our history
Ethos Journeys are an invitation
an opening to all the beautiful knowledge that awaits us and makes us whole
The idea for Ethos Journeys emerged after many years of building both GoPhilanthropic Foundation and GoPhilanthropic Travel– organizations devoted to our shared responsibility in creating a more just world. Those journeys were incredibly life-changing for both our participants and us as guides. Listening and learning from courageous change-makers and small NGOs forced us to acknowledge the individual opportunities we each have to take action in the face of challenges. It also highlighted the incredible strength that resides within communities. We witnessed firsthand what happens when people come together to explore, learn about, and care for the greater whole.
Ethos Journeys is an effort to expand even further from these critical principles. While we specifically focused on how we could support others in past travels, Ethos Journeys explores how we can also live in support and synchronicity with life as a whole.
Active and engaged participation, authentic involvement, and contribution of oneself remain central values. Ethos Journeys builds upon these meaningful principles yet spans beyond the singular focus of philanthropy. We offer access to experiences, visionaries, and luminaries that help us activate our fullest potential while acknowledging our belonging to each other and a more significant, extended existence. Offering a wide range of disciplines that stimulate the mind and heart, we encourage a more profound understanding, communication, and participation in life.
meet our
qualified guides
Lydia Dean
Author • Humanitarian • Business-Builder
In 2000, Lydia left a successful career in Florida to explore the world with her young family. They settled in a quiet village in the South of France, where they discovered the joys of leading a simpler life. After traveling extensively to areas lacking education and opportunities, Lydia launched GoPhilanthropic Travel, a social enterprise that engaged travelers with the lesser-known change-makers of our time. She later co-founded GoPhilanthropic Foundation, a US-based non-profit. Lydia documents her untraditional and courageous life journey in her two memoirs, Jumping the Picket Fence and Light Through the Cracks.
Building upon what she learned during her years building GoPhilanthropic, Lydia continues to play in the meaningful, transformative travel space with Ethos Journeys, offering unique experiences that foster a more profound connection to ourselves, our communities, and the world around us.
Lydia and her husband live in Provence, France, where they focus on restoration, renovation, and sharing the natural beauty of the region. They are the owners of Only Provence, the leading provider of luxury villa rentals in the region, and Provence Life, an agency devoted to Real Estate Sales.
Travis Day
Designer • Storyteller • Guardian & Guide
In 2011, Travis left his comfortable life in Boston, where he had spent the better part of a decade building a business in the equestrian industry, and made a sudden move to the rainforest of Costa Rica. A village of 200 people with as many species of spiders and snakes found him far outside his comfort zone, but also quickly learning what it means to awaken, transform and connect.
With a background in fashion and graphic design, digital marketing, and ethical storytelling, Travis offers heart-centered marketing and design support to for-profit and non-profit clients. He began guiding trips with GoPhilanthropic Travel in 2016- a natural fit with his love of travel, human rights, and animal protection work.
Travis is deeply committed to shamanic breathwork and meditation practices. He spends as much time as possible exploring the world to harness knowledge in ancestral/indigenous wisdom, plant medicine, and sacred ritual.
He loves strengthening and building community in a world where there is so much division, and he truly believes that Ethos Journeys will serve as a magical space in which people can come together to thrive, laugh, and love.
