How solo women are travelling the world’s most challenging destinations, safely

Dusk is falling across the Golden Horn, and in the upmarket Istanbul district of Beyoglu, I hear the sound of a door opening to heaven.

The tattooed hands of a musician, Tugba Gulyesil, are stroking the rebab, a three-stringed cousin of the lute, which the great whirling dervish Mevlana described as issuing “the heart-rending strains of paradise”.

A 12-day women-only Intrepid tour begins in Istanbul.Credit: iStock

Her rhythmic, mystical song is modern yet steeped in tradition, and sets the tone for the tour I’m joining, a newly redesigned women-only expedition through Turkey.

“For me, music is divine,” she says “[But] It’s still a big struggle being a woman [in the Sufi religious practice] world, but I know some women who are whirling, and I see people changing their minds.”

Aimed at helping Turkish women participate in economic life, our 12-day Intrepid tour will journey from Istanbul to the Aegean Coast and Cappadocia, visiting hotels, restaurants and tourism ventures that are majority owned and operated by women.

Sisters on tour – the author (kneeling at left) and her group touring Turkey.

On this tour, we’ll stay in boutique hotels, shop for locally produced souvenirs in fair-trade stores, eat at family-run restaurants and hear the histories of the women who helped form the Turkish nation.

Throughout, our group will create employment and social opportunities for Turkish women where they face economic disadvantage. While they have had the vote since 1930, women make up just 20 per cent of the country’s parliament, and comprise only 30 per cent of Turkey’s labour market.

But flip the coin to see who else benefits from these women’s expeditions. The other winners are the travellers booking these women-only tours, and the most popular destinations are those countries that are regarded as challenging for solo women travellers.

Morocco can be a challenging place for women to travel alone.Credit: iStock

Such offerings enable women to explore all corners of the earth, safely and supported, says Jenny Gray. Back in 2018, Melbourne-based Gray was the region manager for the Middle East when she introduced women-only tours to Intrepid Travel.

“I was in Tehran and we went to a beauty salon,” says Gray, recalling the moment that triggered her push for Intrepid’s first women’s expeditions. “I’ll always remember how we pulled back this huge canvas curtain to see women with purple hair and bright red lipstick.”

“I learned that most of our tour leaders in Iran were women, and they were representative of Iranian women – they’re young, modern, highly educated and career driven. They get their nails done, they do yoga, they watch trashy reality TV … they’re just like us.”

“And I thought, just imagine if travellers could see what this part of life is like for some women in Iran.”

Shopping at a local market in Tehran on one of Intrepid’s women-only tours of Iran.Credit: Damien Raggatt/Intrepid Travel

The concept wasn’t a new one in 2018, she says, there were other brands and businesses offering such trips, but there was an opportunity to re-tailor existing trips to single-sex groups, acknowledging cultural and religious practices in the region.

The company launched its first women-only tours on International Women’s Day in 2018, kicking off with Iran, Morocco and Jordan, and continues to add tours to meet what it says is a huge appetite for women-only travel.

Intrepid runs women’s expeditions in six countries including Pakistan and India, which has this year bumped perennial favourite Morocco off the pedestal as the blockbuster destination recovers from last year’s devastating earthquake.

Intrepid runs women’s expeditions in six countries, including Pakistan.Credit: iStock

Clearly, the concept has scratched an itch: bookings in 2023 on Intrepid’s women-only expeditions were up 165 per cent on 2022, even with the loss of its bellwether, Iran, suspended due to political unrest in the area.

So it’s no surprise to learn that women-only group travel is one of the biggest trends in the travel industry, but if your idea was a group of 20-somethings on a girls’ spa tour, it’s time for a rethink.

The biggest bookers of these women’s expeditions are married solo travellers – another growing trend, according to travel industry analyst Skift.

They’re seeing a boom in women travellers in the 50-plus age bracket, who leave their partners (and often teen kids) at home while they explore the world.

Either they don’t have a companion to travel with, or choose to travel by themselves, but still want the support and connection of a group. In fact, Intrepid Travel says 82 per cent of those who booked a women’s expedition in 2023 were travelling solo.

Solo women travellers appreciate the support and connection of a group.

“We’re seeing more women than men travelling solo,” says Gray. “These tours create a safe space for women to connect and learn about the lives of women in different cultures, while also helping women in these communities enter the economic workforce, where traditionally they have been prevented from participating.”

Rising from the rubble

Back in Istanbul, that ripple effect is in play – after a morning spent comparing Istanbul’s rivals, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue mosques, lunch is served by Seray Olcer and her daughter Gulcan in their cool home in Sultanahmet.

Aerial view of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.Credit: iStock

The family is originally from Batman, in south-eastern Turkey, which was smashed by a devastating earthquake in March, and the tragedy still looms large in conversation.

