Interview with Paula Froelich, Yahoo Travel Editor

Always excited to cheer on another woman doing cool stuff in the travel world, when we found out about Paula Froelich’s new Yahoo travel series, A Broad, Abroad, we had to know more. Not only is she a New York Times best-selling author of Mercury in Retrograde and editor-in-chief of Yahoo Travel, but now she’s rocking a high-octane, adventure-filled web series.

We caught up with her (and it was hard with her crazy—as expected— schedule!) to glean hot-to-trot travel tips and insider info about the show:

Voyage Vixens: What inspired you to launch “A Broad, Abroad”?

Paula Froelich: I’ve been traveling the world for years…and I’ve been in the media industry for just as long. Throughout my career as a journalist and traveler, I’ve noticed a few things:

1.     More and more adult females are traveling off the beaten path–they’re finally realizing that those remote, super-exotic locations have the most to offer culturally. 

2.     There really aren’t any female travel shows out there.

3.     My gut instinct was right. Women invest in travel; they travel later in life and have more money to burn. These women, like me, are the ones seeking their own adventures.

I teamed up with Yahoo Travel to create A Broad, Abroad, a series profiling the local culture and traditions in the weirdest, wonkiest, wildest places on Earth.

 

VV: How is it different than other travel shows out there?

PF: There has yet to be a female-focused adventure travel that airs in the States. We kept this in mind and jumped at the chance to create A Broad, Abroad.

 

VV: How do you choose what destination you’ll visit/feature for the show?

PF: The weirder, more exotic the location, the better. I celebrate our cultural differences and like experiencing places that haven’t quite reached the pinnacle of modern tourism. 

 

When we shot episodes of A Broad, Abroad in South Africa, I found the wildest, most fascinating people, places and things on the streets. We patrolled the Cape Town beaches with shark spotters, knocked back a local brews at Johannesburg’s famed Shebeens and even took an anti-carjacking class at the ultimate driving school.

 

VV: What are your 3 must-pack items in your carry-on?

PF: Sunscreen, sleeping mask/sun glasses, and ear plugs.

 

VV: Three destinations you’re dying to visit?

PF: Mongolia, Bhutan, and Saudi Arabia.

VV: Travel motto you live by?

PF: There but for the grace of you go I.

 

VV: Favorite meal on the road?

PF: I’ll eat anything Emirates airline serves–period. On the ground, I always eat local. The only time I’ve had food poisoning while traveling was after I had eaten at a five-star hotel.

 

VV: Yeah, Emirates is pretty rock-star when it comes to cuisine at 30,000 feet. Favorite 3 websites or Instagramers for travel porn?

PF: Yahoo Travel, obviously. I like mstrkrftz and just-wanna-travel on Tumblr. The images on Everyday Africa’s Instagram feed are insane.

 

What’s the first thing you do when you arrive in a new destination?

The first two are usually the same: find a taxi and get some food. Depending on the time I land, I’ll either try and sleep off my jetlag.

 

Advice for others wanting to get into travel writing/broadcasting?

Just do it. Find what you are good at. Find what you love. Then, just go.

 

Favorite female hero (alive/dead or fictional) and why?

Joan Rivers. She was true to herself through thick and thin and fought to able to do what she loved. She was an amazingly decent human being who made me laugh.

Thanks for chatting with us Paula. Wishing you many more wild and crazy adventures to come!

Follow Paula’s travels here: Tumblr | Twitter