“I am going to try ‘alone’ travel” she said on the phone today. This is a comment we hear almost daily.  It is often said with slight embarrassment or hesitation.  Women are social animals. As such, we don’t like to admit our friends will not join our travels, or that we don’t even have traveling friends!

So what are the worst things that can happen on a tour. What can you do about it once you are launched.

  1. You don’t feel good on Day 1. You are alone with no one to lean on. Tell our representative asap. You always have their cell number on hand. We recommend seeing the hotel doctor immediately. Why lose time you have paid for?
  2. No one else seems to be  solo. That is the worst feeling; however, we  guarantee the others are solos, women are just ready chatters.
  3. Everyone is a world traveler. So what? We each excel in something and together we make a complete picture. We had a telephone engineer on a trip; she had not traveled much. BUT she fixed someone’s hair dryer while regaling us with stories of life in a man’s job.
  4. Everyone else dresses well. Really? Who can see others’ clothes through a jet lagged weary lens? Very few can. Our group fashion walk ranges from jeans to sweats to casual travel clothes like Royal Robbin or LL Bean.
  5. Self conscious about money? We are all on different budgets and money/status does not come up while we are traveling. In fact we have heard women apologize for flying Business Class away from the group.

So whatever your angst, we have heard it before. And don’t be ashamed of wanting to see the globe. That makes you curious/special and a little like the women in these articles:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/59922/15-female-explorers-you-should-know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_explorers_and_travelers

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/mar/08/top-10-inspiring-female-travel-adventurers

And in these photos