Guidebook to sensible adventures

Traveling on your own is exhilarating, but it can also be daunting and even dangerous, especially for women. Enter the excellent guidebook “Fly Solo: The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone.” These 50 destinations, besides being obviously cool places to visit on their own merits, have been carefully chosen on the availability of:

“Safe accommodations and venues, as well as a generally positive attitude toward women.

“Reliable public transportation, communication and medical services.

“A wide variety of things to do and see.

“Affordable costs for the single traveler.

“Great places to meet people, in case you feel like not being solo for a while.

Yes, there is plenty of info on what clothes to pack and where to find the best shopping spots, but this guidebook doesn’t just cater to the jet-setting girly-girl crowd.

Each destination is rated in terms of culture, activities, social scene and even weather, so that whether you’re the type who wants to see every museum, ski every slope, bathe on every beach or crawl every pub (or maybe a little of each), you’ll be able to plan your trip accordingly.

The usual suspects are present, like Paris and Tokyo, but you’ll also find detailed entries on lesser-known havens like Croatia and Bhutan. It’ll tell you where to find the quaintest cafes and hottest clubs, but also how to sign up to get whacked by branches in an authentic Russian bathhouse or visit a Thai training school for monkeys. There are even reading recommendations to get you in the right mood for your adventure.

If you’ve always dreamed of traveling your own way but weren’t sure where the heck to start, you’ll find this book an invaluable resource.