We are still hiring for…

Sales and Brand Development for WanderTours
Ideal candidate will have experience in developing relationships with travel agents and organizations interested in group travel (universities, etc.). Experience in developing a brand through social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter and website) are also required.

While in-depth knowledge of the destination is not required, an interest in the areas we tour is important.

Must be a self starter and is expected to bring their knowledge of the industry and creative ideas for growing the business.

Ability to proofread/copy edit and provide insight into tour descriptions a plus.

Candidate must be highly organized, detail-oriented, highly computer literate, familiar with Google Docs and available Monday – Friday. Ideal person lives in the Seattle area for easier communication and meetings. This is a work-from-home and at-will position. It’s expected to be 10 hours/week and will increase as company grows.

Interested candidates should apply by sending resume along with a couple of paragraphs about where you’ve traveled, your interest in this position, when you are available to start and salary requirements to: beth (at) WanderlustAndLipstick (dot) com.

Travel Well,

Beth

Reisenthel has done just that with the Shopper E1.

The big plus with this bag is that it expands by simply unzipping the zipper that runs around the body of the bag. It means that you’ve got fewer things to pack or you don’t have to buy a spare bag at your destination (if you don’t plan on buying too much).

The bottom lays flat and is stiff which helps protect items that might be slightly delicate. There’s one zippered interior pocket that can easily hold a cell phone, iPod or other small items.

Normal size is about 20 x 12 x 6.6 inches while the expanded version is 20 x 21 x 6.6. Medium-length handles allow you to throw it over your shoulder or hold it by your side without it dragging on the ground.

The Shopper E1 comes in several colors and is under $20.

While I wouldn’t carry this bag on an extended backpacking trip, it’s perfect for weekend getaways or even a week-long trip to a city or some other place where you want to be more dressed up.

Travel Well,

Beth

Related links:
Magellan’s Stowaway Electronics Case
Osprey Meridian Convertible Pack

What was more interesting to me was the response from Jen Leo, a long-time traveler, travel writer and the keynote blogger for the LA Times Daily Travel & Deals blog. Jen and I have known each other online for years and have met up at numerous travel events around the country. While I don’t know her well, I have tremendous respect for her and consider her a friend in that on-line-world kind of way. I think the feeling is mutual

Jen is awesome, and while the conversation was in good nature, I was still shocked by her preconceived notion of what one of our women-only tours might be like. She made it very clear that she would only travel with other women she knew and that the last thing on earth she’d want was to travel with 20 women.

Perhaps she was playing devil’s advocate for her audience, but here are some of her beefs about women-only tours:

1) Women feel entitled. So much so that we are all fighting to get the seat we want on the bus or at dinner.

2) Women are so competitive in nature that we can’t get along.

3) Woman-only tours attract lesbians (NOT that there’s anything wrong with that!).

4) Women-only tours attract meat eaters, too.

5) Taking a women-only tour means you have to shave your head (seriously, listen to the interview!).

6) There are far too many cosmetic bags on a women-only tour.

7) During even a week-long trip, there are those either on their menstrual cycle and grouchy or, worse, going through menopause and having hot flashes.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I’m sure I repeated that word numerous times throughout the interview because, seriously… women only tours consist of shaved-head lesbians who love a side of beef for dinner?

Of course, I can’t speak for all women-only tours, but I can tell you that on a women-only WanderTour, Jen’s experience would be quite different.

1) Most participants are women between 45 – 65. And, yup, during a 3-week trip it’s pretty certain that someone’s got their period or having a hot flash or two, but few complain or have issues.

2) Many of the women are divorced, widowed or married to a husband who doesn’t like to travel. They want a safe environment in which to travel and aren’t interested in hooking up (as some single tours promote). They want to be with like-minded women and share experiences that their friends, significant other or husband isn’t interested in.

3) Our Wanderlusters may not shave their heads but they are adventurous. In the 2011 tour to Vietnam and Cambodia, 2 women got their noses pierced in Hanoi! One of the women is in her 60′s. (I can only imagine what her husband said when she returned home with that souvenir!)

4) While many of our participants are meat eaters, about 1/4 have dietary restrictions including vegetarian, vegan, lactose intolerant or with allergies to such things as peanuts or buckwheat.

5) Competitive? Maybe. But on our trips, women aren’t catty. We don’t put up with that BS. If there’s an issue, women are asked to talk to the tour leader to iron out problems. And while there is probably more back chatter going on than the tour leader knows about, everything seems pretty civil from my point of view.

6) As for being entitled and fighting for seats? Meh, I haven’t seen such a thing. Everyone is respectful and is happy to rotate for a better window seat or an aisle seat with more legroom.

