Jaunted

Tags: Etihad Airways / Pilots / Women / Airline News / → All Tags

Etihad Now Comes Complete With Women Pilots

From a region of the world not exactly renowned for recognizing women in the work force, Etihad Airways is keen to let the world know that they have just graduated their first local female pilots from their flight training program.

Etihad is based in Abu Dhabi and has only been up and running since 2003—and their pilot cadet training program has only just taken on its 100th trainee, so the female-male ratio is not too tragic, especially since they've got four more local women still in training now.

more ›

Tags: Free Stuff / Travel Tips / Guidebooks / Women / Travel Books / Retirement Travel / → All Tags

Free Book For Women Travelers Teaches 25 Bandana Tips

Ladies will want to order a free copy of the conveniently purse-sized book 101 Tips for Women Travelers. The tips were compiled by Harriet Lewis, the vice chair of Overseas Adventure Travel, a company that caters to Americans 50 and older. Despite the company's audience, the tips don't target seniors. For that matter, most of the tips aren't even gender-specific.

Disclaimer for the guys: You'll find tons of good suggestions in the book that you can use, but you'll also encounter a few girly tips, like using panty liners to extend the use of your lady drawers and help you feel oh so fresh while you're on the go. But overall, the advice is good for all travelers. For example, fabric softener sheets pull triple duty by making the ripe clothes in your luggage smell good, repelling mosquitoes and warding off bedbugs. Then there are some super-specific recommendations that won't be applicable to most people, like be sure to sit sidesaddle on a camel to avoid getting a urinary tract infection.

more ›

Tags: Venice Travel / Italy Travel / Women / Boats / → All Tags

After 900 Years, Venice's Canals Become Equal Opportunity Employer

It's a familiar site on the water street of Venice, the striped shirts and flat hats of the gondoliers swaying as they expertly steer their black boats underneath bridge after bridge, but now there'll be some long blonde hair joining the club.

After 900 years of the profession of Venetian gondolier belonging totally to men, La Serenissima has her first woman plying the waters: Giorgia Boscolo, a 23-year-old wife and mother of two, who also happens to be the daughter of a gondolier. She passed the gondolier test back in 2007, but had to endure an apprenticeship up until recently when she took the oar of her own boat.

In order to become a gondolier, no matter your sex, you must "learn how to steer the banana-shaped boats from the back and the front ... take English courses, study sailing law and demonstrate perfect knowledge of Venice's canals and landmarks." This isn't like scuba diving, which you can get certified in during a week-long vacation. What we now want to know is if she'll be operating some kind of reservations service, now that she's the freshest addition to Venice's canals in centuries.

Related Stories:
· Venice Hails First Woman Gondolier [Life In Italy]
· Tutti in godola, vi porta Giorgia [la Repubblica]
· Venice Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: La Repubblica]

Tags: Italy Travel / Crime / Women / Chauvinist Travel / → All Tags

Bottoms Up: Alleged Venice Perv Nabbed

We think short skirts and large bags could be the next items banned from Venice after Tuesday's shocking arrest of an alleged Italian voyeur with an affinity for bums.

Police say the 38-year-old married businessman had 2 kids but still found ample time to capture up-skirt images of 3,000 women in Saint Mark's Square. Apparently he rigged a rather sophisticated camera inside a bag with a little hole cut in the side. How MacGyver!

An investigation revealed that the guy has been perving around Venice for years, but it took officials until now to realized he was only following girls who were showing some leg. As if having the images for private use wasn't gross enough, DVDs with the material he filmed were also found in his bag.

One might assume that Venice's boys in blue were too busy controlling topless sunbathers and pigeon feeders to notice a creep on the loose--until we present this photo, taken in Venice this Sunday. Italian police: As efficient as you'd expect!

