Edge of Seven Announces 2013 Trek with a Purpose to Everest Base Camp to Provide Education for Girls in Nepal

Combining a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with the opportunity to help educate girls in the developing world, Edge of Seven, a nonprofit based in Denver, Colo., is excited to announce our 21-day Trek with a Purpose to Everest Base Camp departing in October 2013. Read more

Guest post by Dee Farrell of Rainbow Tourism Asia covers Lesbian and Gay Travel in Asia.

Spending a day at the world-heritage Royal Elephant Kraal and village in the ancient Siam capital of Ayutthaya is a fantastic way to get hands-on experience with Thailand’s national animal.  If you’re lucky, you may even get to ride an Asian elephant to the river so you can check that off your bucket list.  And the special treat -Elephantstay is run by two amazing women. Read more

Robyn Smith writes:
Redgirladventures is my business.

I take mostly women to Bali and Indonesia twice a year , and have been doing so for a few years.  

After many years personal research , and gathering support, I am now able to provide, what I believe to be an authentic Balinese experience., not usually seen by most visitors to Bali and Indonesia .
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A guest post by Sarah Fox   Growing up in South Africa, Uganda was one country I had always been eager to explore and getting the chance to do was a dream come true. Read more

Guest Post by Katie Hunt of Earthwatch

The first question we get asked by people is: What the heck does Earthwatch actually do?

I start off with: “well, we organize these scientific expeditions all over the world, but for people who aren’t scientists . . . it’s like they’re on vacation, but they go to do research on the environment and culture and other stuff . . . it’s really great!”

This summary would always lead to more questions than answers. The people who go on Earthwatch trips aren’t scientists? Then why are they doing research? Who wants to go on a vacation like that?

Now I’ve just returned from my first Earthwatch expedition, and I know exactly who wants to go:  people who are curious about the world and hungry to learn more about it. Read more

Dianne Sharma-Winter is a New Zealand whose passion is India, and she spends much of her time there.  She lives there, organises tours, gives advice, promotes fair trade and Ethical Travel along the way – here she writes about what all that means…. Read more

Dianne Sharma-Winter runs Women Travel India and here she writes about voluteering in India:

Hot on the heels of a recent article I wrote about why India doesn’t need you to volunteer, I was lured into doing the very thing I advised against! For the next three months I have committed my time and energy to volunteering at Sambhali Women and Girl Empowerment Centre in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and am currently living with 15 rambunctious girls in a boarding house. Read more

Women Travel is committed to sustainable living and sustainable travel, one of the ways of living this out is to travel with a purpose, and Travel2Change is the latest network we have come across that help to make this possible, through their commitment to connecting travelers with locals to create change.  We have just added them to our  Volunteering links page  Travel2Change  on Twitter  on Facebook Read more

The elephant loomed up, huge and slow, and just as terrifying as I feared. I watched as the others one by one climbed on. I was the only one left on the platform- it was now or forget it.

Suddenly I was there. I was sitting on an elephant, and it was beginning a steady lurch down the slope.  My feet rested behind its ears, feeling the tough hairy skin, sensing the movement of its shoulders, as it lumbered along the jungle tracks. An unexpected wave of euphoria put the biggest smile on my face.

I had been so apprehensive, but now I loved it!

Roots of Asia run tours for women, tours for lesbians, and customised tours in Northern Thailand, Bali and Nepal – even running one in Spain.  Accessibly priced, they are focused on meeting local people, mindfulness, and getting off the beaten track.

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The diminutive figure of a Mongolian woman came wading across the icy river near where we were camped. Holding her boots up high, fast flowing, foamy rapids threatened to swamp her as she struggled to find her footing. Pulling herself up onto the bank a few metres from where I was standing, she looked up at me, smiled a weathered grin and pulled her herder’s boots back on.

I smiled a big greeting back to her then greeted her with the Mongolian equivalent of hello. “Sain bainu”. “Say sain bainu” she said back to me, her eyes crinkling up at the corners. Read more