This book includes ten contributor's writings on 250 years of women travel writers. Travel is sacred. Travel is a quest. Travel is an escape. Travel is a passion! It is enlightening, a distraction, a novelty, a dream fulfilled. It may inspire joy, terror, longing - often, all three. Women explorers and travellers are a special breed. Some were also great writers, recording their cross-cultural impressions with stunning vividness, blending history, myth, technology and poetic imagination. The 22 courageous women profiled in this book encircled the globe. Together, they form a grand tradition and speak to us today as never before. The book covers women who boldly crossed international barriers often to encounter the most patriarchal cultures of their time are focused on in this delightful book - a significant contribution to travel literature as well as to women's studies.