The women listed below are or were explorers or world travelers. They include naturalists, sailors, mountain climbers, dog sledders, swimmers, pilots, and underwater explorers. Astronauts are not included here but in the list of women astronauts.
| Name | Nationality | Born | Died | Achievement/s | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-value="Adams, Harriet" | American | 1875 | 1937 | Explored and photographed South America, Asia, South Pacific | |||
| data-sort-value="Aebi, Tania" | American | 1966 | Held the record as the youngest person and first American woman to sail solo around the world (with stops and assistance) | ||||
| Alexis Alford | American | 1998 | Youngest person to travel to every country in the world | ||||
| data-sort-value="Aston, Felicity" | Felicity Aston | British | 1977 | First person to ski alone across the Antarctic land-mass using only personal muscle power, as well as the first woman to cross the Antarctic land-mass alone | |||
| data-sort-value="Arduin, Dominick" | French | 1960 | 2004 | Disappeared on her attempt to become the first woman to ski alone to the North Pole | |||
| data-sort-value="Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam" | Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey | American | 1863 | 1948 | American ornithologist and nature writer, who conducted extensive field work in the American West | ||
| data-sort-value="Bancroft, Ann" | Ann Bancroft | American | 1955 | First woman to travel over the ice cap to the North and South Poles | |||
| data-sort-value="Baré, Jeanne" | French | 1740 | 1807 | First woman (disguised as a man) to circumnavigate the world | |||
| data-sort-value="Batten, Jean" | Jean Batten | New Zealander | 1909 | 1982 | First person to fly between England and New Zealand solo - broke other records | ||
| data-sort-value="Beckwith, Carol" | Carol Beckwith | American | 1945 | Photographer, author, and filmmaker known for documenting the tribal cultures of Africa, most notably in partnership with Australian photographer Angela Fisher | |||
| data-sort-value="Bell, Gertrude" | Gertrude Bell | British | 1868 | 1926 | Explored and mapped the region of Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Arabia | ||
| data-sort-value="Benham, Gertrude" | Gertrude Benham | British | 1867 | 1938 | Explorer, hiker and mountaineer; Truda Peaks of Mount Rogers is named after her | ||
| data-sort-value="Bent, Mabel" | Mabel Bent | Anglo-Irish | 1847 | 1929 | Explored and excavated with her husband James Theodore Bent in the Eastern Mediterranean, South Africa and Southern Arabia | ||
| data-sort-value="Bingham, Laura" | Laura Bingham | British | 1992 | Executed expedition to cross continent of South America with no money | |||
| data-sort-value="Bird, Isabella" | Isabella Bird | British | 1831 | 1904 | Explorer, writer and naturalist who travelled by herself through North America, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Persia, Kurdistan, Turkey, and Morocco | ||
| data-sort-value="Bird-Walton, Nancy" | Nancy Bird-Walton | Australian | 1915 | 2009 | Australian aviation pioneer | ||
| data-sort-value="Bly, Nellie" | Nellie Bly | American | 1864 | 1922 | Pioneering journalist who travelled around the world in 72 days, the first person to do so | ||
| data-sort-value="Boarelli, Alessandra" | Alessandra Boarelli | Italian | 1838 | 1908 | Italian mountaineer and the first woman to summit Monviso in the Alps in 1864 | ||
| data-sort-value="Bougault, Laurence" | Laurence Bougault | French | 1970 | 2018 | French poet and long-distance horseback adventurer in Africa, Middle East and Europe | ||
| data-sort-value="Bourbonnaud, Louise" | Louise Bourbonnaud | French | 1847 | 1915 | French philanthropist, explorer and writer who traveled alone through North and South America and the Far East | ||
| data-sort-value="Boyd, Louise Arner" | Louise Arner Boyd | American | 1887 | 1972 | Explored Greenland and the Arctic | ||
| Beatrix Bulstrode | British | 1869 | 1951 | Journalist and writer who traveled through China and Mongolia in 1911–1913 | |||
