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Take 5: Creator of travel guides for women on being safe, doing good while abroad

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: A few years ago, journalist and editor Kelly Lewis started a company to meet a specific audience for travel writing -- women. Guidebooks often didn't tell her what she needed to know as a woman traveling overseas. 

Today, four such books are in print, with more on the way. The full-color "Go! Girl Guide" books, which include London, Argentina, Mexico and Thailand so far, offer information on women’s clinics in each country, as well as tips on shopping areas and interviews with travelers and local women.

Lewis modeled the content of the books on one simple question: What would she want to tell a girlfriend?

“I kind of hate to be the company that always talks about tampons, but that’s important for women," she says. "No one told me that you can’t find a tampon in Argentina.”

Lewis will speak about her travels, her books and the issues women face while traveling at 2 p.m. Sunday at the downtown location of Left Bank Books. Before her visit to St. Louis, she spoke with the St. Louis Beacon about her books, long bus trips through Argentina and why it's hard to find bras in Thailand. Answers were edited for length.

Beacon: Where did the idea for this series come from?

Lewis: “Go! Girl Guides” started two years ago out of frustration. I was traveling all the time and I couldn’t find a resource that really answered questions I had.

What kinds of things do you want to share with women through these guides? Is it about best places to go, or tips while traveling alone, or some of both?

Lewis: It’s kind of a hybrid. We focus specifically on women’s health and safety, part of that involves finding safe places to stay in good parts of town. We do all of the research ourselves, so when we’re on the ground, we’re looking for hotels that have sturdy locks on the door and night guards in safe, well-lit parts of town. I know as a traveler sometimes you’ll find a really great guest house in a guide book or just through walking around, but it’s in a really bad part of town. ... Travel should be enlightening, it should be fun, it should be freeing, and the last thing that you want is to be worried, so we try to alleviate some of those stresses that women have when traveling. 

When women travel by themselves in the U.S., most people don’t blink an eye, but in some countries, it’s an eyebrow raiser. How have you handled that personally and what advice do you have for other women?

Lewis: It is hard. Especially in South America, it can be difficult to travel there. I’ve dealt with that in a lot of situations. You don’t want to be rude, but sometimes you need to. Catcalling is such a big issue in South America, so we started talking about what happens if you get catcalled. And then we listed several phrases that you can say, "enough" or "leave me alone," or "leave me in peace," and we translated all of those things so you can say them. For the most part, I think it's a little bit harmless. I think you just need to be aware of yourself and the country you’re in.

There’s also information on finding volunteer opportunities while traveling. Why did you decide to include that?

Lewis: I’m a huge volunteer, I love volunteering while I travel, and also, I think it helps keep you safe. Now more than ever people are looking for ways to give service to their travel. It’s unfortunate that so many volunteer companies and third-party volunteer companies will charge you thousands of dollars for your time and energy. I don’t think that’s right.

The people who need help are the ones who are struggling and don’t have the money to advertise. We interviewed all of these companies ourselves ... and we found volunteer opportunities across the board. A lot of these organizations are really great, and also they feed you, and some of them give you room and board. I volunteered in Uruguay for three weeks with sea turtles. It was amazing, but it was so amazing because  (the people she volunteered with) became my family and they became the people who were looking after me.

So far you’ve written Go! Girl guide books for four places: London, Argentina, Mexico and Thailand. What other countries do you hope to highlight in the future?

Lewis: We have a girl going to Costa Rica next month, so our Costa Rican guidebook should be out by the end of the year, and I would love to do Belize, personally, because I would like to get back to doing some writing. And India. I think India right now is such a hot topic because of the international news about foreign tourists and sexual assaults and rapes. India is a really challenging place for women to travel to. I think it’s a really challenging place to travel to in general, but I think that’s also why we need to do a book on it.

Kristen Hare