Mama needs a break!
Momcations — solo getaways for moms, no husband or kids allowed — are having a moment. The hashtag #momcation has been used on more than 48,000 posts on Instagram, affixed to shots of moms living their best lives. There are moms gazing out on city skylines in sexy going-out tops, moms perching on boats atop aquamarine seas — and moms sitting seaside, drinking cocktails of out coconuts, like 43-year-old Mindy White.
“Hit the pool, drank vodka. Didn’t have to wipe anyone’s ass but my own,” writes White in a Facebook post about her solo trip to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville resort. “Hitting the casino tonight. Take time for yourselves!”
Mindy White finds herself wastin’ away on a “momcation” to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville resort.Mindy White“Everyone needs their alone time,” White, tells The Post of her April vacation.
Her husband, Thomas, 47, held down the fort in West Harrison, NY, and watched 7-year-old Eli and 5-year-old Alaina while she spent five days living it up in Florida.
“At first, I didn’t know how to sit still on the beach, because I’m so used to getting up and down for the children. But then I relaxed,” she says.
White’s initial apprehension is typical, says solo female travel expert Gemma Thompson, who blogs at GirlsThatTravel.com.
“There is a lot of anxiety about leaving the kids at home — the good, old-fashioned mom guilt,” says Thompson, who lists Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Scotland, Florida and upstate New York as especially hot destinations for moms.
Helen Bennett, 46, experienced that during her 2017 momcation to Ireland.
“Initially, I felt a bit guilty about being on vacation on my own,” says the Jersey City mother of two, who took a six-day road trip around her late father’s homeland, touring Dublin, Cork and Kerry. She wasn’t used to traveling without husband Dave, 7-year-old Sophie and 5-year-old Luis. But once the shock wore off, “it was liberating,” she says. “You really find out things about yourself when you travel alone.”
Plus, she says, “It was a welcome break from being a full-time nanny, dog sitter, cleaner and cook.”
‘Hit the pool, drank vodka. Didn’t have to wipe anyone’s ass but my own.’
That desire to flee from routine is what brings moms to travel agent Laurel Samuela, who focuses on French Polynesia and the South Pacific.
“There’s a demand from women wanting to leave their everyday lives behind,” says Samuela, who offers seven-night momcation packages to Bora Bora and the nearby island of Moorea starting at $7,740. “Going to [the South Pacific] is a complete break from their normal routine.”
Gina Quatrine, 58, was certainly seeking that out when she booked her “fantasy vacation” to Bora Bora and Moorea through Samuela. The Los Angeles resident juggles her busy furniture business with watching stepchildren Anthony, 16, and 14-year-old Jessie, for half the week since she and her husband, Tony, share custody of the kids.
“I was just exhausted,” she says. “As women and mothers, we always put ourselves last after making the school lunches, driving the kids to activities and generally taking care of others.”
Gina Quatrine took a “fantasy vacation” to Bora Bora and Moorea.Gina QuantineHer six-night June getaway cost her $12,000, but she says it brought her something priceless: As she swam with stingrays off the shore of Bora Bora, with all her stresses on the other side of the world, “the sense of peace was overwhelming,” she says.
Returning to Manhattan Beach, the mom — now much tanner — felt gorgeous and renewed.
“I was ready to participate with my job and the kids again. I had new energy,” she says.
Tales of moms successfully solo-tripping warms White’s heart. In a post to the Facebook group Bad Moms of Westchester, she urges fellow moms to hop a flight and take care of themselves.
“Take time to recharge and refresh!” she writes. “Let your pre-mom, pre-wife soul shine, ladies.”
Bennett displays a cell phone photo of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula.Stefano Giovannini


