Since today is Equal Pay Day, I thought it’d be a great chance to write about women’s travel, which has gone way beyond weekend-at-the-spa, shopping-extravaganza, sit-around-and-have-tea kind of travel (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things). But more and more, we women are spending our hard-earned pay on some “me time” without the “he.” Do a Google search on “women’s adventure travel” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I discovered the pleasures of traveling solo a few years ago when I went to Alaska. Part of the trip was guided, but I arranged to arrive a few days early so I could spend some time exploring on my own. I rented a car and drove from Anchorage to Seward--probably the most stunning drive of my life--and then used a “women-friendly” B&B as my base for explorations of Kenai Fjords National Park. Other than that it was run by a woman, nothing about this B&B particularly screamed women, by the way. There were even a few men staying there, but it did make me wonder, do women travelers have an entirely separate set of travel needs from men? What makes a hotel “women friendly”?

While the debate swirls around this topic, there’s no denying that some hotels are adding women’s only floors, more minibars are offering—ahem—feminine products, and more adventure outfitters are waiving the single supplement fee for solo female travelers.

According to the Travel Industry Association, 47% of all solo travelers these days are women, and I would place my bet that as the travel industry grows more women-friendly, that percentage might even exceed 50% within a few years.