| data-sort-value="Butcher, Susan" | Susan Butcher | American | 1954 | 2006 | Dog musher in Alaska | ||
| data-sort-value="Cabra, Berthe" | Berthe Cabra | Belgian | 1864 | 1947 | Belgian traveller, first European woman to travel across central Africa from East to West | ||
| data-sort-value="Canary, Martha" | Calamity Jane | American | 1852 | 1903 | American frontierswoman and professional scout, known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and for fighting Indigenous peoples of the Americas | ||
| data-sort-value="Charlotte, Cameron" | Charlotte Cameron | American | 1872 or 1873 | 1946 | American traveller and author | ||
| data-sort-value="Chlumska, Renata" | Renata Chlumska | Czech and Swedish | 1973 | Climbed Mount Everest, kayaked and bicycled around lower 48 states of USA | |||
| data-sort-value="Chojnowska, Krystyna" | Polish | 1936 | 2021 | First woman to sail solo around the world | |||
| data-sort-value="Cottee" | Kay Cottee | Australian | 1954 | First woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world | |||
| data-sort-value="Coudreau, Octavie" | Octavie Coudreau | French | Early explorer and geographer of the Amazon region in Brazil and French Guiana | ||||
| data-sort-value="Crocker, Aimée" | Aimée Crocker | American | 1864 | 1941 | Heiress, writer spent a decade exploring the Far East in the 1890s; toured the interior of Java and Borneo | ||
| data-sort-value="Danenberg, Sophia" | Sophia Danenberg | American | 1972 | First black woman to reach summit of Mount Everest | |||
| data-sort-value="Dautheville, Anne-France" | Anne-France Dautheville | French | c.1943 | First woman to motorcycle solo around the world | |||
| data-sort-value="David, Alexandra" | Alexandra David-Néel | French | 1868 | 1969 | Travelled to Tibet while closed to foreigners | ||
| data-sort-value="Davidson, Robyn" | Robyn Davidson | Australian | 1950 | 1700order=flipNaNorder=flip camel trek from Alice Springs to the west coast of Australia | |||
| data-sort-value="DePecol, Cassandra" | Cassandra De Pecol | American | 1989 | Traveled to all sovereign nations on a trip from July 24, 2015, to February 2, 2017; she thus obtained the Guinness World Record for "Fastest Person (Female) to Travel to All Sovereign Nations" and is the first documented woman, fastest American, and youngest American to do such a trip[1] | |||
| data-sort-value="Dekker, Laura" | Laura Dekker | Dutch, German, and New Zealander | 1995 | Youngest person to sail around world solo | |||
| data-sort-value="Dickson, Eva" | Swedish | 1905 | 1938 | Swedish explorer, aviator, travel writer and rally driver; first woman to cross the Sahara by car | |||
| data-sort-value="Drummond, Lady Hay" | British | 1895 | 1946 | First woman to circumnavigate the world by air (by zeppelin) | |||
| data-sort-value="Durham, Edith" | British | 1863 | 1944 | Explored Albania and the Balkans | |||
| data-sort-value="Earhart, Amelia" | American | 1897 | 1937 | First woman to fly solo across Atlantic | |||
| data-sort-value="Eberhardt, Isabelle" | Swiss | 1877 | 1904 | Swiss explorer and writer in Algeria, who converted to Islam and traveled freely dressed as a man | |||
| data-sort-value="Ederle, Gertrude" | Gertrude Ederle | American | 1905 | 2003 | First woman to swim English Channel | ||
| data-sort-value="Fiennes, Ginny" | British | 1947 | 2004 | First woman to be awarded the Polar Medal, and architect of the Transglobe Expedition[2] | |||
| data-sort-value="Gordon-Gallien, Enid" | British | 1931 | Explored and mapped Kalambo Falls | ||||
| data-sort-value="Hillary, Barbara" | American | 1931 | 2019 | First African American woman to reach North Pole | |||
| data-sort-value="Johnson, Amy" | British | 1903 | 1941 | Pioneering aviator who set long-distance flying records | |||
| data-sort-value="Johnson, Osa" | American | 1894 | 1953 | Made films of and wrote books about travels in Africa, South Pacific, Borneo | |||
