Who wouldn’t want to travel the world over? Admit it, you’ve wanted to travel to far flung places, but maybe there’s something that’s holding you back. Perhaps it’s the expense, or getting time off from your job, or not knowing how to find the best places to go, or simply being afraid of getting in trouble. Traveling can be exciting, fun and educational, and you only need to use common sense to make sure you stay safe. If you’re thinking about planning a trip sometime soon, we have some expert advice to help you navigate your way.

26-year-old Kristina Wegscheider is an avid traveler and the founder of travel website for young women, Do It While You’re Young, which strives to break down the barrier stopping most young women from traveling abroad. She spoke to website Crushable about her own experiences — having traveled to nearly 50 countries and trying to blend in as a 6-foot tall blonde — and gave them some ideas for tips and tricks to use along the way. Read more

Servas – My Favorite Organization Ever

Excerpt Reprinted with permission from “Female Nomad and Friends” by Rita Golden Gelman. Copyright © 2010. Published by Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc. BUY IT HERE

Being a part of Servas is like having family all over the world. It’s actually better than family. People join Servas because they want you to visit them when you are in their country. Not always the case with family. Read more

For those who living with and beyond cancer, it is sometimes a struggle to hope again, to regain confidence and self love.  A new travel company Travel Toward Wellness based in Seattle has been set up to focus on the needs of these women. Their current programmes include a weekend in the San Juan Islands, shopping in Tuscany and  spa retreat in Sausalito, California – and more are planned. Read more

If I was feeling the wanderlust and didn’t know where to start,
this book would surely answer more than a few questions:
Wanderlust and Lipstick:
The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo

Beth Whitman enthuses about the joys of independent travel for women, of being open to new people and places and of finding yourself along the way. Her book is laced with enticing stories of women who have taken off into great adventures , experiencing ‘the sheer joy of these heightened experiences’.Travel is marvellous and energising, as well as sometimes scary and confusing. For the novice traveller, Beth Whitman offers everything from packing lists, to itinerary suggestions and handy healthy tips.Even for an experienced traveller there are some ideas, like uploading your photos to flickr as you go, creating and managing a blog to save those endless individual emails home and pre-printing a list of address labels to send home beautiful postcards.I enjoyed the section on love, romance and sex while travelling. Recently we hosted a German woman who was having a glorious holiday romance with a local – great for both of them! However Beth gives sage advice about letting coffee be the drink of seduction rather than alcohol. One of her comments about New Zealand was inaccurate- she asserts that you can just pitch your tent on someone’s farmland- not a good idea at all. So maybe follow her other advice with caution. A great book to read, to make you start giving up café lunches and luxury goods, to open that travel account, then begin reading other more country-specific books. Bon Voyage.

Ceridwyn Parr

 

Wanderlust and Lipstick:
The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo

published by Dispatch Travels www.dispatchtravels.com Dispatch Travels is devoted to publishing travel books for women with the express purpose of encouraging them to stretch their travel boundaries and to pursue their dream journeys.

I have in the past few months come across several older women who have decided to take to the road on their cycles.  Life is too short – they have dreamed of travel and cycling and were putting things in place to do it.  I say Go for it… Karen

Karen Cooper’s Blog – Karen is  60 years and still riding
Read more

Marie-Pierre writes:

Usually I far prefer to travel solo, but as this was my first trip to Asia I decided it would be nice to have a guide to familiarize myself with Bali. I hoped to lessen the culture shock. I contacted Jennifer at Bahagia travel and discovered that travelling with a knowledgeable guide and a group could be a lot of fun after all. Read more

So many to choose from – that is the only problem…

Accommodation Options:

Women Travel the World websites lists 6 options in the South of Spain – from the fabulous women only Diva Espana (I have stayed there, and would gladly have stayed longer) to a new listing near Almeria that offers horse riding as part of the package. Search

Tour Options

The Women Travel the World website Tour Calendar lists tours for women – most of them are women only and cater especially for women travellers.  There are walking, writing courses, painting, horse riding, and riding and writing courses

Women Tour Companies

What are we waiting for….

Lyn Baker the founder of Tiger Travel spent many years travelling extensively throughout India as a professional photographer  – she has an eye for the country, for its people and its culture.

The idea of sharing India with small groups of women travellers seemed a great way of adding to her relationship with India.  So Tiger Travel was born. Read more

I have just added a whole lot more tours for women to India onto the Women Travel the World Tour Calendar. There is so much choice from some wonderful companies, you can do a tour, and add some extra stays to explore by yourself once you have gained some confidence.  As a woman travelling on my own, I find this a great way to travel.  Join a small tour where I can get the feel of a country and then branch out confidently to explore on my own.  There is now a choice of 17 tours in India on the Tour Calendar on Women Travel.

Read more

Are you a female backpacker or solo traveler? Have you or are you planning to hit the road alone in the near future? Then we want to hear from you!

The HostelBookers Blog offer the insiders route to budget travel – they know traveling as a woman alone can be trying at certain times – from worrying about safety to hostels without hairdryers, and we’re on a mission to find out more about what women travelers want. So they have set up a survey – asking women to “telling us about yourselves – share you travel stories, plans of jetting around the world, or top places to visit, in our biggest ever survey of female travelers!”

More on this