“In less than five minutes, we lost more than 45,000 people,” recalls our guide, Aya, as we sit at Seray’s table, drinking bloody-red turnip juice and attacking a mountain of borek, bulgar and stuffed vine leaves. “We were like zombies.”

Seray has been feeding Intrepid guests at her table for 13 years – thus putting food on the table for her two daughters and her son, says Aya, who has brought guests to Seray’s home since 2015.

Like most girls in the conservative Kurdish regions, Saray’s education finished after primary school. Now, says Saray, kids are lucky – with TV, phones and social media the culture is also changing.

She shares with us the key to success that she shares with her daughters: “Study hard, don’t listen to your husband and earn your own money.”

Our group of women travellers all laugh at the advice to ignore your husband, but earning your own money is the key to this tour, where even our bus driver is female.

Fatma Celik Karakol was Turkey’s first ambulance driver and now owns her own transport company. She’s looking for more women drivers, but it’s difficult as only 10 per cent of professional drivers are female.

“Women drivers take more care,” she says as she criss-crosses between Asia and Europe on the world’s longest suspension bridge – the newly opened 1915 Canakkale Bridge, which spans the Dardanelles Strait.

The 1915 Canakkale Bridge – the connection between Europe and Asia.Credit: iStock

Smashing the status quo

Our destination is Asmadan winery on the Gelibolu Peninsula. This stylish stone-and-glass winery wouldn’t be out of place in the Yarra Valley, and is the showcase for young female winemaker Semril Zorlu.

It’s the wines featuring Turkey’s ruby-red okuzgozu and hefty bogazkere that catch my attention, wrought into a crowd-pleasing blush or a deep, deep red, they refuel us to continue down the Aegean coastline where we’ve an appointment with a woman wearing a flour sack.

Cop(m)adam, which translates cheekily as “Garbage Lady”, is a title proudly taken by Canadian Tara Hopkins. She has spent decades in Turkey with NGOs, and is the creator of this social enterprise that transforms clean rubbish – denim offcuts, plastic bottles or even flour sacks – into products created and sold by women.

The women of Cop(m)adam.

The rule is that the employees will never have worked for a salary before; not difficult to find in a country where just a third of women are in the paid workforce.

“We are wrecking the status quo,” says Tara with open glee, stroking the general of a small army of former street cats who languish photogenically around the workrooms.

One suspects fast-talking, stats-driven Tara has the softest heart, but also the astuteness and connections to pull this off; her client list includes Unilever and Coke.

“We’re not profitable, but we did really well in the pandemic through internet sales, so we break even,” she says, as we watch a coal-black cat stride across the work tables where three women stitch, iron and fold tea towels printed with the protective amulet of the hamza, or hand of Fatima.

A place for women, all about women

There’s a long list of things I love about Turkey, which helps justify my repeat visits – the rugs, the hammams, the pistachio-studded lokum or Turkish delight, and its many, many ways with eggplant.

Who can resist Turkish delight?Credit: iStock

My Turkish food obsession is sated by celebrity chef Hatice Mercan, who started frying gozleme on the streets of Selcuk when her husband was made redundant, and is now, decades later, doyenne of the sprawling, open-air Bizim Ev Hanimeli restaurant.

Travellers and locals fill up from the buffet of 40 Turkish dishes, including the stand-out patlican kebabi (heavenly eggplant with meatballs) created in her women-run kitchen every morning.

Hatice’s restaurant is only 10 minutes’ drive from the magnificent ruins of Ephesus, a story of sensuality.

The many-breasted goddess Artemis of Ephesus looks down over the fig trees, which drop their overripe fruit into puddles from last night’s rain – apt, as in ancient Rome, both Artemis and figs were symbols of fertility. “Artemis is the mother, she is the divine,” says Aya. “This place is all about women.”

Aya and Herodotus are in agreement – that Ephesus was founded by wild, ferocious Amazons, the female warriors who settled here in the third century BC, naming the city after their queen. There’s even a school of thought that the Virgin Mary – mother of Jesus – spent her last days in a small house over the next hill.

Traditional village houses of Sirince.Credit: iStock

From Selcuk, it’s a short drive into the hills to the pretty village of Sirince for a night in Nisanyan Hotel, where Mujde Tonbekici, formerly a chemical engineer and now hotel manager, ties aprons around our waists and scarves over our hair and tells us to roll up our sleeves.

As she guides us through preparing a Turkish village-style feast cooked over the kitchen’s fire, Mujde talks about restoring the stone villages and inns of this formerly Greek village to create the hotel, and the family of women workers who helped get her there.

If it hasn’t already romanced me, in the morning light, Nisanyan steals my heart completely as breakfast is served in a hillside pergola overlooking Sirince’s misty valleys.

The tour continues eastward through the sculptured landscapes of Cappadocia with my new guide, Ece.

