Women’s Solo Travel Easier Than Ever

This happened when I played host to my first guest from Women Welcome Women Worldwide, known as 5W for short. Mavis, an Englishwoman who was traveling around the world visited me for two days. Although we didn’t know each other before, we both belong to 5W. a non-profit travel organization whose members share an interest in international travel and friendship.

As we walked around town or sat over coffee, I had the chance to hear the saga of my visitor’s life and recent travels, pick up ideas for future travel of my own, and orient Mavis to Guanajuato. She had already introduced herself to me about two weeks before we met. I knew that she would be leaving Macchu Pichu on February 11, visit with another 5W member for a few days, and hoped to visit me.

After several emails and a phone call, we settled on a time that would work for us both. She was able to stay an extra day with the other 5W woman to fit in with my schedule. As things turned out on her arrival day, I had to leave her a message on my answering machine to tell her how reach my house. I couldn’t meet her at the bus station as I had hoped. But the message worked and she arrived at my address without incident except having to wait forty-five minutes until the time I said I would return.

My visitor, who had been traveling for five months had two very heavy suitcases with her. When I tried to pick one up, I vowed I would never travel with that much weight. Lesson number one.

I was very fortunate in having such an adaptable traveler as my first 5W visitor. Mavis had shared a house in Namibia, taken a warm shower by heating the water in a tub where she set a pressure cooker, and so on, a life very different from mine. It was a pleasure having such an adaptable person in my house. We talked a lot, especially at mealtime, but she knew how to spend time on her own as well.One of our topics was Papua New Guinea where we both had lived at different times and under different circumstances.

As things turned out, my visitor was ready for a relaxing break from her round the world trip so she was less interested in sightseeing in Guanajuato, a world heritage city, than some women might be. After a laid-back time in Chapala and here, Mavis was ready to sightsee in Mexico City. From there she would be going to see “the ruins.” at Palenque or in the Oaxaca area.

During this short visit, we both had the chance for an enriching experience. I know I felt recharged. Besides getting to know someone whose life has been very different from mine – I have done a lot of independent traveling in Mexico but Mavis had worked as a VSO volunteer in four different developing countries, sometimes under living conditions I hadn’t experienced since summer camp.

Already, I have turned to my atlas to locate places that were just words to me before – Chiang Mai, Thailand, where my visitor worked, the village near Brindisi, Italy where she and her husband (who did not join in her round the world trip) have bought a house, and the parts of India, Chile, Bolivia and Peru she visited on her around the world trip before she came to my house

Mavis was my first 5W visitor, but I have also had information requests from 5W women who know very little about Mexico. I have explained to them by email that Guanajuato would be very cold when they’re thinking about coming or that the religious festivals that interest them might be better seen somewhere else. One person who was planning to rent a car asked me about the roads in this part of Mexico. When I was thinking of going to a conference in Berlin, I wrote two women for information about accommodations.

Now a few details about 5W, Women Welcome Women World Wide.The organization which now has 2426 members was started some years ago by an Englishwoman, Frances Alexander. Many members are from English-speaking countries but by no means all. Most women are native to their countries but some are expatriates like me. The age range is more or less 30 to 80. Joining involves filling out a printable application form and arranging to pay for a membership by credit card or other form of payment. The annual dues are about US$40. The member receives a directory which she pledges not to share with anyone except another 5W member. The directory listing contains several lines provided by each person: age, work, interests, languages spoken, contact information, and more.

If you’re a woman thinking about solo travel, 5W is one way to make the trip a success. My new friend used the non-profit organization for just part of her travel planning. She also went to a specialist travel agent to plan her around the world flights, arranged to go on short organized tours (for example a jeep trip in the Chilean desert and Bolivia) and was willing to ask a lot of questions along the way. When she could, she kept in touch with her husband by email. Her trip was not all high points (literally or figuratively), it also had a few lows, including being approached by fake policemen in La Paz and losing a bag she unwisely put up on a shelf in a bus. You can believe I kept my ears open to all this.

If you travel solo like my visitor, be sure to keep someone at home advised of your itinerary. Other tips:

> Learn at least to say, “I don’t speak your language” in the language you don’t know.

> Know what matters to you, including your own limits.

> Do some homework before setting out..

> When you can, stay in places where you’ll meet other travelers.

> If you visit another 5W member, take her for lunch or coffee or bring her a small gift from your travels.