Women running off on vacation together isn't just for Daytona-bound co-eds anymore. As the Associated Press recently reported, middle-aged women are taking knitting trips, adventure trips and spa trips. And they're leaving the munchkins and menfolk to fend for themselves.
The trend is so prominent that people are building business enterprises around it. There has been a 230 percent increase in the number of women-only travel companies in the past seven years. Marybeth Bond has written two books: "50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North American" and a sequel, "50 Best Girlfriends Getaways Worldwide." The Fine Living Network launched a series recently entitled, "All Girl Getaways."
Writes the AP:
Thirty years ago, women didn't vacation without their families, said Susan Eckert, founder and president of AdventureWomen, a travel company for women ages 30 and older. A woman who did travel without her husband was asked whether there was something wrong in the marriage, she said.
Traditionally, women planned family vacations where they were the ones "making sure everyone is happy, everyone is safe, everyone is entertained," Oswald said. Meanwhile, men went camping, fishing or golfing with the guys, and teenagers started traveling, too, with school and youth groups while their parents footed the bill. Now women are saying, "'It's my turn.'"
I got bushwacked by the girls-only travel trend about two years ago. My wife, 48, announced that she and seven or eight members of her monthly bunco club were heading to Las Vegas for a long weekend. That was such a hit, the gals decided to go on a Caribbean cruise -- an event they plan to repeat this February.
The husbands of the aforesaid bunco-club wives did assemble a monthly men's group dedicated to hearty eating, drinking and discussion of weighty intellectual matters (we're real dweebs). But we haven't yet organized ourselves to actually go on vacation together. The women are way ahead of us. I don't think they'll stop until they take over the world.
2 comments:
You know what they say Jim - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
That's why I have visions of my wife and her girlfriends drinking pina coladas and throwing dollar bills at Chippendale "dancers."
Of course, she swears that never happened.
Then I worry that they weren't throwing dollar bills -- maybe they were throwing $5 bills!
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