The nominees are:

1. Gertrude Bell (1868–1926)

Claim to fame: Solo adventurer and cartographer who helped shape Arabian politics.

Her travel CV: Mounting her own desert expeditions, Bell made maps as she explored the Middle East, and was closely involved in the political and geographical decisions that created the modern state of Iraq. Her knowledge became highly valuable to the British during the First World War; she was sent to Cairo as an intelligence agent.

Did you know? She spoke Arabic, Persian, German, Kurdish, English, Italian and French.

She said: “We discovered that the great tip for good elephantship is to grasp the front bar the moment you get on, for he gets up from in front (and very quickly, too, for he doesn't like kneeling at all) and the problem is how not to fall over his tail.”


2. Isabella Bird (1831–1904)

Claim to fame: Travel writer, adventurer and anthropologist.

Her travel CV: A forerunner of modern anthropologists and sociologists, Bird travelled through the USA, Japan, China, Korea, Persia and Tibet – often on horseback along primitive roads. Her final trip was a 1,000-mile tour of North Africa, aged 70.

Did you know? She founded several hospitals in China and Korea.

She said: After many difficult challenges in Japan, she warned: "Only strong people should travel in northern Japan!"



3. Alexandra David-Neel (1868–1969)

Claim to fame: French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer.

Her travel CV: The first Western woman to reach Tibet’s forbidden city, Lhasa, she wrote more than 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy and her travels. Her teachings influenced beat writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and philosopher Alan Watts.

Did you know? After many attempts, she successfully sneaked into Tibet by dressing as a beggar.

She said: “To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.”


4. Mary Henrietta Kingsley (1862–1900)

Claim to fame: Explorer and writer who shaped ideas about Africa and its people.

Her travel CV: Kingsley ventured to West and Central Africa to research fish, bugs, and African religion and culture. She hiked and canoed her way through Nigeria, Gabon, Angola and Cameroon – always in the voluminous clothes of the late Victorian era.

Did you know? She once defended herself with a canoe paddle when a crocodile tried to board her boat;  when she landed in a pit of sharp stakes, she was saved only by the thickness of her skirt.

She said: “Nothing is so suited to Africa explorations as a good thick skirt”


5. Freya Stark (1893–1993)

Claim to fame: English explorer, travel writer, photographer and cartographer.

Her travel CV: The 'poet of travel', Stark travelled through Turkey, the Middle East, Greece and Italy, determined to see these antique lands before the modern world changed them. Solo trips across the Arabian deserts of Hadramaut led to her role as an unofficial ambassador during WWII, when she helped to garner Arab support for the Allies.

Did you know? She climbed Annapurna in Nepal aged 86.

She said: "To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world."



6. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762)

Claim to fame: An aristocratic poet and letter writer.

Her travel CV: Her husband was a British ambassador at the court of the Ottoman Empire and she wrote extensively about the region. She was famous for her letters from Turkey, which were described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient”.

Did you know? She contributed to the discovery of the smallpox vaccine, while in Turkey, she observed the practice of producing a mild form of the disease to secure immunity.

She said: “The most romantic region of every country is that where the mountains unite themselves with the plains or lowlands.”


7. Amelia Earhart (1897–1937)

Claim to fame: American aviator and women’s rights advocate.

Her travel CV: The first woman to fly across the Atlantic, and to fly it solo, her plane was famously 'lost' between New Guinea and Howland Island during her 1937 attempt to fly around the world. In 1992, remnants of her plane were reported in Kiribati, but this was disputed and her fate remains a mystery.

Did you know? Earhart formed the Ninety-Nines, a now-renowned women pilots’ organisation.

She said: Of her first solo Atlantic flight: “I hope that the flight has meant something to women in aviation.”


8. Jan Morris (1926– )

Claim to fame: Historian, travel writer and war correspondent.

Her travel CV: Morris has authored over 30 books, most famously about Venice, Oxford, Trieste and New York. As a British intelligence officer and Times correspondent in WWII, her big scoop came on the first British expedition to scale Everest, when she reported the success of Hillary and Tenzing via a coded message.

Did you know? Born James Humphrey Morris in Somerset, she felt she was 'wrongly equipped', and in 1972 she had a sex change in Morocco and became Jan.

She said: "The best way to find out about a place is wander around. Wander around, alone, with all your antennae out thinking about what's happening and what you see and what you feel."


9. Ellen MacArthur, DBE (1976– )

Claim to fame: World-record-breaking long-distance yachtswoman.

Her travel CV: MacArthur sailed into the record books in 2001 by becoming the youngest person and fastest woman to sail around the world alone. In 2005 she broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe.

Did you know? Ellen saved her school dinner money to buy her first boat.

She said: “We travel, we consume, we waste. We have lots to learn in the coming years on how to improve our own footprint on the planet. Carefully managing my resources – be it my energy, food consumption or fuel has always been a key aspect of my solo voyages.”


10. Dervla Murphy (1931– )

Claim to fame: Irish cyclist, globetrotter and author of adventure travel books.

Her travel CV: Murphy’s first travel book, Full Tilt, was about her seven-month solo cycle from Ireland to India, and her most recent, Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals, charts her travels from Moscow to the north-eastern reaches of Russia, aged 76.

Did you know? For her tenth birthday she received an atlas and a bicycle, and decided to cycle to India.

She said: “I prefer to travel alone. It's easier to get to know local people if you're totally dependent on them.”

Voting closes on 8 April. We'll be publishing the results of the poll and a list of the most popular ladies that we missed off our list in the June/July issue of Wanderlust magazine, on sale on 22 May.