Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

This week, we're having all of the awkward conversations that come with budgeting for travel. How do you even start saving for your next trip? What do you do when you can't afford a group trip? What do you prioritize spending money on when you vacation? What do you do when you don't qualify for a travel-friendly credit card and can't cash in points and miles? We've tapped the experts—Samantha Barr...

This episode originally aired in February 2019. We didn't always feel so gung-ho about traveling the world with a group of strangers or about giving up control over the itinerary on a group trip. In fact, just like with almost everything in travel, it was the mental hurdle—the thought that we might not like group trips—that kept us from doing it. But, we all got over it. (Strip naked in front of a...

This week, as we kick off February, we're chatting about a major reason why *Traveler* editors have zipped back and forth across the globe: long-distance relationships. Joined by community editor Megan Spurrell and journalist Sarah Walton, we're diving into the ins and outs of making a cross-continent, let alone transnational, relationship work—all backed by some 10-plus years of first person, lon...

If you've been following Women Who Travel over the past two years, chances are you're familiar with Jessica Nabongo. The founder of boutique travel company Jet Black, Nabongo became the first black woman to visit every country in the world in 2019, and throughout her two-and-a-half year journey she's stopped by the studio (and called in from some very inconvenient time zones) to update us on her t...

"Plus-size fill-in-the-blank, but especially travel, is often not seen in a glamorous way," says Women Who Travel columnist Laura Delarato on this week's podcast episode. "It's often not seen at all." But thanks to communities and social media accounts that celebrate women's bodies of all shapes and sizes taking on the world, like Fat Girls Traveling, launched by our other guest this week, Annette...

Being on vacation and flying to get to vacation—whether you're going to laze on the beach for days or zip around Southeast Asia on the back of a moped—are some of the only long, interrupted times we have these days to read. So, as you prep for your OOO for 2020, we tapped Jynne Dilling Martin, Riverhead Books' associate publisher, and Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation,...

w It's a new year, which means more episodes of Women Who Travel are coming your way. In 2020, we're kicking things off with a new monthly series called "HoI Became...," where we'll sit down with master travelers who spend most of their lives on the road doing things those of us at our desks on a daily basis never thought possible. First up? Women Who Travel advisory board member, award-winning ph...

It's time to have your credit card and calendar at the ready: the peak time for flight deals is here. With Travel Deal Tuesday—when airlines and hotels drop fares some 40 percent for late 2019 and early 2020 travel—approaching on December 3 and the end of the year (i.e. time to use up your last vacation days) coming in hot, there’s never been a better time to escape on a dime. But the last-minute...

We say it a lot over here at Traveler: Americans are really bad at taking vacation. So much so that in 2017, we left 705 million vacation days on the table, the U.S. Travel Association reported. Think of all the walking tours, island naps, and life-changing meals that were missed! And while we always urge you to take all of your days—be they five or 25—we don't always practice what we preach, eith...

When we caught up with Dina Nayeri over the phone last week, she was, quite aptly, rushing through the streets of Paris. If she had her way, the writer and author would probably never stop moving, she tells us, thanks to a constant itch for travel that has taken her all over the world. But that urgency to cross borders is deeply rooted in her personal history as a refugee: At the age of eight, she...

In the fourth installment of our FAQ series, we're joined by Traveler's community editor (and WWT advice columnist) Megan Spurrell and special projects director Lauren DeCarlo to answer some of your most burning travel questions, including how to figure the right time to start traveling with your kids (spoiler alert: it's different for everybody), the right way to adjust to post-travel blues, and...

A few weeks ago, Jessica Nabongo became the first black woman to visit every country in the world when she stepped foot in the Seychelles. We’ve been following her journey for years and to celebrate her enormous accomplishment, we’re throwing it back to when we spoke with her in January when she was in Malawi, country 151 of 195. You can read all about the end of Jessica's journey and what she’s l...

Do you ever feel so much pressure to eat, see, and do everything on a trip that you end up feeling utterly overwhelmed and exhausted before you've even touched the ground? Same here. In fact, sometimes it feels like we get so distracted by everything we're supposed to experience that we often end up missing out on the best thing about travel: actually getting to know a place. For this week’s episo...

