Travel tip #175: Recap of the BEST travel tips from almost 4 years

Hi Reader,

I hope your week is going great and that it will become even better with this week's recap of the best travel tips shared from almost 4 years of weekly newsletters!

If you are new here, my name is Mar Pages and I am one of the Co-Founders of Solo Female Travelers alongside Meg Jerrard, my partner in crime.

We organize small group tours for women that support women owned businesses around the world.

We also do many other things, like:

• Publishing a weekly podcast on solo female travel that discusses that harder questions not jut the fun ones
• Host a community of solo female travelers on Facebook with 520k members
• Write this newsletter which goes out to 71k subscribers since 2020, that is 6.5 years of weekly newsletters including this Friday travel tip newsletter which already counts 175 issues

I am in charge of designing the itineraries for our tours and I travel more than half of the year. I am currently in Kyrgyzstan on a scouting trip for our upcoming tour in 2027.

​Join the waitlist if you'd like to travel with us, and follow my stories on Instagram to see what we will be up to.

This week's newsletter is a recap of the best travel tips, so if you are new here you can go back and re-read them and if you have been followin along, you get a refresh.

And..., don't forget to listen to this week's podcast episode about Last Chance Tourism, or the type of travel we do to see a place, landscape, people or animal that is about to change irrevocably.

Are we accelerating its demise by going to see it or does experiencing it first hand make us better stewards in conserving and preserving it, even going as far as putting our money where our mouths are?

This is a philosophical question that research answered for us and the topic of this week's podcast episode.

#24 | How to Move to Europe Sep 15 · Solo Female Travelers 51:36   ​

LEAVE US A PODCAST REVIEW We're closer, but still far... Last week I asked for your help in getting our podcast, especially on Apple podcasts, higher up on the ranking by leaving a review and many of you did. WHOA! We now have reviews in Spain, in Australia, in Canada and in the UK among others, but we are a bit far from our very ambitious goal of reaching 50 reviews hehe If you have listened to the various episodes and learned something you didn't know, please consider sharing it with friends and leaving us a review. You wouldn't believe the difference reviews make on how Apple promotes the podcast 🙏 Apple reviews are notoriously hard to leave - I know many of you reached out to ask us how because you really wanted but couldn't figure it out 🙈 Login in to Apple podcasts on your phone or laptop Go to our show page here​ Scroll to the bottom where the reviews are Click the star rating and write a review Here is a photo of the US page: THANK YOU from all of us here making every episode a reality Mar, Meg, Anastasia and Gaby And if you listen to us on Spotify, just click on the ***** to rate us. LEAVE A REVIEW ON SPOTIFY

The best travel tips

I write and publish a travel tip every week since 2023, that is, 175 newsletters with this one.

You can find all the newsletters on our website here.

This is a recap of the best ones:

1. ​Essential gadgets and items for a long haul flight: This newsletter has all the things I pack with me when I travel, especially when the flight/s is/are long and I am trying to survive Economy.
2. ​What supporting women *really* looks like: Not on paper, not for the gram or for the media or as a slogan, but the realities behind the struggle of supporting women and how to do it genuinely.
3. ​How to decolonise your travels, from the descend of colonisers: A personal account and reflection and a list of ways in which colonial mentality is ever present in each and every single one of us daily life and how we can be aware of it and change our behavior and even the way we speak to decolonise our thoughts, our actions and our travels.
4. ​How to turn 15 vacation days into 48 days of travel: The calculation and the tool to help you maximise your travel days without taking more than what you are given. No matter where you live or how much vacation time you have.
5. ​Is solo independent travel cheaper than group travel? Myth busting this often ingrained but untrue statement.
6. ​How to meet people when traveling alone, if that is what you want
7. ​Where to avoid Christmas celebrations, very timely given the time of year if that is what you prefer.
8. ​How to finance your travels, from how to save to how to make your money go further.
9. ​Why Europe feels so hot and why we hate AC, something you must have experienced this summer if you visited the continent or even other parts of the world
10. ​Turn your clothes into a wearable insect repellent: tried and tested trip to make your clothes work for you and keep you mosquito safe in tropical destinations.
11. ​How to beat jetlag (or at least try): The things that I have tried and do to make jetlag more bearable.
12. ​Access drinking water wherever you are without polluting the planet: I actually bought a Grayl water purification bottle and just left it behind in a hotel in Polynesia and just bought a new one which arrived as I am writing this newsletter, this is how much I can't live without this, I had to buy it again straightaway so I have it for my Central Asia trip.
13. ​How to find free water at hotels: The trick that I use to access water when the hotels do not provide it in the room (and I don't have my Grayl!).
14. ​Creative travel hacks: Quirky, cool and unusual ideas to make your travels better.
15. ​How to theft proof yourself: Useful for trips to Europe or anywhere else where pick pocketing is a risk.
16. ​How to choose a travel agency: There are so many travel agencies, tour operators and hosts offering tours these days that it is hard to check that they are legitimate, professional and reliable, something you should never give up on if you are traveling solo or with others.
17. ​How to find unique accommodation options in case you want to avoid hotels.
18. ​Gift for under $50 for the travel lovers in your life, for yourself and for the upcoming festive season.
19. ​Snacks you can bring onboard, mindful, respectful, and allowed.
20. ​Planning for a long trip: The steps I follow before a long trip, the organization, the considerations and the key things to bear in mind.
21. ​How to block out the light in a hotel room: An easy and straightforward way to make sure your curtains don't leave a gap.
22. ​How to fight loneliness when traveling solo, a common ailment that affects all of us solo travelers at some point or another, part and parcel of traveling on our own.

