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When I first started blogging in early 2010, solo female travel was a barely trodden topic. The concept of long-term solo travel hadn’t even crossed my mind until I was 22. Solo female travel was especially unusual in my home country, the United States, and women traveling solo were more likely to be seen as reckless than inspiring.
Today? Google “solo female travel” in its various iterations and you’ll find countless women and resources. In fact, google “list of solo female travelers” and you’ll find plenty of round-ups detailing solo female travel bloggers.
There’s just one thing.
In most of these round-ups, women over 40 are consistently overlooked. In many instances, women over 40 are missing altogether.
Why is that? It’s certainly not for lack of value or experience! Some of my dear friends over 40 have travel experiences that will humble you in an instant, knowing that there’s so much more out there in the world.
It seems like so much of the media focuses on the superficial — “conventional” girls with carefully curated Instagrams and bikini shots. Most of the solo female traveler lists focus on young, white, straight women. And, quite frankly, as a 31-year-old straight white woman, I’ve benefited from this privilege enormously.
It shouldn’t be this way — and that’s why I’m introducing you to 15 fabulous women.
Unlike most of the round-ups out there, the women included here range in age from 40 to 75. They come from several countries and a wide variety of backgrounds. They inspire me on a daily basis with their adventurous spirits, gorgeous photography, and meaningful writing. They make me laugh. They provide me with deeply appreciated advice. They encourage me to see the world differently.
In short, they change my lives in little ways every day, and I hope they can do the same for you.
Barbara Weibel, Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel
Age: 63
Hometown/Current Location: Barbara grew up in Chicago but currently has no home. She just wanders the world full-time with backpack and suitcase in tow, writing about her experiences. The closest thing she has to a home is in Pokhara, Nepal, where she lives with a local family that “adopted” her five years ago this month.
About Hole in the Donut: For 36 years, Barbara worked in corporate jobs that paid the bills but brought no joy. At the age of 54, having suffered and recovered from a serious illness, she decided to walk away from a career to pursue her true passions of travel, writing, and photography. Since then, she’s been traveling the world, delving deeply into cultures and sharing the stories of her adventures on her blog, Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel.
Specialities: Cultural travel and local home stays, independent travel, solo female travel, travel photography
Read: Officially Adopted By My Yoga Guru and His Nepali Family
Carol Cain, Girl Gone Travel
Age: 44
Hometown/Current Location: Carol was born in Brooklyn, where she lived till she was 9, then moved to the Dominican Republic all through high school. She now lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.
About GirlGoneTravel.com: Carol is a former public relations professional who turned to travel writing as a way to share her perspective of the world from as a Latina, a New Yorker, and a lover of cultures, languages, and people. Though culturally she was told women were supposed to be home making babies and cooking for their husband, her world-traveling mother taught her otherwise, inspiring Carol to continue the example that her mom (a solo female traveler long before it was okay to be one), set before her. Her blog is a collection of those stories and more.
Specialities: Photography, culture, food, wine, local perspective
Read: From the People of Fiji, With Love
Lash, LashWorldTour Travel Blog
Age: 44
Hometown/Current Location: Lash grew up in the USA, in small towns in several states, finally ending up in Pennsylvania. Since 1998, she’s been traveling the world nomadically. She doesn’t live anywhere nor has a particular base.
About LashWorldTour Travel Blog: With 13 years of world travel under her belt, Lash created LashWorldTour Travel Blog to help inspire and educate other hopeful travelers about independent global travel. She writes regular travel tips, destination pieces, cultural insights, travel perspectives and personal travel stories as she continues exploring the world. With a growing love of photography, Lash continues improving her skills and producing a steady stream of photo galleries, photo essays and stand-alone images of landscapes, cityscapes and nature.
Specialities: Independent travel, female travel, travel photography, outdoor adventures, budget travel
Read: How I Afford Long-Term Travel
Carol Perehudoff, Wandering Carol
Age: In dog years, not even a teenager.
