Today we’d like to introduce you to Taunya Dressler.
Hi Taunya, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
It all started with It’s a Small World at Disneyland. Five-year-old me couldn’t get over the costumes, the colors, the kaleidoscope of worlds spinning past. I made my mom take me on it again, and again (my poor mom). I was hooked. Even then, I knew I wanted to explore every corner of that ride, and eventually, every corner of our world.
That same girl was obsessed with Little House on the Prairie. I fantasized about time-traveling back to Walnut Grove and dragging Laura, Mary, and Nellie into my own time to marvel at microwaves, airplanes, and light switches. Somewhere in that mix, a kind of time-traveling tour guide was taking shape.
As a teenager, I would hike up to the “H” rock above the Salt Lake Valley, watching planes sweep westward and wondering where they were headed, and how soon I could hop on one. I studied languages, imagining the places where they were spoken, hoping one day to speak them there.
What I didn’t know then was that, at the same time, another teenager was standing on a hillside halfway across the world, asking similar questions.
Christoph grew up in an East German village tucked into the Thüringen forest. From the hill behind his house, he could see the warm glow of Coburg in West Germany—close, yet unreachable beyond a border he couldn’t cross. He would stand there wondering what life was like on the other side.
Two teenagers. Two hillsides. Two horizons. Lots of “wonderlust.” Neither of us knew our paths would one day merge.
Years later, that same wonderlust brought us both to the School for International Training in Vermont, where we studied experiential learning and international affairs. From there, the world opened wide. I served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and later taught in Morocco and Italy. Christoph worked with USAID in Romania and led student exchanges in Germany with The Experiment in International Living.
Then the universe staged a perfect reunion. The 2002 Winter Olympics brought us back together in Salt Lake City—a fittingly global backdrop. As we like to say, the Olympic flame flickered out just as ours began to burn. Not long after, we were off guiding for Rick Steves, trading stories across Europe’s piazzas, footpaths, and mountain towns.
Eventually, our journey led us back into higher education at the University of Utah. I worked in Humanities, supporting undergraduates through learning communities and study abroad; Christoph founded and directed a faculty-led alumni travel program (Go Learn). That chapter deepened a belief we’d always held: place-based learning isn’t just for students—it’s for every age and stage of life. We watched retirees, alumni, undergraduates, and lifelong learners connect across cultures and generations, reminded again and again that travel teaches best when it’s human-centered, unhurried, and full of story.
From teaching to guiding, from study abroad to alumni travel, every step shaped our shared philosophy: that meaningful travel is slow, intimate, and rooted in curiosity and connection.
Dressler Detours is the grown-up version of those two kids on their hillsides—still wondering, still wandering, still chasing the stories that make the world feel big, beautiful, and connected. We started Dressler Detours to design travel that feels like belonging rather than consumption—journeys rooted in learning, care, and shared experience. Our hope is that travelers return home not just with photographs, but with new perspectives, deeper understanding, and a renewed sense of connection to the wider world.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s one thing to know how to design and deliver exceptional group travel experiences. It’s an entirely different thing to start and run a business that does that. Our path hasn’t been smooth. It’s been rocky and often unclear, but it has also been deeply blessed and sustained by support. The word that comes to mind when I think about our journey is “odyssey.”
Like any hero’s journey, there was a call to action that whispered to us for years from the opposite ends of our sofa sectional: “what if…” But the timing always seemed wrong. I was working on my doctoral degree, which I defended the very week the pandemic shut everything down. The years that followed were marked by uncertainty and loss, including my mother’s death, and my return to the University of Utah—only to be laid off. Each moment felt like a pause, a detour, a delay.
I landed at Salt Lake Community College, where I still work, and at Convocation that first fall our then-president, Denice Huftalin, introduced the theme quote for the year: “Jump and the net will appear.” The hairs on my arms stood at attention. An electric current shot down my spine. It felt like a message from beyond—and this time, I listened.
That was August of 2023. Within a week, I filed our LLC, bought a Squarespace domain, and started building a website. The only problem was…I didn’t know anything about web design, digital marketing, or running a business. But we jumped anyway. Christoph resigned from his job with Go Learn at the U—the program he built from the ground up but knew he had outgrown. I committed nights and weekends to building our web presence and communications. We both embarked on a learning journey that at times feels inspired and at times overwhelming.
We jumped into Dressler Detours not without experience, but certainly without preparation. We didn’t have a financial cushion that allowed us time to be polished, perfect, or protected. We jumped in faith that the net would appear.
In some ways, the net has appeared. The community of travelers and supporters we built through years in higher education and through traveling with Rick Steves has carried us—cheering us on, mentoring us, and trusting us before we fully trusted ourselves. Their belief has been both a safety net and a compass.
In other ways, it still feels like we’re in free fall. Running a small, values-driven travel company involves an enormous amount of invisible labor: relationship-building, contingency planning, storytelling, emotional care, and the responsibility of holding both our travelers and our partners on the ground with deep respect. Much of what we do doesn’t show up neatly on a spreadsheet, but it’s the work that makes the experience meaningful.
