However you travel, we take care of the hard parts while you focus on making memories. Trips, plans, guidance, and someone in your corner.
You have a trip that lives in a WhatsApp group. It has been "next year" for three years.
You're not scared of the world. You have a saved folder full of places to see and vacation days you never use. What you don't have is someone to carry the admin and be there when it wobbles.
So the trip keeps not happening. And we both know how this goes.
Curves in the Road exists to end the almost. Sometimes that means a small group and stunning views, everything arranged and nothing scheduled. Sometimes it means getting help to plan your own trip properly, with someone on the other end of the line the whole time you're gone.
December 2026
Pyramids without the chaos, Cairo off the beaten path. Then a desert oasis most people have never heard of. Swim in salt lakes, pull sweet dates straight off the tree, sleep under a sky full of stars and explore ancient places. You'll feel like you've travelled back to a simpler, prettier time. Truly unique.
Take me with you!
July 2027
Resort life is lovely. But we'll show you a Zanzibar where spice merchants walked hundreds of years ago, tides that pull out far enough to walk the seabed, and food flavoured with coconut and cardamom. Sail a dhow into the sunset. Swim in water so clear it feels made up. You chose this one. We listened. Let's go.
Join the waitlistSave monthly for a year with us. You get the dates, a gateway city and a packing list. You find out where to meet us three months before you go, but the final destination is for you to guess. Because boring is for other people.
Tell me firstSolo travel isn't more expensive. Solo travel alone is. A shared villa, shared transfers and a group rate change the maths entirely. That's the whole idea, and you don't have to give up an ounce of your freedom for it.
Bravery isn't on the packing list. Backup is. A host who knows the place, a plan for when things wobble, and a group chat that always answers. We've got you, and honestly, we were you.
You do now. Company without obligation: travel with people, peel off whenever you like. You don't have to go alone to go alone, and your dreams shouldn't have to wait for anyone else's diary.
Travel isn't too expensive. It's too lump-sum. So every trip works like a lay-by: monthly instalments, paid up before you fly, arrived at debt-free. And if that doesn't work we have other options too.
We're not big on refunds for cold feet. Cold feet is rather the thing we're here to cure.
If life genuinely happens, we would much rather move your place than keep your money. It's all written out plainly, with dates and numbers, in the cancellation policy. Worth a read before you pay rather than after.
I share everything I know about a place: real costs, what to book, what to skip, where to eat with your hands.
Tell me when they're ready
Solo but not alone. Your solo trip, my backup. I review your plan to match what you actually want, prep you properly, check in daily while you travel, and I'm on call if anything goes sideways.
Enquire about this
One hour. You bring the vague dream or the fear. You leave with a trip shape, a budget and a first step. Then you actually go.
Book a session
I grew up in a family where almost nobody had left the country, or even been on a plane. But from the time I was small I was somewhere else in my head, getting lost in fantasies of distant places and people who lived completely differently to us.
My first trip was solo. Not by choice. I went to Ireland on my own and it was, without exaggeration, the most uncomfortable thing I had ever done. It also changed the entire direction of my life.
Twenty-four countries later, fifty-nine trips across them, most of them alone, most of them planned at my own kitchen table with too many tabs open. A few of those places have quietly become second homes, with families in them I never expected to have.
Somewhere along the way people started saying take me with you. So I did. I've helped people cross borders they were sure they couldn't, held a hand through a first-ever flight, and eaten extraordinarily well on six very different budgets. Nothing makes me happier than this: sharing the art of it, the things I've seen, and the people I've been lucky enough to meet.
I'd love to bring some of that into your life too.
Our name is about roads that refuse to run straight. The best parts of every trip I've ever taken were the curves, the bends, the detours, the happy accidents. Over here we build for magic and we make space for it.
This wasn't just my first flight overseas. It was my first time on a plane. I was terrified. She talked me through every part of it beforehand, shared a guide with me, and by the time I landed I felt like I'd done it before.
I wanted to go so badly, but nobody would go with me. She gave me the courage and the plans to realise I could do this. And I did. Now I'm a bit addicted.
Travelling with Curves in the Road felt like I could relax and be fully myself, and someone was there when I needed company or wanted to share an experience.
I was always inspired by her travels, but I thought you needed lots of money to do it. Curves in the Road showed me I could have an amazing time for far less than I expected.
I love travelling with her because I just have to pack my bags and know I don't have to think about a thing. I know I'll have fun, and even when things feel spontaneous, she has everything under control.
Deposits and instalments sit in a dedicated business account and are only ever spent on your trip. You get a written invoice for every payment, and a signed agreement before a cent changes hands. Curves in the Road is a trading name of Abena Collective, a registered South African business.
Comprehensive cover is required, not suggested. That means including emergency medical treatment, evacuation and trip cancellation, and you send me proof before we fly. I am a host, not an insurer, and I'll never pretend otherwise.
A proper booking agreement covering exactly what's included, what isn't, what happens if you cancel, what happens if I cancel, and how your personal information is handled under POPIA. Worth a read before you pay rather than after.
Licensed local guides, vetted accommodation, a daily check-in on the trip, a written emergency protocol, and the same care for your safety that I take with my own. Some boring admin, so that the days can be unboring.
I don't book, sell or take commission on flights, but you're not on your own with them either. You'll get a realistic budget range, the best routes, a booking window, and me on the other end of a message while you're staring at the tabs. Never book before a trip is confirmed in writing.
I don't sell a place I haven't walked myself. Every trip on this site is somewhere I've stayed, eaten, got mildly lost in and come back to. If a trip is ever an exception to that, I'll say so on the page, in plain sight, before you book.
Local operators, guides and hosts I've travelled with myself, not names off a booking site. The people looking after you are people I'd happily travel with again.
One price, listed in South African rands, with exactly what it covers written out in full. Flights, visas and insurance are always excluded and always said so loudly. If an optional extra costs money on the ground, you'll know roughly what before you go.
Message me. Call me. Ask the awkward questions about money, safety, bodies, food, whatever's actually on your mind. That conversation is part of the process, not a step before it.
Ask me a questionCurves in the Road is a trading name of Abena Collective, Cape Town, South Africa. Contact hello@curvesintheroad.com. Trips are sold subject to our Booking Terms & Conditions and Privacy Notice. We are a hosted travel experience and consultant, not a travel agency or tour operator: flights, visas and travel insurance are arranged by you. Prices are in South African Rand and include only what is expressly listed as included.
Twenty-four countries and fifty-nine trips of getting it wrong, so you don't have to. Every document, every charger, every small unglamorous thing you only learn to pack after you've badly needed one.
Either way the packing list is yours. We only send anything else if you tick the box. Your details are never sold or shared, and are handled under POPIA. Privacy Notice.