Prescott woman shares the joy of traveling—and offers her best tips for embracing the adventure
By Molly Fernow
I love stepping off a plane, feeling a slight breeze and smelling the new scent of a foreign country. No matter where I have been I have had this experience and it always fills me with extreme joy of the adventure to come. New cultures, beautiful places, new ideas, and interesting people make traveling the world a true love of mine.
I am not sure how this love began, but I remember that one of my sixth-grade journal assignments was to write about what we wanted to do when we grew up. My answer: “See the world.” I have no idea where this came from; I had never even been on an airplane and most family vacations consisted of camping.
Upon graduating college, I embarked on my first solo trip to Australia. For the first month, I was a mess. I missed my friends and family. Nevertheless, as I moved into the second month, an amazing thing happened. I had an epiphany about my newly realized power as a 24-year-old woman on a solo trip: I COULD DO ANYTHING I WANTED! I had spent my life up until now consulting with friends and family, each of us making compromises based on what the others wanted to do.
Now I could go, do, and see anything I wanted to in Australia. The power was all mine! So, of course, I did. I met two girls from California and the three of us spent two weeks traveling up the east coast in a beat-up car. I camped on beautiful Frasier Island with a group from Ireland. I danced with ringers (Australian cowboys) at rodeos in the outback, I snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, I surfed from Sydney to Brisbane for 10 days. Never in my life had I felt more free, confident, and powerful as I did coming back from that experience.
It would be another eight years before I got my International traveling boots back on. After life did not go quite as planned in my late twenties, I made the decision make my sixth-grade dream a reality. In the past 10 years, I have been able to take more than 25 international trips. If I did not have a friend to go with me, I would go by myself. All of the trips have been amazing but my favorites (so far) have been Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Israel and France. Top on this year’s list: Petra, Jordon, and Cuba.
Here are the top five things I have learned as a female traveler:
- Learn some of the language of the county you are visiting. “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Please,” “Thank you,” and “Where is the bathroom?” can get you very far. Even if you are terrible at it, locals love that you try, and they appreciate your respect for their culture.
- Do not rely on technology. Always have paper maps on hand, ask locals and read signs. I have ended up in some interesting places by relying solely on my phone or GPS.
- Pack light. All over the world, everything is smaller. When you are on and off trains in Europe, in small cars in France, or on small boats in Vietnam, space is limited. Moreover, you will never use all that stuff –Trust Me. I could write a whole article just on packing.
- Pick your travel partners wisely. I cannot stress this one enough and sometimes you don’t know that you are not good travel partners until you go. Do not be afraid to take breaks from each other on trips. This also allows you and your travel companions to see exactly what you want.
- Be prepared for—and embrace—the fact that things don’t always go as planned. You will miss trains, unions will go on strike, cars will break down, etc. I can tell you that every time something has gone off-plan the most amazing things have happened. A train strike in London had my mom and me walking all day and ending up in the oldest pub having a pint with the owner.
More and more women are traveling solo or with their friends than ever before. The world is amazing and can open your hearts and minds to so many things. So grab your girls and see the world!