Amber Drew says that while traveling abroad with her wife, she didn’t always feel comfortable.

“We were in places we had to often be ‘sisters’ or ‘cousins,'” she said. “So you know, it adds an extra layer of unease to a vacation when you’re supposed to be the most relaxed.”

Instead of accepting a life with limited travel options, she and her wife came up with a business proposal: bed and breakfast pop-up experiences catering to travelers of color, queer travelers of color and their allies. They called it the Apogeo Collective and imagined it going global.

Getting it going took some rethinking, though.

“The pandemic kind of shut down that idea at the time. But when we were in San Juan del Sur, [Nicaragua] we found some really great opportunities to actually become a homeowner. And we were like, ‘Maybe this is the place,'” Drew said.

The collective, now in its second year, is open for business to travelers.

“You know, one thing is that we essentially find a home in each of us, and we’re like, ‘Let’s connect folks who may not have had the opportunity to connect before,'” she said.

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