| 1935 | 2000 | First woman to travel on ice to the South Pole | data-sort-value="Kaltenbrunner, Gerlinde" | Austrian | 1970 | First woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousander mountains without supplementary oxygen | |
| data-sort-value="Karlin, Alma" | Alma Maximiliana Karlin | Slovene | 1889 | 1950 | World traveler, writer, poet, polyglot and theosophist; second European woman to circle the world solo; in an eight-year travel, she explored North and South America, Oceania, Australia, East Asia, and India | ||
| data-sort-value="Kingsley, Mary" | British | 1862 | 1900 | Ethnographer and explorer of West Africa | |||
| Belinda Kirk | British | Founder of Explorers Connect; has travelled across Africa, Nicaragua, and the Chinese Taklamakan Desert; captained the first all-female rowing team to circumnavigate Britain non-stop | |||||
| data-sort-value="Kutincheva, Lyuba" | Lyuba Kutincheva | Bulgarian | 1910 | 1998 | Bulgarian traveler and polyglot who traveled for almost a decade (1929–1938) through the Middle East, Far East, northern Africa and Europe | ||
| data-sort-value="Legendre, Gertrude Sanford" | Gertrude Sanford Legendre | American | 1902 | 2000 | American socialite who was a noted explorer and big-game hunter; contributed rare specimens from Africa, Iran, Southeast Asia, Canada, and Alaska to natural history museums | ||
| data-sort-value="Londonderry, Annie" | Latvian American | 1870 | 1947 | First woman to bicycle around the world | |||
| data-sort-value="Maillart, Ella " | Ella Maillart | Swiss | 1903 | 1997 | Explorer and travel writer in Asia from the late 1920s through to World War II; wrote Forbidden Journey – From Peking to Kashmir | ||
| data-sort-value="Mansfield, Charlotte" | British | 1881 | 1936 | Wrote Via Rhodesia (1911) about her travels in Southern Africa | |||
| data-sort-value="Markham, Beryl" | Beryl Markham | British | 1902 | 1986 | British-born Kenyan aviator (one of the first bush pilots), adventurer, racehorse trainer and author; first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west | ||
| data-sort-value="Marquis, Sarah" | Swiss | 1972 | Swiss adventurer and explorer who walked 10000order=flipNaNorder=flip across Asia, Siberia and Australia | ||||
| data-sort-value="Maxwell, Nicole" | American | 1906 | 1998 | Traveled the Amazon jungle gathering plants for natural remedies and medical use, reportedly amassing over 600 plants; wrote Witch Doctor's Apprentice: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon | |||
| data-sort-value="Mazuchelli, Elizabeth Sarah " | Elizabeth Sarah Mazuchelli | British | 1832 | 1914 | Reportedly first western woman to see Mount Everest; wrote The Indian Alps and How We Crossed Them | ||
| data-sort-value="Meakin, Annette" | Annette Meakin | British | 1867 | 1959 | First Englishwoman to cross the Trans-Siberian Railway; wrote about this in The Ribbon of Iron; travelled in Russian Turkestan and other parts of Russia | ||
| data-sort-value="Mexia, Ynes" | Mexican-American | 1870 | 1938 | Mexican botanist and explorer who started her career at age 55; discovered one new genus (Mexianthus) and many new species of plants | |||
| data-sort-value="Mocsary, Belane" | Hungarian | 1845 | 1917 | Hungarian geographer and travel writer who journeyed solo to four continents in the early 1900s | |||
| data-sort-value="Murphy, Dervla" | Irish | 1931 | 2022 | Irish travel writer known for cycling alone through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan to India | |||
| data-sort-value="North, Marianne" | British | 1830 | 1890 | Prolific English Victorian biologist and botanical artist | |||
| data-sort-value="O'Brien, Vanessa" | American and British | 1964 | First woman to reach Earth's highest (Mt. Everest 8,848m) and lowest points (Challenger Deep 10,925m) | ||||
| data-sort-value="Pfeiffer, Ida" | Austrian | 1797 | 1858 | Travelled alone around the world in 1847, published books of her numerous travels | |||
| data-sort-value="Pine, Dorothy" | American | 1920 | 2011 | Possibly first woman to visit all 193 UN-recognised countries | |||
