Women in contemporary Western society have increased options, resources, and opportunities
to access a greater array of tourism and leisure choices. Yet the freedoms women have to consume
these choices, and to access satisfying leisure and travel experiences, may be constrained by
their social and gendered location as females. Leisure-based research has shown that women tend to
be more highly and intensely constrained in their leisure pursuits, particularly when these activities
are undertaken out of the home or in the outdoors. Little research, however, has explored how constraints
impact on women’s experiences in a tourism context, especially when they travel “solo.” This
article presents results of a qualitative, exploratory study of 40 Australian women’s experiences of
solo travel. In-depth interviews with these women reveal that constraints do exist and exert influence
on their lives and travel experiences in a myriad of ways. Four interlinking categories of constraint
were identified through a grounded approach to data analysis: sociocultural, personal, practical , and
spatial. Further definition of these categories evolved, depending on where the women were situated
in their travel experience (i.e., “pretravel” or “during travel”). The women’s solo travel constraints
will be presented and defined in this article, and practical implications for the tourism industry will
also be discussed.