Women traveling in groups with only other women is a big trend in travel today. Many women have the time, resources, and the desire to travel, but do not have a willing partner or friend to travel with. To address this problem there are now many groups offering woman-travel, or women-only tours.

Many of these tours are learning based tours, where a new skill such as how to tango, or sail, shot landscape photography, ethnic cooking or writing is learned, or perfected. Other tours are geographical, such as exploring New Mexico (Car Hire USA), or places in Asia, or spending a week in Paris attending fashion shows and shopping (Car Hire France). Easy or “soft” adventure tours are also popular. This type of trip would involve day-hikes rather than mountain climbing, or rafting on calm rivers rather than kayaking whitewater rivers. Soft adventure trips are generally still in remote and scenic locations even if the adventure is easy-going.

Women-only tours are usually small, limited to about 14-20 participants and the transportation frequently a combination of airplanes and mini-vans.

Women going alone on this type of tour need to look carefully at the brochures and internet advertising. Make sure the age group and physical capabilities of the tour match your needs. Examine the itinerary carefully, making sure that there is enough, but not too much, unstructured time and that there are optional activities during that time.

Some of the risk factors correlated to breast cancer have been well defined and are within our control to minimize. The basis for protecting yourself from breast cancer is to keep estrogen at a normal level in the body. One way to do this is to maintain a normal weight, or lose weight if you are overweight. Fatty tissue produces estrogen even after menopause.

Decrease dietary fats, sugars and processed food. Decrease or eliminate alcohol from your diet. Try to eat a high fiber diet, consisting of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetable and bean or organic soy protein. Again, these are to keep the estrogen level low.

Exercise also decreases estrogen. Women who have a regular workout routine not only feel better, but lower their risk factor for malignant breast tumors.

Avoid chemicals that are potential carcinogens. Most petroleum-based chemicals used today are estrogen analogs, which are suspected to cause breast cancer. Do not use pesticides, herbicides, and bug sprays or flea bombs. If possible buy organic produce because it is more nutritious, and organic foods will not have pesticides on them. The pesticides do not wash off with water, and again are suspected to play a role in raising the estrogen level.