Our 2026 / 2027 calendar of tours See the full list of our future trips below. ✅ = Trip is confirmed ☑️ = SOLD OUT 💃 = I or Meg will co-host these trips 📸 = Photographer accompanying the group Available 2026 trips: Almost 200 of you will travel with us in the last 3 months of the year to Iceland, Tanzania, Morocco, Egypt, Bali, Scotland, Japan, Galapagos, Australia, Antarctica, Oaxaca and the Xmas markets. These are the only trips with spots left: ​🌮 Oaxaca: ☑️11 to 17 Oct || ✅ 29 Dec 2026 to 4 Jan 2027 [2 SPOTS LEFT] >> Book here​ 🎄 Xmas markets: ✅ 21 to 29 Nov [2 SPOTS LEFT] || ✅ 5 to 13 Dec [3 SPOTS LEFT] >> Book here​ 2027 trips: 🌴 Caribbean island hopping: 📸 📸 💃 💃 ✅ 13 to 20 Feb, 2027 [Photographers onboard, both Meg and I will host this trip] >> Book here​ 🥘 Barcelona & Beyond: 📸 29 May to 6 Jun >> Book here​ 🏔️ Kilimanjaro: ✅ 12 to 22 Jun >> Book here​ 🧘‍♀️ Bali: 📸 4 to 12 Sep || ✅ 2 to 10 Oct >> Book here​ ❄️ Swedish Arctic: ✅ 20 to 26 Mar [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here ❄️ Iceland: 10 to 17 Oct I I 24 to 31 Oct >> Book here​ 🐬 Ecuador & The Galapagos: ☑️ 13 to 25 May >> Book here​ 🍷 Georgia: 4 to 12 Sep >> Book here​ 🇦🇲 Armenia: 12 to 18 Sep >> Book here​ ⛵ Croatia Sailing: 📸 ✅ 26 June to 3 Jul >> Book here​ 🇪🇬 Egypt: ✅ 2 to 11 Apr [1 SPOT LEFT] || 5 to 14 Nov >> Book here​ 🍝 Tuscany: ✅ 13 to 20 Jun || 5 to 12 Sep >> Book here​ 🏰 Scotland: 2 to 10 Oct >> Book here​ 🦁 Tanzania Value safari + Zanzibar: 27 Aug to 6 Sep (Great Migration) || 24 Sep to 4 Oct (Great Migration) >> Book here​ 🇹🇿 Tanzania Luxe safari + Zanzibar: ✅ 10 to 20 Sep (Great Migration) [1 SPOT LEFT] || ✅ 1 to 10 Nov >> Book here​ 🐪 Morocco: 1 to 11 Oct || 12 to 22 Nov >> Book here 🦘 Australia: 💃 19 to 30 Sep>> Book here [Meg will host this trip] ⛩️ Japan: ✅ 8 to 17 May || ✅ 4 to 13 Nov >> Book here 🦭 Galapagos sailing: ✅ 25 Nov to 2 Dec [3 SPOTS LEFT] || ☑️ 9 to 16 Dec >> Book here​ 🐒 Madagascar: ☑️ 💃 20 Sep to 3 Oct, 2027 >> Email us to be added to the waitlist SEE THE FULL CALENDAR OF TOURS 2027 trips in the making: French Polynesia (June 2027) Uzbekistan (October 2027) Kyrgyzstan (either October or August 2027) Oaxaca (November and NYE 2027) Xmas markets (November and December 2027) JOIN THE WAITLIST

Have a wonderful rest of the week.

​

CO-FOUNDERS, SOLO FEMALE TRAVELERS