Related Stories:
· Furtive Venice Snapper Arrested [BBC]
· Man Arrested in Italy for Allegedly Filming Thousands of Women's Bottoms [Fox News]
· Chauvinism Is a French Word, Right? [Jaunted]
· Italy Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Sex / Women / Chauvinist Travel / → All Tags

Chauvinism Is a French Word, Right?

You thought Nicolas Sarkozy was the only womanizer in Paris? S'il vous plaît. One of his aides, Pierre-Louis Colin, has written up a guide to spotting sexy ladies in the arrondissements.

Colin says you'll have luck just about anywhere in Paris, equating France's women with its cuisine:

Just as every region has its gastronomy, every quartier has its feminine speciality.

Top spots for babe-spotting include the Madeleine neighborhood and the Café Louis-Philippe, where strategically placed seats let pervy tourists glance up women's skirts as the ascend a spiral staircase. But the top spot on Colin's list is the Menilmontant district in the 20th, where you'll find:

Perfectly shameless cleavages, radiant breasts often uncluttered by a bra.

Related Stories:
· Sarkozy's Aide Publishes Voyeurs' Guide to Leering [Daily Mail]
· Paris Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: anonfx]

Tags: Beaches / Women / → All Tags

Cosmo Takes on Nikki Beach with Bikinis

Move over Sports Illustrated! Cosmopolitan magazine's pulling together the ultimate bathing suit spread. The pub's announced that it plans to assemble 1,200 bathing suit clad beauties at Miami's Nikki Beach April 18 for a major photo shoot.

The ladies will spell out "Cosmo" on the sand with their bodies while photogs stage an aerial shoot to catch it all. They'll look cute too, as Old Navy is donating all the bathing suits for the massive pic and Nivea's got any semblance of cellulite covered with its new cream. They don't joke around with four-page spreads. Want to go? Nivea is also sponsoring a sweepstakes for a winning trip to Miami for the shoot and hosting Webisodes of the event on its site shortly.

If you really have to be there, plan ahead for a weekend getaway and check into the Tides, a stunning SB hotspot, where we're sure there'll be some Cosmo chicks hanging out in their off hours...

Related Stories:
· Cosmo to Launch Bikini Issue [MediaWeek]
· Record-Breaking Bikini Bash [Cosmopolitan]

[Photo: alvez]

Tags: Airline Hell / Women / Drunk Travel / → All Tags

Russia: Mid-Air Brawl Over Girl

Pretty young women need to be banned from flying, it seems, to prevent them from starting drunken brawls that lead to planes being turned around half-way to their destination. Last Friday, passengers trying to get from St. Petersburg, Russia to Turkey were all delayed when exactly this situation occurred.

Apparently, three young Russian men had already hit the vodka when they boarded, and one of the men took a quick liking to a female passenger. When she rejected his advances, he slapped her face several times, sparking a multi-passenger brawl that prompted the crew to turn back and land in St Petes. Six hours after the original departure time, the plane took off for Turkey, without the three drunks and without the women who ended up at the doctor. Next time she'll wear an ugly disguise.

Related Stories:
· Plane Returns After Drunken Brawl On Board [Reuters]
· Travel Stories in Saint Petersburg [Jaunted]
· Travel Stories in Turkey [Jaunted]

[Photo: daviddesign]

Tags: RTW / Blogs / Women / Lost Girls / → All Tags

Around the World for $18,000

Dreaming of a round the world trip and a year off from your normal life? Plenty of us think it's just not affordable, but let the Lost Girls convince you otherwise.

Their blog follows the round-the-world journey of three twenty-something American gals who decided a year spent bungee-jumping in New Zealand, volunteering in Kenya and learning yoga in India was better than sitting around at home. Journey nearly over, one of the girls (with a spreadsheet addiction) has calculated the budget of their trip. All expenses included, their year away came up to $18,000 per person: about the same as the rent they would've paid if they'd stayed home in NYC.

The Lost Girls also have a bunch of how-to posts, explaining how they chose their route, how they stay in touch and (the all important) how they gave notice to their bosses. Basically everything you need to know when you want to throw it all in and hit the road.