Hot-air balloon over the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.Credit: iStock

With her dyed platinum blonde hair uncovered, tattooed eyeliner and shorts, Ece loves bucking tradition; she’s young, married and travels away from home for work. “And if I’m working, I don’t cook,” she says, apparently much to her mother-in-law’s horror.

But she loves her job, she loves to travel, and for the next two days, the two of us balloon low over the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, climb down into deep, Hittite cave cities and are exfoliated to an inch of our lives on heated marble slabs in a hammam in a hotel in the tourist town of Goreme.

While hammams are a luxury in Australia, Ece tells me she and her mum will visit their local bathhouse every week for a steam and scrub.

For them, it’s a chance to gossip and connect – and after a couple of hours spent nearly naked by my guide’s side, we’re pretty good friends.

Even on the slab, Ece is translating, this time for my Turkish-speaking therapist Aysel – the woman with the most powerful arms I’ve ever encountered. “Women have to be strong,” says Aysel, crunching my knotted shoulders and showing me photos of her pretty daughter.

And then, we eat.

“We opened Kadineli Woman’s Hand restaurant in Uchisar, near Goreme to give women the opportunity to work and earn their own money,” says manager Seyma Burcin Golgesiz, as we load our plates with Kadineli’s famed, yoghurty manti, Turkey’s savoury dumplings.

Turkish Manti dumplings with yoghurt and tomato sauce.Credit: iStock

“In the beginning, it was very hard for the women. They fought for it, but their husbands didn’t want them working here. Now, the men are supporting us, and the government is, too.”

“We didn’t need to train the women, they act like it’s their own home when they have guests – the serving, the cooking, the cleaning, they work like sisters.” The icing on the cake – or baklava – is that leftovers from this cooperative go to local animal shelters.

Later that afternoon, Ece and I take a walk in the pretty Soganli valley, an hour from Goreme. At the end, we meet a group of women in a sewing circle.

Laughing and teasing each other, the women work mechanically with clean rag and stuffing as they make kitres – little dolls made from patterned fabric offcuts – to sell to the few tourists who visit the valley, hidden among Cappadocia’s folded landscape.

Local women make dolls in their likeness to sell to tourists in Cappadocia.Credit: iStock

With their neat headscarves and long aprons, the dolls are made in the image of their creators, and each takes Hayriye Igli about 90 minutes to sew. Handing me a needle, we work and snack while the women lament their unmarried sons and Turkey’s notorious hyperinflation.

Change is in the air

On our last dinner together, Ece and I slip off our shoes to visit the cave home of Nuray Copur, a former maths teacher and accomplished chef who has been cooking for Intrepid guest in her home for 11 years.

Serving us yalanci dolma (stuffed grape leaves) she proudly tells me her job pays for her daughters’ university degrees in law and electrical engineering.

Kadinbudu kofte (or ladies’ thighs) are traditional Turkish meatballs.Credit: iStock

By the end of my trip, my camera is full of photos of tables laden with small plates – from kadinbudu kofte (ladies’ thighs) meatballs to dilber dudagı (ladies’ lips) pastries – and the battalion of smiling women who have graciously shared their skills while sharing their stories.

In my journey across Turkey, I’ve met women as varied as its landscapes, from European vineyard to cave village, Anatolian shepherd to sophisticated Istanbuli hotelier.

What I sense is that the scent of change for women’s rights is in the air. Through such tours, I hope the hand that rocks the cradle will also rock the establishment.

Four of the best women-run businesses to support in Turkey

Nahıl Dükkan

This shop in Istanbul sells handicrafts and olive oil made by women, created by the non-profit, non-government organisation KEDV. See nahil.com.tr

Bizim Ev Hanımeli

Gozleme: A Turkish favourite.Credit: iStock

A women-owned, women-run restaurant in Selcuk, near Ephesus – pull in for their 40-dish buffet extravaganza lunch and signature gozleme. See bizimevhanimeli.com

Nisanyan Hotel

This is a restored stone village 30 minutes from Ephesus in Sirince, comprising cottages and inns, and a cooking school. See nisanyan.com

No. 11

A 20-room hotel just off Istiklal Caddesi in the Beyoglu district. Owned and run on sustainable, women-friendly principles by owner Ayse Zeynep Sezerel. See no11apartments.com

THE DETAILS

Fly
Turkish Airlines recently launched a new service between Melbourne and Istanbul via Singapore with plans to extend its operations to Sydney and Brisbane. See turkishairlines.com

Tour
The featured 12-day “Turkey: Women’s Expedition” begins and ends in Istanbul, from $4014 a person, twin share (excluding flights). There are seven departures in 2024 between April and October and a further eight scheduled for 2025. See intrepidtravel.com

Stay
The women-owned and run accommodation in the tour includes Nisanyan Hotel, Sirinice; Hunnaphan Hotel, Adatepe; and No. 11, Istanbul.

The writer travelled as a guest of Intrepid Travel, see intrepidtravel.com