Hometown/Current Location: Carol Perehudoff grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (can you say that in one breath?) and has lived in the UK, Spain, and South Korea. Her current home is Toronto.
About WanderingCarol.com: The line that describes Carol the best is “she is often gripped with a desire to be elsewhere.” A former travel columnist for a major newspaper, Carol brings this same level of expertise to her travel blog, WanderingCarol.com, a luxury travel blog for those who love to laugh. It’s the unpretentious guide to luxury travel — because everyone needs a splurge or two in their life.
Specialities: Luxury travel, spas, outdoor adventure, history (preferably scandalous), and above all, fun
Read: Losing my cool in the footsteps of Coco Chanel in Paris
Claudia Tavani, My Adventures Across the World
Age: 40
Hometown/Current Location: Claudia grew up in Cagliari, Sardinia, and is currently based there.
About My Adventures Across the World: A former human rights lawyer and academic, Claudia abandoned her career to follow her true calling, which has taken her on many adventures and misadventures across the world, and has involved rafting down some mighty rivers, hiking to some hidden archeological sites, zip lining across canyons, mountain biking down dangerous roads, camping on desert islands, and trekking to the craters of active volcanoes. Through her blog, Claudia shares her inspiring stories, provides tips for other travelers and occasionally goes on a rant. Her mission? Hiking her way up all volcanoes in the world.
Specialities: Latin America (including Cuba), Sardinia, adventure travel, responsible tourism, volcanoes
Read: Why did I not meet the lovely, friendly Cubans everyone talks about?
Beth Whitman, Wanderlust and Lipstick
Age: 50
Hometown/Current Location: Born in Atlanta, grew up in New Jersey, but has lived in Seattle for the past 25 years.
About Wanderlust and Lipstick: Beth Whitman has been traveling the globe for more than 25 years as a solo traveler, businesswoman and philanthropist. She’s the editor of Wanderlust and Lipstick, one of the web’s most popular women’s travel sites, she runs tours through her company, WanderTours, and recently launch a non-profit organization, the WanderWorld Foundation.
Specialities: Solo travel, adventure travel, women’s travel, fitness
Read: Why Turning 50 Doesn’t Have to Suck
Heather Cowper, Heather on her Travels
Age: 53
Hometown/Current Location: Heather grew up in London but now lives in Bristol, England.
About Heather on her Travels: Heather’s blog is written for adventurous women aged 40+ who enjoy authentic travel with a little luxury thrown in. She travels widely in Europe and the UK as well as a few worldwide destinations such as India each year. Heatheronhertravels.com covers local cultures, delicious food, hiking and soft adventure and small ship cruising, bringing them to life with travel tales, colorful photography, video, and live social media posts.
Specialities: European travel, culture, food, hiking, cruising
Read: 13 stories from my charity visit to India – going off the tourist trail
Helen Suk, Not Without My Passport
Age: 42
Hometown/Current Location: Toronto, for both.
About Not Without My Passport: At 41, Helen gave up her home and career for a life of travel, freelancing and blogging as everyone around her settled into marriages, families and mortgages. She shares her experiences on her blog, Not Without My Passport, with the goal of inspiring others to seek new experiences and see the world in a different way.
Specialities: Travel photography, meaningful travel, travel inspiration, offbeat destinations, food
Read: Why I Choose a Life of Travel
Jeannie Mark, Nomadic Chic
Age: 44
Hometown/Current Location: Jeannie grew up in Canada and now lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
About Nomadic Chic: Jeannie is a middle-aged woman that hopes to inspire other women to see that age has no boundaries. By sharing her stories through Nomadic Chick, her mission is to show that a life lived passionately exists for all women.
Specialities: Solo travel, women’s issues, writing, managing a creative business
Read: On Aging, Sex and Travel
Leyla Giray Alyanak, Women on the Road
Age: 62
Hometown/Current Location: Leyla was born in Paris, but she grew up in Spain, Italy, and Canada. She now lives in rural eastern France.
