Speaking of vintage cars, I was catching up on a past issue of Vogue when I read about Yasmin Le Bon’s vintage car road rally, It’s All About the Girls. For four days, 20 pairs of women toured through Tuscany and the Chianti region, stopping whenever they wished and enjoying delicious meals along the way. Traditional and male-dominated road rallies are much more grueling endeavors with high speeds, winners and losers, break-downs and blown tires, and presumably very few stops. I think Mrs. Le Bon has the right idea.
Have you ever taken an all-girls’ road trip where the destination was far less important than the drive itself? This concept intrigues me so much! Some of the most inspired ideas are ignited during long, scenery-rich car drives. There’s also the brilliant female-bonding aspect, and not one tiny voice from the backseat asking if we’re there yet! Plus, I think rally is a pretty rad term in all of its definitions.
What do you think? If you could steal away with your friends, sisters, and moms, would you hit the road or does the very thought drive you mad?
Glam road trip by Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello via Wolf and Willow.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I think in the past few years our family’s road trips have become more about the journey than the destination. Concentrating on getting to the destination is maddening because it always takes longer than you expect with kids (potty breaks), dogs and smoke breaks for the husband. We now take our time and stop when we see an intriguing site to visit. I think we sort of know that we can’t win when it comes to travel time so why not just enjoy the journey. But a trip minus the husband and kids? That could be great fun!
You of course will be driving your darling new car at the next Rally!!!!!!!!!
I always wanted to do this, in a far away, exotic place. But you know, the US is pretty exotic in some regions…
This made me think of the road trip my mom, grandma, and I made through England the year before my oldest was born. We had a wonderful time together and still laugh about getting lost in the maze at Leeds Castle and Grandma getting a little tipsy from trying an English ale. And me accidentally flinging a sugar cube across the room during tea at Harrods (the tongs were really tight!). Trips like this become part of family legend, even if–maybe especially if–things don’t go the way you planned.
We happened to be there during the funeral of Princess Diana, whom I adored. So we saw an entirely different side of England than we would have another time.
Wow- I can’t imagine being there during that time.
Have you been to Harrods since that week? There was a very odd (in my opinion) memorial to Diana and Dodi put up there.
Having been to tea there I love your story about the sugar cube! Delightful!
I haven’t been back, Pamela, although I would love to go. Would you believe that I have a flower from Princess Diana’s funeral? We were at Westminster Abbey when they were taking the arrangements down, and a little old lady came up to us and asked if we’d care for a flower from the princess’s bouquet. Amazing.
I just heard that there is an exhibit coming to the Mall of America this February (in Minneapolis, not too far from where we live) called Diana: A Celebration. It will include her wedding dress, personal mementos, and some of her jewelry. Are you anywhere near the Twin Cities? Maybe this could be your All Girls’ Road Trip!
Wow-again. Isn’t the Abbey beautiful? Can’t believe you were able to get in right after the funeral. Still doesn’t seem real.
I am 15 minutes from the Mall of America! Funny! Not much of a road trip but this is not to be missed! I will get some girls together to do that for sure! Had not even heard of it.
Lovely to meet another Minnesota girl!
P
I took an all girls trip once in college for spring break and had a great time. Later, I found out my stepmom that my dad was convinced that I was gay because I was traveling with just girls.
Um, like it would have been better if I’d been traveling with just boys?! That was a very strange thing to hear…
My best friend and I used to take an annual “May trip” every year once school was out. We’d take the scenic route and stay with friends and family along the way and it was magical. We’ve vowed to start doing it again, once the kids are old enough to leave :)
a few girls from church did a trip to the beach last september. we got stuck in traffic, but didn’t even know how long we’d been on the road, we were so busy chatting!
I have taken many girls’ weekends away. Food for the soul! Our travels have not taken us far but I have to agree that it wouldn’t matter how long a road trip was with my girls. Time passes all too quickly. I think that I should plan a really fun trip keeping this post in mind! Miss Gabrielle, you of course, would be invited! A girl can dream about keeping fabulous company can’t she?
it sounds amazing, a girl’s roadtrip! Sadly, I think the logistics of planning it would get in the way (kid’s schedules, etc). We can barely manage a night away (which we try to do annually).
A few years ago, and before any of us had kids, my 3 friends and I went on a road trip. We planned stops along the way and did unplanned things as we wanted to. To put it mildly we had a BLAST. We still talk about it all the time, and made a great photo book to remember it. It was such a great trip.
IN A HEARTBEAT! My most favorite memories of my whole life are road trips (not just with girl friends but old boyfriends, kids, dads, grandmas and all mixes of family members). Last year we did a family road trip (hubs and my 2 kids age 5 and 8) hitting 11 national parks/ monuments in 2 weeks (without a significant plan in place before we hopped in the truck!). It was such an overwhelming success that we are doing it again this summer (this time up the coast of California, Oregon and maybe even in to washington? who knows…) .
To this day however, nothing tops the adventures of a girls road trip taken with 3 girlfriends that started in Troy New York and went round trip to Key West, FL when I was 22. The funny stories, silly adventures, and laughs from that one trip alone could fill a book – truly a most cherished memory!
