Marybeth Bond - Gutsy Women: Stories, Advice, Inspiration

Critical Acclaim for Gutsy Women

The book is essential reading for women travelers of any age.

Chicago Tribune

The perfect bon voyage gift for your favorite woman traveler.

Living Fit Magazine

A nuts-and-bolts approach to womens travel seasoned advice geared both to novices and veterans.

USA Today

Packed with instructive and inspiring travel vignettes and tips it is not just for adventure seekers or solo travelers.

Boston Globe

How do you cope with an impulse to take wing? How do you handle desires to find adventures in exotic cultures ? If youre Marybeth Bond, you promptly leap aboard such urges, ride them where they happen to take you, then seek to lead others by word and example.

San Francisco Chronicle

If youve got the bug to get out but are leery of the less-beaten path, check out Gutsy Women. Bond has packed this paperback with handy advice.

Womens Sports & Fitness

Fresh and insightful, even for the most-seasoned traveler.

Washington Post

Gutsy Women is a wonderful gift for a woman traveling and features engaging stories and personal advice by women travelers

Chicago Herald

H AVE Y OU R EAD T HESE O THER B OOKS B Y M ARYBETH B OND?

A Womans World

A Womans World Again

A Womans Asia

A Womans Europe

A Womans Passion for Travel

A Mothers World

Gutsy Mamas

National Geographics 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America

National Geographics Best Girlfriends Getaways Worldwide

O THER W OMEN S T ITLES B Y T RAVELERS T ALES

100 Places Every Woman Should Go

100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go

The Best Womens Travel Writing

Her Fork in the Road

Kite Strings of the Southern Cross

Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana

A Mile in Her Boots

More Sand in My Bra

Safety and Security for Women Who Travel

Sand in My Bra

The Thong Also Rises

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

Whose Panties Are These?

Wild with Child

A Womans Path

Women in the Wild

You Unstuck

Gutsy Women

Advice, Inspiration, Stories

Gutsy Women

Advice, Inspiration, Stories

Fourth Edition

M ARYBETH B OND

Travelers Tales

Palo Alto

Copyright 2012 Travelers Tales. All rights reserved.

Travelers Tales and Solas House are trademarks of Solas House, Inc., 853 Alma Street, Palo Alto, California 94301. www.travelerstales.com

Cover design: Stefan Gutermuth

Cover illustration: Melissa Sweet

Interior design: Scribe Inc.

Page layout: Scribe Inc., using the fonts Dante, Gill Sans, Marker Felt, and Wade Sans

Production: Natalie Baszile

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bond, Marybeth.

Gutsy women: more travel tips and wisdom for the road / Marybeth Bond.

4th ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-160952-064-9 (pbk.)

1. Travel. 2. Women travelers. I. Title.

G151.B66 2007

910.2'02dc22 2007016420

Fourth Edition

Printed in the United States

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my family for encouraging me to fulfill my passion to travelwith and without them.

Table of Contents

WHATS A GUTSY WOMAN? To me, gutsy means courageous and women today are courageous in a twenty-first century way. We buy our own cars and homes, and we are open to adventurewhether its climbing Mount Everest, biking across the USA, or running for a cause. Gutsy women are bold, strong and savvy, not foolish and nave. The tips and wisdom that fill the pages of this edition of Gutsy Women will empower, energize, and inspire you. Even if youre not sure if you are a Gutsy Woman, this book will allow you to discover her within you.

In terms of travel, our habits have changed too. After all, women make 80 percent of the travel decisions, and were on the go. We are getting off the beaten track and trekking the globe, on our own and with other women.

If your partner isnt interested in traveling, or not to the places you may want to visit, then I encourage you to find friends who are. If a friend is too busy or your schedules dont synch, book yourself on an all-womens tour and youll probably meet some travel companions for your next adventure. Your first trip without the company of a close friend or spouse doesnt have to be to the other side of the world. It can be a journey close to homesomewhere youve always wanted to gosomewhere just to get your feet wet. Even if you are already a seasoned traveler, Im sure you will learn something new and useful in this expanded edition of Gutsy Women.

Over the past thirty years I have hiked, cycled, climbed, dived, and kayaked my way through more than ninety countries, from the depths of the Flores Sea to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. I traveled alone around the world for two years at the age of twenty-nine, wandered the globe with my husband (who I met in Kathmandu when I was thirty), and more recently I have explored this bountiful and beautiful earth with my daughters and girlfriends.

In the process of creating twelve travel books, including nine for Travelers Tales and three for National Geographic, I have discovered what women want in their travel experiences: safety, freedom, adventure, opportunities for learning and giving back, and time to nurture ourselves. I have interviewed hundreds of gutsy women who have shared their stories, their wisdom, and their strength with me and through this book with you, too.

We discover the world as we physically move around the planet; we discover ourselves on the inner journey that accompanies our travels. The rewards are many: We try on new identities as more independent, self-sufficient women; we explore new behaviors; and we develop a greater awareness of our potential.

So be a gutsy woman and go forth to change yourself and the world. See you on the road!

I

We generate fears while we sit; we overcome them by action. Fear is natures warning signal to get busy.

Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, Book of Readings

PREPARING YOURSELF MENTALLY AND emotionally for traveling overseas is just as important as getting your visas and shots. Give yourself time to work through fears you may have about safety, traveling alone or in a group of unknown companions, or fitting into a different culture. To convert your apprehension into excitement, begin your mental preparation weeks or even months prior to departure. Get in touch with women who have gone before you. Connect with them by phone, e-mail, or by reading their stories in travel books or blogs.

It is reassuring before you take your trip to have an itinerary, guidebooks, research from the Internet. One of the most valuable sources of up-to-date information are other travelers youll meet along the way, locals you will encounter on trains or at bus stops, or the staff at tourist offices, hotels, and bed-and-breakfasts. Fight the urge to organize everything before you go. Spontaneity and flexibility are the creative forces behind meaningful journeys. Try to avoid overscheduling and overplanning.

The trick is not to rid your stomach of butterflies, but to make them fly in formation.

Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, Book of Readings

At age twenty-nine, when I left on my around-the-world journey, I had a detailed itinerary that I abandoned on day three in Bangkok. If I had followed my original plans, I never would have met Danielle, a Swiss nurse with whom I traveled for a month, stayed with a Muslim family on a houseboat in Kashmir, or hiked for a week with another new travel friend among the ethnic tribes of northern Thailand. It is tempting to follow a structured itinerary on long or short trips. Recently, on a weeklong trip to Paris, I lost all the notes a friend gave me with restaurant and shopping recommendations. Instead of reliving her trip, I discovered my own, more relaxed version of the City of Light. I dined