Tomgirl’s Picks of the Week: January 12, 2010

Don't miss these fabulous need-to-know people and media that celebrate women and travel; our weekly favorites:

Media Resources

When it comes to travel, GoNOMAD gets it right. GoNOMAD explores all areas of travel—every destination imaginable, along with specific insight for women travelers, family travelers and tours. They also offer a handy reference to travel tools and support, like books, travel insurance and various other resources.

Breathe Magazine, focusing on adventure, endurance and lifestyle, is a Cyberspace adrenaline rush… its stories and photos make us want to get outside even more than we already do, breathe the fresh air and challenge ourselves! (Need we say more about why we love it!)

Tomgirl Tours empowers women via energetic outdoor adventures, but we advocate empowering women in all areas of their lives, so Power Women Magazine, and it’s mission to do just that, really speaks to us. The website is a wealth of information for women, on “issues ranging from equal rights for all women to homelessness among women, and everything in between.” Brava!

Interesting People

Ann Petronio, (aka the Escape Artist), is the dynamic owner of Annie’s Escapes travel agency. She’s been a friend and wonderful supporter of Tomgirl since our launch event last year, and a colleague who co-hosted our Adventure Travel 101 Webinar. A fellow adventure lover, Ann is a fabulous resource for anyone’s travel agent needs.

We met Caulleen Worrell of Usmile at an event last summer, and love her website’s goal: “to be an online cross-culture community for women”; and mission: “to see women of all cultures and backgrounds connecting, informing, and sharing ideas with each other… to inspire, motivate, stimulate, and make women shine so that their days are brighter and easier to enjoy.” The site is also, we should add, a pleasure to read and navigate!

From Tomgirl Tours

Looking forward to getting back to New Hampshire for our White Mountains Adventure in March. Did you know that Bretton Woods, site of our zip-line adventure, is one of finest zip lines in this (or any!) corner of the world?

Let Us Answer Your Adventure Travel Questions

“Adventure” is like the words wealthy, attractive, or intelligent: its meaning is almost always relative to the speaker or the audience. To some, an “adventure” getaway entails journeying to a hotel that doesn’t have an in-house spa. To others, it requires jumping out of a plane.

In travel circles we use the adjectives hard (like Bungee jumping or white water rafting) and soft (bird watching or culinary tours), to help define the level of adventure. But activities in the two categories swing to extremes, begging the question: what about someone who might want to try something that gets her heart pumping a bit, but isn’t quite ready for a vertical ice climb?

For starters, you fit into the Tomgirl category. And for that category we’ve coined the term “mildly adventurous.” What does that mean? Well, as you’ve seen here on our blog, our activities range from zip-lining and indoor skydiving, to ropes courses and Segway riding.

Mild adventure is our style and, as such, we’re working on our upcoming webinar, Adventure Travel 101, to help explain the differences in adventure excursions, answer questions would-be Tomgirls have, and ease the minds of anyone who has considered an adventure tour, but is still hesitating.

During the Webinar Ann Petronio of Annie’s Escapes and I will answer questions about how to plan an adventure vacation and provide food for thought on choosing the right tour (addressing topics like travel goals, destination choices, desired activities and budget planning).

But we know there are other questions out there so, throw ‘em at us and we’ll be sure to address your queries. Have you taken an adventure vacation? What was your experience? If you haven’t yet experienced an adventure tour, what questions or concerns have stopped you? Do you have fears about the level of adventure or fitness required to participate? Do you wonder about the safety of the activities?

Feel free to post any questions in the comment section here or email them directly to me: lori@tomgirltours.

The Webinar is Sept. 23; we’ll have registration available next week but, if you’d like advance information, just let me know!