Meet the Peterborough lady who set up a females-only community travel club

“I’m kept quite busy,” explains Mandy Hood: “my regular job is a mobile hairdresser. I do that part-time and I run the travel club as well.”

The travel club is Wonderlust Women’s Travel Club (WWTC), a females-only community group which Mandy set up in when she’d reached a junction in her life.

“After becoming single I felt that I needed to widen my social circle,” she told the Peterborough Telegraph. “I loved to travel but didn’t have any friends to go with.”

The 56-year-old explained how a moment of inspiration came to her as she was sitting in front of the television one day back in 2018:

“I saw adverts while watching telly and I was thinking ‘I would love to go but I have no one to go with’”. This caused a “lightbulb moment” to go off in Mandy’s mind.

“Surely there are other women sat there watching these adverts thinking the same thing” - ‘I would love to go, but not on my own.’”

The notion hit the restless Werrington resident like a lightning bolt, making her act immediately:

“There and then I decided to advertise (on Facebook) a local travel club for women who wanted to make new friends and maybe [find] a travel buddy.”

Despite a dip in fortunes during the pandemic, Mandy’s fledgling club has gone from strength to strength.

Indeed, the WWTC now has more than 300 individuals on its books, although Mandy says members “pop in and out” as they please: “They’ve all got busy lives.”

Most of the trips organised through WWTC tend to be short-haul getaways made up of groups of around eight people.

Although she doesn’t go away on all the trips herself, Mandy believes those who use her services are, in the main, like herself - women who enjoy travelling yet lack the confidence to travel alone.

Iceland, Romania, Lake Garda, Sardinia, Dubrovnik, and Prague are just a few of the destinations Mandy and her fellow travellers have ticked off their collective bucket list so far. Cyprus and the Amalfi coast are already pencilled in for next year.

While travel is the chief focus of the club, there is more to the WWTC than simply jetting off three or four times a year. Mandy explains how her club also acts as a community social hub.

“I made it a local club so I could arrange social events so we could get to know each other and share travel experiences, tips, and recommendations on where to go on a trip.”

She adds: “Also, often when you go on holiday you make new friends but it may be difficult to keep in touch after the holiday because they may live miles away from yourself.”

With the cost of living crisis now biting hard, the WWTC has been the only way some members have managed to enjoy a break away this year: “it gives them [members] the opportunity of affording a holiday”, Mandy observes, adding that people have said “thanks very much - without you, I wouldn’t have got a holiday this year.”

“It does make me feel quite happy,” Mandy says, “to think I’ve made a difference in other women’s lives.”