Beth Whitman has logged hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe as a contemporary Wanderer: combining her love for travel with volunteer work, adventure trips, travel writing and business.

She has trekked the Himalayas in Nepal and Bhutan, ridden a motorcycle solo from Seattle to Panama, helped build a playground for an orphanage in Vietnam; driven the AlCan Highway to Alaska – twice; and maneuvered the back roads of France’s Dijon region in a rental car. She’s had a hand grenade pulled on her in Cambodia, fought off giardia in Southeast Asia; been threatened by Nicaraguan motorcycle police; and been flashed by men from New Orleans to Saigon.

Having grown up in New Jersey, Beth was eager to see the world beyond the NYC skyline. At 20, she took a three-month trip around the U.S. in her brother’s sporty Fiero (her family wouldn’t let her drive her ’76 Dodge Dart – go figure). Staying in youth hostels throughout the journey, she met people from all over the world and couldn’t wait to venture abroad.

Her first “real” (do Canada and England count?) out-of-country trip was spending three months in Thailand, India and Nepal. Though culture shock definitely set in, she was hooked and never looked back.

From there she:
•    Spent a year backpacking the Pacific Rim countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
•   Returned to Vietnam six more times, doing volunteer work and traversing much of the country from south to north.
•    Visited Australia two more times and has now covered much of the eastern half of the country, from Darwin to the Center, Cairnes to Sydney and many places in between.
•    Traveled to Mexico a dozen or so times including taking a bus from Mexico City to Guatemala.
•    Rode her BMW motorcycle solo from Seattle to Panama; 7,000 miles over nine weeks. The trip took her through many of the Western U.S. states, the central part of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
•    Drove from Paris to Geneva (and back) in a rental car.
•    Spent three weeks in Greece including Athens, Santorini and Crete.
•    Had a way too brief visit to Italy that included Rome and Florence.
•    Journeyed to India on several trips in which she has covered a good portion of the country and where she now leads tours.
•    Is leading trips to Bhutan, the Kingdom of the Himalayas.

Beth in Vezelay, France

After teaching travel-related workshops in the Seattle area for nearly 15 years, Beth decided to get her message of encouragement and inspiration to more people. She started her own publishing company (Dispatch Travels) and began writing the Wanderlust and Lipstick guidebooks for women travelers (now including The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo, For Women Traveling to India and is the publisher of Traveling with Kids).

She is the editor of www.WanderlustAndLipstick.com, the women’s travel columnist for Transitions Abroad and the travel blogger for the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Beth leads trips to India and Bhutan and is toying with leading a group of motorcycle riders through Europe in 2010.

She has always believed that we should tread lightly on the earth, whether in our own backyard or someone else’s. And that we all have a responsibility to act as ambassadors of our own country by treating other people and their village or city with respect.

While traveling, she enjoys discovering new (vegetarian) foods and meeting the locals. At 40 something, she’s finally figured out her way around the kitchen and is determined to become the best non-Indian Indian cook in West Seattle, where she resides.

She studies classical guitar, practicing nearly every day when she’s at home, and enjoys reading travel memories and watching foreign flicks.