Calling All Female Solo Travelers: Now’s the Time to Find Your Travel Crew
Explore the world, find your people, and create memories that last long after the trip is over.
EF Ultimate Break partnered with Jessica Sulima to highlight destination trends, female travel, and culture. Find her work in Thrillist, Observer, and Bloomberg.
If you’re a woman who’s passionate about travel, it’s likely you’ve experienced the common plight that is a “girl’s trip” never making it out of the group chat. Even though you’ve spent hours scrolling through Instagram saving destinations you dream of visiting, you can’t seem to lock down a plan with your friends, due to all kinds of things, like mismatched schedules, interests, or budgets.
Or, perhaps you’ve just gone through a major life event, such as a breakup or a career reset, and you’re itching to have the kind of transformative experience you see female solo travelers making à la Eat Pray Love, but you can’t seem to shake concerns about loneliness or safety. This is where group travel comes in, particularly a solo female travel community. It’s the best of both worlds: You get the independence of solo travel and the connection of a built-in community when you need it. Here’s why you should consider prioritizing your jet-setter dreams and join a group of like-minded women on the road.
The rise of female solo travelers
According to Business Today, more and more Millennial and Gen Z women are feeling empowered to take adventures on their own. Kaithleen, who travelled to Morocco with EF Ultimate Break, says travelling alone allowed her to tap into an entirely different persona: “I love seeing the Kaithleen that I get to see when I travel because there’s things I don’t do at home that I do when I travel. There’s this bravery and confidence that Kaithleen has whenever she’s in a whole different country or city that's a different country from her own.”
As Business Insider reports, the desire to travel on one’s own terms is coinciding with a rise in group trips with strangers. And, for women especially, it makes sense. It’s unfortunate that solo female travel safety is a top concern, but it’s also true that women who are travelling solo tend to look out for one another.
Finding community through group travel experiences
The beauty of joining a women's adventure travel group trip—whether that looks like wandering the neon streets of Shibuya in Tokyo, or cruising the Nile in Egypt—is that you don’t have to deal with navigating unfamiliar cultures and languages alone, or have concerns about missing shared experiences. You can lean on a support system while stepping outside of your comfort zone, making travel friendships along the way. Because after all, there’s a unique bond that forms between women who travel together.
Madison, who travelled with EF to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, can vouch for building friendships through women's group travel: “This was my first time traveling with EF, first time traveling solo, and my first time to Europe so obviously I was so anxious, but as soon as I got with my group it all went away.
“The strangers that turned into friends in just 9 days I will never forget.” Dana, who completed the Grand Tour of Europe, shares similar sentiments. “It's amazing how you can spend 30 days with people you've never met before and suddenly they feel like family! I still keep in touch with many of the friends I met on the trip and we even got a group together for a reunion in Las Vegas.”
Practical concerns, sorted
If you’re a woman who’s new to solo travel, a women’s only group trip is the perfect way to build your travel confidence so that, one day, you’ll feel comfortable enough to fully take the leap on your own. And while it might seem like a paradox to flex your independent travel muscle on a group trip, there will certainly be a balance between guided experience and personal exploration time. Take EF Ultimate Break’s Women Traveling Solo: Venice, Florence & Rome, for example. After spending a chunk of the itinerary getting acquainted with Florence on a walking tour, moving through vibrant piazzas and browsing artisan boutiques with your group, you’ll have a day of free time to explore the city on your own, moving at your own place and exploring your particular interests. Each itinerary comes loaded with Free Time Suggestions, so the only difficult decision you have to make is where to enjoy aperitivo with a view.
Ultimate Break’s selection of women-only itineraries are also a good option when it comes to budget travel for women. Each trip offers the option for budget-friendly, shared accommodations, so you can room with fellow female travelers and feel comfortable no matter where you stay.
Cultural immersion travel
Group trips offer the best cultural immersion experiences for solo women travelers. They can provide deeper cultural access than traditional tourism, as local guides will inevitably offer inside perspectives. For example, on the Women Traveling Solo: Peru & Machu Picchu Adventure trip, a local guide will lead you on a full sightseeing tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, a valley rich in ruins and traditional, native villages. When you’re sharing these cultural experiences with other women—shopping for handicrafts together in local market towns, or taking in the lush valleys that lead to Machu Picchu—you’ll really enhance your understanding of the place, opening a window into multiple perspectives. Hannah, who travelled to Morocco says, “It’s really cool getting to meet like-minded people, meet new friends, explore new cultures, and find new hobbies and interests.”
Booking the right trip for you
From South Africa to Ireland to Thailand, there’s no shortage of affordable group trips for solo female travelers. With options for shared accommodations or hotel-style rooms with one other traveler, you can tailor your experience to satisfy your needs, whether you want to spend that time focusing on yourself, learning from others, or doing a little bit of both. The world is waiting for women brave enough to explore it, and we can’t let busy schedules or concerns about safety get in the way. As Hannah puts it, “They always say you can never add days to your life, but you can always add life to your days, and I think traveling is the best way to do that.”
