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For Yvonne Frei, travel was never simply about swapping one place for another. It was encounter, challenge, sometimes adventure, and again and again a step of personal growth. Whether with a backpack, in her own van, as a family with her young son, or completely alone — on the road she gathered experiences, stories and encounters that shaped her deeply.

Out of this passion for foreign countries and people grew a vocation: writing. During the Covid lockdown, Frei unexpectedly found herself stranded in the Tanzanian bush. Where others might have waited impatiently to move on, she discovered an unplanned opportunity: time. Plenty of time. And she began to write. The result is her first book, "Travel – Grow – Live — without a plan, solo through Iran and Central Asia".

The book tells not only of a journey through fascinating and, for many, unknown regions. It tells of a woman who consciously opens herself to the unknown — and repeatedly encounters her own limits, then grows beyond them. This special journey took her to Kyrgyzstan, to her heart project for children with cleft lip and palate, which she and her husband Marcel Frei built up more than ten years ago and still support today. In Iran she met her own prejudices and experienced how quickly ideas about a country can be shaken by personal encounters.

Now her path leads from the roads of Central Asia onto the big stage. After her success at the Speaker Slam in Germany, Yvonne Frei has the opportunity to present her book at the expert congress in New York. Another extraordinary highlight awaits her at Lee Strasberg in New York: there she gains insight into the world of acting training and collects new impulses for her upcoming appearance on 9 October at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Source: Aargauer Zeitung, 25 August 2026 (az). Photo: zvg.

Travelling alone is not a necessary evil for Yvonne Frei — it is a luxury. The 54-year-old Swiss woman is married and has a son who is now 23 — yet ever since her son was three, she has repeatedly been on the road alone for several months. "It is my passion, something I simply need for my life," she says. Her husband Marcel supported her from the start, held the fort at home and took care of the household and childcare.

Yvonne has always travelled a lot. Earlier as a backpacker through Asia, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. And since her honeymoon — in a self-converted Mitsubishi L300 from Switzerland down Africa's east coast to South Africa — as a camper. Often her husband and son joined her for a while, but then had to return to Switzerland earlier for school and work. And Yvonne travelled on alone.

Her longest solo journey took her to Kyrgyzstan in 2019. "My husband and I have been supporting a humanitarian aid project there since 2015," explains the dental hygienist and practice manager from an orthodontic practice. Together with the "Zuversicht für Kinder" foundation they have built up a centre on site with surgeons, orthodontists and speech therapists treating children with cleft lip and palate. At some point Yvonne had the idea of driving there alone in the camper next time.

The Frei family's VW T5 Terracamper is equipped with air suspension, underbody protection and a short-ratio gearbox. Yvonne had also gathered off-road experience — "although off-road driving for me is more a means to an end, to reach remote destinations." Her focus is on encounters with people. She dares to do smaller repairs on the vehicle herself; before departure she additionally completed a "basic car mechanics course" with her husband. "That something really serious might break on the vehicle is my only worry when I'm travelling alone."

At the end of March 2019 she set off across Eastern Europe and Turkey towards Kyrgyzstan. She spent the longest time in Iran. Iran? Alone as a woman? "It was fantastic — especially alone as a woman," Yvonne summarises. "There is probably no other country where appearance and reality diverge so much." The country's bad image has nothing to do with its inhabitants, she says, but with government, rules and laws.

Right at the border she was assigned a minder who checked every post for her, put together a travel itinerary and apologised several times for the entry procedure. In the end they drank tea together. "I hadn't expected problems, but I hadn't expected such hospitality and warmth either. It was touching."

In Mashhad she was invited to a party almost every evening. "I made many friends there, went out in the evenings with Iranian women alone." In public she too wore a headscarf, but as soon as she was at a family's home everyone took it off, drank red wine and celebrated life. "I would travel to Iran alone again and again."

Yvonne has less pleasant memories of Turkmenistan. Coming from Iran, it was "pure horror" — one of the most restrictive countries in the world, with a transit visa and government GPS monitoring the prescribed route. But that does not stop her from further solo trips. Mongolia is still on her list.

Source: 4x4 Camper Magazin, issue 2/2022, "Trucker Ladies" column.