Your travel BFF

Rashmi Chadha’s tryst with the travel bug took place at an early age when she had to travel to various places for sports tournaments.
Rashmi Chadha, a Delhi-based travel entrepreneur
Rashmi Chadha, a Delhi-based travel entrepreneur

The joy of solo travelling is an adventure. Exploring faraway lands alone helps one open up to a multitude of experiences. The decision to travel solo, however, comes with a lot of hesitancy and reluctance for women. Keeping this in mind, Rashmi Chadha, a Delhi-based travel entrepreneur launched Wovoyage—a company that aims to make travel easy for women. 

Building a safe space 
Chadha’s tryst with the travel bug took place at an early age when she had to travel to various places for sports tournaments. “I was the only one who got selected from my school and so I had to travel alone for these competitions,” she shares.

As travelling became an integral part of Chadha’s life, she would often meet women who would hesitate to travel without company because of the threats and fears associated with it. “When I would go abroad, people would tell me that they really want to visit India but are unable to do so because they feel India is not a safe country,” she says. Despite hearing this from many people, Chadha always believed that she could make India a safe place for female travellers.

The idea further solidified when she visited Manikaran Sahib Gurudwara in Himachal Pradesh; where she guided a group of female travellers around the Gurudwara. As she began giving such guided tours to more groups, she knew she had to build something that can make travelling more convenient for women. Thus, she launched Wovoyage in 2016.

Wovoyage helps women take up female-friendly tours—this incorporates solo tours, community and family tours—to both India and abroad. One of the initial steps taken by the organisation was “training women to assume the roles of guides”. They eventually expanded to constructively foster a community of female travellers around the world.

As an avid traveller herself, Chadha advises women to keep their inhibitions at bay and travel freely. “I think women must believe in themselves and go out. It is definitely important to do your research before you travel but being fearless is also very important. Apart from this, it is also advisable to join communities like such to travel,” she concludes.

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The New Indian Express
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