Today, after a career at the BBC that included working in the travel and exploration unit and producing holiday films, she is one of the founders of Thelma & Louise, an internet club for women who want to wander the world on their own.
Her business partner, Grace Frankel, is a travel agent who found that so many women wanted to travel alone that it was time to give them special attention.
Davies and Frankel set up Thelma & Louise only three months ago, but have already attracted 2,000 members.
Davies says women no longer define themselves by their relationship, but by what they achieve as individuals. “This is the first generation of women who think they can do whatever they want. And they’ve got the money. Women are now capable of running their own finances and they expect to do so — and men expect them to.
She said: “Lots of women are choosing to travel by themselves, both women in their twenties and older women in their forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. Older women are seeing their children spend time in countries like China or regions like South America and think to themselves: ‘Why aren’t I doing that? What about me?’
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“Many women have realised there is more to life than being a wife and mother and they want to do different things from what their husband and children want to do. They’ve been to Disney World or Universal Studios and now want to go to see the opera in Verona or trek in the jungle.”
Weekends in Cannes, cycle rides in Egypt, raves in Ibiza, rainforest treks — you name it, women are doing it alone.
“I’ve been amazed at how many girls go travelling by themselves,” said Georgie Aldous, a trainer at Objective Gap Year. “These days women are headstrong. They want to go off and have adventures.”
In 1996, 9.2m British travellers decided to go it alone, according to Mintel. This year, that figure has jumped to 15.4m. According to Opodo, the internet cut-price travel agent, 70% of these are women. A survey carried out by Just You, a travel agent catering for solo female travellers, found 19% of women prefer to travel by themselves and 31% are considering holidaying alone.
They can afford to, thanks to cheap flights and rising salaries. The most recent Office of National Statistics figures show women’s earnings were on average 31% higher in real terms in 2003/04 than in 1996/97.
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“There used to be a stigma about travelling on your own,” said Andrea Mason of Just You, whose top destinations for solo women are China, Italy, South Africa and Croatia. “Now women are more independent and their earning power is a lot greater.”
In 2000, 1,500 single travellers booked a trip through Just You. The following year, there were 6,000. This year Mason expects more than 15,000 bookings.
LONE female adventurers were once seen as eccentric or misfits. Mary Kingsley, the Victorian explorer, fended off a crocodile in Africa with the paddle of her canoe, and later fell into a pit of sharp stakes, saved from death by the thickness of her skirt. Tracy Edwards was a teenage rebel who ran away to the south of France before making her name as a yachtswoman.
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()With examples like these in mind, it used to be said — by men — that the world was too dangerous for women to go solo. The world is no less dangerous than it was, so what happens to these legions of British women heading off on their own?
“I remember being afraid,” said Sara Wheeler, a writer, of a recent trip to Bangladesh. “I couldn’t go out at night, nobody spoke English — I found it really painful. It got dark early and I was stuck in a ghastly hotel room with no windows for 12 hours. People didn’t smile at me, there was no tourist culture; it was tough. But then I did an amazing trip on a paddle steamer down the Khulna river to the Bay of Bengal, where we looked for tigers in the mangrove forests. And suddenly I got it.”
Wheeler explained: “Being on your own makes all the difference. You have to fully confront where you are, if you’ve got no companion to bounce things off. It’s only when you travel alone that you’re fully engaged with the landscape. I’ve been on my own on all my best trips.”
Another woman who found her solo trip beneficial, Lucy le Messurier, recalls: “Being alone in India, facing challenges, made me realise I wanted to pursue acting as a career. I am now about to start a postgraduate course in acting.”
Vicki Harrington, 25, also found strength in adversity on a trip to India: “It was the hardest place I travelled in, because of the hassle you get from men. Sometimes you have to walk down the street hitting men as you go because they try to grope you so much.
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“One day, after a man had tried to grab me I grabbed his arm and asked why he thought it was okay to do that. He said it was because English girls have boyfriends and show their flesh — in fact, I was covered up and respectfully dressed.
“This is an attitude you have to deal with when travelling sometimes. Although it can be annoying, you just have to not take it personally and not let it spoil your trip. It’s not just you, it’s happening to most girls.”
The flip side of this is that local women tend to be welcoming.
“In India one day I was walking down a street and a woman asked me to have tea with her and her daughter,” said Harrington. “We got on well and after dinner they asked me if I wanted to stay in their house. I ended up sleeping on the roof of their house for a week. They even took me to a remote village to meet their cousins.
“These kind of experiences made my trip and are something I think is a lot more likely to happen if you are a woman travelling alone, especially when it comes to becoming friends with local people, because they are likely to be more wary of inviting a man into their home.”
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By contrast, Mel Bradman, 44, a pioneer in female solo travel, was punched in the face by another woman recently in Istanbul — and was rescued by men.
“I just happened to be walking by at the wrong time,” she said. “It was shocking, but it was daylight, and the men around were very concerned and upset. One of them walked me safely back to my hotel.”
She added: “Anywhere can be dangerous. I wouldn’t get into a cab with a dodgy driver late at night, but then I wouldn’t do that in London. London is one of the most dangerous places I know.”
