TRAVEL : This Travelin’ Woman Is Going Places

Three years ago, while taking an outdoor shower in Bali--a tropical bird perched on her shoulder--Nancy Mills had an epiphany, a “life-transformational experience” that gradually led the former publicist into the exotic and quixotic ranks of travel journalism.

Earlier this year, while pondering the economic vagaries of her newfound profession, Mills, 41, had another flash, this one having to do with the dearth of information available to the roughly 55 million women who travel each year for business or pleasure.

The result of that inspiration was Travelin’ Woman, a “know before-you-go guide for women travelers” produced three-and-a-half weeks later on a budget of about $400, with no marketing plan or survey.

Since its March debut, Travelin’ Woman, which industry observers say is the first newsletter devoted exclusively to the itinerant woman, has quietly mushroomed far beyond Mills’ Bel-Air home.

TW, as it’s referred to, now has a circulation of more than 500 readers stretching from Arizona to Bangladesh to France--including one subscriber living aboard a landlocked boat in Turkey.

Featuring firsthand adventure accounts, interviews with travel experts, love and vacation tips, book reviews and a travel astrology column, TW has been written up in 80 national and international publications, and has received more than 1,000 inquiries from active and armchair travelers worldwide.

One recent issue focused on summer love and some of the best destinations in the world to find romance; another featured a conversation with travel guru Arthur Frommer on the subject of women and travel.

“This is a dynamite idea,” said John McManus, co-founder of Magellan’s, a Santa Barbara travel store, and, ironically, the newsletter’s first subscriber. “There is a real niche here.”

Agreed Leigh Leshner, an Encino movie and television producer who often travels with her sister and who was given a subscription to TW by their mother: “This gives you a woman’s perspective. I do know a lot of women who feel uncomfortable traveling alone.”

Surveys of female travelers bear out both comments. One conducted by Endless Vacations magazine found that only a little more than half of the women said they felt safe traveling by themselves; 50% reported “negative travel experiences” because of their gender.

More than two-thirds said the travel industry treats male travelers better, even though women are journeying in greater numbers and by 2000 are expected to account for half of all business travel in the United States, according to government figures.

Mills, both in person and through TW, urges female travelers to be prepared for obstacles that any traveler may face, but not to dwell on them.

Peppered throughout TW are exhortations to readers to “follow your passion” and not let things such as government travel advisories and political instability stand in the way. Even matters of language or other nations’ bureaucracies can be weathered with equanimity.

“If you learn how to view them as alternate experiences rather than as a royal pain, you will save yourself a lot of stress and have a better trip,” said Mills, who has traveled extensively throughout Asia by herself. On a South African safari she was charged by an angry elephant. “You shouldn’t let the differences of the locale get in the way,” she said.

One of her most poignant moments as editor of TW, she said, came when a middle-aged subscriber thanked Mills for her publication and expressed her wish to one day travel abroad by herself. In the meantime, she was reading Travelin’ Woman, hoping that one day, “it will give me more courage to do what I want to do.”

Travelin’ Woman: c/o: Nancy Mills, 855 Moraga Drive, Los Angeles 90049. $48 yearly for 12 issues ; s ample copy $4.