What is grief travel and how did it come to become a thing?

“2024 became the most transformative year of my life. I faced heartbreaks that shook me. Ten trips in one year to Ladakh—through every season, every heartbreak, every rebirth. The mountains became my therapist, silence my teacher. I left behind lives I’d outgrown, love I’d lost, and found something deeper— my resilience,” says Pia Sodhi, an interior designer and photographer. “In Ladakh, I finally learned that healing doesn’t always need words. Sometimes, it just needs wind, altitude... and a soul ready to listen (be it a snow leopard). What people take for granted is how much travel changes you quietly. It’s not in the photos or the places but also in how you return home—slightly different, softer, more awake. That’s the part most don’t understand.”

What is grief travel?

Hailed as one of the most underrated anti-depressants after exercise, the idea of ‘grief travel’ emerges from a yearning to build perspective and focus on honing one of life’s most needed skills: mental resilience. “When everything feels emotionally heavy, just being somewhere new can create a small but meaningful shift inside you,” opines Saira Suchdeva, founder of Kalakaar, who believes the rise of similar concepts serves as an indicator of how many young people today are learning to heal—and not shutting down. She says, “When I was living in Boston during Covid, I would miss my home and family deeply. On some days, I would sit for hours at the MFA—not analysing the art, but just being with it. The quiet, the light, the presence of beauty… it softened things I didn’t have words for. And later, when my grandmother, who had pushed herself to be at my wedding at 92, passed away two days after the celebrations, I found myself grieving in Hawaii. I remember sitting by the ocean in the evenings, watching the tides. It felt like the sea was breathing for me when I couldn’t. So for me, grief travel isn’t about escape. It’s about gentle movement—letting new places, art, light, water help you hold what hurts until it becomes just a little easier to carry.”

In a similar vein, Ashmita Venkatesh, a wellness expert and founder of Amiy Naturals, reveals how being surrounded by the sounds and stillness of home reminded her that grief doesn’t necessarily leave us empty. “When I lost my pet, it felt like the world had suddenly gone quiet. The routines that once brought comfort turned hollow, and I found myself unable to focus, even on the work I loved. On a whim, I decided to travel back to my hometown—a place I hadn’t really paused to feel in years. Walking through the same streets, hearing the temple bells at dawn, and sitting by the river I used to play near as a child somehow softened the ache. It wasn’t just nostalgia, it was healing,” she adds, outlining that the experience shaped how she saw emotional healing as a founder. “It’s not only about soothing the mind, but also about reconnecting with where we come from.”

A SIGN TO STAY GROUNDED 

Ayesha Sharma, psychotherapist and founder at Dialogue Mental Health, cites that grief travel represents an in-flight response. “Travelling—especially to a new place—can help with grounding and regulating one’s nervous system. Another way of thinking of grief travel is also symbolic: it’s like taking on a new journey that mirrors the change in your life—an external journey representing an internal one, one without the person whom we lost. Sometimes, this externalising can deeply help the process that’s happening in parallel internally. Although the short-term benefits and appeal of grief travel are understandable, it is important to ask if we are undertaking the travel to avoid or to help process the grief. Grief comes in waves and has many stages, as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross speaks of, and to truly process a significant loss in one’s life, one must allow oneself to grieve and reach the final stage of acceptance—after initial anger, denial, bargaining, and depression. Professional and personal emotional support can help with navigating the sometimes non-linear journey of grief.”
 

All images: Getty Images

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