After my session at a panel discussion last year, a number of women came up to me and asked what motivated me to travel by myself. I found myself giving various reasons why travelling solo works for me—it is liberating, I can wake up early, it helps me fish out personal stories of locals and many more. However, one lady humorously emphasised on how bored she gets in her own company.

This and variations of ‘aren’t you afraid to travel by yourself?’ are popular questions I answer. But the truth is all those women who choose not to travel solo, don’t have to. In such cases, a travel community helps facilitate the desire to travel on an unknown trail.

Read: Women Adventurers I Know

Sheroes travel community
It always helps to have a friend around. Photo: rawpixel.com/Flickr CC

Sheroes travel community is one such in the online group. With over 5000 members in this community, every one is inspiring the other in their own way.

On this portal, women travellers share their experiences in photographs and textual posts during and after their travel. They also meet prospective fellow travellers and plan trips. It also works as a forum where expert travellers answer all women’s travel related queries. All-in-all, a community that enables women to travel.

As a child I remember my grandmother packing her bags every summer. She would often take lengthy trips with her female friends. (She has largely influenced me in building strong bonds with women and how travel can be check of compatibility.) Her travel companions were usually her neighbours or women who shared common interests and habits. After most trips, they would circulate black and white photographs of their voyage, though there was only one keeper. And towards the end of the year, plans of another summer trip would surface. This was her travel community, in the real world.

As much as I love travelling by myself, I also ensure that I take a couple of trips away with my girlfriends. It is therapeutic at many levels too. And for all of those who cannot coordinate among their many friends and their multiple schedules, a travel community like that of Sheroes works like a charm. After all, travel is for every one.

Read: The Women of Spiti

How do you travel?

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Amrita Das

I have been a travel and culture independent journalist. My bylines have appeared in many publications worldwide including National Geographic Traveller India, Lonely Planet Magazine India, The Indian Express and World Travel Magazine. A fellow of Media Ambassadors India-Germany 2019 program by Robert Bosch Stiftung and Centre for Media Competence, University of Tübingen. Currently, I am the photo editor for RoundGlass Sustain, a wildlife and conservation e-publication. I live in India.

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