| data-sort-value="Pinheiro, Anésia" | Brazilian | 1904 | 1999 | Second Brazilian licensed female pilot in Brazil | |||
| data-sort-value="Puigaudeau, Odette du" | French | 1894 | 1991 | made three trips to northern Africa to conduct field research among the nomads of the western Sahara region and eventually moved to Morocco | |||
| Teresa Remiszewska | Polish | 1928 | 2002 | first Polish woman to make a solo sailing voyage around the Baltic Sea, using the yacht Zenit, taking a 690-mile route | |||
| data-sort-value="Rice, Kate" | Canadian | 1882 | 1963 | First woman prospector in Northern Canada, writer, and trapper well known for her dog sled abilities | |||
| data-sort-value="Rutkiewicz, Wanda" | Polish | 1943 | 1992 | Polish mountain climber, first woman to successfully summit K2 | |||
| data-sort-value="Saint-Pierre, Vefa de" | French | 1872 | 1967 | Global voyager and hunter traveling across North and South America and Australia, writing about her adventures | |||
| data-sort-value="Salak, Kira" | American | 1971 | Travelled in Mali and Papua New Guinea | ||||
| data-sort-value="Schwarzenbach, Annemarie" | Swiss | 1908 | 1942 | Journalist and photographer, travelled to Iran, Afghanistan, Africa | |||
| Eliza Scidmore | American | 1856 | 1928 | Journalist and travel writer on Alaska and Far East; introduced idea of Japanese cherry trees to Washington, D.C. | |||
| data-sort-value="Smeeton, Beryl" | British | 1905 | 1979 | Mountaineer, cruising sailor, overland traveller | |||
| data-sort-value="Smith Peck, Annie" | American | 1850 | 1935 | First person to climb Mount Nevado Huascarán in the Andes | |||
| data-sort-value="Solomonides, Stephanie" | Stephanie Solomonides | Cypriot | 1982 | First Cypriot person to reach North and South Poles | |||
| data-sort-value="Stanhope, Hester" | Hester Stanhope | British | 1776 | 1839 | Conducted first modern archaeology in Holy Land; travelled dressed as a man (unveiled) | ||
| data-sort-value="Stark, Freya" | British and Italian (French born) | 1893 | 1993 | Travelled within and wrote about the Middle East, including the Arabian deserts, Afghanistan | |||
| data-sort-value="Stevenson, Matilda Coxe" | American | 1849 | 1915 | Ethnologist and geologist who explored the Rocky Mountain region and the Southwest U.S. | |||
| data-sort-value="Stinnes, Clärenore" | German | 1901 | 1990 | First woman to circumnavigate the world by automobile | |||
| data-sort-value="Swale-Pope, Rosie" | Swiss, Irish, and British | 1946 | Has run, walked and sailed around the world | ||||
| data-sort-value="Tabei, Junko" | Japanese | 1939 | 2016 | First woman to reach summit of Mount Everest | |||
| data-sort-value="Taylor, Annie" | American | 1838 | 1921 | First person to survive a trip over the Niagara Falls in a barrel | |||
| data-sort-value="Thorbjarnardóttir, Gudrid" | Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir | Icelandic | 980 | 1019 | With her husband, led an expedition to North America | ||
| data-sort-value="Tinne, Alexine" | Dutch | 1835 | 1869 | Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara | |||
| data-sort-value="Van Buren, Adeline" | American | 1889 | 1949 | Along with her sister Augusta Van Buren, the first women to ride solo motorcycles across the continental US | |||
| data-sort-value="Van Buren, Augusta" | American | 1884 | 1959 | Along with her sister Adeline Van Buren, the first women to ride solo motorcycles across the continental US | |||
| data-sort-value="Vassal, Gabrielle Maud" | Gabrielle Maud Vassal | British | 1880 | 1959 | Naturalist in Vietnam, Congo, Gabon | ||
| data-sort-value="Wanderwell, Aloha" | Aloha Wanderwell | American | 1906 | 1996 | First woman to drive around the world | ||
| data-sort-value="Watson, Jessica" | Jessica Watson | Australian and New Zealander | 1993 | Youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world (but did not fulfil WSSRC criteria) | |||
| data-sort-value="Workman, Fanny" | Fanny Bullock Workman | American | 1859 | 1925 | American cartographer, explored glaciers in Himalayas | --> |