In an industry where women make most travel decisions yet remain underrepresented in leadership positions, Solo Female Travelers Club stands as a revolutionary force with a clear mission: empowering women through travel. Founded by Mar Pages and Meg Jerrard, this for-profit company with a social impact mission has grown from a simple idea into a global movement that’s reshaping how women experience the world.
The Genesis of a Movement
The story of Solo Female Travelers Club began seven years ago when two passionate travelers recognized a significant gap in the market. Despite the growing trend of solo travel, women faced unique challenges and barriers that weren’t being adequately addressed by traditional travel companies. Mar and Meg saw an opportunity to create something different – a platform that would not only support women in their travel aspirations but actively work to make the industry more equitable.
Mar and Meg have been traveling solo for 20 years, with their combined experience spanning over 150 countries, more than 60 of those explored independently. Their expertise isn’t just personal – it’s backed by an online community of over 400,000 women who share their passion for solo travel. This massive community represents one of the largest and most dynamic networks of solo female travelers in the world, spanning over 100 different countries and encompassing women from diverse backgrounds, ages, and experience levels.
What sets Solo Female Travelers Club apart isn’t just their impressive reach or founder credentials. As they put it, “What makes us different from all travel companies is that our mission isn’t just a statement written on a website, it is something we live and breathe every day.” This authenticity permeates everything they do, from their curated tours to their comprehensive safety resources, creating a brand that resonates deeply with women seeking genuine support and empowerment.
More Than Just Tours: A Complete Ecosystem
The Heart: A Thriving Global Community
At the core of Solo Female Travelers Club lies their Facebook Group, which serves as the heart of their operations. This isn’t just another travel forum – it’s a carefully cultivated space where women from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and destinations come together to share advice, offer support, and inspire each other to take that next solo adventure.
The community operates on principles of inclusion, open-mindedness, courage, positive impact, and unity. These values guide every interaction and decision within the group, creating an environment where women feel safe to ask questions, share concerns, and celebrate victories. Whether someone is planning their first solo trip to a nearby city or their tenth adventure to a remote destination, they’ll find encouragement and practical advice from women who’ve walked similar paths.
The diversity within the community is one of its greatest strengths. Members range from recent graduates taking gap years to retired professionals exploring newfound freedom, from budget backpackers to luxury travelers, and from women taking weekend getaways to those embarking on months-long journeys. This variety ensures that virtually any question or concern can be addressed by someone with relevant experience.
The Brain: Expert Resources and Safety Tools
Their website serves as the brains of the operation, functioning as a go-to resource for crowd-sourced recommendations, inspiration and tools to make solo travel as a woman rewarding, enriching and safe. The platform offers comprehensive information organized by topic, making it easy for travelers to find exactly what they need for their specific situation.
One standout feature is their Solo Female Travel Safety Index, offering honest safety reviews of 220 destinations written by other solo female travelers. These reviews go beyond typical travel guides, addressing concerns specific to women traveling alone, such as harassment levels, safety after dark, cultural considerations, and practical tips for navigating each destination safely and confidently.
The website also features extensive articles covering everything from packing strategies and budget planning to cultural etiquette and emergency preparedness. These resources are written not just by travel experts, but by real women sharing their genuine experiences, making the advice more relatable and practical for everyday travelers.
Additionally, the platform offers free talks, sessions, and webinars on topics that matter to solo female travelers, creating ongoing educational opportunities that go far beyond static content. These events often feature expert guests and provide interactive opportunities for community members to ask questions and share experiences.
The Hands: Women-Only Tours That Create Change
Their women-only tours are described as “the hands that make change possible.” Launched in 2021, these high-end, immersive tours take women to more than a dozen destinations around the world while supporting and amplifying the efforts of women in the travel industry.
What makes their tours extraordinary isn’t just the luxury experience – it’s their commitment to female empowerment at every touchpoint. They support women-owned businesses by staying at female-owned or led hotels, eating at female-run restaurants, exclusively hiring local female guides and activity providers, and patronizing female-owned businesses. This approach ensures that tourism dollars directly benefit women in destination communities, creating a positive economic impact that extends far beyond the tour itself.
The tours are intentionally kept small, typically featuring groups of 8-12 women, which allows for more intimate experiences and stronger connections between participants. This small group size also enables greater flexibility in itineraries and more personalized attention from guides and tour leaders.
