Wander Women

Outfitters both emerging and established are catering to female adventurers looking for excitement, wellness, and social engagement—without the guys around.

- Lila Battis

It was New Year’s Day 2012, and Allison Fleece was feeling unmoored. On a whim, she e-mailed a group of her most intrepid friends. “This time next year,” she wrote, “I want to be standing on the roof of Africa.”

The following winter, she was on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, exhausted and giddy, with nine women beside her. She turned to Danielle Thornton, a climbing buddy who would soon become her best friend, and said, “This is what all travel should be like.”

The next year, Fleece and Thornton headed back to Kilimanjaro—this time leading a group of 29 women from 11 countries on the first trip of WHOA Travel, their fledgling adventure-tour company for women. In their previous lives, Fleece, now 31, had been an education advisor and Thornton, 34, a creative director at an ad agency. But a few months after their Kilimanjaro expedition, they’d quit their jobs, Googled how to form an LLC, and launched a travel business. WHOA stands for Women High on Adventure or Women Hooked on Awesomeness, depending on whom you ask.