Getting Hooked on Sober Travel

Darci Murray was ashamed of having a problem with alcohol. "Anything recovery-related, I would park my car a mile away," she says. "I really felt that I was an embarrassment to family, to my kids." But all that shifted when she decided to start an alcohol-free travel company.

The Abbotsford, British Columbia, mother of four grew up in the travel business. Her own mom founded Personal Travel Management in 1995. Murray experimented in some other fields but after she stopped drinking in 2017, she devoted herself to travel.

As a travel adviser, Murray got into sports travel. But in addition to working with 19 different hockey teams, she developed a passion for creating sober group trips. She started Hooked in 2022 and has been leading small groups to Iceland, Italy and Greece, among other places.

After Murray stopped drinking, she realized how much alcohol diminishes people's travel experiences. "When you're drinking, your senses are muted," she says. Instead, she promotes what she calls full-sensory travel. "You're in touch with all your senses. Colors are brighter, touch is more intense, food tastes better." She also suggests people take a travel do-over. Maybe they've been to Italy, but they drank a lot of wine at night, then were too hungover to make the most of their days.

Hooked trips are for people who want to spend active days seeing a destination. And the alcohol-free stance helps quickly create a cohesive group. Many of her clients are in recovery, while some don't drink for other reasons, such as health, religion or personal preference. All are welcome, so long as they want to travel sans alcohol.

Marlee (who didn't want to use her last name), 51, quit drinking when she was 18 and has been sober for most of her adult life. The Minneapolis mental health worker hadn't traveled much and wanted to do something special for her upcoming 50th birthday. She decided to go to Italy with Hooked. While she wasn't worried about relapsing, she was a little leery of going alone to a place where wine played a central role in the culture. The idea of going on an international trip with a group of people who wouldn't be drinking was very appealing.

"I loved making the connections with people," she says. "By day two, it was kind of like camp where everybody knew my life story. That's kind of who I am. But I felt safe in that environment because I hate small talk. And this just allows you to go right to what's your story, here's my story."

In Italy, many waiters couldn't believe the whole group didn't drink. Constant pressure to order alcohol would have been aggravating and uncomfortable for a lone solo traveler. But with a group of 14, the bewilderment of waiters became a hilarious running gag. Marlee enjoyed her Italy trip so much that she later signed up for a Greek cruise with Hooked.

Murray emphasizes that her trips aren't retreats and do not include recovery meetings. Instead, she wants to give people a comparable experience to other group travel, but without alcohol. And so her groups may do a cold plunge in Iceland, ride monster trucks in Nashville, or take a cooking class in a local woman's apartment in Florence, Italy. Murray wants to help people try new things, especially if they're in recovery. 

"You have such a different appreciation for things when you're sober, right?" she says. "I would have laughed at birdwatchers before. But when I was in Tanzania, I was like, oh my gosh, this is fascinating." She considers her trips self-development journeys that promote healthy habits in fun ways.

On the Greek cruise, with the encouragement of her group of sober shipmates, Marlee tried something she never had before: karaoke. She started with "Kiss" by Prince and followed that up with Billy Joel's "You May Be Right" and "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor. "And it's honestly one of the happiest times in my whole life. Because I had bought into this lie that you can't do certain things sober, which is ridiculous."

Hooked's upcoming adventures include a 10-day trip to Morocco, a week in Iceland and a Tanzania safari. Murray is especially excited about leading the world's first group tour to Germany focusing on alcohol-free wine. The seven-night trip starts in Frankfurt and includes tastings at four vineyards. Participants will also sample alcohol-free beers while learning to make pretzels. Murray is planning an alcohol-free wine trip to Australia in 2026.

Also of note, a 16-night dry graduation trip for teens. The Thailand itinerary includes rock climbing, a cooking lesson, snorkeling and a night food tour of Bangkok. It ends with seven days of volunteering in an elephant sanctuary. The dry grad trip has proved popular with parents. Their thought process, Murray says, is, "My son is going to have an international experience with a group of people who don't drink. That means he's probably not going to die."

Hooked's group size ranges from six to 16. The rebook rate is about 80%, Murray says, leading her to conclude that sober people really like being around other sober people.

"I feel like on a personal development level that Hooked is by far the best thing that ever happened to me," Murray says. Her confidence has risen because she knows she's providing something for people that didn't exist before.

"I used to be so ashamed that my kids had a mom who drank too much," she says. "Now my kids are like, 'My mom owns an alcohol-free travel company, travels all over the world and helps people get sober.'" This shift really hit her when her son called from school to ask her for her sobriety date. He wanted to put it on a timeline for a school project about the most important events in his life.

Murray no longer hides her sobriety. She's a guest on podcasts and has spoken to hundreds of people at industry events about the needs of sober travelers. Instead of parking her car where no one will see it, she now decorates it with Hooked advertisements.

Teresa Bergen is a Portland, Oregon-based writer specializing in outdoors, eco, vegan and sober travel. She’s the author of "Easy Portland Outdoors" and "Sober Travel Handbook," and co-author of "Historic Cemeteries of Portland, Oregon." Read More