Welcome to Travel Maven!

I love the word “Maven,” it has an interesting range of definition. It can mean either one who is experienced or knowledgable; or it can mean freak.

When it comes to travel, I fall into both categories. I am an experienced traveler, but I am also a travel freak. I am a Travel Maven in all senses of the word!

While I was always crazy about travel, about going or learning or being interested in places that weren’t ‘here’ (wherever here was at the moment) I never really traveled until I was forty. Until then, I just sat and listened enviously as other people talked about the places they had been or the places they were going.

Me? I had been to Canada when I was in the third grade. I had taken a cruise to the Caribbean when I was in my 30’s. They were fun trips, and they whetted my appetite, but I have to say, spending a day in a port city is worlds away from the kind of travel I wanted to do.

Like so many people I know, I had dreams of London and Paris, dreams of Munich and Amsterdam, dreams of Rome and Madrid. So yes, St. Martin was lovely (and I had been to Nevis before Hamilton was on stage…), it wasn’t the travel I longed for.

First “Real” Trip

My first real trip abroad – the one that was really all mine – where I  took that leap, – that happened just after my 40th birthday. It was a modest itinerary – London and Paris, but it was my dream.

That first trip was hard. Getting on that plane for that trip to London was scary in so many ways. I was going someplace far away, a truly foreign country.

I went by myself and I remember feeling so unprepared for it. This is despite scanning every website related to London that I could find, despite spending hours in the library and at various bookstores reading tons of guide books.

The funny thing is that when I look back on that trip, it was both really a mixed bag of experiences. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I did a lot of stuff wrong. I had some moments that should have really put me off  travel.

Instead travel became somewhat of an obsession. I couldn’t wait for the next trip. I was planning that trip as I was on my way home!

Souvenirs

I know I came back with more confidence. I came back with a somewhat different outlook on life. That trip challenged and thrilled me. It helped me grow in ways I never expected. I was exhilarated in that way you are when you get off a thrill ride.

A year later I was on my second trip – this time to Brussels, Brugge and Amsterdam. I took the lessons I had learned and did a better job of planning. I took that new-found confidence and pushed some boundaries on my comfort zone.

It wasn’t a perfect trip. either. Things went wrong, and I had some obstacles thrown in my way yet again. After many, many trips I have learned that obstacles are part of the adventure. Some are large, most are not, but all of them have been gifts.

Every obstacle has taught me strength and resilience, introduced me to some lovely people and taught me that I wasn’t as helpless or small or scared as I thought myself.

Women and Travel

It also got me thinking about women and travel. Specifically why more of us, especially over 40, don’t travel more.

Too often I hear women talking about how they have always wanted to go somewhere, then immediately list the reasons why they can’t.

Those reasons come down to three basic things – travel is too scary, too difficult, too lonely.  The last is especially true for those who are thinking about a solo trip (or have had it mentioned as way to travel to that dream destination).

I am not overly brave or adventurous, and I am a noted introvert.  I can promise you that travel doesn’t have to be scary, it doesn’t have to be hard, and even when you travel solo? It doesn’t have to be lonely.  I am living proof!

There is a lot of bad advice out there. Most of it is geared towards women. It makes me crazy. My goal is to debunk that advice and maybe make travel just a bit less scary or difficult or lonely.

Why Travel Maven?

Well, here I am, mumble mumble years later, a  bona fide travel maven. A knowledgeable freak about all things travel. I want to help others find and release their own maven – the travel freak that has lived frustratingly in the shadows for far too long. I want to share the lessons I have learned, some of the adventures I have had, and the tricks and tips I have picked up along the way.

My hope is that this little blog might inspire others to take that first trip, to see the world and learn how strong, brave and capable they really are. It may be just that one trip, or it may be a whole constellation of trips.

I hope you will feel free to ask questions in the comments or share your own stories (hopes, dreams, and travel plans).