About Women on the Road: Leyla Giray Alyanak is an international journalist who uses her travel website to inspire women about lesser-known places, people and ideas. At 43 she bought a one-way ticket to Cape Town and traveled solo for the next three years. She documents it all on her website, a toolkit for solo women travelers.
Specialities: Culture, food, social issues, world affairs, art
Read: 25 Most Beautiful Cities in Spain to Visit in 2023
Mariellen Ward, Breathedreamgo
Age: 55
Hometown/Current Location: Grew up in Toronto, Canada and lives there now, though she spends almost half the year in India and South Asia.
About Breathedreamgo: Mariellen Ward is a professional travel writer who divides her time between Toronto and Delhi. Breathedreamgo.com, her award-winning travel blog about meaningful adventure travel, is inspired by her extensive travels in India. She writes for many print and online sites, co-founded the Toronto Travel Massive, Delhi Travel Massive and founded the WeGoSolo online community for female solo travellers. She has been featured in India Today, USA Today, Conde Nast Traveller India and on many lists of top bloggers, and she writes for online and offline publications including BBC Travel and Vogue India.
Specialities: Solo female travel, India, Canada, meaningful adventure travel, spiritual/wellness travel
Read: How I Quit My Job to Travel
Leah Walker, Leah’s Travels
Age: 41
Hometown/Current Location: Grew up in Texas; now living in Paris.
About LeahsTravels.com: Leah Walker is a France-based luxury travel and culinary writer who has contributor and editor roles with The Daily Meal, Bonjour Paris, Luxe Beat Magazine, Forbes Travel Guide, Four Seasons Magazine and is also a travel ambassador for Atout France. When she’s not eating her weight in Tex-Mex and BBQ in Texas or traveling around Europe, Leah can be found writing at a cafe in Paris’ 8th arrondissement or wandering the city’s streets with camera in hand.
Specialities: Luxury, Paris, France, Texas, hotels
Read: Life’s a Trip, then you have a Double Mastectomy
Paige Conner Totaro, All Over the Map
Age: 48
Hometown/Current Location: Grew up in Richmond, Virginia; now lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
About All Over the Map: From the time she was teenager, Paige Conner Totaro hasn’t just dreamed of exciting, fulfilling travel, she has made plans and put them into action: in high school, she lived and worked with a family of Italian innkeepers; after college, she earned a graduate degree from a Dutch university; as a young mother, she developed a blog and co-authored an e-book aimed at encouraging families to travel; and when her twin daughters were twelve, she and her husband led them on a year-long sabbatical trip through 28 countries. Since then, she has traveled solo to Thailand, Spain, Mexico and Newfoundland. In her latest venture, Paige applies her talent, curiosity and wealth of experience to help others realize their travel dreams through her custom travel planning service, All Over the Map Travel.
Specialities: Family adventure travel, custom family vacations, family gap year travel, first-time travel tips, Europe
Read: A Walk Above the Water
Sherry Ott, Ott’s World
Age: 45
Hometown/Current Location: Sherry grew up in Peoria, Illinois, but for the last nine years hasn’t had a home base and has been completely nomadic.
About Ottsworld.com: Sherry has been inspiring wanderlust by blogging about her solo travel and adventures since 2006 when she escaped from corporate America. As a childless 40-something, she regularly takes her nieces along on her journeys as part of the Niece Project. She’s set foot on every continent, and even drove across a number of them in search of living a life less ordinary.
Specialities: Adventure travel, niece/nephew travel, location-independent lifestyle, hiking, solo travel
Read: How to Overcome Travel Fears
Evelyn Hannon, Journeywoman
Age: 75
Hometown/Current Location: Born in Montreal, presently living in Toronto.
About Journeywoman.com: Journeywoman.com (aka Evelyn Hannon) began blogging from a travelling woman’s point of view back in 1997. Today she is known as “The Grandmother of Women’s Travel.” Her original mandate remains the same: to inspire all women to travel safely and well.
