World
No sex, all the fun: why 61 is the best age for women solo travellers
Over five months with a few camels and some local guides for company, she will trek from north to south of the kingdom, starting at the Jordan border near Halat Anmar and ending near Najran at the border with Yemen.
Following ancient caravan routes, she plans to enter remote villages, cross vast deserts, oases and mountains.
On the way to becoming the first person on record to accomplish the north to south cross-country journey, the Edinburgh-born adventurer hopes to unearth stories from the land’s history and uncover new insights into modern Saudi Arabia.
It’s a journey through the spiritual home of Islam that until not so long ago would have been unlikely to even get off the ground: Saudi Arabia, governed by sharia law, with five Unesco World Heritage Sites, rich culture but controversial human rights record, only opened its doors to international tourism in 2019.
But it’s not just that. For it is only now, at the age of 61 and with a lifetime of experience behind her – and no longer subjected to unwelcome attention from eager young men – that Alice feels she has truly entered her adventuring ‘prime’.
At a time of life when some are thinking of retirement, being in her 60s is, she says, her ‘super power’ that’s helping her kick open doors and bring new opportunities to explore places that her younger self might have thought twice about visiting.
“I couldn’t have done this in my 20s or 30s,” she says. “Age is an enabler.
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“Mid-life travel is much easier. I have wisdom and experience, and I don’t let things faze me.
“I couldn’t have done this kind of thing when I was 20 or 30 because sex was in the air. Not necessarily for me,” she continues, “but at 20, wandering around Syria with my waist length hair, I’d be hassled.
“Now, you’re treated more as an auntie, everything is so much easier and everyone talks to you.
“The thing about travelling at this age, is everyone treats you well.”
Her journey will be remarkable in terms of distance and experiences, but she’s not the only woman of a certain age embracing a new golden age of adventure.
Forget the images of young, brave Victorian explorers with handlebar moustaches and a sense of derring-do. Today’s global adventurers are increasingly post-menopausal, mid-aged women, sometimes travelling solo and occasionally on a mission to not only see and do something different but to make an impact.
The adventure travel industry is in the grip of a dynamic shift as middle-aged women – in their 40s, 50s and over – race to make up for the lost time of career and family in search of physical challenges and new experiences.
The Adventure Travel Trade Association, a global network of guides, tour operators, tourism boards and travel specialists, says its 2024 analysis shows women now account for more than half of the bookings for adventure travel – 57%.
It adds that the upward trend reflects a growing appetite for adventure and self-discovery among women seeking more from a holiday then simply sightseeing or lounging by the pool.
Their findings are supported by adventure travel firm Intrepid, which offers more than 900 itineraries across seven continents.
It says its Women’s Expeditions, all- female tours led by a local female leader and specifically created to offer an insight into the daily lives and challenges of women in other countries, grew by 37% in 2024.
The firm also says it has doubled its Wildland Trekking range of hiking trips – spanning demanding ‘bucket-list’ journeys such as Machu Picchu, Everest Base Camp and Kilimanjaro to less intimidating but still challenging hikes in Western Australia and New Zealand.
As a result of the leap in demand, 60% of its new-hire guides in 2024 were women.
“Women love exploring off-the-beaten-track destinations with other like-minded women,” said Jenny Gray, Senior Product Manager at Intrepid Travel. “82% of women on these trips are joining solo, some for their first time.
“They are feeling empowered to do this on these all-women trips.”
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The idea of travelling to broaden horizons while helping others is growing too among women travellers of all ages.
Female-founded and owned tour company Wild Women Expeditions recently called for adventurers to embark on a transformative journey to Everest Base Camp, combining physical challenges with a powerful mission.
Working in partnership with the Ally Global Foundation, all funds raised from the trek will go to support its work in combating human trafficking and exploitation worldwide, including aiding the construction of a new safe house in Nepal.
“An integral driving force of Wild Women Expeditions is empowering women—not just the women who travel with us, but those in the communities we visit,” said Jennifer Haddow, CEO of Wild Women Expeditions.
“It’s necessary for us as a company to amplify the voices of silenced women around the world and ensure that we are doing all we can to educate, empower, and change the lives of vulnerable women for the better.
“Together, we can raise awareness about human trafficking and support survivors of exploitation through awareness, education, and fundraising efforts.”
While for women adventurers who don’t want to travel too far, Love Her Wild, a travel firm specialising in adventures for women travellers and launched by Bex Band in response to having experienced sexism in the outdoors, has nearly 40,000 Facebook followers.
Women-only adventure breaks include the likes of an Outer Hebrides cycle adventure which includes island hopping and camping, a trek through Glen Affric, and 3-day mini expedition to Knoydart and are often fully booked months in advance.
