Please share these experiences from The Women’s Travel Group, with bereavement groups and friends.
Making travel plans can be fantasy or misery. We have been contacted many times by women in bereavement groups. Our first was in 2004. We were asked to meet and talk with a group of New York City Firefighter widows at Ft. Totten NY. Studies had been done which showed that 3 years after 9/11, an important priority was travel. But the study also said one of their fears was travel without a partner. At the meeting, one widow shared that she intentionally wore a NYFD baseball cap on her first trip. She quickly met people to talk and eat with on her cruise. That baseball cap was her open door to a new travel life.
Since then, many women have called The Women’s Travel Group about taking our trips. They describe all kinds of life changes. Bereavement is only one, retirement is another, moving away from home and loneliness another. Loss of a loved pet has been mentioned from time to time. General malaise also.
A few casual notes about reasons to escape through travel…..
No doubt, the new travel experience will be different. Hopefully it will a new beginning and a deep experience. Consider the following:
Pick an exotic destination, one that has nothing in common with your life. Middle East? Indigenous area?
Read books about the area; books take you into the author’s head and away from yours. Restarting reading books can be part of your new travel experience. Example: a biography of Frida Kahlo if going to Mexico. Or Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie and Cleopatra by Stacey Schiff or by Joann Fletcher if Egypt.
Not a reader? Watch movies set in your chosen country. Lawrence of Arabia, set in Morocco. Sex and the City in Dubai. Movies are not a solution but they are candy. Instant gratification and a bite of chocolate is not a crime.
Try additional experiences that transport you. Escapism is also not a crime. A Hamman (Turkish Bath) in Turkey. or Morocco? A Christmas Dinner in Spain? A Birthday anywhere but where you are right now.
Call us, express your personal needs if you can. Phone contact is critical if you are in an emotional state. What you fear to express in an email, often pops up in a personal call.
Ask on that call, what happens ifyouI skip an event or a tour. Why? Because you might take time off, if this is your first solo travel and you need to regroup.
For information about our more about 30 years of traveling women, click here. To call us 646 309 5607, Monday-Friday 9-5 Eastern Time. To see our tours: https://www.thewomenstravelgroup.com/tours/