Specialities: Solo travel, travel tips, worldwide tour listings, what to wear, budget travel
Read: How to Cross a Road in Vietnam
Love that you chose to feature these women. It’s definitely inspiring to see women of all ages out exploring the world and enjoying their lives.
Thanks so much for including me in this fine group of inspiring women. I’m humbled to be among these ladies.
Wow what a beautiful and inspiring post! I can’t wait to check out all of these women’s blogs. Thanks!
http://www.justbeingbrooklyn.com
Fantastic! I am so glad that I have found your list! It is amazing how women managed to fight with prejudices. Best regards!
Great list. Thanks Kate for introducing them to us. I have been following half of them, will hop to other blogs now.
Fantastic idea, great list of women who are very inspiring. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for that list Kate! It was about time the oldies of solo travel got acknowledged. Some of us have done the “I sold everything to travel fulltime” thing for the second time. I hit the road solo decades before the internet, my photos from an epic 3 year journey are faded, lost or captured in outdated slides (nobody seems to have a slide projector anymore), but the memories are still vivid and the travel bug never left. I never returned from that first solo trip, I settled in Australia and got myself a promising career as an academic. But the travel bug was still strong and half way through my 5th decade I did it all again…walked away from my career and strapped on a backpack (though these days I use one with wheels) to become a nomad at large. I get a lot of inspiration from younger solo travelers and it’s wonderful to see this type of inter-generational exchange you have created with this post. Thanks 🙂
Good for you, Kerstin! Love your story. 🙂
Add one more! I’m 68 and beginning a six-month (at least!) journey next month. I’m very happy to have found your blog (thanks to Barb Weibel’s tweet) because I’m really tired of everybody telling me I’m nuts to go traveling alone. I’ve just added every one of the blogs in this list to my Bloglovin’ account. Can’t wait to read all the adventures!
LIbbie Griffin
http://in-my-suitcase.com
Thank you so much for including me, Kate! What an amazing group of women. I was inspired by many who went before me – of all ages – to get over my fear of traveling alone, and I continue to be inspired by the folks on this list and many others. Amy Gigi Alexander is another solo female traveler who writes beautifully about her experiences and brought a bunch of solo female travelers together for the Writing Walking Women gathering this year in Newfoundland.
Thank you so much for taking part, Paige!
I did reach out to Amy, but her assistant sent me an email suggesting that she wouldn’t be a fit for this list.
Thank you, Kate for sharing this. As a woman of almost 50 and hoping to be like so many of you out there, it is nice to hear about/read about women who are not 20 or young 30 somethings, partying or staying only in hostels. So appreciate you compiling this list. I know there are more of us out there!!
And there are plenty more, too!
Great list Kate. I knew some but wonderful to see so many other fab women travel writers blowing out of the water the preconception that only youngsters blog. I’m a fair bit older than many bloggers and still have to pinch myself to realise I’m finally fulfilling a lifelong dream to combine two passions in such a great way!
Great and inspiring – you’ve introduced me to many new people and sites, if only I there was time to read all. I’m off to read some though.
All of these women are so inspiring! What a life to live. They truly live each day like it’s their last. I hope to be like them one day. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Love this! This is so amazingly inspiring, I’m creeping up that way, eek! It’s great and reassuring to know there is still so much adventure to be had!
I think also the Grrrrl Traveller is pretty inspirational 😛
This post is truly inspiring! Thanks Kate for highlighting how colorful our world is!
Great list, Kate. And a great reminder that there are many of us out here. I first traveled alone at age 25, from California to Europe. I thought I was going to stay 6-8 weeks and ended up staying almost two years. That was 45 years and I haven’t stopped yet. Now, at 70, I am still traveling solo, loving it, and blogging about it. There is no “right” or “wrong” age for women to travel solo. If we are travelers, we will travel… as long as we can out of the chair and get ourselves aboard a plane, we will travel.
Great article. Hats off to all of you !! Its really inspirational to read you here.