For some, adventure is a new experience. For professional adventurer, writer and television presenter Alice, however, the quest for new experiences in fresh places was laid down when she was still a babe in her mother’s arms.
Born in Edinburgh, she was just a few weeks old when her parents boarded a ship and sailed to Africa.
She spent the first eight years of her life running free in the African Bush, roaming the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda, hunting tadpoles and running away from snakes.
Back in Edinburgh she studied Arabic and Turkish, spent six months living in Damascus and then two years teaching English in Cairo interspersed with hitchhiking on military trucks across the Western Desert and exploring the Pharaonic temples of the Luxor.
Her spirit of adventure, however, was put on the backburner while she pursued a career in journalism that led to BBC News.
At one point, she was co-editor at BBC News Channel, one of just three female news editors at the corporation at the time.
She moved into digital content and was chief executive of a media development agency called Vision + Media when cutbacks and the grim task of having to make people redundant coincided with her growing interest in outdoor adventures.
Heading towards entering her 50s came her “defining moment, as I decided to turn the negative experience of my company closing into a positive liberation and to follow my dream of cycling across Africa.”
The Tour D’Afrique took her and her bike from Cairo to Cape Town on a 12,500km ride through ten countries in 100 days with 20 days of rest.
There were close encounters with wildlife including charging wild elephants, unpleasant toilet facilities and a realisation that there was a world of adventure out there and being almost 50 was no reason not to give it a bash.
There followed the Marathon Des Sables, often referred to as the toughest footrace on earth, it spans six marathons across the Sahara in six days carrying all food and equipment. Despite never having run a marathon, she moved to Morocco in 2014 to train in the sand and sun, and stayed.
In 2016, she embarked on a remarkable quest for the “furtherest place on earth” that took her from her base in Morocco over ancient salt roads, the snow-covered Atlas mountains and across the Saharan sands to Timbuktu.
Over the past decade, she’s hiked the length of Jordan on the Jordan Trail and climbed Mount Elgon, which has the world’s biggest volcanic base, and ticked off the Everest Trail Race, which saw her complete 150 km around the mountain is six days.
To add to a long list, she’s recorded as the first woman to walk the Draa River in Morocco. The trek took her 1500km across desert and mountain.
Most recently, she filmed Arabian Adventures: Secrets of the Nabataeans, for BBC News, in which she sought to explore the secrets of the forgotten ancient Nabataean empire.
Her Saudi Arabian adventure, due to begin on January 1 and at time when the country is becoming increasing visible on the sports stage – from boxing to being recently awarded the 2034 World Cup by FIFA – is too long for her to complete in a single push.
Instead, it will span two winter seasons with the first, lasting seven weeks, ranging from the border with Jordan to the gates of Madinah.
Along they way, she’ll tread the pilgrims’ route to Mecca, visit Ottoman fortifications, Bedouin waterways and Abbasid waystations and forts.
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Her journey will take in Moses’ Mountain – Mount Sinai – and Stone Age sites. But some of the most important stops will be when she has the chance to meet and talk with Saudi women.
“I’m interested to hear the voices of Saudi women; a big objective is to find out what they think of their country.
“What people know in west about Saudi Arabia is almost entirely negative,” she adds.
“The view of Saudi women in the West is very one dimensional. As a female explorer, I’m uniquely able to spend time with Saudi women and tell their stories.”
She plans to meet a wide variety of women, ranging from women living in rural villages to the first women wildlife rangers in Saudi Arabia.
Women make up 33% of the 183-strong wildlife ranger unit, and work with local women to encourage them to explore conservation roles.
She’ll also be accompanied at various stages by Princess Abeer Al Saud – who in 2023 joined a research expedition to the Antarctic continent – rally driver Mashael Obadain, and tour company founder, Sara Omar.
“Sara Omar set up the country’s first travel agency,” says Alice. “She is a modern woman who will spend nights in the desert with me.
“We’ll meet many people on the way as we pass through villages ending on the eve of Ramadan in Madinah.
“I’ll be walking with two camels and although I’m not looking forward to the physical stress and pain, it’s worth it.”
Being a woman and of a certain age, she adds, is no hindrance. In fact, it’s a benefit.
“A man can’t go to a small village and see and speak to the women there, but I can,” she adds.
Adventure and exploration, she adds, doesn’t have to be big, fast or even particularly earth-shattering.
And, it doesn’t have to be out of reach for women of a certain age.
“I really admire the spirit of people who have such curiosity about the world and ability to soak up knowledge and information to go on a quest, to see something for yourself, find something,” she adds.
“There’s a whole group of women adventurers and women explorers out there. We’re here and we’re and doing these kinds of things.”
Follow Alice Morrison’s Saudi Arabian trek here
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