New Horizon Travels

Tips For Women Travellers

Travel in India is not for everyone. But if you do feel called to India, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would, however, prepare, do research, and practise “safe travel strategies.” In some ways, India is like the Mount Everest of travel. It is often seen as the most challenging, and ultimately most rewarding, place to travel. Many women would love to travel in India — or within India — but they’re not sure if they’re up to the challenge. They also have concerns about whether it is safe. Unfortunately some terrible incidents and a lot of negative global media attention have combined to make people wary of travel in India, especially for women and solo travelers. Whenever the question of travel to India comes up in a women’s travel forum, a lengthy discussion invariably ensues — with opinions and experiences ranging from “totally safe” to “I would never go there.” For most women travelers to India, and within India, the truth is somewhere in between. Most will tell you that the dangers are over-exaggerated, but that it can be uncomfortable at times for various reasons. Millions of people travel in India every year — before the pandemic, there were more than 10 million inbound tourists to India each year and many more domestic tourists. If we can assume 50% were women, that’s 5 million female foreign tourists alone, not counting domestic. I’m sure many were solo travellers, though I don’t know the statistic. For most of these people, the worst things that happened to them were overpaying for souvenirs, losing a day of travel due to Delhi belly, experiencing train delays, or fending off beggars. Women also have to deal with stares and sometimes verbal harassment from men on the street. In truth, the biggest problem that tourists to India face is getting ripped off by conmen and scammers. It is very hard to know who to trust. In fact, this is the main reason I started India for Beginners — to offer travellers a trustworthy, ethical, and caring solution.