Washington.
So I asked the ladies watching today,
have you ever considered traveling by yourself?
Well,
our next guest helps women uncover the confidence they
need to see the world for themselves by themselves.
That's right. Bess Santos is a travel entrepreneur.
Her new book is Wonderful Wonder Woman.
How to reclaim your space, find your voice and travel the world solo. Good to have you
to be.
Thanks for having me.
I feel like we're all thinking about traveling now
that it's spring break and the summer's coming up.
What, what inspired this book for you?
You know,
I traveled a lot on my own in some of my years after college and found
that there are so many messages we tell women about what it's gonna be like.
And a lot of that is negative that it's
gonna be really dangerous that you're gonna be lonely.
You're gonna have an awful time. It's not gonna be anything like eat, pray love,
you know,
and I think there needs to be other messages told to women because we actually
dominate travel in terms of the size of the industry and who's making the decisions.
It's all women.
And so really, this book is how to,
but it's also why to and really thinking about building the confidence
to take that trip on your own because we all deserve that.
Me time
is this based on your own experiences. I, I was pictured and eat pray love. Yeah.
You know, and it, it comes from that, it's not a memoir.
It has some of my own stories in there that kind of help tell things. But
it's really, it's written in the second person.
It's written to you the reader and it's saying
you were thinking about going on this trip,
maybe somebody's told you not to do it or to be afraid of it.
But actually, here's what we should really think about.
And here's some of the concepts that are gonna help you have a great time.
What is traveling to you? How has it helped you?
You know, why do you love it so much?
I thank you for asking that because I think travel, even the whole concept of travel,
um, we should really rethink a little bit more, you know,
I think a lot of people think of travel as the number of
miles you go or the number of passport stamps you get or,
you know, kind of like how many, how many miles you're logging on a plane.
But actually, for me,
it consists of three things challenging your preconceptions,
really challenging the way you look at the world,
trying something new.
And getting uncomfortable and if you can do those things,
if you can go five minutes away from home and feel fundamentally uncomfortable,
like you're really trying something different
to me that is as much,
if not more of a travel experience than going thousands of miles away and,
and not feeling that way and feeling like you could just be home.
I feel like women say, I, I can't get away
that long. I can't go that far.
But I mean, just to the next town to explore something, be the next town.
It could be a weekend trip.
It could be even, you know,
one of the things that a lot of women are afraid of is just eating out by yourself,
like go take yourself out to dinner one night and just experience that on your own,
enjoy your food, enjoy your own presence.
And then yeah,
maybe you work it up to a longer trip and
you're at six months in Thailand down the road,
but it doesn't have to start that way.
It sounds
intimidating to me from a safety standpoint because I feel
like women always want to be with somebody else.
You hear about people traveling by themselves.
And now something happens is that a concern for you.
It is a huge concern for a lot of women.
And I think it's what really holds women back is that we're told time and again
that it's going to be unsafe and that's frankly what the news stories tell us too.
You know, a lot of the stories out there are women gets kidnapped overseas or,
you know, something happens to her.
And, um, and I really part of that, of writing this book was to dig into that.
Let's talk about safety and what that actually means.
Are you actually unsafe going to a new place? Well, depends on where you go.
You know, if you're going to rural Vermont,
it might not be as unsafe as you think if you're used to being
in a really big city or maybe it is depending on your identity.
So I think it's, it's a very personal question. I don't think we give it an
time and thought and this really digs into some of the nuances of that, but also says,
you know, if you can master a few things on your own,
it's just baby steps going up. My,
I, I was telling my mom you were gonna be on the show today and they travel a lot.
So she said they were on a cruise and there was
women that they would just stay on the cruise ship,
stay on the cruise ship for a couple of months at a time.
If you're not comfortable going by yourself,
can you still get the same experience with a buddy?
Absolutely. I think so. So there's a couple ways to look at this too.
And I think one of my favorite ways to travel alone
is actually doing one of these small group trips that we're doing a lot more now.
So there are small group experiences of 9, 1011, 1215 people.
And I say to people that's still a solo trip because you
don't know the other people on these small group trips anyway,
they're strangers to you.
So you're getting to know this,
but that happens when you're traveling alone as well.
You need people in your hostel in your hotel.
So, um so I think that that's a really nice way.
There are a lot of great organizations, actually, there's like a whole
in the book here.
There's a whole resource section that has here,
a whole bunch of women owned travel companies here, small group trip planners.
So you can take that and experience it with other
people but still taking your own trip for your own self
to talk about. I know you're gonna talk more tonight.
You have an event tonight, right? We do.
We have a big book launch party over at Hook Hall on Georgia.
Ave we're really excited. Hope everyone comes. Looks great. Thank
you. Thanks for the inspiration
all begins tonight at seven. So go by Hook Hall, Georgia Avenue. Say hi to Beth.
Get a signed copy of the book talk Travel meet some other ladies.
Wonder woman is out now for more info. Visit Beth santos.com.