And the other one was in Thailand, in a hotel, at the Banyan Tree Resort in Phuket; they gave me a villa by myself with my own private pool. I love mangoes and champagne which I had delivered to my room, and I had this whole swimming pool to myself, I danced naked around the pool, jumped in and ate my mango by myself. It was such a glorious moment of being a woman, just really enjoying all the essential things I love so much. And then I had the therapist come in the next day and I spent the whole day getting massage treatments, it was amazing.
Q: How would you advise a woman traveling solo to find rich and unique experiences?
A: Read the book!!! (She laughs) Research, you really have to research each destination. Basically what I do is I’ve got a set of tools. The first one is Be Wise: figure out what you want to experience. This comes after Be Brave, because that’s the first step. Be Wise. I break it down to C.A.W.S, which is Culture, Activity, Weather and Social. It’s on the Web site and in the book. Figure out how much culture you want: do you want to go to a place where you’re engaged in the historical significance of a country? Or do you want to sit by a beach and the only thing you want to learn is the pool boy’s name? Find what you want, and from there you can pick a destination that’s going to best suit your needs, what you really want to experience. And then from there, do research, read local papers, go on the Internet and read local news about the destination you’re going to. Make sure there’s no coup going on. I went to Fiji during a coup; it was just a horrendously horrible experience. And if I’d just picked up a paper and read, “There’s a coup going on!” I would have understood that that was a place I shouldn’t have gone to. Then find a place that is centrally located with good public transportation. I met two girls traveling in Prague and they had signed up on one of those Web sites where you can get cheap trips, and the hotel they were booked at said it was close to the city center. Well, it was actually twenty minutes out of the center, and that’s not a place you want to get stuck in at night. They don’t speak English, it’s a completely different language, and you can’t even pretend you know the language, so really think about where you’re staying! Location, location, location!
