π 10th Anniversary week - FAQ with Founders Mar & Meg
Published 9 days agoΒ β’Β 14 min read
Hi Reader,
As you know, this week, we are turning 10 years old! π
We continue with our week of celebrations with a little bit more about us.
We are not a large corporation, we are a tiny one, and by getting to know us, we hope you will put a face to the team behind the weekly emails and the people who created Solo Female Travelers, so we can bring you closer to our mission and what makes our tours special.
FAQ with the team behind Solo Female Travelers. We'll answer the most commonly asked questions we hear. Get to know us π
Our Anniversary offer ends on Sunday - Don't miss out!
FAQ with the SFT team
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If you've been subscribed to our emails for a while you already know that I (Mar) personally write them every week, and have been doing so since May 2020 when we launched our website, without fail.
These emails are not written by AI, as the many typos that escape the review process can testify to that, and you can find them all here.
If I know I will be traveling, I may schedule them a week or two in advance, but I always read them again the day before.
These emails are personal, and share insights into the life of someone who is a frequent traveler and the co-founder of a young travel company.
I also join about 10 tours a year, and get to meet lots of guests this way.
Meg hosts our Australian tour, so you can catch her in person there.
On tour, or during our calls with future guests, we hear some questions more often than others, and this week's email will attempt to answer these and the questions you sent our way last week when I sent a call out asking you what you would like to know about us.
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Q: What is your favorite destination?
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I get asked this question all the time. By guests, by friends, by journalists...and while my answer has evolved with my travels, it remains largely the same as it was 10 years ago. I don't have a favorite destination, but there are 3 trips that left a mark. This is not only the reflection of the place itself, but the place I was in when I visited.
Travel is a very personal experience and what may be mundane to someone could be life changing to someone else. The company, your emotional state, the kind of travel style, the time of year, the people you meet...all of this impacts the way you "live" a trip.
Firstly, Bhutan. This quiet and stunning country was one I visited at a fragile time in my life so it probably compounded my experience. I spent 10 days on my own and found total inner peace and calm. To date, it remains a destination that shaped me profoundly.
Another favorite trip of mine is the 2 month sabbatical I spent in the South Pacific, island hopping between Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa. It was also a solo trip and one that gave me the space to decide to quit my consulting job. No phones, no internet, no cameras, no plan. I would wake up every day and decide the plan. When I was happy with a country, I would walk into Firi Airways office and buy a paper ticket to another. Once a week, I would go into an internet cafe and check social media, which was incipient at that time.
Cuba is my third favorite. Nowhere else can you really feel the positive impact tourism can have when done right and the resilience and strength of the Cuban women is humbling. We forget to be grateful for the small things in life, and take everything and everyone for granted. if there is something I leaned from Solo Female Travelers is to be kind, grateful and thankful for the people who share their world with me. The guides who open the doors to their culture, the driver who gets me where I need to go safely, the people who share their passion with me and the guests who appreciate it all and really enjoy themselves. Cuba reminds me of all of this and to never forget to have fun and smile even when you don't feel like you have any reason to.
I am happy that, despite all the struggles and difficulties, we can offer deeply meaningful tours to Cuba and hope we can continue to do so for years to come (Check our Cuba tour here).
For Meg, Antarctic is her absolute favorite destination. She traveled there years ago and this still remains her most treasured one. She is braver than me, and even jumped into the frigid waters (I did not!).
We have wanted to launch tours to Antarctica since the beginning, and I am glad that we found the best company and tour to go with for nex year.
Meg and I briefly met in 2015, more or less when the group started, at a conference.
We stayed in touch as we were members of similar online communities, and we occasionally interacted online.
In 2018 we worked on a project for Google together and realised we had a lot in common.
We share values, ways of seeing the world, professional ethics and integrity and we both have a passion for female empowerment, feminism and solo travel.
We started Solo Female Travelers remotely at the end of 2019, without seeing each other in person until 2023. The photo above is from that moment we met again in Barcelona in June 2023, captured by our photographer Anastasia, who was also there.
We have become best friends.
We speak multiple times a day, have a 3-hour video call every week and are each other's last and first message every day. She always knows where I am and if anyone ever needed to find me, she would know how to locate me.
We always know how the other one thinks, and continue to share the same set of values and ways to see the world.
We also have the same plans for the future and have supported each other through the rollercoaster that the last 5 years has been. I could not think of a better person to have embarked on this adventure with, and know that Solo Female Travelers wouldn't be without us both.
We are extremely fortunate to have each other and I only wish she lived a bit closed than a 30h journey away!
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Q: How did you get started?
Logically, this is something we get asked a lot and I always explain in the welcome briefing of any tour I attend.
I went into details of our timeline last week, and you can read that email here.
In brief, Meg and I took over Solo Female Travelers, the Facebook group, at the end of 2019 from a friend of ours who started it.