Each itinerary is meticulously crafted to provide unique, authentic experiences that participants couldn’t easily arrange on their own. From private access to cultural sites to meetings with local women entrepreneurs and activists, these tours offer insights into destinations that go well beyond typical tourist experiences.
Destinations That Transform
The Solo Female Travelers Club tours span an impressive range of destinations, each chosen for its potential to provide transformative experiences while supporting local women. Their offerings include adventures to Tanzania and Mount Kilimanjaro, where they work with the Tanzania Women Guides Foundation and organize climbs that summit on International Women’s Day, donating $200 to the foundation for every guest.
Their Mediterranean offerings include sailing adventures through the Greek islands, exploring the cultural richness of Morocco while supporting women’s cooperatives, and discovering the artistic heritage of Italy’s most beautiful regions. Each destination is selected not just for its beauty or cultural significance, but for the opportunities it provides to connect with and support local women.
The Egypt tours, co-hosted by founder Mar Pages and local Egyptologist Isis, provide deep historical insights while supporting female guides and historians. Their Bali experiences, led by local guide Henni, focus on authentic cultural immersion away from typical tourist crowds, showcasing the real Bali through women’s eyes.
In Mexico, they partner with local entrepreneurs like Lily, whose business rotates over 50 service providers, 80% of which are woman-owned and led, ensuring that tourism benefits are distributed fairly throughout the community.
Real Impact, Real Results
The testimonials speak volumes about the transformative power of their approach. Kristel from their Tanzania Luxe tour shared: “Best. Trip. Ever. I cannot recommend the Solo Female Travelers Club and the Tanzania trip enough! Impeccable attention to detail, highly curated content and locations, knowledgeable guides, gracious hospitality and SO. MUCH. FUN. Mar and Meg helped me get over the fear of traveling alone and I feel so blessed to have made many good friends who enjoy adventurous travel.”
The impact goes beyond individual experiences. One participant noted the inclusive approach: “Mar and Meg curate experiences that highlight women entrepreneurs and uplift women in industry. They support anyone who identifies as female to be on the tours and choose to make it a safe space for anyone on the 2SLGBTQ+ spectrum. They are also actively anti-racist, which helped me to feel safer as a BIPOC woman.”
Many participants become repeat customers, with some having completed multiple tours. As one traveler shared: “I have now done four trips with SFT. The first was Greece, last year, which was incredible. This year I did Venice, Tuscany, and Amalfi Coast back to back. SFT becomes more than just a tour group for me – it’s a community of like-minded women who support each other’s travel dreams.”
The confidence-building aspect of their tours is particularly significant. Many women report that participating in a Solo Female Travelers Club tour gave them the confidence to plan and execute their own solo adventures. This multiplier effect means that each tour participant potentially becomes an ambassador for solo female travel, inspiring others in their networks to pursue their own adventures.
Related: Women Breaking Travel Barriers – Adventure Travel
The Founders: A Perfect Partnership
Mar Pages brings her background as a Catalan ex-strategy consultant and former Googler turned online entrepreneur, with a passion for female empowerment and the travel industry. She’s a long-term expat who has lived in 8 countries, worked in over 40, and visited more than 125 countries over the past 20 years. Her top destinations include Bhutan, Pacific islands, and East Africa, reflecting her preference for off-the-beaten-path adventures.
Meg Jerrard, an Australian journalist who has visited 100+ countries across all seven continents, started traveling solo at 18 and continues taking solo trips almost 20 years later, even as a mother with a toddler. Her expertise in content creation and community building complements Mar’s strategic business acumen perfectly.
The partnership works because of their complementary skills and shared vision. As Mar explains, “Find a business partner who complements you, supports you, encourages you and makes you a better co-founder and business woman.” Their different backgrounds – Mar’s in strategy and technology, Meg’s in journalism and content creation – allow them to approach challenges from multiple angles and create solutions that neither could develop alone.
Both founders bring 15 years of combined experience in content creation, online publishing, and influencer marketing to the business. This expertise allows them to leverage social media effectively, showcase authentic experiences, and build trust with potential travelers through genuine storytelling rather than traditional marketing approaches.
