Following the murder of Sarai Sierra, the 33-year-old Staten Island mother who was killed by a blunt head trauma wound on her solo trip to Turkey, some raise one key question: should women travel alone?
When NBC News reported the initial story about Sierra's death, most of the comments on the website expressed shock that a woman would travel alone, cautioning women not to do so.
Comments included:
"A single woman traveling alone is risky. In a foreign country, it is downright foolish."
"A woman has no business traveling alone."
"No way I would even let my beautiful wife out the door to travel to any country alone."
So NBC decided to look into the matter further, asking female travelers their thoughts about women traveling alone. They say they choose to travel alone for the freedom it brings, and the refreshment of heart and soul - no different then why men would embark on solo trips, they argue.
"I don't pay too much attention to the people who say, 'Ah, women should never go (alone)'," said Evelyn Hannon, publisher and editor of JourneyWoman.com, who told NBC News she's gone on trips to 70 countries in the last 30 years - all solo journeys.
"I can go where and when I want to," she added. "I don't have to worry about what someone else is interested in. My experiences are never diluted, so it's a perfect situation for someone who thrives on potent travel adventures."
Beth Whitman, who had been traveling the world alone for 25 years, told NBC News that solo travel helps her to come out of her shell. Some of the comments left on the story about Sierra upset her.
"That is coming from ignorant people who don't know the joy and the amazing experience that can be had traveling abroad solo or otherwise," she told NBC News.
Hannon has a unique approach to keeping unwelcome men away, she told NBC News - she keeps a picture of a "very big man" in her wallet, and when people ask her what's she's up to, she says she's on her way to meet her husband. "Let people feel that you're protected," she said to NBC.
Dressing appropriately is also important, both Whitman and Hannon advised. For example, in India, according to Whitman, baring your shoulders may be seen as risqué.
"I dress to observe rather than to be observed," Hannon told NBC. "So I'm going to be wearing neutral, modest clothing."
Sarah Hepola, an editor at Salon.com, wrote a story in July entitled, "Every woman should travel alone," centered on her own experience with solo travel and what the experience was like. She recounts one misguided choice she made when it came to encountering a man in her travels:
"I also made incredibly stupid decisions," she wrote. "One night, while walking to my friend John's house in Portland, Maine, I climbed in the car of a strange man who offered me a ride because he thought I was cute. I know better than this, but I was buzzed on five beers and the whiff of danger. He got lost almost immediately, and I grew nervous, and at some point, he started yelling at me, 'So you think I'm a rapist? You think I'm going to kill you?' And the answers to those questions were yes, and yes."
But clearly, she lived to tell the tale.
Whitman advises buying a doorstop if you're staying at a hotel that doesn't have deadbolts or chain locks. She also recommends packing light, so that you don't end up having to ask for help from strangers, she told NBC.
In unfamiliar cities, women should ask the concierge what parts of town to avoid, Hannon told NBC. She also said that women who are just beginning to travel alone should start with a small, easy-to-navigate country like the Netherlands.
It's most important, Whitman said, to be aware of your surroundings. "It's not a big, bad world out there," she told NBC. "The vast majority of people are very, very nice and very open and very friendly and they genuinely want to help."
For Hepola, traveling alone was exhilarating and life-changing.
At the age of 27, I got in my aquamarine Honda and drove 26,000 miles around the country for five months by myself," she wrote in the Salon story. "It was foolish and lonely and 10 years later, I still think it might be the best thing I've ever done. I wore clothes till they were filthy and lived on baked beans and peanut butter, but the luxury of that time is unimaginable to me now, because I woke up every morning with no one's agenda but my own."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
