The Friday Connection: Latoya & April

They booked alone. They left as sisters.

At the welcome dinner, LaToya said something she says often: "We listen and we don't judge."

April heard it. Looked up. And said: "I listen and I judge."

LaToya laughed. And in that moment, without either of them planning it, a friendship started.

That was June 2025. The Sisters Traveling Solo Spain and Portugal trip. Two women who didn't know each other a day before were sitting at the same table in Madrid, finding the same things funny, noticing the same things about the room. By the time the Tuk Tuk tour came around the next day, they already had inside jokes.

"The whole experience during the tour was memorable for many reasons," April says. "Our driver was hilarious and engaging. It created a few inside jokes that we still reference."

That's how it starts. Not with a grand declaration of friendship. With a moment. A laugh. A line that lands.

April describes herself as an extrovert. LaToya is more of an introvert. On paper, they shouldn't work as well as they do. But that's the thing about connections forged on a Sisters Traveling Solo trip, they don't follow the rules. They follow something deeper.

"LaToya is the ying to my yang," April says. "Our friendship works because we understand and respect each other's differences. There are times I help her step out of her comfort zone and times where she has helped me slow down and deepen connections with people."

LaToya sees it the same way, just from the other side.

They've since traveled together outside of STS. They swap itineraries. They share restaurant lists and hotel recommendations for cities they've been to. They show up for each other in the practical ways and the emotional ones.

None of it would exist without one trip. One welcome dinner. One table in Madrid.

That's what Sisters Traveling Solo was built for. Not just to take women to beautiful places, though we do that too. But to put the right women in the same room at the right time and let the rest happen naturally.

April and LaToya didn't know they needed each other. They just said yes to the trip.

The Friday Connection is a weekly series celebrating the friendships formed on Sisters Traveling Solo trips. To be featured, email us at info@sisterstravelingsolo.com.