At that point, the community was small, around 20,000 members, and we had no ulterior objective for it other than guarding it and making sure it could continue to thrive.
When COVID started, the community exploded and by June 2020 we had 100,000 members.
The amount of time that managing the community took also exploded with the growth and Meg and I were spending half of our days approving posts, members, taking care of any fights, moderating, etc.
We had other jobs at the time but the group took over our lives.
With help from Facebook's Community Accelerator, we managed to hire a team and at the same time launched our tours, in an effort to make the platform financially sustainable.
We knew there was a lot of interest in tours run for women and that we would be able to create incredible experiences that helped women who wanted to travel solo but didn't want to do so independently.
But we never started Solo Female Travelers Tours purely as a business to make money, we did it because we wanted to make the world a better place by empowering women at the destinations we visited.
So we designed it as a for-profit company with a social impact mission. And this initial passion has remained strong until today.
You can take a look at the complete timeline in last week's email.
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Q: How do you handle jetlag?
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I get this question a lot and, honestly, I am sad to report that I have no magical solution. I mostly suffer it like everyone else, and it is getting worse with age.
It typically takes me 5 days to get over any long-haul flight that involves more than 5 hours time difference and I don't do much other than taking melatonin if I need to fall asleep, and spending time outside in the sun if possible. I then follow my body clock. If I wake up early, I get up and do some work. If I am awake at night, I stay up and do some work. Eventually, my body adapts to the destination clock. I do not fight it.
What I do do is use a noise cancelling headset and a sleep mask to minimise noise and try to sleep in the plane and at the destination.
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Q: Has anything bad happened to you in your travels?
The main worry of women traveling solo is that of safety. In close to 25 years of solo travel and more than 60 countries on my own, I can honestly say that I don't have any bad experiences to tell, but instead have MANY where the kindness of strangers really made my trip extra special.
The last one happened last week when I shared a super lovely dinner and morning in Menorca with a local I met months ago online and who shared the non touristy bits of the island with me.
We joined an impromptu Habaneres singing evening (traditional fishermen songs sang with a guitar in small groups originating in Cuba but popular across Catalunya and the Balearic Islands) in a cave by the port and hiked through empty beaches and coves. When my car had a flat tyre, he also came to the rescue (Hertz did a great job too).
There have been a couple of dodgy moments, like a night market walk in Delhi with my best friend where I was groped despite him being by my side, a couple of men with guns following me and my friend in Rio and the weekly runs in Lagos, Nigeria, being anything but pleasant, or my passport broken by the security guards at Brazzaville airport, but I have never had anything bad happen to me.
If there is something I learned from years of traveling the world solo and with company, is that the world is a beautiful place full of kind people willing to help.
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Q: Do you ever have bad guests?
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I have to say that 99.9% of our guests are wonderful women.
They book with us because they want to see the world and care about making it a more equitable one too. They are committed to empowering women and love that we support female-owned businesses.
This means we attract the kind of woman who is looking for a holiday that offers more than just amazing food, fancy hotels, comfortable transportation and beautiful places.
They are very likely to share our values.
They're feminist, they want to see women succeed and are not the kind of person who brings other women down. This means they are kind to our guides, open to learning, open-minded of the destinations we visit, and understanding when things don't go according to plan, as is the case when you travel. They also treat us with respect.
In the cases where we have had difficult guests it was because of mismatched expectations or because they were going through a difficult time. We all deserve some grace in these situations. Luckily, we can count these cases with one hand.
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Q: Do you get tired of traveling so much?
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Yes, I do.
I didn't used to, but I now do.
It's a combination of age, the kind of travel I do a lot of (long-haul, overnight, lots of jetlag, mostly in economy) and the frequency.
At the end of last year, my body made it clear to me that it wanted me to stop and take a break, and this is what I am doing this summer, staying put.
I do love to travel though, and visiting new places, and quelling my bottomless curiosity and need for learning keeps me alive and feeds my soul.
But traveling for work is not like traveling for fun, and while I have the best job in the world, it is also exhausting, even if you love what you do, it can still drain all your energy doing it.
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Q: The best part of our job
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The people we meet are what makes every tour and our job so special and magical.
Almost every day, we receive emails, notes, messages on Whatsapp or in person, from guests, telling us how our tours have changed their lives.
I can't imagine there is anything I could ever do that would be as rewarding as having created Solo Female Travelers.
We are also incredibly fortunate that so many of our guests choose to let us know the impact our tours and community has had.
Meg and I treasure every comment we have ever received π
It is also amazing to know that we are making the world a better place and achieving something meaningful and long lasting.
It is sometimes very difficult to hear so many bad news, so many countries going backwards when it comes to women's rights, and feel helpless and unable to do much about it.
