Feeling Safe: Female Only Tour Groups

By Veronica Moore

March is widely known as Women’s Month. A month dedicated to celebrating women of all shapes and sizes who share the same gender.

International Women’s Day is March 8th every year and it celebrates those same women all over the world. Celebrate with hundreds of women regardless of the day and show yourself some appreciation by booking a female travel experience with one of these tour groups.

During a time period where some women have a justifiable resistance to solo travel or feel like group travel is more their swing, it is important to know that as a woman, these options exist.

Many of these groups started as a safe and inclusive way for women to travel, but have now expanded into so much more.

Here are five organizations that offer women a chance to travel exclusively with other women.

Perillo’s Learning Journeys

Perillo’s Learning Journeys, founded by Carol Dimopoulos, was designed in order to make traveling accessible to women of all backgrounds who wish to expand their mental concept of the world.

Learning Journeys have diversified into different groups of people. They expanded the company into other fields and genders in order to allow for more programs, whether educational or spiritual in nature. However; they do have a specific section of their tours completely dedicated to the women they serve.

Their current project is to get people of all genders to see Tibet. Dimopoulos is very excited about this Tibetian trip because it involves staying with Tibetian monks and lamas in the rural areas of Tibet. Which she said is a way to really see what rural Tibet looks like. It’s purpose being to unite and unite the traveler with the real people and nature surrounding them.

She said that in the center of Tibet few Tibetians don’t even look at tourists anymore because it has been so diluted from commercial tourism.

Dimopoulos’ goal is to improve the lives of the people who live in the areas she travels to with groups.

Oftentimes, tourism is a double-edged sword because when commercialized it can disseminate an entire culture, but it can also create entirely new streams of revenue for the communities on the ground.

The programs that Learning Journeys offer are extensive in that the traveler is sent pre-trip packages that explain the customs of each place in order to preserve the culture of each destination. This is to ensure that meaningful connections can be established without interjecting into a well functioning space.

https://www.learningjourneys.com/pages/wellness-travel

Wanderlust and Lipstick

Wanderlust and Lipstick has a wealth of information and resources for women who are looking for female-only travel. The trips that Wanderlust and Lipstick plan is by women for women in order to make their group travel safer and more impactful in their lives.

Beth Whitman, the founder of Wanderlust and Lipstick and Wandertours, is a long time traveler with over 30 years of travel experience. She gives talks on advice for female travelers.

She also provides her readers with a variety of helpful articles including what clothing will make your travels more comfortable and what to expect when traveling in a group.

When I spoke to Beth she said, “My tours tend to attract women 45-65, divorced widowed, a husband doesn’t like to travel so there’s kind of this demographic”.

So many of these women’s travel groups cater to different kinds of women and it is important to find your fit in any one of them.

Beth continued to tell me a bit more about what she loves about her groups, “This is the thing that I think about women’s tours across the board is that there is just such camaraderie that happens and these friendships and these bonds that happen that are life-long so I have a lot of repeat people on my tours.

I have one woman who has been on nine trips with me and these women will meet each other and say ‘oh my gosh you’re so much fun to travel with let’s do the next tour together or they’ll go home and tell their friends or relatives about it and they’ll bring them on the next trip”. These tours are designed by Beth and her small team in order to ensure safety and a fun trip.

Wandertours offers multiple tours to the same places for different explorations. For example, Whitman has two different small group tours being offered on her website to Papua, New Guinea. One is a tour dedicated to a photography expedition and the other a show tour.

However; both say the same thing under the header: “WanderWorld Foundation – A portion of your tour cost will go toward supporting a program in PNG that will help a local community. In the past, we’ve donated to Amnesty International to help women of domestic violence in Papua New Guinea.”

Every trip that a person takes with Wandertours supports a female founder. Similar to Learning Journeys, it also supports the local communities that they visit in order to make them safer, not only for the traveler but for the lifetime residents.

https://wanderlustandlipstick.com/

SITA Tours: Women’s Only Travels

SITA Tours has partnered with Women’s Travel Group to provide life-altering experiences for women in a safe environment that many people may not even think of going on a solo trip.

For example; one of their most popular tours is a 12 day trip to Morroco. Another planned trip they have for the middle of June this year is a safari to Madagascar.

These experiences are like a build your own trip. There are many options to add on so the traveler can experience as much or as little during their trip as they’d like.

Multi-Destination Adventures

Many of their trips are multi-destination. SITA Tours offers a trip in the fall to Chile, Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Easter Island. This trip is a photo-worthy spot and gives many travelers an awe-inspired response with the year-round lush green landscape which is perfect for outdoor lovers and hikers alike.

These group trips allow women who prefer group travel or who are dipping their feet into solo travel a buffer to learn and absorb information in a safe place. SITA Tours is an all-encompassing tour company so, in addition to having trips dedicated to women, it also carries trips and opportunities for persons of every gender. website

smarTours, LLC

smarTours, LLC is a company dedicated to giving the traveler the ideal price and experience. They have a “refer a friend program” where every friend you refer to gets you $100 off your trip.

They have an entire section of their website devoted to what they have to offer female travelers. All of their trips are of different lengths to give the traveler options in order to allow them to have as little or as much exposure to the travel destination as possible.

Women Only to Iceland

They offer an incredible trip to Iceland (Women-Only) where the women can explore what Iceland has to offer, but also get to witness the Northern Lights first hand, as it is included in this trip package. Iceland is also famous for its Blue Lagoon and geysers which are vista points on the trip as well.

https://smartours.com

Adventures for Women

Adventures for Women is a company out of New York and New Jersey that offers hiking tours in the Adirondack Mountains. They offer quaint events like chair yoga and potluck dinners. This is an opportunity many outdoor travelers take because of the community that can be built over broken bread.

This company was also founded by a woman. Her name is Betsy Thomason, Adventures for Women is a non-profit organization and is one of the few hiking tour clubs in the U.S. They strive to be very inclusive in regards to abilities and want every woman to have the same recreational access as the next. Their events are all local and create a community among women in order to empower each other and create friendship.

http://www.adventuresforwomen.org/