Women Over 50 Are Ready to Travel. Is the Industry Ready for Us?

I recently read something that stopped me in my tracks. According to research published by JourneyWoman, only 6% of women over 50 feel understood by the travel industry.

Six percent! That means an enormous number of women with the desire, experience, freedom, and resources to travel are looking at what the industry offers and thinking: This wasn’t really created with me in mind.

I understand that feeling. I’m 51. I moved to Costa Rica this year and started building a new business and a new life. I surf. I travel alone. I still want to explore, try new things, meet interesting people, rest when I need to, and feel the thrill of doing something I wasn’t completely sure I could do.

I am not done adventuring. If anything, I feel like I am just getting started.

The travel industry is underestimating us

JourneyWoman estimates that women over 50 represent a $245 billion travel market in North America alone. But the more interesting part of its research isn’t just the size of the market. It’s the disconnect between who these women actually are and how the travel industry continues to imagine us.

Women over 50 are often marketed to as though we all want the same trip: a cruise, a luxury resort, a scheduled tour, or something safe and appropriately sedate. Some women want those things. But many of us also want waterfalls, surf lessons, long road trips, new cities, local food, quiet mornings, and adventures we haven’t even thought of yet.

We want comfort, but that doesn’t mean we want everything sanitized. We want to feel safe, but we don’t want fear to make our world smaller. We may want help, but we don’t necessarily want to be managed.

We don’t need to be protected from adventure. We need the travel industry to understand how we want to experience it.

Solo does not have to mean unsupported

One of the things I love most about traveling alone is the freedom.

I can wake up and decide what kind of day I want. I can change my plans without negotiating with anyone. I can talk to strangers, follow my curiosity, read by the pool, go searching for a waterfall, or do absolutely nothing.

But there is a difference between traveling independently and having to figure out every single thing by yourself. Sometimes you want a local person you can trust. Someone you can ask: Is that road okay to drive? Is this beach a good place to go alone? Where can I find the little restaurant tourists usually miss? What should I know before I head out?

That kind of support doesn’t take away your freedom. It gives you more confidence to use it.

That idea became part of the inspiration for Soft Wild Stays.

A softer place to land

I created Soft Wild Stays with women traveling on their own in mind. It isn’t a traditional retreat with a full itinerary telling you where to be and what to do. It also isn’t an anonymous hotel where you arrive, receive a room key, and are left to navigate an unfamiliar place entirely on your own.

It is something in between. A warm place to land. A comfortable home base. Local knowledge when you want it. Freedom when you don’t.

You can go to the beach, chase a waterfall, try surfing, work for a few days, read by the pool, explore the Southern Zone of Costa Rica—or rest without feeling like you need to turn the trip into a self-improvement project.

There is room for the soft and the wild. And each woman gets to decide what those words mean for her.

Travel can help us find ourselves again

Many women spend years organizing their lives around other people. Children. Partners. Parents. Careers. Communities. Responsibilities.

Then something shifts. The children grow up. A relationship changes. A career ends or begins again. We reach an age when we become more aware that we don’t have to keep postponing our own lives.

Traveling alone can be one way of asking: What do I want now? Not what am I supposed to want. Not what would make everyone else comfortable. Not what is considered appropriate for my age.

What makes me feel curious? What makes me feel alive? What part of myself would I like to meet again?

Adventure doesn’t have to mean jumping out of an airplane or climbing a mountain. Sometimes adventure is buying the ticket. Driving the unfamiliar road. Eating dinner alone. Taking your first surf lesson at 51. Waking up somewhere new and realizing you are perfectly capable of being there.

We are ready

Women over 50 do not need the travel industry to convince us that life still holds possibility. We already know.

What we need are travel experiences that respect our independence, understand our concerns without exploiting them, and recognize that safety and freedom can exist together.

We need spaces that see us as we are: experienced, curious, discerning, playful, brave. And still becoming.

These are the kinds of spaces I am creating.

Stay curious. Stay soft. Stay wild.

Book your Costa Rica stay with OyeMoni Livin'/Soft Wild Stays. Come see what happens when you stop waiting for someone else to take the trip.

This piece was inspired by “Invisible No More: Understanding the Mature 50+ Solo Female Traveler” from JourneyWoman, a travel resource and community for women over 50. The article shares findings from JourneyWoman’s research into the influence, experiences, and unmet needs of women over 50 in the travel industry.