I love traveling with my husband and kids, but sometimes it’s also fun to just explore on my own.  It seems that many share my opinion because solo female travel has become an increasingly popular topic that’s included interest in safety, preferred destinations, and what to do once you’ve arrived.

Last month Road Scholar invited me to experience one of their U. S. tours from the perspective of a solo female traveler. This premier travel organization that’s designed for older travelers provides quite a few great learning adventures in our country.  So, understandably, it took a little bit of time to make a choice.

There were various considerations involved in choosing my trip.  Safety can be a big concern, but I knew of Road Scholar’s good reputation for making the welfare of its guests a priority.

Next I wanted to choose a place that I hadn’t been to at all or at least for a long time so that I could experience it from a fresh perspective.

Not knowing who else would be on this trip, I also wanted a tour that wouldn’t make me feel left out if frankly the other attendees wished to pair off to the exclusion of others. To me, that meant a nice mix of activities that I could enjoy either with them or on my own.

I hadn’t been to Seattle in over twenty years, I love the exquisite art created by Chihuly, and glass blowing has been on my bucket list of activities. So, after careful consideration, I chose the Hands-On Glass in Chihuly’s Seattle tour.

Even before I arrived, I felt that I had made a good choice. As I mentioned before, Road Scholar is known for making sure that its attendees are well taken care of. So sometime before the trip, I received a survey to help the company better ascertain my needs such as allergies. I then later received a lightweight bound packet that included details of each day of the tour as well as important contact information.

Traveling to Seattle

On the first day of the trip, I took an early Delta Airlines flight from Albany International Airport with a stopover in Minneapolis. I had about a three hour layover at the Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport, but luckily, I had been invited by LoungeBuddy to try out their service. This company provides access to over 220 airport lounges worldwide.  Click HERE to take a look at the website.

Once I easily reserved my choice, the Escape Lounge, I received email information about its airport location with a corresponding reservation bar code. This lounge was close to my departure gate, and I found that, if I had to spend time in an airport, this was a nice way to do it.  It had comfortable chairs, booths, and big windows as well as lots of smart phone outlets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The receptionist and staff were courteous and, because this was morning, the lounge was serving a variety of hot and cold foods including egg burritos, fruit, muffins, and yogurt.

Seattle

Then it was on to rainy Seattle where I eventually made my way to the city’s Warwick Hotel. This hotel turned out to be a good choice for the tour. My room was spacious, and comfortable. Plus its great downtown location was close to many attractions, restaurants, and stores.

After checking in, the front desk gave me easy directions to Pikes Place Market, and I took a short stroll over to the city’s waterfront. This iconic market was busy with tourists who were trying to get out of the pouring rain and to sample a great selection of produce, fish,

crafts, and beautiful flowers.

I enjoyed visiting this market a number of times during my trip so more about it later.

That evening, I met up with our tour coordinator, Carol Barton of Evergreen Adventures, Inc. and the other 24 members of our group for dinner at our hotel. With ages ranging from around mid 50’s to 92, they consisted of couples and single travelers from all over the country including Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and Maryland.

It was interesting to find out that so many had been repeat customers including one retired couple from Santa Barbara, California. Originally from NYC, these avid travelers had taken over 50 domestic and international tours provided by this company.

During our dinner, Carol, a native of the area, gave us even more information about our tour along with snacks, water bottles, and tickets for the days ahead.  While Carol seemed to have handled almost every detail of our upcoming experiences, her attitude was nicely laid back. In fact, she made it clear that it was fine if you wished to deviate from the tour and go off on your own. You just needed to extend her the courtesy of informing her so she wouldn’t be holding up the rest of the guests by waiting for you.

After an interesting film of a previous Chihuly exhibit, we were all ready to call it a night. I was really looking forward to the next day: we would be traveling to Seattle’s Pratt Fine Arts Center to receive a hands-on course in glass blowing.

 

Next on This Tour: Glass Blowing Adventure at the Pratt Fine Arts Center.