GIRLFRIENDS GETAWAYS IN NORTH AMERICA
BY MARYBETH BOND

Review by Barb & Ron Kroll

50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America
(National Geographic) ISBN 978-1426204609 1426204604 Canada: 9781426205323

Travel is a way for sisters to reconnect, mothers and daughters to bond and girlfriends to celebrate special occasions, according to Marybeth Bond. Women-only trips in 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America vary from resort getaways and spa vacations to hiking trips and cruise holidays. Ranging between three and six days in length, the women's trips include weekend getaways and longer adventure vacations. Prices for hotels, restaurants and activities range from budget to splurge.

Chatty and conversational, encouraging and upbeat, Marybeth Bond provides travel advice and trip ideas to encourage women to vacation with their girlfriends. For each girl getaway, readers learn where to go, where to stay, what to do and where to eat.

50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America is organized by theme rather than destination. Each chapter in the 263-page guide book begins with a woman's personal story relating travel to healing, celebration, challenge or change. Sidebars by Marybeth Bond and other female travelers provide advice on what to pack, expect and avoid for each vacation getaway. They recommend, for example, leaving behind precious jewelry and wearing costume accessories when traveling. Phone numbers and websites, for each girlfriend getaway, make it easy to plan a trip.

There are no photos in 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America. Black and white illustrations depict vacation activities, such as whitewater rafting in the Adventure Escapes chapter.

Marybeth Bond updated some of the chapters for the second edition of 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America. For example, Wine Country, Healdsburg, California is now Biking Through Wine Country, Sonoma Valley, California.

Bond also added new destinations for girls getaways: Seattle, Litchfield, Alexandria, Newport, Scottsdale, Pasadena and Carmel. Home and garden tours replace the chapter on golf holidays in the second edition. Readers learn about the best home and garden tours and the best private home and garden tours in Newport, Rhode Island, and other US cities.

Travel tips detail when to go, how to get there and how long to stay. For example, you should allow two to three days for a visit to Litchfield, Connecticut, which is a two-hour drive from downtown Manhattan. 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America recommends visiting the Kellogg Estate in nearby Derby, Connecticut, to see 120 different hybrid tea rose bushes and the West Street Grill, in Litchfield, for the best Maryland-style crab cakes.

Marybeth Bond selects female-friendly hotels that are affordable and in safe neighborhoods. Each girlfriend getaway specifies how far hotels are from restaurants and attractions, so women can walk rather than take cabs or public transit.

A resources section, at the end of the book, lists travel companies for women and helpful travel websites for women's holidays, including adventure vacations, bike tours, hiking holidays and volunteer trips.

In the Home and Garden Tours chapter, Marybeth Bond explains how Laverne experienced Southern hospitality on a respite trip with her daughter to Charleston SC, during the annual spring Festival of Houses and Gardens. For other home and garden destinations, such as Alexandria, Virginia, 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America describes highlights, like walking along tree-lined streets and viewing Federal and Georgian architecture. The women's travel book lists the best home and garden tours (open all year) and the best private tours (annual). It also describes the best shopping locations, best tour, best market, best museum, best restaurants, best events and places to stay.