With their growing financial resources, 82% of women control travel decisions, and from solo adventure holidays to multi-generational trips, female-first travel is on the rise.

Women today are on the move. More than 64% of the world's travellers are women, with 82% responsible for making a family's travel decisions, according to Skift Research's 2024 The Woman Traveler report. Not only that, but women are also travelling in more ways and to more places than ever before.

Solo female travel is particularly on the rise, with nearly 40% of women travellers planning a solo trip in 2025, according to Skift. This trend also increases with age, as 21% of female travellers aged 55 and up prefer solo travel versus travelling with a spouse or children.

"Solo travel as a woman feels like a quiet act of rebellion. It is a radical form of self-care, a bold claim to joy and a path to self-actualisation," said Lauran Peoples, a director at Richmond Region Tourism in Canada. "Solo travel allows me to move through the world for no one's benefit but my own. Every time I return, I feel more capable than I give myself credit for. I come back cooler. I come back braver. I come back more in tune with who I truly am."

With their growing financial resources, women are also discerning, choosing destinations with safety, freedom and welcoming cultures in mind. To aid that process, we pulled together some of the most popular ways women around the world are travelling today.

Google searches for "solo female travel" have increased 1,000% in the past decade, as women look to book more and more trips alone. But compared to men, women have slightly different concerns when planning holidays: safety and cultural attitudes continue to rank top of mind.

According to Solo Female Travellers – a company empowering women to travel solo – 66% of female travellers mark safety as their top concern; a figure unchanged since 2020.

The company's index of more than 200 countries (based on current US/UK advisories, the current Global Peace Index and a survey ranking how solo women travellers viewed their risk while travelling) finds a few places consistently topping the list, including Spain, Australia, the Nordic countries, Thailand, the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan. Japan, which has one of the world's lowest crime rates, ranked number one for safety and stands out as a memorable destination for many solo female travellers.

"Japan was by far the easiest country I have ever traveled in solo," said Georgia Fowkes, a travel expert at Altezza Travel. "I felt this peculiar but wonderful mix of excitement and utter ease when I arrived in Tokyo. Whether in Shinjuku's buzzing chaos or Kyoto's quiet corners, the streets felt unbelievably safe, even at night."

She found particular ease in women-only train cars and female-focussed capsule hotels. "It all adds up to a place where you can truly let your guard down and soak it all in," she said.

Fiona Spinks, who writes the blog Following Fiona, echoes the survey's finding about how female travellers feel welcome in New Zealand. "Here, it wasn't just about the views (although they're unreal). What stood out most was the people and the way travel in New Zealand often became a real community experience," she says. "When I hiked through the Abel Tasman track, total strangers ended up sharing stories and food. Kiwis love chatting, and you'll gain so much insight from local conversations."

To help support other women-owned businesses on their solo adventures Wanderful, a leading women's travel community, recently........

© BBC