I was looking through pictures of my travels last fall and came across a shot of the members of a foodie walking tour we took in Lisbon. In our midst is Helen, a slim, stylish lady of, I would guess, 75 years of experience. In the course of our five-plus-hour tour that day, we chatted and shared a bit of our stories. She reminded me of several women we have met on other trips who relish experiencing new cultures and vistas, inquisitive and intelligent, full of energy and open to new ideas. On cruises, for example, in the dining room at dinner we often opt for open seating, choosing to sit at a mixed table of other couples and solo travelers. It’s a wonderful way to meet new people and swap travel stories and tips, and there we’ve met these intrepid ladies, solo or traveling with a companion, many widowed but some never married, all glowing with an enthusiasm for what’s next over the horizon.

I was fortunate to have a fine model of this adventurous spirit in my own family early in my life. My mother’s cousin Janie lived far from us, in Chicago, and I only met her face to face three or four times, but our families kept up a correspondence, and I maintained that with her during my college years and once I’d married. Janie never married but lived with her mother until she passed, and she worked until she retired sometime in her late 60s. I can’t tell you where she worked or what she did there because she never really said much about it. I do know that she stood out to me as an independent, funny, bright and intrepid woman, for she traveled all over the world at a time when that was most unusual and travel was more challenging than it is now.

Starting, I believe, in the 1950s, Janie always took an annual trip. Sometimes these were domestic trips by train or air to visit relatives or a new city or national park. What seemed so exotic to me as a child, though, were stories of her visits to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau or travel to Japan and Thailand. I recall treasuring Advent calendars from Germany shining with silver glitter and a delicate folding fan from Japan. These trinkets and her stories opened up my eyes to a wider world, and the fact that someone I knew (was related to!) had been to these places planted the possibility in my mind that I could do that, too.

As a child, the destinations my cousin visited astonished me, but from my perspective as an adult, with a keener understanding of the times in which she did so, I realize that perhaps more astonishing is the mere fact of her travels. I’m sure many of her trips were undertaken with tour groups, but nevertheless she often set forth on her own. At a time when a single woman over the age of 25 might be looked upon with pity or even disapproval, Janie cheerfully navigated the world and embraced all her adventures. She provided me with a shining example of how to live life to the full and ignore the prescriptions of how others believe it should be undertaken.

This month’s issue of Global Traveler is dedicated to women who travel and those working in the travel industry. As you read it, consider all that women contribute to travel, where they’ve come from and where we yet have to go.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor