Solo Travel for Women. The first thing I learned was how to pay less than $500 per night for a hotel room.

This was surprising as I’d been paying $200 to $500 for hotel rooms per night from 1987 to 2001. 

Immediately upon entering Asia, I discovered, you could pay $12 to $25 per room in Kathmandu, Nepal and live high off the hog.

This was in 2005 and you can still do it now.

Earning a high income in the heart of Palo Alto, Silicon Valley central, shooting photography, 725 weddings, and thousands of portraits, I’d go on luxury vacations to Bora Bora, Maui, Big Sur, and San Francisco nights at the Mandarin oh la la. 

Investing in pleasure was fun and here’s what I learned from it.

Yes, it was thrillling while making serious money. But it taught me to be excessive.

Now I was a Solo Traveling Woman.

So I wanted to I learn how to find accommodation for a 2-digit amount instead of 3 digits in Asia.

Here’s what happened.

Landing in Kathmandu Nepal with a carry-on bag, my Nikon camera, and 50 rolls of film was my first country to explore in Asia.

I was visiting my son, Wolf, who was teaching art in the land of Mount Everest.

This was the seed start-up of founding his own social venture in Nepal, helping girls with education and housing; directing programs and funding them with donations from companies in Silicon Valley.

You can read about it in this blog post.

Before arriving in Nepal I’d pitched a non-profit, the Nepal Youth Foundation, the biggest one in Nepal. But I didn’t know it at the time. 

Suggesting I Teach Photography or Take Photos of the Children for Their Non-Profit Foundation

The founder Olga Murray, a woman who famously started helping girls in Nepal with scholarships, private schools, and housing (she was on Oprah for this) asked me to teach her faculty how to take photos of the children and yes I would love to do this!

However I needed a place to stay. Where should I go? 

Olga said, “You could stay at the Kathmandu Guest House. People like it there.”

This is where the Beatles bunked when they did their magical mystery tour of Nepal and India.

It’s a former palace and now is a boutique hotel refurbished after the 2015 earthquake so it’s not as quirky and wonderful as it was when it was low cost and endearingly rustic. 

It happens. 

So I reserved a room at $25 per night and I was ready to fly to Nepal.

I booked it for only two nights and then afterwards I’d decide where to stay after exploring the neighborhood.

But after flying 900 hours to get to Nepal, this solo traveling woman arrived in Kathmandu and noticed the room I got was ear-splitting loud. With an uncomfortable bed and a glacially cold private bathroom.

No central heating in Nepal. No switch on any wall to provide heat in the Winter. 

But another room was offered to me and I took it.

This new room was cozier with a shared bathroom. This comfortable room was in the original section of the palace with thicker walls to block out the constant Kathmandu traffic.

And most importantly, they gave me my own portable electric heater so I wouldn’t freeze to death.

So this one is $25 right?” I wanted to confirm the price of this 2nd room.

Because I loved my new digs. 

The front desk clerk looked at me bewildered. I asked again, “$25 right?”

“This one is $12 per night,” he said slowly.

Now I was shocked. How could it be less than $25?

This solo traveling transformation struck me like an electrical jolt.

So you could travel in Asia and not pay $200 or even close to this amount for a room every night!?

Solo Traveling for Women: do you want to launch your own world adventure?Check out my top 5 countries if you’re a solo woman and want to take the leap.

And Thank You to my Son, Wolf, for Showing Me a New Lifestyle. 

Soon we were traveling all over Nepal on local buses after our volunteer gigs ended.

The first thing we did was celebrate New Years Eve by riding on the top of a local bus to Ngarkot in the mountains above Kathmandu. And we crashed several New Years Eve parties because why? 

Strangers welcomed us after we appeared. Inviting us to eat and dance with them immediately! 

Life doesn’t happen like this in Silicon Valley, USA.

A far off country fast slipping off my radar.

Now this hotel my son had booked for New Years Eve was $20 per night with a view of the Himalayas.

Life was good!

My Evolution had Started

This was excellent training before the dot com crash of 2008. Why?

Because when the crash happened my financial mindset had radically changed.

And I was now living a new life: six months of solo traveling every year.  

Working for 6 months shooting weddings in Palo Alto to pay for it. And renting out my apartment while I was gone.

My Life was Fun

And I didn’t have to spend the entire year in the USA anymore minus the joy of affordable solo traveling.

So my son was the one who showed me the ropes of how a woman solo traveling in the high ethers of the Himalayas could live this life.

“Mom you can pay $8 per night at this other hotel where the Mount Everest climbers stay in Kathmandu.” 

Climbers are cool, so I considered it. 

But I liked my room at the Kathmandu Guest House where I had my own electric heater in the Himalayan Winter. And the share bathroom was never full of people.

And you had a choice of Western or Asian toilets, sit on a seat or crouch low over a porcelain hole.

Yes, I was still Learning How to Gracefully Crouch without Peeing on my Dress.

Thank God for yoga because I wouldn’t have been able to do it without strong thighs. 

This would come in handy when I later started traveling solo on local buses throughout Nepal. And abandoned my button-fly 501 Levis for long dresses to conceal my private bits while peeing on the side of the road.

Warning: traveling on a local bus through Nepal, there are no public toilets. 

Nepal is the 4th poorest country in the world.

Solo Travel for Women Takeaways

1. Book your room for only 2 nights and see if you like your neighborhood. Discover if barking dogs, construction at midnight, and rock-hard beds will annoy you.

2. Plan your escapes to be longer, taking more days than you think you’ll need. You can always make side trips to other intriguing locations.

3. Leave behind your old life. Don’t expect grilled cheese sandwiches in any restaurant when you can get fresh handmade momos in Nepal!

4. Dress conservatively and talk to people you don’t know because often they will want to talk with you. 

Two more places I recommend staying in Kathmandu:

1. 1. Shiva Guest House
   2. Friends Guesthouse

If you book through these links I earn a small commission but the main thing is you get a good place to stay where I have slept myself!

You’re Invited to travel with me in Rome, Amalfi Coast, and Sicily in 2025

Solo Traveling Women, this is for you!

Learn How to Take Stunning Photos with Any Camera or Phone, Even if You’ve Never Picked Up a Camera Before.

Planning Your Own Solo Travel Adventure?

You want easy and fast answers to all your burning questions? Schedule a one on one session with me and we’ll map out your next thrilling journey. 

Write me: [email protected]

Why ask me?

I’ve solo traveled in 34 countries, buying one way tickets around the world four times; working, teaching, photographing, writing, and eating.

In 2009, at age 49, after annual 6 to 10 month worldwide journeys, I sold my belonigns and became a perpetual traveler. 

And you can do it too! Or plan an exhilarating solo travel expereince for yourself.

Or Travel With Me. Details here.