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For Women Only: Adventure Travel by Marianne Scholl and Nancy Silk

When we published a story in 2005 on where to go when you want to get away from everybody but your friends, the term ”girlfriend getaway” was just making its way into the vernacular.

Now if you Google “girlfriend getaway,” you’ll find 185,000 possibilities. And check out the Web site of any nice hotel and you’re likely to find a special package playing to your girly desires with offers of luxurious spa treatments, sparkling champagne or dry martinis and, of course, chocolate.

While a weekend away of pampering with friends stills sounds enticing, this year we yearn for a little more. What really sounds nice is getting outdoors to do some biking, hiking or kayaking with a fun group of ladies.

It turns out there are all kinds of camps and travel companies offering active adventure trips just for women, and their goal is to challenge both your body and your soul. You can find a trip that will take you trekking in Patagonia or Nepal or a camp that will have you surfing on the Oregon coast. You can plan to go along with friends or sign up on your own. Either way, you’ll have the chance to get to know other women and forge new friendships. Here are some of the companies we’d like to travel with.

ROXY All Star Snow Camps
www.whistlerblackcomb.com/rentals/school/roxy/index.htm
1-800-766-0449

Did the Vancouver Olympics stir your inner Alpinist, even if you’ve never been on skis? As they say, it’s never too late to learn, and there’s still time this Olympic season to attend Whistler/Blackcomb’s ROXY All Star Snow Camps.

The last 2010 session for two-day, women-only Learn to Ski and Learn to Ride camps is April 10-11. Designed for women in their first stages of learning to ski or snowboard, the camps promise a congenial and positive environment with an emphasis on a safe, fun and easy learning experience. If you can’t make it to this late-season session, think about it for next year. The women-only camps are offered December through April.

Adventure Women
www.adventurewomen.com
800-804-8686 or 406-587-3883

Started in 1982 by travel adventurer Susan Eckert, Adventure Women pioneered the all-women adventure travel business. The company’s early trips took women backpacking through Grand Teton National Park with 75-pound packs and canoeing in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, portaging boats and gear between lakes.

“When we first started, people would ask, ‘why would you want to go and do something like that, and especially without your husband’,” she says.

In answer to the question of why “women only,” Eckert says, “When women travel together they can be totally and unequivocally themselves.”

After thirty-five years of leading trips all over the globe, Eckert notes that adventure travelers aren’t as interested in seriously roughing it anymore. So her company has struck a balance between adventure and luxury, safety and comfort.

Open to active women over 30 of all ability levels, Adventure Women trips can take you horseback riding in Mongolia, walking in the English Cotswolds or trekking in Nepal. Closer to home, offerings in 2010 include cowgirling it on a dude ranch in Montana, hiking in Yellowstone or mastering kayaking skills in the Sea of Cortez.

Northwest Women’s Surf Camps
www.womenssurfcamps.com
503-738-0758

Women of all ages can learn to surf in the supportive community created by surfer and camp director Lexie Hallahan. She started Northwest Women Surf Camps in 2005 when she realized the transformative power of a surf lesson. “A lot of women come with fears and trepidation, and surfing is a monumental step they are taking. It changes them in a way that is amazing,” she says.

“They’ll tell me at the end of an event, or they’ll e-mail me to tell me their personal experience, that it's the thing that makes them leave a crappy job or ditch a bad relationship. It allows them to feel like they have power to do what they’ve always wanted to do.”

NWWSC holds its learn-to-surf programs June to September, including one-day and weekender all-women camps, couples and guys getaways and “Girl Power” day camps (ages 8 to 13) at various beaches along the north coast of Oregon. Experienced instructors teach basic through intermediate surfing skills and water safety. To help your chi (and balance), each day starts with morning yoga on the beach. Coaching is both on land and in water, and wetsuits and surfboards are provided.

Want to really learn how to ride that board? Try complete immersion into the Northwest surfing experience at the six-day/five-night Women’s Surf Retreat (July 25-30) in Seaside, Ore. In addition to surfing and yoga, you’ll be treated to Northwest regional cuisine, a beach dance, an evening of longboard skateboarding and a farewell bonfire complete with a talented local musician. Each April NWWSC also holds a Kauai Bali Hai Surfing & Cultural Immersion Retreat along the north shore of Kauai at Hanalei Bay.

Adventure Associates of Washington
www.adventureassociates.net
1-888-532-8352

Founded in 1987, Adventure Associates of Washington specializes in ecologically sensitive, small-group active travel programs and retreats for women, but it also offers coed tours and will make travel arrangements for girlfriend getaways and custom group trips.

Having founded one of the first companies in the adventure travel business, Sandra Braun is inspired by the dynamics of all-women trips. “When women travel together, they create a network of support that motivates and nurtures,” she says.

Their tours, which can take you to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro or around the San Juan Islands, are focused on helping travelers move beyond the familiar to learn something new about themselves and the world, the point really of all travel. But in the process, Adventure Associates also works to foster “an ethic of care with respect to self, the natural world, diverse cultures and to others.”