It is true that travelling after 40 is not that easy, but you can make it. For that it is very important for you to understand the culture of the nation or the area you are going to visit, because that is how you make proper preparation to deal with the situation that may arise before you.
Such an awesome post!
Awesome! I want to be like them when I grow up!
I had fibroid surgery at the end of 2010 followed up in early 2011 with three separate back epidurals to fight the extreme sciatic pain of 2 damaged nerves in my back. June 8th 2013 I divorced my husband of 12 years and 20 days later I left my corporate job and Los Angeles and started my journey to find….Well at the time I didn’t know what I was looking for but I knew I needed something different something more. Now I have I lived in and taught English in Prague and currently in Thailand. In addition, I have visited 15 or more different countries, met countless amazing people and had more adventures then I could have dreamed. You know what I ended up finding….A me that is stronger, wiser and a girl that I didn’t even know was inside but I love her for having the courage to give life chance to be different. I would wish this experience on everyone, best thing I have every did for myself.
This is a wonderful article I hope it goes viral and many many women are inspired by it. By the way I will be 41 in May. Thanks again 🙂
You are Amazing!
Beautiful,
Strong,
Free,
Spontaneous,
Self Confident,
You are Women Traveling Alone!
Thanks great post….
What a great list – I’ve perused them all and joined a few mailing lists. I’ve just turned 40 and only recently started blogging, so it may take a few years for me to join this esteemed group of ladies 🙂
hello ladies! im turning 46 in march 2016 and just started to travel this past few years. i just bought a new domain name for my new travel blog too (justtravellingsolo.com). i really hope to meet all you some day in one of my travels!
Hello, i would like to be listed here someday soon! It would be really great if we cross paths in one our travels sometime.
Happy travels!
A very delayed thank you for including me in this list. It’s still hard to believe that I’m actually over 40, but age really is a state of mind. I’m sure all of the great ladies you featured would agree.
Thanks so much for participating, Leah!
Hello Kate, this blog really inspired me due to the fact that I use my time in Sri Lanka to search for what I really want in my life and what is the value, I could bring to others. Nearly all my other friends cannot understand why travelling alone is so good at moment – in this time when lot of other friends marry and get kids…. I am mid 30 now..
I am a journalist and entrepreneur at the same time and would like to get in contact to people like this inspiring women. Perhaps I should start a travel blog with a special niche… Kate- thank you.
Glad this list inspired you!
Wow!, i will suggest it to my sweet mom. My mom likes to traveling so much.
As a solo female traveler over 40, I love this list! It’s great to see like-minded people succeeding in blogging and travel blogging in particular. I went on my first solo travel when I was 17 years old and I have no intention of stopping any time soon 😉 Keep on exploring ladies! Thanks Kate for this inspiring post xx
I love seeing this. As my children have grown up, my blog has evolved and so have I. I am now looking at 42 and ready to explore the world and learn about other cultures in person. It’s inspirational to see so many independent women paving the way for the rest of us.
Just found this blog post about female solo travellers, on Pinterest. While I knew most of them from blogging and Social Media, I have discovered a few more from this post. I started my solo travels as a young woman in the 80ies mostly in Europe, but later on I discovered Australia and got hooked on this amazing country. So I spent most of the last 12 years travelling around Oz on my own with nearly 100thousands km by land, air and sea. And yes, 6 years ago I founded Rocky Trave Blog for women travelling alone in Oz. I feel that turning 50 a couple of years ago, gave me that further boost of mental energy in wanting to explore more and more on my own! 😉
I’ll be honest, I turned off your blog a while ago. BUT – I’M so impressed by this post. I’m so thrilled that you’ve featured strong, real women. Much kudos to you as a younger woman for supporting and showing how awesome us ‘older’ women can be x
I appreciate that, Samantha! I hope to see you here again. 🙂
I came across this site as I was googling “female solo travel over 40” and am so glad I found this! So inspiring.
