A World Of Her Own

Women enrich their lives, follow their dreams and encourage other women as they travel the globe.

- Susan B. Barnes

While driving her blue Yamaha motorcycle along the streets of São Tomé and Principe off Africa’s west coast in the Gulf of Guinea in 2009 and 2010, Beth Santos experienced an aha moment.

“[I] became very aware of myself as a young woman traveling to an unfamiliar place alone,” she said. “It was there that I realized the true connective power of travel and how it changes us. If we embrace it, travel teaches us to challenge our perspectives, to embrace uncertainly and to adapt quickly.”

Fast-forward six years, and Santos is founder and CEO of Wanderful, an international membership community of independent, adventurous, globally minded women who travel. Today, 21 chapters operate in cities around the world (throughout the United States, Canada, Brazil and Spain) and in an online community, with 12,000 active women travelers.

“We are creating a global sisterhood of women who can use their most powerful resource — each other — as they travel the world, whether for information about a new destination, to meet up with a new friend abroad or even to host a traveler in their homes,” said Santos.

To do just that, Wanderful’s goals include encouraging women to travel safely and confidently; increasing the visibility of women who travel solo; and challenging the traditional definitions of travel and encouraging curiosity, openness and global citizenship.