This year you can experience the San Juan Islands on a five-day hike, bike & sea kayak trip (offered July 25-30 and Aug. 8-13) or on a three-day girlfriend getaway (July 16-18 or Aug. 13-15). You can learn sea kayaking and navigational skills, paddle to quiet coves and secluded inlets with naturalist guides, and experience expedition-style camping with gourmet fare. Adventure Associates supplies the boats, gear, instruction, tastefully prepared cuisine and personable, helpful guides.

Women’s Quest
www.womensquest.com
303-545-9295

Women’s Quest was started in 1992 by Colleen Cannon, a lifelong athlete with a mission: to get more women into the great outdoors to experience its transformative power.

Believing that outdoor physical activity is “one of the most powerful and, perhaps the most underused tool for personal discovery, balance and transformation,” Cannon wanted to create a non-competitive environment for women to experience new types of activities that lead to a healthier, more active and more balanced lifestyle long after camp ends.

Women’s Quest now offers active retreats across the United States and in Mexico, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. Depending on the trip, you’ll have opportunities for road biking, ocean swimming, trail running, tennis, mountain biking, kayaking, triathlon training, dancing, hiking, horseback riding, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. Women’s Quest rounds out each trip with inspirational talks, expert instruction, nutritious meals, massage, yoga and creative activities.

Upcoming trips in California’s Sonoma Valley include road biking, hiking through the Redwoods, yoga, wine tasting, cooking classes, journaling and creative exercises (April 25-30 and Oct. 24-29). Or you might want to consider a horse camp adventure vacation in Estes Park, Colo. (July 26-30 and Aug. 9-13) or a Colorado Adventure Retreat with running, hiking, mountain biking, yoga, meditation, nutrition and wellness coaching (July 13-18). Like other women adventure companies listed here, Women’s Quest is open to working with you to create a group trip that fits your needs.

Adventurous Wench
www.adventurouswench.com
1-866-419-3624

Deanna Keahey, the avid traveler and hardcore adventurer who started Adventurous Wench in 2003, also emphasizes the transformative power of travel.

Her company will take you hiking in Patagonia, exploring the jungles of Costa Rica or sailing in the British Virgin Islands. This kind of international travel teaches tolerance, writes Keahey on her Web site.

“All of a sudden, we’re the foreigners. We see that though others may look or act differently, there’s an underlying commonality, and we learn respect. Nobody’s superior, we’re all just trying to live our lives as best we can.”

Trips scheduled in the western U.S. this year include a “Land and Sea Adventure” in the San Juan Islands (July 25-30 or Aug. 1-6), a tour of Santa Fe and Taos, New Mex. (Sept. 20-24) and a “Red Rocks Getaway” in Sedona, Ariz. (April 16-18, May 14-16 or Oct. 15-17).

YMCA of Greater Seattle
Women’s Wellness Weekend
www.seattleymca.org
206-382-5009

If you’re looking for a classic camp experience that harkens back to what it was like when you went to camp as a kid, sign up for one of the YMCA’s getaway weekends for women. Two times a year the Y’s Camp Orkila on Orcas Island and Camp Colman on Case Inlet in lower Puget Sound get taken over by women. We’ve just missed the spring sessions, but you can register early for fall. Camp Orkila hosts the weekend Oct. 22-24 (with a Thursday night option) and Camp Colman, Nov. 5-7.

In addition to archery, you can rock climb on the climbing wall, take yoga, do aerobics, try kickboxing or circuit training and join fitness walks on the beach. Creative crafts include jewelry making, batik, painting and pottery. Kayaking and trail biking are also offered at Camp Orkila. And if all this activity isn’t relaxing enough, you can sign up for a massage or facial.

Holiday Expeditions
www.bikeraft.com/expedition/women
1-800-624-6323 or 801-266-2087

Holiday Expeditions out of Salt Lake City offers adventure trips for all-comers, but owners Dee and Sue Holladay say that their river and yoga retreats for women are among their most popular outings. This year, four women-only rafting trips are planned for rivers in New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho and Utah. When not gliding down majestic waterways like the lower Salmon River, you’ll learn hatha yoga and massage therapy, stress reduction techniques and meditation, and camp under the stars in wilderness that will replenish your spirit.

Manifesta Safaris
www.manifestasafaris.com
831-625-5748

Manifesta Safaris out of Carmel, Calif., offers surf and golf “safaris” along with the “Artista Creative Safari” and the “La Vista Active Safari,” which combines hurry-free biking, hiking and kayaking with wine tasting, yoga, fine dining, spa treatments and shopping in Carmel-by-the Sea. Most of Manifesta’s programs are weekend adventures based out of Carmel but others, like the weeklong Las Olas Surf Safari, take you to Mexico’s warm waters.

Emphasizing the importance of finding time to play, the company strives to “make girls out of women.” Like other women travel companies, they recognize that the combination of fun, relaxation and new experiences fosters friendships and builds self-confidence.

©Copyright 2010, Caliope Publishing Company