Dianne Lorae has just launched LadyBug Travels as a membership organisation . She wants to grow the membership globally through creating a unique travel opportunity or women travelers:

Since many women often have limited travel budgets and women centered needs I conceptualized this business to open doors of opportunities for independent women travelers.

Members join and when they want to make arrangements we contact one another directly, setting the accommodation dates and arrangements between the Hostess and the Guest. You don’t necessarily host the person who hosted you. Everyone travels to their chosen destinations with unlimited exchanges allowed for the price of the membership $19.95 US/Month ($239.40 US/Yr.)

All members post a personal and property profile along with photos. Photo postings are mandatory so that each member can discern their own comfort levels when considering a location.

I just launched my website this month and women are just CRAZY ENTHUSED about the idea -  I am very uplifted and encouraged by my business from so many women.

Join up and see the world and have the world visit you too!
LadyBug Travels

Well I guess we all have to do our thing – if Liz Gilbert with Eat Love Pray did it for my generation, someone has to do it for the under 30s – Jen, Holly and Amanda have done it and written Lost Girls – three friends, four continents, one unconventional detour around the world Read more

In the network of Women Owned Travel businesses around the world, Gayle Lawrence’s Journeys of Discovery have always been out there and visible with a great range of trips that touch the soul.

I have just updated the Tour Calendar at Women Travel the World with her latest tours and what a choice there is:

• Meditation and service in Bhutan
• encounters with Humpback Whales in the Dominican Republic  (get in early for 2011 these sell out very fast!)
• Women’s Quest to Avalon in Britain
• A writing retreat in Mexico Read more

Hostel Bookers are paying attention to women travellers on a budget through putting together information especially for women:

• about travel for in different countries
• Where are the Hottest Men – results of a survey
• Hostel Bookers blog posts about women and travel
• Results of survey of Women Travellers Read more

Emele and Mihae

According to our dictionary widget, an adventure is an exciting, typically hazardous experience or activity. That said, it seemed fitting to call our world travels something of an adventure, to say the least, and so begins The Missadventures.

Traveling, it enables one to escape from the day-to-day, but more importantly, to see the world from a different perspective and if you are lucky, you might just learn to love something you never imagined existed.

From climbing the Pyramids of Giza by moonlight to off road mopeding in Cappodocia, we’ve been fortunate to do and see things that many have only dreamed and the best part is that we experienced it together.  We hope our travels will inspire you to create your own adventures. Read more

The cost of travel is high – both financially for our own pockets and also increasingly we are counting the cost of travel in terms of the planet and the social and environmental impact of travel.

There is no easy solution – simply to stop travelling will have enormous economic impact on small communities for whom travellers provide a major economic boost to the local community. In New Zealand – tourism is set to overtake exports as New Zealand’s top export earner. There is also the potential to put an economic benefit to forests not being cut down, because of the benefit in terms of tourism.
Read more

Segou, in Mali, West Africa: One of the things I love most about travel is the interesting people you meet along the way. People who inspire you by their character, their way of life, their determination against the odds, their attitudes and outlooks. These people leave an indelible mark on your being, that you carry with you forever. If you asked them, probably they would say their story is not worth telling. I met two such people in the riverside town of Segou, in Mali, West Africa.

It was a hot, lazy day in Segou. I was traveling with an Irishman, Roy, who I had met in the capital of Bamako – it was a mutually beneficial travel arrangement: I was his French translator and he was my fake husband. So far his ability to be a fake husband was about as good as my French – average, but we were getting by! Arriving in Segou late the night before, we hit the streets early the next morning to check out what this dusty, enchanting riverside town had to offer.

