Many women prefer traveling with their best friends rather than their male partners or family members, with the upcoming FIFA World Cup considered a golden opportunity for men-free trips. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Given the choice of lying on the couch watching soccer matches on TV with her husband or traveling with her gal pals, it's a no-brainer for Zhao Xueqing. Zhao, 28, holidayed with her husband before they married, but her girlfriends are her preferred travel mates now. Usually in a small group of three to five women, Zhao and her girlfriends have traveled to many cities in China, particularly famous ancient villages in the country's southeast.

"Taking men on a trip is very inconvenient; they are no fun," laughed Zhao, who is one of the many modern women driving the trend of girls-only holidays. According to a March poll by tourism website qunar.com, 62 percent of women choose friends as their travel partners and only 45 percent travel with their male significant other.

During the last FIFA World Cup in 2010, many women chose to shun their couch-potato men to go on trips with their girlfriends. Although there is less than a week before this year's World Cup kicks off in Brazil, there is still time for women to plan "bestie trips" to escape their sports-mad zombie boyfriends and husbands. 

Leaving men behind

Zhao and her friends are planning another partners- and children-free trip next week when World Cup fever takes over. Zhao believes that overall men are too bound by travel itineraries, but women who holiday as a group are more flexible with their arrangements.

"We just stroll around randomly, but men can't bear it. You also have to keep your husband's feelings in mind all the time. You can't make jokes, check out handsome guys or play drinking games, such as Truth or Dare," laughed Zhao. "Even now, my husband doesn't know that I can drink a lot."

For Zhao, the thought of staying in a hotel room with her husband is boring. Gossiping with female friends and drinking late into the night, however, is her idea of a fun holiday. 

Although most of Zhao's girlfriends are married, she feels lucky that they can leave their men at home and book a holiday when they feel bored or stressed.

Zhao also finds that the best way to resolve a quarrel between girlfriends is by taking a holiday together. "Once two of us weren't talking to each other because of a misunderstanding, so during our trip to Guangzhou [capital of South China's Guangdong Province], we deliberately left the pair at the hotel so they could talk about their differences," she said.

Cindy Rao, a 25-year-old civil servant, prefers traveling with girlfriends more than with family members or men because she thinks "men are lazy and can't walk far." Girls, on the other hand, are already well-trained from their shopping routine at long-distance walking and stopping frequently for food or photos.

"I find my family members and boyfriends lazy and conservative. They don't like intensive travel itineraries or adventurous activities, such as sky diving," she said. "Girlfriends know each other well. Men can barely understand where we want to go, what we want to do, or the fact that we take countless of photos," said Rao, who has traveled to New Zealand, Japan and Singapore with her girlfriends.

Zhao Xueqing (pictured far left in black top) stresses that it is vital not to let different opinions or personalities spoil a trip or friendship. Photos: Courtesy of Zhao Xueqing

Testing friendships

But there are some inevitable perils of all-women holidays. There are individual and family concerns over safety without a male chaperone or two, which can limit the destination choice and length of a trip, said Zhao.

"Girls are noisy. Compared to men, women tend to have bad sense of direction," she conceded, recalling how she and her girlfriends spent a whole night talking on benches in a residential area after being lost in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

Rao said differences over accommodation and dining are not a big issue. "People need to compromise. Male or female, finicky travel partners are not popular," she said. "The down side is that most girls aren't good with maps, although men are not necessarily good [at navigation] either. We are more afraid of going to places that might be dangerous, such as the remote countryside or politically unstable places," she added.

Different routines and habits can be a problem, but real friends can get over them, said Zhao. "One of my girlfriends is obsessed with cleanliness and doesn't allow other people to touch her stuff. She couldn't bear sharing a bed with anyone else, but she's timid and has to stay in the same hotel room with another friend," Zhao said. "Luckily, she can take a joke well and doesn't mind us teasing her at her expense. That's one of her good qualities."

After experiencing several quarrels, Zhao and her friends have also learned the hard way that it's best to assign everyone with their own responsibility.

Zhao is in charge within her group of researching holiday destinations, including finding interesting places to visit and restaurants with distinctive local features. Another friend is in charge of managing expenses, holding on to money and figuring out what each person owes. A third friend is in charge of booking accommodation.

However, not every girlfriend makes the ideal travel buddy. Differences among each person's habits and characters become more obvious away from home, making compromises a necessity.

"Friendships between girls are quite fragile. If something unpleasant happens during a trip, a friendship can be ruined," said Zheng Bingru, a 21-year-old economics major at university.

Zheng's best friends are her classmates from junior high school. Although they now live in different parts of the city, they reunite at least once a year for a travel adventure.

In March 2013, the group traveled to Chongqing. There they made friends with a woman who was depressed and opened up about her personal issues. One of Zheng's warmhearted friends felt obliged to help the new friend overcome the difficulties, but was torn when the group's itinerary required them to leave the city. 

"It was bothersome, but we knew her character well from more than a decade of friendship, so we both compromised. I did all the packing while she was talking [to the new friend]," Zheng said.

"You always hear that if a couple wants to know whether their relationship will go somewhere, they should travel together. I think the same rule applies with girlfriends," added Zheng, who broke up with a past boyfriend following a trip together after realizing they weren't suited to each other.

Zheng therefore advises girlfriends planning a trip together to ensure they understand each other well to prevent any mishaps that might spoil a holiday. "And make the budget and travel itinerary clear before leaving," she advised.

Tropical islands are among the most favored destinations for all-women vacations. Photo: IC

More fun with females

Birds of a feather flock together, as the idiom goes, and research proves female travelers also share like-minded tastes in terms of destinations and activities. According to the study by qunar.com, women favor holidaying in exotic locations. Some 37 percent women voted the Maldives as their top holiday destination, while 34 percent nominated Europe citing their desire to see churches and castles.

Zheng pointed out that the biggest advantage of traveling with girls is enjoying freedom from relationship responsibilities.

"Frankly, when traveling with girlfriends, we want to have romantic adventures, such as meeting cute guys and talking to them. We can stay at youth hostels and meet lots of people," she said. "But with my boyfriend, I feel a little restricted in our topics of conversation because the two genders are utterly different in some respects."