Family travel comes in all shapes and sizes these days: Women Who Travel contributor Priya Krishna takes an annual trip with 20 of her extended family members; editor Megan Spurrell travels each July 4 with her sisters and mom; and editor Corina Quinn heads south, to coastal South Carolina, where her slew of nieces and nephews will be endlessly entertained. Truly experts when it comes to making ev...

Full warning: a train comes barreling through the live recording of our podcast at the Feast Portland food festival earlier this month. But it hardly stopped us from chatting with Megan Sanchez, chef and co-owner of Güero, and Nong Poonsukwattana, owner and chef at Nong's Khao Man Gai—two of our favorite women in food right now. The two chefs, who both started with food carts next to each other in...

There are plenty of ways to see the world: through its food, through nature, or even just by slipping on a pair of sneakers and taking a walk. But for Mickela Mallozzi, a professional dancer and host of the award-winning PBS travel show Bare Feet With Mickela Mallozzi, there is no better way to connect with a new place—and its people—than by dancing, whether it be with the Gnawa tribe in Morocco o...

Ever wonder what it would be like to just travel around the country and eat for a living? If so, you'll want to buddy up to this week's guest, Julia Kramer, Bon Appétit's deputy editor and lead for the magazine's Best New Restaurants in America list. Each spring, she travels to more than 200 restaurants, booking double dinners, brunches, lunches, and more to find the best of the best and chisel it...

There are plenty of perks that come with frequent business travel. For one, you can rack up a ton of points and mile just by doing your job. Plus, you get to check out new cities, get to know locals, and explore—even if it's simply during a morning run or coffee break—somewhere new. But traveling for work can also take its toll, squashing your attempts at a routine and leaving you stuck in hotel r...

This week's episode is a repeat from March 2019. Food has never been more tethered to travel. Instagram, Anthony Bourdain, and others have made the two things bound to each other. And so, we pulled in two of our favorite foodies—*Bon Appétit*'s food director Carla Music (of "Back to Back Chef" YouTube fame) and contributor Priya Krishna—to chat about why food always tastes better on vacation, what...

Maria Sharapova loves Italy. She just got back from vacation in Italy. If you ask her where she wants to go on vacation next, it's Italy. (Ischia, Venice, Tuscany, and Sicily to be slightly more precise.) For the Olympic medalist and five time Grand Slam winner who travels more than 25 weeks out of the year, finding a place where you can just turn off is key—and quick three-day city breaks to Rome...

For Jada Yuan, it was the job opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to visit 52 places in 52 weeks as The New York Times's 52 Places traveler. For Renee Hahnel, known on Instagram as Renee Roaming, full-time travel was a photography gig that meant piling into a tiny 15-by-six-foot van and photographing 59 national parks over nearly seven months. The two travelers did what we'd all love to do: pack...

When we heard that E. Jean Carroll—the same E. Jean behind *Elle*'s long-running advice column, Ask E. Jean—had recently embarked on a road trip through the midwest, only visiting towns named after women, we knew we had to give her a call. But when we heard it was all in search of an answer to the very specific question "what do we need men for?" we just couldn't wait. This episode, we talk throug...

Here at the *Traveler* office, we love weddings. It's a time to see old friends, make a few new ones on the dance floor, and, if you're lucky, an excuse see a new city if only for a weekend. But with a finite number of vacation days to spend jetting to see "I dos" and do the Cha Cha Slide—and limited funds to dedicate to getting yourself there—you've got to maximize your time on the ground. So whe...

Music and travel are inextricable from each other. No matter where you go, and what you see while you're there, the sound of a place can forge an instant, lasting connection—fado in Portugal, reggaeton in Colombia, or jazz in New Orleans. So when the opportunity came along to team up with Pitchfork for a special live episode with Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, the French-Cuban sister act behind...

We're back again—we've pulled burning questions from our Women Who Travel Facebook group (plus one incredible photo of a gnawed-on passport) and asked our editors to share their expertise. With Traveler's articles director Stephanie Wu, travel news director Erin Florio, and community editor Megan Spurrell, we shared our tips for staying warm on planes and getting photos while on solo trips. But we...