Random drives is where I really got to know my husband back before we were even dating, I was going to the same college as his buddies and he would come and visit. There wasn’t much to do in the small town where the college was so we would go on drives. Windows down, no particular destination, I had the habit of stealing his sunglasses, we would just drive and chat. It’s a wonder we never got lost and thankfully gas was a lot cheaper back then. We did this again recently with our kids. My hubby had a very rare day off of work so we all piled in the car and started to drive. We picked a general direction and went. We were in a canyon and decided that we wanted to get out before dark so we just turned around and came back home. It was fun.
Last summer we went on a wine tasting trip with two other couples. While we were wine tasting the girls drove in one car and the boys in another – we had a blast. The conversations were totally different since there were no boys in the car. This summer we will go again and one of the couples got a new car that will fit all of us, but we decided that we want just a girl car again!
i’ve done the girls road trip thing before and it was fantastic. BUT. as i get older i’m far less tolerant of that mode of travel (i seem to have developed a tendancy toward car sickness, too).
maybe sometime again, though.
My sister-in-law and I took an impromptu road trip to find Frances Mayes house in Tuscany one year. We never found it but drove through fields of sunflowers, had delicious meals, couldn’t get off a roundabout and met many cute Italian men asking for directions! Remains one of the best days of my life. By the way, loved the episode of Househunters you were on! So glad I found your blog.
That sounds SO fun!!! All women…going at a woman’s pace, gorgeous scenery, lots of time to chat, stopping at tons of interesting paces, yummy food and wine…sounds amazing!
It sounds like a blast! :) If I had the money, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Almost always, you can find amazing places at stops during a road trip if you’re not rushed. Men always try to get to the destination as fast as possible, it would be refreshing to just take our time and see the world.
Instead of the road, we hit the trail! Once or twice a year we start an email conversation, decide on a long weekend, a destination, and plan menus. The planning and the anticipation is as much fun as the actual backpacking trip (almost). There’s just nothing that compares with women in the woods! Our motto is “No men, no kids, no laundry”.
A girlfriend and I took a road trip to Vermont (a 9 hour drive for us) this summer. One of my favourite parts of the whole trip was the time we spent together in the car. We’ve been best friends for a while now but that trip made our relationship that much stronger.
Any time spent with my sisters is time well spent, but I’d rather be at a spa or shopping than in a car.
I took a European road trip with 3 girlfriends almost 20 years ago. It will always be in the top 10 events of my life. We had a very rough plan and the open road. In 11 days we visited Germany. Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, France. It was wonderful and I wish we could do it again. We have had 1 divorce, 2 weddings and 4 kids since then – I think we are ready!!!!
You need to check out Sisters on the Fly when you come back to the states. The groups motto is “We have more fun than anyone” Every group event has a caravan that is arranged so women can travel safely to and from events. Although the events are awesome, many have made lasting friendships over the hours spent “on the road”, fining special spots to eat, shop and play along the way. Even if you don’t have a caravan trailer, many join and travel light by camping at events, making it even more of an event…Check out their website, www,sistersonthefly.com or on facebook…Many events are open to sisters on the try so you can experience an event before signing up for membership too.
This story speaks to my heart. I have 8 best friends. We have been best friends since we were 12…we turn 38 this year! We even have a name for our little group…The Peacocks. 15 years ago, when the first of our flock was about to get married, we took our first big road trip together as adults. Every year since, we’ve taken at least one trip a year together…no husbands, no kids…Just us girls. We’re scattered across the South here in the U.S. Some of us live in the same towns, others do not…and let me tell you, the travel portion of our trips is just as special and holds just as many memories as the destination. From the time a wild turkey flew head-on into one of our cars while driving along a back-country road to recklessly swerving across 6 lanes of interstate traffic just to buy some roadside Georgia peaches to learning how to change our own tires (that one took all nine of us…but mostly because of giggling & hi-jinx!) those are some of my fondest memories of my entire life. The journey is half the fun of the trip!
I hope you get the chance to head out on your own rally sometime soon!
I am pretty sure that a movie could be made about y’all. Wonderful story. May you 8 have many, many more wonderful times together through the years! Cheers!
Three girlfriends joined me for an all-day, one-day only road trip late last summer. None of us had the time to take an entire weekend away, but we packed as much as we could into the one day we all had free. We kissed our husbands and kids goodbye early in the morning and met for coffee and pastries at the lovely Pearl Bakery in downtown Portland. From there we meandered the backroads of the Yamhill-Carlton wine region, stopping for sips and window shopping. We packed a picnic lunch and ate it on the patio of the Carlton Winemakers Studio while taking in a flight of local reds. From there we pulled back out on the backroads and stopped at any antique store or barn sale that caught our eye, and found a backwoods honey shop. We plopped ourselves down on another patio for late afternoon drinks and ended the day with a lovely dinner in McMinnville. We made it home by midnight. It was a terrific day full of giggles and stories of our youth. We are already planning our getaway for next year–a small town antique show!
This sounds great. I have been wanting to do a proper road trip for a while! We used to do family ones around Europe when I was a child all the time- the memories of getting lost all over France and Switzerland will be will me forever!