Top destinations for women only holidays
Women only holidays tend to fall into one of two categories: cultural or wellness. If you’re signing up for a cultural holiday to Iran, Morocco or Jordan, you’ll join a small group and follow in the footsteps of women who live in these countries. Women only holidays to Mongolia are usually tailor made to your (and your Mongolian hosts’) preferences. Wellness holidays are also small group trips. Although you’ll get free time to roam, these tours are more about exploring yourself than the landscape. All in all, these holidays are for fans of immersive travel, so leave aside one or two weeks.
Atlas Mountains, Morocco
1. Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Life slows right down in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, ancestral home of the Berber villagers. Women often outnumber the men here, who go away to work in the cities. Life goes on in the villages, though, where women cut grass, grind wheat, collect water and look after the young and elderly as a community – usually to a soundtrack of song and dance.
Iran
2. Iran
Iran isn’t what you think it is – as a women only holiday will show you. Chat to the glamorous entrepreneurs in the beauty parlours of Shiraz. Learn how to tie a headscarf in Tehran, where female designers are filling shop windows with outfits straight off Fifth Avenue. And spend the night in a Fars village, with Turkish pastoral nomads who’ll show you the ways of land.
Jordan
3. Jordan
Fancy finding out what life’s really like for women in Jordan? Join a tour that’ll whisk you around the cooking schools, women’s co-ops, Dead Sea beach resorts and Bedouin campfires – areas where women would have to cover up around men. Of course, no trip to Jordan is complete without heading to Petra, where columned temples and tombs are carved out of pink sandstone.
Marrakech, Morocco
4. Marrakech, Morocco
Hospitality is everything in Morocco – especially when you travel with barrier-breaking all-woman group. Women’s weaving cooperatives show you how storytelling and rug-making are inseparable. And you can learn how to make couscous with the real experts at a cooking class. This is all set against the nonstop stage that is the fabled trading city of Marrakech.
Mongolia
5. Mongolia
A women only holiday to Mongolia is a real myth-buster. You’ve probably heard about the eagle hunters, and you’ll meet them. But what about the linguists, felt-makers and teachers in the frontier city of Ulaanbaatar? And the female herders who are charged with keeping the animals? For once, the snow-dunked mountains and glacier lakes take second billing to the cast of characters you’ll meet.
Portugal
6. Portugal
Looking for total peace? The Portuguese countryside is your place – and the ideal setting for women’s wellness holidays. Retreats here are all about empowerment through learning, so you’ll get the lowdown on how your menstrual cycle affects everything from your body temperature to your mental health. It’s almost like going back to school; just swap biology with botanical medicine and gym class for yoga.
Women only tour in Morocco
Stray from the beaten path in Morocco on an all-female trip
From
£732 to £1145
8 days
ex flights
South Korea women only tour
Discover a place where tradition meets modernity
From
€3600
12 days
ex flights
Patagonia women only group tour
Women's guided trip through the highlights of Patagonia
From
US $2785
7 days
ex flights
Women only kayaking holiday in Sweden
All ladies kayaking journey full of know-how and inspiration
From
€1306
5 days
ex flights
Morocco group tour for women
Marrakesh and Atlas Mountains tour for women, celebrating women
From
€1600
8 days
ex flights
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Women only holidays advice
Jenny Gray from our supplier, and women only holidays pioneer, Intrepid Travel, tells us why she recommends women only holidays.
Behind the scenes
“Going to the local salon with some of the female tour leaders in Iran was hands down one of my favourite travel experiences ever. It’s off limits to men, so headscarves and coats can be removed, music is blaring, and the conversation is lively. It makes you realise how very off compass your original perception of Iranian women is.”
Rave reviews
“Traveller feedback has been phenomenal. They say they experienced the women of Jordan in a very personal way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, and loved every minute of it.”
Times are a-changing
“This message of female empowerment is spreading like wildfire. More and more people, businesses and figureheads are taking a stand for gender equality. There’s a long way to go but there is encouraging progress.”
More Women only articles
From restful retreats to staying off the map with Mongolian eagle hunters.
Meet female farmers in Cape Verde and join them in empowerment workshops.
On these trips you’ll meet engineers, entrepreneurs and fashion designers.
The country through female perspectives, from business owners to the Bedouin craftspeople...
Chat (and eat, and dance) with the women who form the backbone of this country.
