Sarah PecK

I love solo travel. So when The New York Times published “Adventurous. Alone. Attacked,” I felt compelled to respond. My letter is published here, and below:

To the Editor:

Re “Adventurous. Alone. Attacked” (Travel section, March 31):

I have traveled the world, mostly alone, and I have one piece of advice for women: Go! Being a woman alone no doubt elicits dangers, and I have experienced them firsthand. I have been followed, harassed, grabbed, spat on, threatened and mugged by groups of men. These experiences were scary and, yes, could have been far worse.

But the most beautiful parts of the world are also ours alone to experience.

I have been invited into homes by three generations of women and have shared meals with their families in Turkey. I have traveled in crowded Indian trains with a family of all women, from the Ganges to the mountains of Darjeeling. I was led to one of the world’s remaining hanging temples by a group of women in central China.

Women have kinship that crosses borders and cultural differences. Women protect one another. And if you are open, women will crack open their beautiful worlds and cultures in a way I imagine that a solo man could never experience.

Yes, the world is dangerous. But for women alone, it can also be truly beautiful, almost transcendent.

I will always be a proponent of solo travel, particularly for women. My favorite blog about that is here: https://sarahpeck.com/2011/11/14/cangyan-shan-and-the-kindness-of-strangers/