7) There might be one too many cosmetic bags floating around but we’re just as likely to attract the most experienced traveler who carries one 19 inch carry-on and isn’t afraid to be seen in the same few outfits on a 17-day trip. (I was in total awe of Kristina who did this for our South India tour in January!)

Having grown up with 3 older brothers, I didn’t have the luxury of learning from (or competing with) a sister. As a result, I have come to thoroughly enjoy the friendship and camaraderie that gets established on these tours.

As a matter of fact, I’ve become friends with women whom I would never have crossed paths with otherwise. And I’m not talking about simply because of geography.

Here’s just a sampling of tour participants that I now count as friends: a firefighter in Northern California; an entrepreneurial business owner in Michigan; a former Louisiana legislature (and staunch Republican – ack); a woman in British Columbia who owns several businesses with her husband and who also flies a small plane (and also now has a nose ring!); several physical therapists and nurses; a woman in her 70′s who teaches aerobic classes at her local Y (and put the rest of us to shame while hiking in Bhutan); and an elementary school teacher in California.

I would never have thought I’d have so much in common with this vast array of women that we could sustain long-term friendships, but we do. All because group travel tossed us together.

Oh, and another benefit of traveling with women? You get to learn things that your (non-existent) big sister never taught you, like what a muffin top is and what the latest waxing techniques are

Everyone has their own reasons, but here are probably the biggest benefits of traveling on a women-only tour:

1) Joining a tour means you don’t have to make any of the arrangements yourself. You’re a busy woman and don’t have time to book in-country flights or trains on your own, make hotel reservations or know the best restaurants for local cuisine.

2) You’ll make instant friends. You may not have anyone to travel with but really enjoy the company of others to share the experiences. It’s highly likely that you will bond quickly with many of the women on one of our tours (and stay in touch for years to come).

3) You’ll have experiences you likely couldn’t schedule on your own. We work closely with well-connected, knowledgeable in-country tour operators and guides who help us coordinate unique programs including donating books to school children in Bhutan and watching world-renowned performers in a private home in Varanasi. We even got to meet part of the royal family in Bhutan.

Ultimately, group travel isn’t for everyone. But I hope Jen will join me one day on a tour. She’s fun and, I’m sure, would be a joy to have along. And I also like thinking it might just open up her world a bit wider…

Travel Well,

Beth

Related links:
Women-only Tours to India
Women-only Tours to Bhutan

Don’tcha just LOVE this! This is Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo in Korean!

Next time you’re in the Seoul airport or traveling through South Korea, be sure to pop into a bookstore and ask for it Of course, you could always buy the English version of The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo.

Travel Well!

Beth

My friend, Lauren, recently alerted me to the disappearance of Aubrey Sacco who was on a solo trip through South Asia and was last seen part way through the Langtang trek in Nepal. Aubrey went missing sometime around the 3rd week in April. She was to check in with her family on April 29, but never did.

Aubrey seemingly did everything right. Though on her own, she was connected – keeping up a blog as well as posting photos and touching base with her family on a regular basis. Definitely not a wallflower, Aubrey was making friends with the locals and she wasn’t traveling to places necessarily deemed as “dangerous”. Though the U.S. State Department listed Nepal on its travel warning pages back in November, 2009, nothing has been updated about the region since.

A dozen things could have happened to Aubrey including the possibility that she was simply hurt along the way and is recovering in a remote village.

But this news, and the recent arrest of Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot (the main suspect in the Natalie Holloway killing in Aruba) for the murder of a Peruvian woman, has me really sad and concerned about the safety of women travelers.

Though I’m a huge advocate of solo travel and believe that taking certain precautions can alleviate much of the inherent dangers that come with walking out your front door or hopping on an international flight, the truth is that there’s never a guarantee that your travels are going to be 100% safe.

We obviously don’t have all the details, but Aubrey’s circumstances are particularly haunting to me as she doesn’t appear to have done anything differently than I might have done myself. If I had had the access to the technology available today, no doubt I would have been posting stories and images from my travels through India and Nepal (I, too, trekked Langtang) 20 years ago.

One of my best friends in high school was killed in a freak accident in his early 20′s when he was traveling in England on what was to be his life’s dream trip. While walking on a sidewalk, he was hit by a car whose driver had an epileptic seizure and veered off the road. Shit happens and sometimes the stars line up to hand us a bag of it.

No magic bullets today or tips on how to be safer. Just a simple alert about Aubrey Sacco as every woman traveler should know her story. Her dad is now in Nepal with an organized search party. You can keep up with their progress on the Aubrey Sacco Facebook page. And I’ll be sure to keep you posted when I hear more when details emerge.

Travel Well!

Beth

Related links:
What Constitutes a Dangerous Destination?
Getting Over Reverse Culture Shock
A Monk Walks onto a Plane
One Way Ticket to Ride
American Travel Ethos

Photo Credit: Langtang National Park by TheDreamSky