For the first time, women have confident and adventurous role models who dare to venture off the beaten path and far beyond the bus tour. Only a few generations ago, it was rare for women to travel without a male companion. Today, more women are traveling than ever before, and quite a few of them are writing about their experiences.

Marybeth Bond's bestselling first collection of travel stories, A Woman's World: True Stories of World Travel, chronicled and celebrated the diverse and bold new ways women are exploring the planet. A Woman's World won the prestigious Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Book of the Year and elicited not only critical praise but thousands of enthusiastic letters from readers. There are now more than 90,000 copies in print.

The overwhelming reaction to A Woman's World compelled Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael to publish another collection. A showcase of the best women's travel writing today, A Woman's Passion for Travel: True Stories of World Wanderlust collects more than forty true stories from women, including Frances Mayes, Anne Lamott, Pam Houston, Mary Morris, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Women of all ages and backgrounds write about taking risks, learning, and pursuing their passions.

As demonstrated throughout this collection, sometimes women use travel to discover themselves and to move forward in life, to make changes that would be harder to make at home. For most women, what makes a journey rich and memorable is not so much the places they visit, but the people they meet. Indeed, developing or deepening a relationship can be the most important aspect of a journey. In "The Center of Nowhere," Barbara Ras and her daughter find out each other's strengths and weaknesses on the back of an Alaskan dogsled. An impromptu outing in Barcelona with an older woman relieves exchange student Aleta Brown's loneliness in "Jump."

Another frequent theme is personal safety, especially for women traveling alone. In "Guardians of the Dark," Marybeth Bond travels alone with her young daughters in Mexico and discovers how women watch out for each other even when their backgrounds differ. The night of terror in Paris described in Claire Tristam's "Why I Have Never Seen the Mona Lisa Smile" is a chilling reminder to all women about the special risks women face on the road.

A Woman's Passion for Travel provides a true community of women swapping stories that not only inspire the reader's zest for adventure but also provide insight into women's unique perspective traveling around the globe. Through stories of courage and confidence, independence and introspection, this collection takes us closer to the heart of womanhood.

Each story in A Woman's Passion for Travel will move readers-perhaps even to the road itself.