One of the greatest challenges has been choosing to build slowly and intentionally in a world that rewards speed, scale, and spectacle. We are committed to small groups, deep relationships with local experts, and travel that prioritizes learning, care, and human connection over volume. That means saying no to growth for growth’s sake—decisions that are values-driven but not always easy, especially in the early seasons of a business.
We launched at the tail end of the post-pandemic travel surge, just as pent-up demand began to soften and political and economic uncertainty intensified. While travel remains in high demand, current trends show travelers waiting longer to commit, which places small operators like us in a precarious position when hotels require room blocks and deposits years in advance. It’s a constant balancing act between risk and faith, logistics and belief.
And yet, every challenge has clarified who we are. Each obstacle has reinforced our conviction that there is a deep hunger for travel that is thoughtful, educational, and human-scaled—travel that invites people to slow down, pay attention, and connect more deeply with the world and with one another.
That’s the nature of an odyssey. It isn’t a straight road. It’s a journey shaped by uncertainty, courage, and conviction. And despite the challenges, we would make the same leap again.
As you know, we’re big fans of Dressler Detours. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Dressler Detours is a small-group, educational travel company built for people who are endlessly curious about the world and want to understand places, not just see them. We design immersive journeys that combine deep cultural and historical context with a strong sense of care to craft travel that feels thoughtful, unhurried, and human.
We specialize in scholar- and expert-led travel. Our itineraries are shaped by historians, artists, archaeologists, chefs, educators, and local guides who know their places from the inside out. We spend time where stories live: in kitchens, classrooms, landscapes, and neighborhoods, and we move at a pace that allows for reflection, conversation, and connection. A Detour isn’t a different route, it’s a different mindset. It’s travel that favors meaning over motion, conversation over commentary, and wonder over rush.
What sets Dressler Detours apart is how intentionally we design not just trips, but temporary communities. We’re deeply influenced by Priya Parker’s idea of creating gatherings that “crackle”—experiences that are alive with purpose, presence, and meaning. For us, that means thinking carefully about group size, rhythm, shared experiences, and moments of pause, while also tending to the human dynamics that allow people to feel seen, safe, and connected. In many ways, our journeys are about rebuilding a kind of village—one grounded in curiosity, care, and shared responsibility for one another.
We believe in meaning over momentum. Our groups are small by design, our days are balanced, and our itineraries are flexible enough to respond to people and place. Some of the most powerful moments happen in the in-between: a conversation by the fire over a cup of gluehwein, a shared silence in a historic space, a meal where stories are exchanged and differences soften. Our role is to create the conditions where those moments can emerge naturally.
I’m most proud of the trust and the community we’ve built. Many of our travelers return for multiple journeys or come to us through personal recommendation. They don’t just feel well-organized and well-informed—they feel cared for. There’s a sense of belonging that forms on our trips, a recognition that learning and travel are richer when they’re shared. We aren’t just building tours, we’re building a community.
I want readers to know that Dressler Detours is for travelers who are less interested in collecting destinations and more interested in understanding the world, and their place within it. We serve people who value learning, storytelling, and human connection, and who believe that travel can be a way to practice empathy, rebuild community, and remember what it feels like to be part of something larger than ourselves. Our journeys are invitations to slow down, notice, and engage deeply with place, with history, and with one another. Travel is dialogue in motion, and dialogue is the the thing we need most in our world right now to break down silos and connect humanity.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
On the one hand, don’t overthink it. The timing will never be perfect. Jump, and trust that the net will appear. Utah has an incredibly generous ecosystem for entrepreneurs, and one of the smartest things you can do early on is plug into it. Seek out community and support right away, whether that’s through local entrepreneur networks (for us, Tourpreneur has been a lifeline), Facebook groups like Utah Connect, or resources that offer education and grants for small businesses, such as Salt Lake Community College’s The Mill. You don’t have to figure everything out on your own.
On the other hand, do your research. Learn as much as you can about the industry you’re entering and be intentional about finding mentors. That’s different from hiring a general business coach. Look for people with deep, hands-on experience and insider knowledge in your specific field. For us, that meant understanding tours—not just travel broadly, but multi-day, outbound international group travel, which is a very different beast than locally based or single-day experiences. Industry nuance matters more than you think.
One thing I wish I had known earlier is how complex the legal side of running a business can be—especially around website hosting, copyright, and ADA compliance. There are predatory law firms whose entire business model is built on targeting small and medium-sized businesses that simply don’t know what they don’t know. Do your homework, invest in the right protections early, and don’t assume that good intentions are enough to keep you safe.
Ultimately, my advice is to hold both courage and care at the same time. Be bold enough to begin, and thoughtful enough to build well. And have fait that the net will appear.
Pricing:
- Our Detours are all-inclusive and are priced around $500-$600/day/person. We never charge for add-ons, tips, transportation, or activities. The price reflects everything we do as a group from the first day of the detour to the last.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dresslerdetours.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dresslerdetours/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dresslerdetours
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dressler-detours/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DresslerDetours
