 |
This is a beautiful part of the world but it has been challenging to deal with completely unusual and difficult weather including super strong cold winds coming from the south (Antarctica) every single day of the 2 weeks that have made being in the water quite hard and coming out of it even harder!
Locals are quite baffled at the winds.
This is their "winter" season, sure, so milder temperatures and a breeze is what is expected, but not this amount of constant wind and cold that do not let up.
It also does not help that this is supposed to be the super high season but nobody ever talks about the wind that hits July-September in Polynesia. Social media posts on the islands never show rain, wind or anything less than perfect shots for the gram.
 |
The hypothesis is that this August's colder / windier than usual weather is the result of the El Nino effect which has previously passed by French Polynesia without much consequence.
Or that this month of August has been affected by the aftermath of the cyclone in Hawaii, which is only 5h flight away.
In any case, I had to buy a wet suit and have had to wear two of them at times. I tend to get cold, so at first I wondered if it was me, but it was not.
 |
The guides were wearing 5cm full wetsuits swimming with whales, other guests were shaking after coming out of the water and skipped water activities because it was too cold to get wet again, everyone was wearing thick jumpers at dinner...
On the windier days there was nobody to be seen anywhere in the resorts, not even in the overwater decks, it was just too windy and cold.
 |
But I wasn't going to let the weather kill the mood so I still managed to swim with sharks, mantas, sting rays, eagle rays and a myriad of tropical fish many times and enjoyed a lot of time at sea, surrounded by all shades of blue you can imagine, even if wrapped around with 2 towels! I just did not spend much time on the beach as I was trying to avoid being turned into a croquette by the wind! LOL
 |
I am still sharing stories on Instagram from the trip, so go check them out to see what I have been up to. And join the waitlist to be the first to know when this trip goes live and travel with us to this most remote but incredibly beautiful and culturally rich part of the world in 2027. PS: We will not be traveling in the windy / cold months!
Now, onto this week's email. I wanted to talk about a news piece that I read a few weeks ago that stayed with me: We are our unhappiest at 47.
A study that has been run multiple times across many countries consistently shows that we are our unhappiest at this age - any thoughts on why?
On this week's newsletter:
- We are our unhappiest at 47, and how travel plays a role from there onwards
- This week's podcast episode is one featuring me and Meg talking about Group vs independent solo travel. There is singing (from Meg, you don't want to hear me sing) and our reflections on what makes group travel great for some and miserable for others
|
We are out unhappiest at 47, and how travel can help
According to a study with data from 132 countries, 47.2 is the age at which people in the developing economies feel the most unhappiest, while developing economies reach that point at 48.2.
The data is inconclusive as to why, but the data shows that our happiness dips in adulthood until this age and then climbs back up.
This U-shaped happiness curve seems to indicate that we feel the most anxious at this age and then realise all the worries and stresses weren't worth it, or they simply weaken or disappear, and we start to see life in a different light.
 |
This is the layman's midlife crisis, when people decide to run a marathon, buy silly expensive cars and cheat on their spouses.
On the family front, we historically feel the most pressure in our late 40s when we are sandwiched between taking care of our parents and of our children.
This is also the time when, in some cases, kids emancipate, and women are suddenly faced with the reality of having to spend the rest of their lives with the husband who is now a couch potato and was a good father, but a boring / useless / empty partner. I hear this a lot from our guests who have got divorced as they become empty nesters.
On the other hand, you felt invincible when you were younger, but at this age, you really start to feel the signs of aging.
Hair thins, skin sags, weight increases, fat gets stored in unlikely places, staying fit takes extra effort, wrinkles set in.
Career-wise, this is when your career aspirations are met with the reality of your professional life.
Even though the most successful entrepreneurs are in their 40s, many still feel like they didn't achieve what they had thought they would have at this age and this realisation is devastating and depressing.
You realise you are unlikely to be the successful CEO you had thought you'd be when you were at university; or that you did not become a renowned expert on anything; all the unfulfilled dreams weigh heavy at this age.
