Traveling sola: World Hum’s roundtable on women and travel

There are some great tips out there for all of us solo female travelers on how to stay safe, blend in, and navigate the different social customs and protocols we encounter on the road. But even once I’m wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, and feeling secure wherever I find myself, I still think a lot about what it means to be a woman traveling alone. Are there places I just shouldn’t go? Things I’ll simply never experience? And what about the advantages? What can I do and where can I go that men can’t follow?

For some thoughtful, honest answers to these broader questions – and for lots more questions, too – check out World Hum’s Women’s Travel Email Roundtable. All this week, female travel writers Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Liz Sinclair, Terry Ward and Catherine Watson have been mulling over everything from the ethics of playing the “feminine card” to the inevitable question, “Where is your husband/father/boyfriend?”

Here’s an excerpt, from Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s experience in a Bedouin camp in Egypt:

The men treated me as “one of the guys,” inviting me to eat with them, smoke sheesha, share stories—while the women darted about, filling our teacups. I soon felt guilty that the women were doing all the work, so I gathered some dirty dishes and followed them to the kitchen area. My presence seemed to unnerve them: the women snatched the dishes out of my hands and turned their backs to me. When I rejoined the men, the energy had totally changed. They didn’t seem as interested in talking to me.

If, like me, you can’t stop circling around the female traveler issue and poking at it like an old scab, then World Hum’s roundtable discussion is sure to give you lots more food for thought. And for anyone interested in a career in travel writing – male or female – their thoughts on coming home, and whether travel writers can really switch off their “writer” mode and just take a holiday, are worth a read as well.