With Solo Female Travelers, we are doing something about it every day, and the fulfilment that comes from this is priceless. Doing something with purpose is worth all the challenges.
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Q: The worst part of our job
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The worst part of our day to day is dealing with rude people and seeing how badly women are treated around the world and the few opportunities that are available to them in many countries.
We occasionally receive hate mail that Meg handles. These emails do not usually come from guests, but rather from people who are subscribed to our newsletter and disagree with something I say.
They may be upset by our opinion that we shouldn't take photos of children, or bathe with elephants.
Or they took offense at a comment I made about US politics, or they think that our sex-positive outlook or the fact that our tours are for all self-identifying women and open to the LGBTQI+ community is amoral or unacceptable.
We have also received some (very few) emails from angry potential or past guests who we may have wronged. And we have also had to deal with guests on tour who are difficult or disappointed at issues that are often beyond our control or who have been rude to us or our guides.
Meg and I are people, and we try to approach situations with empathy, understanding and respect, but don't always receive the same back.
Comments that imply we are dishonest, careless or deceitful have been the most hurtful.
Thankfully, we receive 100 positive emails and comments for every negative one, but as is human nature, the bad ones linger while the good ones are quickly forgotten.
Because of this, I put together a wall in front of my desk with positive memories, beautiful messages from guests and heart-warming photos that I can look at whenever one of the bad ones makes an entrance into our inbox. There are also some souvenirs I have collected through my travels.
It is also disheartening and saddening to hear about the challenges and wrongs that women around the world have to deal with and which we see on many of our tours or when we do scouting.
Sometimes it frustrates me, other times it makes me want to cry. Not a week goes by that we don't hear about a new frustrating and down right angering situation. It is important not to delve on these and to stay focused on our mission.
Nothing is more valuable when combating the overall sense of helplessness than doing something about what worries you.
We are lucky to do that every day.
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Q: Tours that beat your expectations and others that were less successful than anticipated
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βAntarctica, Ecuador and the Galapagos exceeded our expectations. Our Caribbean island hopping trip is also a very popular trip. These are expensive trips of a lifetime and we were not sure how much interest there would be.
We are very happy to have so many guests booked and that we can get to share these amazing places wth them.
We have a pretty good understanding of what our guests like, and have also learned that destinations that are hard to reach are usually less popular. But we want to keep on offering them because this is also where we can have the highest impact.
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Q: Your favorite tour
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Picking a tour is like picking a favorite child, especially for me since I am the one designing the itineraries, but there are some places that I just hold closer to my heart.
βTanzania, Cuba and Oaxaca are destinations where I am very proud to offer tours where we truly, very intentionally, can have a positive impact.
We support really small businesses, often one-person projects, that are trying to preserve lost crafts, or are bringing new light and life into dying traditions or that are employing women and providing them with training, employment and an income they would otherwise not have.
Between the three destinations, we support over 25 women and every guest who travels with us can feel this and go home knowing they had an absolutely amazing time while also making their vacation meaningful.
These are the trips where most guest reviews mention the most transformational effect and where it is most obvious how you can make a conscious decision to invest your travel budget on a trip that changes lives.
Additionally, for both Meg and I, it is an honor to be able to showcase our countries and share the real culture that makes them special with guests, so our Barcelona & Beyondand Australia tours are dear to our hearts too.
Celebrate our 10th Anniversary!
Don't forget our Anniversary offer which ends on Sunday!
10th Anniversary luxury trip
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We are celebrating our 10th anniversary in person on a Caribbean island-hopping trip onboard a luxury super yacht,
Join me and Meg on a sailing trip round-trip from Puerto Rico that will make calls in St John, Anguilla, St. Barth's, St Martin and Virgin Gorda.
Six fabulous islands and a few smaller stops that will be filled with glamour, over the top experiences such as caviar parties on the beach and dancing on deck of our fabulous luxury yacht.
10th Anniversary $200 / β¬200 / Β£200 discount - 3 days to go!
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We would love to get to know more of you in person next year and for you all to join us in this incredible milestone that is the first decade of Solo Female Travelers.
To celebrate with you, we are announcing a $200 / β¬200 / Β£200 discount on any of our 2026 trips, starting with our NYE trips to Cuba, Oaxaca and Tanzania this December 2025.
Book during this Anniversary week to enjoy this celebration discount!
The fine print:
This offer applies to NEW BOOKINGS ONLY for any 2026 trip including the trips that start in December 2025 and end in January 2026.
Bookings need to be made between the 14th and the 20th of July, 2025
The discount needs to be mentioned when making the booking in the Notes field.
The $200 / β¬200 / Β£200 will be applied to the balance.
Discount cannot be transferred or used in conjunction with other credits you may have with us. If the booking is cancelled, the discount will be lost.
There is no limit to the number of bookings a guest can make.
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