[Photo: The Lost Girls]

Related Stories:
· Around the World in 1000 Wines [Jaunted]
· The Lost Girls [Official Blog]

Tags: Women / Tours / → All Tags

What Women Want

Who would've thought that China would be the place to create the ideal village for women travelers? The central Chinese municipality of Chongqing is converting the Shuangqiao district into "Woman Town," where women will make all the decisions and men who don't follow the rules will be punished (by having to kneel on an uneven board or wash the dishes).

The local tourism board says the 1.5 mile square Woman Town area will be especially attractive to female tourists:

In any tour group entering this town, female members would play the deciding role, concerning shopping and other items of the itinerary.

Great! No more boring war museums or staring at valuable cars. We can just shop, eat and let the men wash the dishes. Now that's what traveling should be about.

[Photo: anna banana]

Related Stories:
· Chinese Girls Set To Rule [The Sun]
· 100 Places for the Ladies [Jaunted]

Tags: Women / Parking / Driving / → All Tags

Pretty in Pink Parking

We already knew about parking places for women only in Germany, but now you'll be pleased to know (half of you, anyway) that there are also these extra-safe spots in Swiss carparks. Unfortunately there's a problem: too many Swiss men are parking in these spots, so the whole plan of women having a shorter and safer distance to walk to their car at night just hasn't worked out.

But if you're hoping to drive and park safely around Switzerland soon, things might be OK. The city of Bern has decided to decorate these women-only spots with flowers and paint them pink, hoping that men will then be too embarrassed to park there. Well, maybe some men...

[Photo: harry harris]

Related Stories:
· Pink Parking Spaces [ABC2]
· Achtung, Men Verboten [Jaunted]

Tags: Lists / Books / Women / → All Tags

100 Places for the Ladies

For all women who love to travel, and for all men who want to understand women, a book just out by Stephanie Elizondo Griest could be interesting: 100 Places Every Woman Should Go. While on the one hand we're getting just about saturated with these books of lists of all the must-sees--come on, who in the world has the money and time to follow all those tips--this one does seem like kinda nice reading. And at least it's a one-woman list, without the controversy of something like the New 7 Wonders.

You can learn about a really wide range of destinations and activities, from riding a yak in Mongolia to bathing in volcano mud in Colombia. The homes of some very important substances like chocolate and champagne also get a place on the top 100. Tips for women travelers, including the great concept of "male repellent" (for those times when you just want a guy to GO AWAY), are probably useful even when we're at home. If you can read such a book without feeling disappointed at not being able to visit every must-see place, you might get a kick out of it. Or learn when it's appropriate to kick a male.

[Photo: Jerrold]

Related Stories:
· Stephanie Elizondo Grist interview [World Hum]
· New 7 Wonders Tensions [Jaunted]

Tags: Women / Hotels / Germany / → All Tags

Achtung! Men Verboten

Japan might've started things with the women-only train carriages to put a stop to unwanted ass-grabbing, but Germany's got a few nice fraulein-friendly initiatives of their own. Berlin's Inter Mezzo Hotel für Frauen is not only free of busy crowds of beer-swilling men, but is also walking distance to the historic sit-at-Starbucks ambience of Brandenburg Gate, the inhumanly shiny Potsdamer Platz, and a hearty breakfast of delicious cold cuts along Unter den Linden.

Most importantly, the hotel supplies rooms with what women really need: Big cupboards and cotton face wipes, instead of a minibar full of whisky and shoe shine kits. However, what we really applaud in Germany is Frauenparkplätze: women driving alone get the pick of the car park spots most convenient to well-lit exits. What we're waiting for now is a female-only Autobahn. Just think how much the drivers would respect each other.

[Image via shtrbugr/Flickr]

Related stories
Female-only cars in Rio [Truthdig]
Women-only department store [BBC]
Women's floor in hostel [Jaunted]