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A Guy's Gotta Travel
Terry Riley · December 15, 2004

Several American tour companies have sprung up catering to women-only travel. Japan's railways operate trains with women-only cars and may add women-only trains. Skymark Airlines designates women-only seats on some of its flights. A hotel in Zurich accommodates only women. And the trend seems to be growing.

Some people may see this as clear cases of discrimination - especially guys who see travel as an opportunity to hit on women. After all, if they are denied access to eligible babes, who are they to impress with their bellies pooching out of their muscle shirts and their displays of gold chains?

If I were one of these guys, I'd be yelling, "Yo! Dis ain't righteous, dude."

On the other hand, I think it's a swell idea to separate the genders while we're traveling. I just think that some of the measures don't go far enough.

First off, we guys aren't always enamored with the idea of being trapped, for extended periods in transit, in close quarters with members of the opposite sex. It can be enough to drive even the nearly-sober of NBA fans nuts.

How can we be expected to behave in civilized fashion when we're stuck for hours on end next to chicks who have their noses in actual books?

The anxiety that accumulates from the lack of male companionship while traveling is only exacerbated when we attempt to engage female seatmates in conversation. We soon find that they can't come close to holding their own in discussions about who's the meanest linebacker, how to clean a carburetor, or whether Bud or Rolling Rock goes better with pork rinds.

And trying to be polite and entertaining by asking them to pull on our fingers? Well, they just don't get it.

Indeed, requiring us guys to be surrounded by women may be a direct contributor to the phenomenon of air rage. There ought to be special places set aside on planes for us guys to wear our dirty jeans, to sport our baseball caps (backward, of course), to drink too much beer, to engage in loud and vulgar debates, and to scratch ourselves where and when we want.

Now that'd be an airline to patronize.

Then there is the whole deal at the hotel. All we want is an ice machine to keep our beer cold, a steamy bathroom where we can hang the wrinkles out of our clothes, a mini-bar (if the company is paying) and a big, loud TV with remote-all within walking distance of a Hooter's. But what do we get? French milled soap, cotton puffs, an iron, and complimentary use of the fitness center. Jeeze!

When are providers of travel products and services going to wise up? Many of us guys belong to a whole different class of traveler (snort) who deserve own special places on airplanes and in hotels.

If they don't believe us, they can just ask the chicks who've seen our travel habits.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority based in Santa Cruz, Calif. He is the editor of the Web site Applied Psychology.