Girlfriend Getaways!
Travel expert Marybeth Bond, author of 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North American, tells us about some unique vacation locations and why spending time with girlfriends is so important.
Commitment: 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America is a wonderful travel guide for women friends. What was your goal in writing this book?
Marybeth Bond: I’ve learned that travel is one of the most powerful ways to reconnect with our deepest female soul mates – our girlfriends (including daughters, moms and sisters).
My primary goal is to encourage more women to travel together and through this book I make it easy. I wrote 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America to share the tips, information and advice I’ve collected for decades while traveling with my girlfriends. I have walked the trails, eaten in the restaurants and stayed in most of the accommodations I recommend.
My book is different. Most travel guidebooks are geared to the general population and don’t specifically address our concerns and special interests. Women don’t want necessarily want the same thing as men do when they vacation with their female friends. We look for comfy lodging, terrific food, a variety of activities and stunning scenery. Many women enjoy posh pampering and shopping. Others thrive on adventure and lively entertainment. But what we want most of all is to be together, to catch up, unwind, laugh, have fun and nurture ourselves and each other. In this book I offer female-friendly suggestions for the Best Farmer’s Market, Best Places to Pamper Yourself, Thrift and Vintage Clothing Stores, Where to Take a Cooking Class, Neighborhoods for Strolling and Boutique Shopping, Where to Have Tea, Events to Fly in For. In 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America you’ll find unique ideas of places to explore off-the-beaten track beyond the tourist sites so you can experience a destination like a local woman.
Commitment: What makes traveling with friends so special?
Marybeth: At the heart of it, girlfriend getaways offer women a female bonding experience. We talk, we laugh, confess, we confide, maybe we imbibe too much, and we talk about things that the guys aren’t interested in. And though there are still women who are apprehensive of leaving their hubbies behind, others welcome the break. You can be in a relationship and love your partner, but you can still say, ‘Gee, I need a few days to chill out,’
Commitment: You organize your book by themes rather than destination. For example, some of your chapters are “Birthday Blowouts,” “Family Bonding,” and “Pampering Retreats.” Why did you organize your book this way?
Marybeth: If you flip through the book you’ll see that this women’s book is organized by themes as opposed to destination. It addressed our different life stages; turning 40,50,60;bonding with daughters; craving adventure when the kids have left home, coping with heartbreak, illness or the death of a loved one. As women, we use travel with girlfriends as a means to heal, celebrate, grow, stretch, and challenge ourselves. Or change. The chapters and all the stories that introduce the chapters remind us that sharing a journey with our female friends is good for our self-confidence, our career, our marriages, and other relationships.
Commitment: 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America offers ideas for week long journeys and shorter trips. Can just a weekend away be restorative?
Marybeth: A weekend away can be restorative if you give yourself quiet, unscheduled time to reflect, renew and rejuvenate. Plan down time and avoid traveling too far.
Commitment: Does a woman need to travel far to feel like she really got away?
Marybeth: Absolutely not. A night away or a weekend in a different place can seem like a trip to a foreign country. The country of our inner selves. I think travel is essential for women, especially those of us who feel so obligated to remain on the home front and nurture. We lose touch with ourselves when we don’t take time off. We need to get away and it doesn’t need to be expensive or for a long time.
Commitment: Can your book be used to organize a mother-daughter vacation?
Marybeth: All 50 suggestions in the book could be fabulous mother-daughter trips. In fact I have travel with one or both of my daughters to many of the places I recommend. I took my college-bound daughter to Red Mountain Spa in Utah for a goodby trip. We ended the trip with three wild days in Las Vegas. At another time my youngest daughter and I visited Seattle. The places I recommend are tested. I ’ve gone there and done that with my girls. I don’t recommend places I haven’t seen or experienced.
Commitment: What is it about traveling together that creates such a special bonding experience?
Marybeth: When we travel with women, we’re not responsible for anyone. It’s a very different trip than taking a trip with children or a husband. We talk a lot. We laugh a lot. We get silly. We tell our stories. We discuss things that our partners may not find important. No one has had the perfect life we thought they did. Quite simply; Travel with girlfriends is therapy.
Commitment: Does travel have to be expensive?
Marybeth: No and that’s why I wrote this book; to share my budget tips with women. I have traveled extensively for my entire life, to 75+ countries and to every state in the USA. I have usually traveled on a tight budget. In every chapter I have a section, “On A Budget”. For example in the chapter about Chicago I recommend a B&B that is convenient to public transportation just south of the loop. For a truly heavenly experience, take a room at the Monastery of the Holy Cross Bed and Breakfast, a Benedictine monastery in the middle of the city, where monks prepare fresh muffins every morning. It is located near Italian, Lithuanian, Greek, Chinese and Mexican restaurants. The B&B starts at $165 per night or one or two guest. I offer lots of unique accommodations in each chapter and offer useful websites in the resource section. Good links and tips for budget travel are also available free on my website: www.gutsytraveler.com in the resource section.
Commitment: Many of us automatically think of Europe when we consider travel, but your book shows that there are many wonderful places worth visiting in the U.S. and Canada. What are some of your favorite North American getaways?
Marybeth: Oh what a hard question for a travel addict like me. For big cities I love San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Quebec. When I need a boost of spirits I think of Cajun Country in Louisiana, driving through Arizona and Utah, and The Grand Tetons.
To celebrate a big birthday I think of biking through wine country, hitting New Orleans for jazz, or taking on Las Vegas. For adventure I could return again and again to the Grand Canyon, heli-hike in the Canadian Rockies, (www.cmh.com) or hike inn-to-inn in Vermont or discover my inner cowgirl in Montana and Wyoming. For pure indulgence I would love to return to Lake Austin Spa, Texas, www.lakeaustin.com Red Mountain Spa in Utah, Mi Amo in Sedona, www.miiamo.com And for retail therapy I recommend Santa Fe, New Mexico or Carmel, California.
All I have to do is flip through 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways and I get excited about going somewhere. I want to call a girlfriend and say “let’s go”. You will too!
Marybeth Bond is the nation’s preeminent expert on women travel. She is the award-winning author-editor of 11 books, including the best sellers 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America, A Woman’s World and Gutsy Women.
Marybeth has hiked, cycled, climbed, dived and kayaked her way through more than seventy countries around the world, from the depths of the Flores Sea to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. She studied in Paris for four years, earned two degrees and had a business career in high-tech marketing.
Bond has traveled – along, with her gal pals, daughters, sisters and mother and husband – researching travel books, articles and for adventure. She reminds us that gal-pal time and getaways are good for women’s health.
She was a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, with her book Gutsy Women. As a nationally recognized travel expert and media personality, Marybeth has appeared on CBS News, CNN, ABC, NBC, National Public Radio and National Geographic Weekend. She was the “Smart Traveler” radio host for the nationally syndicated Outside Radio show and the travel expert/columnist for the Travel Channel on ivillage.com, the women’s online network. She was also the “travel expert” for CBS’s Evening Magazine.
Marybeth Bond is an award-winning author/editor of eleven travel books including Best Girlfriend Getaways Worldwide, 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America (National Geographic), A Woman’s World, Gutsy Women, Gutsy Mamas, A Mother’s World, A Woman’s Passion for Travel and
A Woman’s Europe (Travelers’ Tales). Marybeth is also the Adventure Editor for travelgirl magazine. Visit Marybeth at her websites, www.gutsytraveler.com and www.womentraveltips.com.
To purchase 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America, click here.