But something else happens around this age too. You start to care less about the things you thought you were supposed to achieve and remember the things you actually wanted to do.
The places you said you would visit one day. The languages you wanted to learn. The food you wanted to try. The things you were curious about before careers, mortgages, children, parents, responsibilities and life in general got in the way.
And for many women, travel is one of the biggest things on that list.
 |
We hear this constantly from our guests.
Their children are older and more independent. They have become empty nesters. They have more control over their time. Or they have simply reached the point where they are no longer willing to keep putting themselves last.
They finally have the time and space to ask: What do I want the next part of my life to look like?
And very often, travel is part of the answer.
I am not writing this to be a Debbie Downer but to remind you that, if you are around this age too, like me, you have something to look forward to: from now onwards, it all trends upwards!
Stats show that we get more realistic about life at this age, and therefore start feeling happier every year.
I am pretty much at this age now.
 |
While I am fortunate that the professional and personal anxieties and stresses don't apply to me, I certainly feel the challenges that come with menopause, and this is something the study probably didn't take into account strongly enough because it was global, general and done by a man at a time when menopause was not talked about much.
Nothing challenges you more than entering peri-menopause and not recognising yourself, and travel just amplifies this with the extra pressure from jetlag, lack of sleep and the impossibility to keep a routine or stay in shape.
Midnight sweats that come out of nowhere and you thought you had tamed.
Difficulty sleeping through the night only made worse by jetlag.
Dryness, dehydration, and your skin feeling like someone is pulling it from the back.
No access to a gym, or a room too tiny to exercise, or the schedules simply not working out with all the sightseeing and the jetlag.
But travel is also one of the best antidotes I know to this midlife lull.
It gives us so many of the things we may have pushed aside during the busiest decades of our lives: curiosity, connection, learning, new experiences and something exciting to look forward to.
It reminds us that there is still so much we haven't seen, tasted, understood or experienced.
 |
You abandon all expectations of becoming famous, rich, uber successful or winning a professional award or recognition, and start living life to the fullest with a new understanding that it is now, YOUR time.
And maybe that's why so many women start travelling more at this stage of life.
Travel fits beautifully into this new freedom.
It provides excitement, endless opportunities for growth and learning, connection with people you would otherwise never meet and an entire world capable of satisfying even the most curious among us.
You don't need to be rich, famous or extraordinarily successful to have an extraordinary life. You can explore somewhere new, meet interesting people, laugh until your stomach hurts, eat something you've never heard of, learn about a culture completely different from your own and come home already wondering where you might go next.
Travel comes right in to fulfil this desire: it provides excitement, endless opportunities for self growth and for learning and it satisfies even the most curious.
Solo travel is even better.
It gives you freedom, takes you away from the sandwiched state of your day-to-day life and, for a little while, lets you step away from being someone's mother, daughter, wife, employee, boss or caregiver and simply be yourself.
You can go somewhere because YOU want to go there.
You don't need to wait for your husband to be interested, your friends to have the same annual leave, budget or bucket list, or your children to want to come with you.
You can be curious again. You can learn something simply because it interests you. You can make new friends. You can finally do some of the things your younger self assumed you would get around to "one day".
Maybe the upward side of the happiness curve isn't about finally having everything figured out.
Maybe it's about finally realising that you don't need to.
While peri-menopause and menopause will place a few obstacles along the way, don't give up, the best is yet to come!
= Trip is confirmed 
= SOLD OUT 
= I or Meg will co-host these trips
Oaxaca
Japan
Iceland: 
Armenia
Scotland:
Australia
Xmas markets
Morocco
Tanzania Value safari + Zanzibar
Egypt
Tanzania Luxe safari + Zanzibar
Galapagos sailing
Antarctica
Caribbean island hopping
Bali:
Swedish Arctic:
Ecuador & The Galapagos:
Georgia:
Croatia Sailing
MadagascarHave a wonderful rest of the week.
Tags: Solo Female Treavelers