A Social Enterprise Model That Works
What’s particularly impressive about Solo Female Travelers Club is their approach to social enterprise. They represent “a new breed of social enterprise that prefers to be financially independent and sustainable while devoting a large portion of the profits to support our mission.”
Their impact extends beyond tours through direct support of local organizations and training programs. They hire trainees on their tours and donate to local organizations that train women. For example, their lead guide in Tanzania is also the founder of the Tanzania Women Guides Foundation, focused on providing training to women so they can become guides. Their Kilimanjaro climb, which summits on International Women’s Day, donates $200 to the foundation for every guest.
This model creates a virtuous cycle where supporting women travelers leads to supporting women entrepreneurs and professionals in destination countries, which in turn creates better experiences for future travelers. It’s a sustainable approach that benefits all parties involved while addressing systemic inequalities in the travel industry.
The company also offers online courses and educational content that extends their mission beyond tours. These digital offerings make their expertise accessible to women who may not be ready for group travel or who prefer to plan their own adventures, further expanding their impact and reach.
Recognition and Industry Impact
The company’s innovative approach hasn’t gone unnoticed. They’ve been featured across major media outlets including BBC, USA Today, Forbes, and Bank of America publications. They’ve appeared as experts on various TV programs, including BBC Talking Business and multiple US television stations, discussing the rise of solo female travel and the importance of women-only tour groups.
They’ve also been recognized by Facebook (Meta) as part of their 2021 Community Accelerator program, acknowledging their success in building and managing one of the platform’s most engaged travel communities. Their founders regularly speak at industry conferences and events, sharing their insights on community building, female entrepreneurship, and sustainable tourism practices.
The company has conducted significant research in their field, including partnering with SheFari to launch the largest-scale global survey ever conducted for the solo female travel niche. This research helps inform industry trends and provides valuable data about the needs and preferences of solo female travelers.
Challenges and Resilience
Building a global travel business is never easy, and Solo Female Travelers Club faced unique challenges, including launching their tour business in the middle of a pandemic. The timing could hardly have been worse, with border closures, travel restrictions, and widespread uncertainty about the future of tourism.
However, their strong community foundation and digital-first approach helped them weather the storm. Their online community continued to grow even when travel was restricted, with members planning future trips and supporting each other through the uncertainty. The founders used this time to refine their offerings, develop new resources, and prepare for the eventual return of travel.
The experience also reinforced the value of their approach. When travel did resume, there was pent-up demand for the type of supportive, women-focused experiences they offered. Many women who had been hesitant about solo travel before the pandemic found that the isolation period had increased their desire for independence and adventure.
Looking Forward: The Future of Female Travel
Solo Female Travelers Club represents more than just a travel company – they’re catalysts for industry change. As self-described “feminists with a love for travel,” they’re “ready to challenge the status quo and help shape the travel industry.”
Their success demonstrates that there’s significant demand for travel experiences that prioritize female empowerment, safety, and community. They’ve proven that a social impact mission can be successfully integrated with a profitable business model, creating a template that other companies in the industry could follow.
Looking ahead, the company plans to expand their offerings while maintaining their commitment to quality and impact. They’re exploring new destinations, developing additional educational resources, and continuing to build partnerships with women-owned businesses around the world.
Their influence extends beyond their direct participants. By demonstrating that women-focused, impact-oriented travel is not only possible but profitable, they’re encouraging other companies to adopt similar approaches. This ripple effect could lead to broader changes in how the travel industry serves women and supports gender equality.
The Bottom Line
For women considering solo travel, whether it’s their first adventure or their fiftieth, Solo Female Travelers Club offers more than just a tour – they provide a community, resources, confidence, and the support needed to explore the world safely and meaningfully. Their comprehensive approach addresses the unique challenges women face when traveling alone while creating positive change in the destinations they visit.
Their success lies in understanding that solo female travel isn’t just about the destination – it’s about empowerment, community, safety, and creating positive change in the places they visit. By supporting local women-owned businesses and creating tours that prioritize female guides and entrepreneurs, they’re building a more equitable travel ecosystem one trip at a time.
In doing so, they’re not just changing individual lives; they’re reshaping an entire industry to be more inclusive, equitable, and empowering for women everywhere. With 400,000 women already part of their movement, Solo Female Travelers Club is proving that when women support women, everyone benefits.
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