()The motives for taking these risks are varied. Harrington, who has travelled alone to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma as well as India, said: “Even though I had a boyfriend, it was something I needed to do. Even if he had been able to take the time off work, I don’t know if I would have wanted him to come. It was something I wanted to do by myself.
“When you are in your early twenties, you realise there is so much for you to experience and that you need to do things at a time that is right for you. You can’t wait for your boyfriend to be ready to travel with you.”
Cleo Skilton, 32, who works for a travel agent in Bournemouth and has travelled all over the world by herself, said: “Lots of the customers are girls who are planning on going travelling by themselves. Reasons for women travelling by themselves range from taking a career break to splitting up with a boyfriend or being made redundant. In the area where I work, a big company has made lots of redundancies recently, which has meant lots of women have come in and are taking the opportunity to go travelling by themselves.”
Another factor is the divorce rate. Ani Blakeway, 53, from southeast London, who works as a PA and is divorced with children, recently spent two weeks in Malaysia. “It was full of couples, but I had a ball. Women my age are realising they don’t have to rely on a man. They can have a full life without one.”
Tom Hall of Lonely Planet, which has advice for solo women in its guides, said: “Twenty years ago, you would have hardly heard about women travelling alone but these days it is very common. Women travelling alone reflects the changes that have occurred in society — that there is little to stop people doing what they want to do.”
Dan Holliday, a founder of trend intelligence agency The Fish Can Sing, agreed: “The growth in women travelling by themselves is a backlash against being told they shouldn’t.
“Like so many things these days, it is part of the Sex and the City factor, which not only portrayed women living successful and independent lives but portrayed women who wore their single status like a badge of honour.”
Young men encourage the trend, he said. “In many ways it has become a rite of passage in the same way men were once expected to travel to become a ‘man of the world’. Now, men like women to have experienced life in the same way. Any dating site will confirm this with women listing the trips she has been on and the men keen to hear about them.”
Haleh Afshar, professor of politics and women’s studies at York University, sees today’s solo female travellers as not so much “part of the Sex and the City factor” as a reflection of a national characteristic.
She said: “There is a long tradition of British women exploring the world, especially areas like the Orient or the Middle East. In this way, Britain is very different to countries like America or France. Single British women explored tribal areas in Iran at the beginning of the 20th century. In this sense, women travelling by themselves is nothing new.
“However, over the past few years it has become more common for young middle-class women to travel by themselves, usually on a gap year. Typically it is much more than a holiday, it can be helping a community in Africa or working with an NGO. That kind of experience is not just limited to Prince Harry.
“These days bright young women with the resources are able to travel alone. It is a middle-class experience. They are no longer limited to going to France or Italy to look at art, they can go almost anywhere if they have the money. For that reason, it is very much a middle-class thing to do, it is not open to everyone. Now that it is women as well as men going on grand tours, it shows how successful feminism has been, how women are becoming more liberated.”
()She added: “Travelling is not limited to young women; older women are also doing it. I have met lots of women who are looking after their children and parents and once they get the chance to travel, you can’t stop them.
“Even though women have the freedom to move, they are often constrained by their obligations, like having children. But once their children have gone, their sense of adventure emerges again and they are off. This is an excellent thing.”
The travel writer Jennifer Cox says “baby boomer” women in their fifties and sixties account for a large proportion of solo women travelling abroad. “These are women who have paid for their children to have a gap year and then think, ‘Why shouldn’t I have that?’ They have done family holidays, done holidays with their husbands and now they want something more. The female baby-boomer generation didn’t have a ‘me’ time.”
Gone are the days when women asked leave of their husbands to go anywhere or do anything. “Women want to be free to explore on their own without having to make concessions to other people,” said Judith de Witt, partner in the travel company Rainbow Tours.
“Women often say to me, ‘I’d like to do this, but he won’t have it’. If they go with a friend they can negotiate in an egalitarian way — ‘Yesterday we did what you wanted, today we’ll do what I want’ — with no sulking.”
She added: “It has to do with self-confidence and self-esteem. They think they’re human beings with rights too.”
Rules for travelling alone
Dress for the country
Look at the local women — if they cover themselves up then do the same. Forget Prada: think headscarves, sweatshirts and baggy trousers. Wear a losable wedding ring — Argos has a fine range.
Footwear
Don’t just look like an old boot — wear them. The pain of leaving those strappy shoes behind will be nothing compared to the suffering you’ll go through on that steep trail or in the jungle.
Gropers
Carry a personal alarm, look confident and walk with a swagger. If you do get attacked, scream, shout, bite, scratch and push. A well-placed kick from those boots will come in useful too
Web forums
Want to check out your destination, your hostel, a restaurant Ask other travellers via the “thorntree” forum at www.lonelyplanet.com or try www.thelmandlouise.com — an exclusive network for women
Plan your journeys
Arrive in the daytime, book your first night’s accommodation in advance and travel with others if possible — especially overland. if you find yourself alone in a train compartment move to another. Sit with families or other women
Accessories
An old personal stereo is essential for those long journeys. A few books to read and swap with fellow travellers. Make-up? Ok, go on then
Enjoy the meetings
Travelling alone forces you to make friends and judgments fast. Sometimes you’ll get it wrong but usually not. The intensity of the trip and the time together often makes friends for life. But if they’re not for you you can travel on alone