I just turned 40. I have my everyday 9-5 career where I feel like I’m working to travel. I’ve been traveling solo since I was in my 20’s and many people didn’t understand it. Things like Instagram make it seem like such a youth oriented thing to, but I knew there were other women out there like you ladies.
I’m still toying with the thought of leaving it all as well. You have all inspired me!
YAY! This is great! I am a 44 yr old traveler too… and it’s great to see these other ladies represented!! Going to go follow them all!!
La-
Kate – thank you for this post a million times over! So refreshing. Can’t wait to check out these blogs.
Inspiring women across different countries of the world ??
Love this post Kate! I started to travel my own country of ?? When I was 17, a province at a time. Then branching out to all inclusives, then backpacking Europe & Asia, from hostels to hotels to airbnb. I’ve traveled with friends, family, boyfriends, solo and now with my children (5 & 1) I’ve used online resources and been a fan of some of these ladies for years! Nice to see someone with your platform highlight them. 🙂 I guess my point is as I’ve aged from a 20 something backpacker to an almost 40 mom, the desire never goes away. And no matter your choice of travel style, the point is to travel! You do you no matter your age!
As a woman who (ahem) suddenly sucks at math when people ask my age, I LOVE this!
ps Renee Blodgett and Vicki Winters are pretty awesome 40 something travel bloggers, too.
(We Blog the World, and The Vicki Winters Show)
I LOVE THIS! Thanks Kate for showing us all of the different kinds of bad ass, awesome women that are traveling this beautiful globe. I hope I cross paths with one of them (especially Evelyn, she looks like she’ll show me an adventure)!
I’m 47 and at my age I’ve often felt alone in this solo travel blogging adventure. Thanks for introducing me to several new sisters of the road.
Thanks for posting! I took my first solo trip to Italy when I was 40! Best travel experience of my life! And still going travel strong. Recently started blogging Luisasjourney.com. Since I quit my corporate PR & Marketing job today, looking forward to more travel & writing about it!
Hi Ladies.. thank you for including me and sharing your experiences ❣
My mum Blanca is one of these wonderful women. Her retirement plan was to solo cycle around the world and two years ago she set off from London, UK and is currently in Vietnam. She is having the most wonderful time and it is fantastic to read her stories. If anyone is interested her blog is blancaonabike.com
Very proud of her!
At last a post that celebrates female travelers of ‘a certain age’.
Just so fantastic to see gutsy women out there living life to the max and stretching their horizons.
Thanks for sharing and I will definitely be following their blogs! Mel
It’s great to see so many female travellers of a certain age brought together like this. I’m approaching 50 (gulp) and have been travelling solo since my teens. I don’t think it was any more unusual then than it is now – plenty of us, but still a minority. The difference is we didn’t have blogs then (or internet, Facebook, email … )
Wonderful post! thanks! So inspiring! 🙂
Oh My Gosh – THANK YOU for this. Thank you so much. I honestly am a bit choked up reading through this. You women are amazing and inspirational, and I want to be all of your best friends and sit down and discuss your experiences over a coffee or glass of wine.
I’m 44 years old, and my husband and I just had a heart to heart last week about the fact that we want *completely* different things from travel – and what if I just went off and did some travel on my own sometimes? Because he wants to lay on the beach and not move, that’s his vacation. I want to travel Europe for a month by train and walk the cities until I wear out my shoes. And I burn like crazy in the sun.
So I started googling around about solo female travel and found exactly what you describe – young bikini-clad girls talking about how easy it is to meet people to hang out with in the local pubs. Yeah… no. That’s just not my demographic or interest.
Thank you to all of you women for living adventurous lives and inspiring me that it’s not too late to start!
Meg, I am so happy to hear that! I’m glad you and your husband are secure enough that you can acknowledge your need to travel differently and go after your dreams!
Wow. I have great respect for these woman. We are barely scratching the surface of our dreams to travel the world as “midlifebackpackers” as a couple & these woman are doing it solo. Respect.