New website Greether aims to make women feel safer when traveling alone
BOSTON - Jen Emery was bitten by the travel bug young, but traveling alone as a woman does come with risks.
"At night time, you get a little nervous if you want to go out, or if you're at a museum too long and night starts to fall, getting back to your hotel room or maybe even streets that you don't know that maybe you shouldn't go down versus others," she said.
Despite being a seasoned traveler, she still worries that she'll end up on an unsafe street by herself.
"Those are things that, even on my 50th country, still go through my head," Emery said.
Those same concerns prompted Vanessa Karel, an avid traveler herself, to create the website Greether.
"I just was tired of people telling me don't go to Egypt because as a woman you shouldn't go alone. Don't go to Guatemala because it's unsafe," she explained.
Greether matches female travelers with female tour guides. "And we do this by vetting everybody, including you as a traveler," Karel said.
Emery hired a tour guide through Greether for her recent trips to Chile and Amsterdam. Users can hire their guide for an entire day, or just a few hours. The female local experts will not only show the traveler what her city has to offer, she will share safety tips, including which streets and neighborhoods to avoid and how to use public transportation safely.
There are currently Greether guides in 90 countries and 550 cities.
What you'll pay depends on the city you are visiting. Two and a half hours with a Greether in San Francisco will cost you around $75 where the same amount of time in Mexico will cost about $55.