Next to the Niger river was a small, makeshift tourist office containing a desk, a couple of chairs, and a list of tours stuck on the wall with some faded and curling photographs. Roy and I planned to take a longboat up the river for the day to visit various villages and tribes, and we were waiting for our guide. I plonked myself in the shade on a small clay fence. The heat had slowed me down to snail’s pace, and I sat mesmerized by the slow-moving, milky-brown river. As I sat and stared, a strange looking figure appeared in my peripheral vision. I turned to see a young Malian guy loping down the street in a very odd way: walking on all fours, sandals on his hands, one shriveled and thin leg completely straight, the other bent, his bottom pushed into the air, he was “walking” the only way he could. Obviously he had had polio as a child, not uncommon around here. It looked very awkward, and my Western upbringing told me not to stare. No less than 2 minutes later this poor wretch was sitting next to me on the fence, a huge white grin aimed my way, his cute black face framed with short, neat dreadlocks, and a colourful large shell choker adorning his neck. This was Mohammed, a local jewellery salesman…

After a short introduction, Mohammed whipped out some necklaces from a small bag, hoping to make a sale. His demeanor was instantly infectious, but although my white skin indicated to the locals that I was obviously “born to shop” and a “bank on legs” (making you a target for every salesman in town), I was not in the mood for haggling (or shopping, for that matter). So I just chatted with him, (in my bad French) because after all, I was here to meet the locals.

Later that evening Roy and I were sitting in a small, busy bar listening to some fantastic live Malian music (Mali has some of the best music and musicians in Africa). Mohammed crawled in and plonked himself next to us. It was nice to see him. We listened to the music, chatted and drank local beer. After a while, another local polio victim staggered into the bar on crutches, a huge, white smile a-blazing. Enter Amadou!

Amadou, a friend of Mohammed, made a beeline for our table, introduced himself and joined us. Mohammed looked a little miffed. Obviously Amadou was a bit of a show-stealer and he was “moving in” on his new friends. It turned out Amadou was a poet and wrote poems of love in French – and would we like to hear one? Of course! With one arm outstretched, the other hand on his heart, and his eyes locked into mine, Amadou recited a beautiful poem de l’amour – it was hysterical! (And probably beautiful if I had understood it!) He then pulled out a small photocopied book of his poems and sold me one. He was a real character.

Eventually it got late and Roy decided to go back to the hotel. I was enjoying Mohammed and Amadou so much, I decided to stay on with them. They suggested we go to the outdoor disco at my hotel – great idea! Roy was not going to be able to sleep with all that noise anyway! At the disco the dance floor was packed with local Malians dancing as only Africans do – magnificently! I was having a drink with “my boys” when Amadou suggested we dance….Er…I thought you needed two working legs for that? Wrong! We got up onto the dance floor, Amadou hopping around on his crutches and Mohammed jumping around on all fours like a mad dog, dreadlocks wagging. OK, so we needed a bit more room than everyone else, but noone batted an eyelid at this odd trio. I thought to myself, “if only my friends could see me now!” It must have looked hilarious. I realized that in our culture disabled people are expected to behave in a disabled manner. These guys were neither disabled physically in their heads nor in their attitude to life. I was loving hanging out with them.

I stayed another couple of days in Segou and visited Mohammeds family and met Amadou again also. What I admired most was that they both worked for a living. Using their disabilities as fuel, not brakes, all the while carrying a great attitude towards life. In so many other African countries they would have been beggars on the street, slaves to their disability. But here in Mali they had pride and self-respect. I will never forget those few crazy days in Segou and my two new friends, Mohammed and Amadou.

Written by Julie Paterson – Venus Adventures – Global Trips for Women who Love to Travel

julie@venusadventures.travel
www.venusadventures.travel

Today I paid my deposit today for two of my tours – it feels so exciting – in less than three months the adventure will have started, and in some ways it feels like it has started already as I plan and book, peruse Google Maps, contact friends and start to put the picture together.

I am not a confident traveller, especially on my own, and it has been great to find two women’s tours which fit my itinerary – as a women on my own this makes things so much easier.

Bike and Barge the Canal du Midi with Bushwise Women

Morocco Odyssey with Venus Adventures

Mira contacted me and let me know about her travel blog Lady the Tramp -

Mira said: “I have been tramping for a couple years now through Central America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. This is a lady’s journey through the world, traveling and backpacking on a budget. Who says tramping isn’t for women? Here are travel essays about the folly of being a wondering woman, with tips and guides for females on the road.”