I normally thoroughly enjoy reading travelogues. I was looking forward to this book for a week before I found time to read it. I didn't feel it was worth my time. I was looking for more information about and feel about the places, and less self-exploration of the authors. Not bad, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

This was my first attempt at reading anything by and about women travelers. Some of the writings were very interesting while others seemed a little pointless. I did enjoy the different viewpoints from women of various countries and ethnic backgrounds. Having traveled on my own (and about to embark again), I was glad to delve into the experiences of other women. Most of the accounts are of foreign travel, but there was one (maybe more) about domestic experiences. The stories reminded me of my own travels and even inspired me to begin an essay about part of my experience in another country.

Fantastic book. My favorite story in the collection was Peabody's tremendous tale of her hike along a 1,000-mile Buddhist pilgrimage to 88 temples around the island of Shikoku in Japan. Truly the work of a lapidary stylist and soulful sister.

The author made several comments that were maddening to me. One was "Firearms are commonplace in the USA" when referring to William on a ranch for vacation. Firearms are not commonplace in the US. I don't own a gun, no one I know owns a gun.That is an unfair comment.

The author also explains that with her affair, Diana didn't take seriously her marriage vows, yet in the paragraph above, Charles and Camilla have arranged to spend Sunday's together. Double standard? Or is it an author kissing up to the next monarch and going after someone who can't defend herself. The author writes that she had had discussions with Diana, I am sure where ever Diana is now, she regrets ever speaking with this woman.

Don't waste your money as I did. I am done purchasing anything by this author.

Once again Ms. Seward has went out of her way to misrepresent her subjects. Much as she did in "The Queen and Di."
Her attemps to make the Spencer family look beneath contempt have backfired because her readers know otherwise. For instance she wants us to think that members of the Royal family do not have affairs with the hired help when of course it is common knowledge that they do.
In fact those incidents go back as far as King William III and an ancestor of Camilla Parker Bowles, 16 year old Arnold Van Keppel, who was the King's homosexual lover.
Seward's sources are, for the most part, non-existent.
The general public knows as much about Princes William and Harry as Seward does because just about the only accurate information in the book has to do with their birth places and dates, schools attended and what is already known about them from other sources available to all. Thus she has deliberately manufactured a load of nonsense in order to cash in on the popularity of two young men who deserve a better chronicler.

This book is good but at the being its all about di and slowly she drifts out as you read along but its good and worth geting