are connected to my novel “Shadow of the Lion” about Alexander the Great.
Wow – Ruth, I’d never thought of Greece as a spiritual place, but having studied Latin for many years (which involved a lot of Greek mythology and culture), I can see your perspective. Have also felt a connection to Alexander as well – long story, another time…