Featured image: A group of women tour Easter Island with Phyllis Stoller and The Women’s Travel Group | Photo provided by Women’s Travel Group

Opening women’s eyes to new experiences

by Karen Gershowitz

Phyllis Stoller, founder of The Women’s Travel Group, started her career in corporate banking. In 1992, when she had more vacation time than her husband and wanted to travel, she couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go with her.

She thought, “I can’t be the only woman who’s not interested in dating, who’s a professional, who wants to travel.” That desire to travel with other like-minded women was the start of her business. She went on to say, “There was extreme discrimination in banking, even though I was the high producer in my division. I thought, I’m a good marketer and can market travel especially as I love it.”

Thirty-two years in, she’s very clear about the experience she wants to deliver to her clients. “My mission is to deliver a tour for women who are truly interested in learning and having fun. Who want to come home with experiences that change them a little bit. Or that open their eyes to what’s going on in the world.”

“I hire speakers who are quite provocative,” Stoller says ”They make the group think and talk.”  Many itineraries include people-to-people experiences with locals, such as meeting a family in Saudi Arabia and hearing the teens talk about their futures, or enjoying an American woman in Palermo, Sicily while she manipulated a vintage black fan to show how women flirted in the past. We also spoke with two Emirati women in Dubai who shared what no one else would about life there. They spoke about the gay community, dating etiquette, and their personal experiences of discrimination.

While first-time visitors want to see the highlights, if you’re in Paris the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Louvre are must-sees, Stoller includes some less well-known sites, but ones that are important to Parisians.

Groups are small. Typically The Women’s Travel Group has 10 to 15 participants, so no one gets lost in the crowd. The tours include a broad range of women, from novice to experienced travellers.

“I want every type of woman because it makes the group more interesting,” she says. “Different ages, different backgrounds, different colours, different religions.”

Travel for new solo travellers

Stoller is encouraging and helpful to women who want to travel solo but haven’t yet made the leap. That got me interested in how she calms and encourages fearful travellers. 

“We walk through the trip,” Stoller says. “A major fear is what happens if…?  I explain that other women are going who’ve never travelled before. But the main thing is we are always available on the phone. If your flight is late and you call, we’re going to be there for you.  If you miss your connection, we’re on the phone. If a group is traveling you can call at one in the morning and the phone will be answered. There will be a solution. While you’re on the trip there is a tour manager who is there to help you and she’s there all the time.”

Her tours are not rushed. “The pace of the trip is very important. If we go to an art museum for a guided tour, the guide is smart, knows how to speak well about what you’re seeing, she knows how to answer questions. You spend enough time in front of each picture that you don’t feel as if it was a blur.”

Stoller explained the trips are organized so that participants “learn, have fun, do something interactive and then learn, have fun, do something interactive. “You’re constantly stimulated,” she says. “And you never feel you’re just being talked to. You’re doing something which makes the group gel.”

Recently, Stoller entered into an agreement with a larger travel company that is part of a prestigious affiliation: USTOA. Stoller still has a hand in creating every itinerary, working with tour managers and keeping an eye on every trip. She told me, “Because they’re a large company, their buying power is much better than mine. All the prices have dropped, which is, Wow!”

Last summer I traveled with Stoller’s company to Mexico and the Ixtapan Fitness, Spa, and Yoga Resort.  It was one of the most relaxing trips I’ve ever taken. The other women were interesting, and I made a few friends. It was such a great trip I will be returning there this summer.

To find out more about The Women’s Travel Group, visit the Women’s Travel Directory here.

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