Here’s How The Wanderful Community Empowers Ladies Who Travel
Inspiring Travelers series.
Watch the video above!
You’ll learn nine of my favorite places to travel alone, though note this list is in no way exhaustive.
After watching, let me know in the comments below what destinations you’d add to it!
This post is part of Jessie on a Journey’s By Michele Herrmann, Regular Contributor
As CEO and founder of Wanderful, Beth Santos has created an international community of over 15,000 empowered women travelers who support and learn from one another at the same time. She also established the Women in Travel Summit, an annual conference for female travel influencers and industry members. Jessie on a Journey caught up with Santos to learn more about informational resources for women’s travel and essential advice for females on the road.My Favorite Solo Female Travel Destinations [Video]
But first… Need some solo travel destination inspiration?Interview With Wanderful Founder, Beth Santos
1) Before Wanderful, what resources on women’s travel were available? What does Wanderful bring to the table?
When I first started the blog that became Wanderful, I was living in Sao Tome and Principe, a small two-island nation off of Africa’s West Coast. I was a school teacher, living like a regular Sao Tomean would. I learned how to ride a motorcycle to get to school every day and bought jackfruit from my favorite seller after class; I even had a boyfriend. Yet, I also became hyper-aware of my identity as a female and as a foreigner. I came to understand what it meant to be a Sao Tomean woman, but I also experienced what’s known as the “third gender” concept where foreign women have sort of an alternate identity. They’re neither subjected to the social limitations facing local women nor entirely exposed to the social benefits that local men experience. If you were a woman traveling on her own, you could find loads of information online about what kind of makeup to wear or what kind of bikini to buy. But there was very little about some of the much deeper questions surrounding a woman’s global identity. How do I stay safe when traveling alone at night? How do I dress appropriately as a foreigner to respect the local culture? What are my options for birth control abroad? Even if these questions are more or less the same — no matter what trip you’re going on — the answers are radically different. They can change over time. Wanderful helps a woman answer these questions by giving her the best tools available — other women with knowledge of the place she’s going to (whether they have been there or are locals themselves). We create a sisterhood around the world who empower each other to get out there and travel, whether it’s alone, with a partner, or in a group.2) From your perspective, what factors must solo women travelers keep in mind?
In my opinion, there are two schools of thought that people occupy when they talk about women traveling, and especially alone. The first is that women’s experiences abroad should be considered no different than men’s. The second is that women have loads of things they need to think about when they travel that are opposite to men — especially when it comes to travel safety. At Wanderful, we fit into a middle ground. We believe that women’s experiences abroad should be no different from men’s, yet we also recognize that, in many instances, they are different, and we need to be informed about them. Such topics include:- How to travel safely alone (including the discussion of sexual assault or harassment abroad, but also not discounting the need to bust myths about the actual frequency of these things happening to women versus the perceived frequency in the media)
- Understanding how women may be treated differently from men in a country you’re visiting
- How to dress appropriately to be respectful within a country with specific social norms
- How to obtain safe birth control or maternity care abroad and managing your period on the road
Hi, I’m Jessie on a journey!
I'm a conscious solo traveler on a mission to take you beyond the guidebook to inspire you to live your best life through travel. Come join me!
Want to live your best life through travel?
Subscribe for FREE access to my library of fun blogging worksheets and learn how to get paid to travel more!
Turn Your Travel Blog Into A Profitable Business
Subscribe to my email list to snag instant access to my library of workbooks, checklists, tutorials and other resources to help you earn more money -- and have more fun -- blogging. Oh, and it's totally FREE! :) // Privacy Policy.